“Sundial” was my first encounter with Catriona Ward, and it left me with genuinely mixed feelings. The book is entertaining and tense, and Ward builds atmosphere with real confidence. But there were enough things that didn’t work for me.

„Rob is afraid of her daughter. Callie collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends, and Rob is afraid of what she might to do Annie, her younger sister. She sees a darkness in Callie that reminds her of the family she left behind, and a life she has tried to forget. Seeing no other way to keep Annie safe, she decides to take Callie back to Sundial, her childhood home deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice. Callie is afraid of her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely. To tell her secrets about her past that both disturb and excite her. And they are both afraid that only one of them will make it back from Sundial alive.“

Blurb

The prose is comfortable and assured, and I warmed to Rob and Jack early on, though my investment in them, and in the wider cast, wavered as the book progressed. At times, all of the characters managed to get on my nerves, which is perhaps inevitable in a novel this deliberately unsettling. The sibling dynamics and the mother-daughter relationships had real potential, but neither felt as fully developed as they could have been. This is partly a structural consequence of Ward’s approach: because she wants to keep the reader guessing at all times, every character remains deliberately ambivalent, which means the emotional core of those relationships never quite solidifies. You sense what these bonds could mean, but the constant misdirection keeps you at arm’s length.

The twists are where Ward really earns her reputation. Not every turn was surprising, but there were enough genuinely unexpected moments to keep me alert and slightly uneasy, which is exactly what this kind of fiction should do. Ward works hard to keep the reader off-balance, scattering hints and red herrings with clear intent. For a while, this works beautifully. Eventually, though, the sheer volume of misdirection began to dull the effect. When every detail is potentially significant, nothing feels urgent, and I found myself simply reading forward rather than actively engaging. The mystery stopped demanding my attention.

The “Arrowwood” chapters were, for me, the one clear misstep. They felt like a structural choice made entirely in service of confusion rather than story, and I finished them each time with a sense of time mildly wasted.

As for the animal cruelty some reviewers have flagged: I understand sensitivity around the subject, but in context these moments read as integral to the horror rather than gratuitous. They are uncomfortable, which is the point.

Despite its imperfections, “Sundial” is a book that stays with you. There is plenty to think about after the last page, and the ending lands well. The tension is real, the ambition is clear, and Ward is obviously a writer worth following. But the same mechanisms that generate the suspense also prevent the book from fully delivering on its emotional promises, and that is what holds it to three stars rather than four.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

📝 If you are looking for my own short stories, poems and texts, check out my Substack: https://substack.com/@fragmentsandthedark