Sundial

Written by Catriona Ward

Narrated by Katherine Fenton

“DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK. Authentically terrifying.” —Stephen King

A LibraryReads Top 10 Pick!
STARRED review from Publishers Weekly!
Anticipated and Recommended by Bustle, USA Today, CNN, i09, The Nerd Daily, LitReactor, GoodReads, LitHub, and more!

Sundial is a new, twisty psychological horror novel from Catriona Ward, internationally bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street.

You can't escape what's in your blood...

All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.

She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.

Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…

The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.

"A story where nothing is what it seems—a thrilling hall of mirrors full of deeply disturbing twists. This book will haunt you." —Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781250841193

Catriona Ward

CATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She studied English at the University of Oxford and later earned her master’s degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Ward is a three-time winner of the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel: for The Girl from Rawblood, her debut; Little Eve; and The Last House on Needless Street. Little Eve also won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. Ward is the international bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street and Sundial.

Reviews for Sundial

[Leia Brown · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

•{Safe Review, No Spoilers!}•
This novel was simply incredible. The tale unfolds like a Russian nesting doll, with each new revelation obliterating every notion you have as to where the plot is headed.
The narration brings Ward’s complex, well developed characters to life, almost as if by magic. Katherine Fenton possesses an uncanny ability to create distinct tones, inflections and accents that are entirely unique to each character she portrays.
The subject matter is cerebral; it’s deep, dark, and violent minus the gore, ultra brutality or graphic sex that has sadly come to define the genre.
This is a smart, well researched novel that is wholly original, and well off the beaten path of what is traditionally thought of as horror. Sundial is disturbing for its unflinching examination of the human psyche at it core, in the place and with the people from whence it came. It forces us to look at the price of the secrets we carry, to question what we think we know, even about ourselves, and to consider what we would be willing to do and willing to endure for the ones we love.

[Nina Quartuccio · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is not horror in the true sense, blood and guts. But it is a physiological thriller with some very captivating senes . Very well written and the characters strongly portrayed. The narrator had a tough job but did it great , bringing the characters to life by clearly depicting them through her voice changes. There could have been 5 stars from me if the author threw some gore into the mix, there were certainly aple opportunities do so. Great read though.

[wp8vkm9bbz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 ? that ending! ? I really enjoyed this book!

[Roger Bell · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Who thinks of such horror? Horrible “Frankenstein-like” animal abuse. Children in cages and then in a cult. Child trafficking. Domestic abuse. Murder. This book revolts me.

[Angel White · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my 2nd read by this author and I enjoyed it. I listened to this one and the narrator is great! This was hard to stop listening to.

There were times I was confused as this went back and forth between real and bookish world because the names in both areas were the same. After a while, it became easier to follow.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this story, very dark and twisty. This would be a good one for Spooktober.

[Alexandra Jane Welcome · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is actually my first book by this author and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. I figured out the twists but it did not bother me. The animal cruelty wrenches at the heart so be aware of that. But I recommend. A good, solid thriller for the heat of summer.