Entry tags:
Sundial (Ward)
3+/5. I don't usually read horror; this is all ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija's fault because she said it was well-written and compelling and the plot was well-put-together and twisty and bonkers, and I am a sucker for well-written compelling books with twisty plots. And yes! It was all those things. (I also tried to read Dark Things I Adore recently, and I gave up a quarter in and just skimmed the rest; it wasn't as compelling and all the narrators sounded the same, which also isn't a problem in this book.)
The funny thing is that Sundial starts out as your typical middle-aged suburbia with a dystopian marriage -- the suburban wife Rob, one of the principal narrators (her older daughter Callie is also a principal narrator) has two daughters, a lovely house (some of the descriptions in the first chapter are like suburbia house porn in the way they so lovingly describe the kitchen and so on) and an abusive cheating husband.
In the chick-lit-ish book it seemed like this was for most of the first chapter, this would be the springboard for Rob to embark on a journey of self-discovery and separating from her husband. Well, I'm not saying that's not what happens in this book, but, uh, that the route to get there will be more circuitous than in a chick-lit book is signposted when Rob finds animal bones and skeletons in her older daughter Callie's room, as well as evidence that Callie may have been trying to kill Rob's younger daughter Annie. (Callie's POV also involves her seeing ghosts and having a ghost best friend.) So Rob takes Callie to her childhood home (the eponymous Sundial) in the desert, which she thinks will help, though it's not very clear how.
We then get flashbacks back to Rob's childhood (as a story she is telling Callie), and this also seems incongruous at first, because the flashbacks are of this little family in the desert -- Rob, Rob's twin sister Jack, with their father, father's girlfriend/wife (it isn't quite clear in the beginning), and another guy, sort of an uncle type, who lives with them, and it comes across as this kind of hippie, love-will-conquer-all kind of environment.
Me: Well,rachelmanija told me that this was terrible awful horror with ALL THE WARNINGS but besides the animal bones and ghosts and Rob basically kidnapping her child to take her to the desert, which okay that's all a bit strange, so far it seems not so bad --
Book: Also, the parents do brain surgery experiments on abused dogs.
Callie: This is all getting Really Weird. My ghost best friend also thinks it's really weird!!
Me: ...okay. I can see this getting more horrific.
Spoiler: it gets more horrific. (Love does not conquer all.) This book does, indeed, come with ALL THE WARNINGS. Child abuse, child harm, dog death, dog abuse, spousal abuse, miscarriage, death, violent death, umm... yeah, the list goes on and on. (Inrachelmanija's post, linked below, she has a more complete list. There is so much!) It's really very dark. Also, warning for Magic Science. I am not in the bio-sciences but I am really pretty darn sure genetic manipulation Does Not Work Like That. Just roll with it.
I also feel compelled to warn you also that this is the kind of book where it's all set to end on a note of hope and then the author cannot resist putting in another twist at the end to imply that everything actually is hopeless after all. Because my brain actively resists that kind of thing, my brain therefore came up with all kinds of ideas and headcanons as to why the ending wasn't actually hopeless after all. That is to say, I demand fix-it futurefic for this book :P
(My brain really does resist hopeless endings, especially when they haven't been signposted or I think it's going to end hopefully -- my brain's other move, if it can't at least vaguely justify an ending that isn't hopeless, is to get angry about why the entire worldbuilding is Wrong and Bad and Stupid and no one would think it was realistic for a second!! but I didn't have to resort to that with this book.)
With all that, this book has so many plot twists, many of which are well done and TOTALLY BONKERS, that I did like it (besides Last Hopeless Twist), because I am all about Well Done And Bonkers Plot Twists, and I will check out more Ward... just not anytime soon, because it was extremely intense.
rachelmanija's post, which made me want to read it, is here, with spoiler cuts -- but if you decide you don't want to read it (which makes total sense given the Many Many Warnings) it is worth reading the spoilers because: bonkers plot twists!
rachelmanija's fault because she said it was well-written and compelling and the plot was well-put-together and twisty and bonkers, and I am a sucker for well-written compelling books with twisty plots. And yes! It was all those things. (I also tried to read Dark Things I Adore recently, and I gave up a quarter in and just skimmed the rest; it wasn't as compelling and all the narrators sounded the same, which also isn't a problem in this book.)The funny thing is that Sundial starts out as your typical middle-aged suburbia with a dystopian marriage -- the suburban wife Rob, one of the principal narrators (her older daughter Callie is also a principal narrator) has two daughters, a lovely house (some of the descriptions in the first chapter are like suburbia house porn in the way they so lovingly describe the kitchen and so on) and an abusive cheating husband.
In the chick-lit-ish book it seemed like this was for most of the first chapter, this would be the springboard for Rob to embark on a journey of self-discovery and separating from her husband. Well, I'm not saying that's not what happens in this book, but, uh, that the route to get there will be more circuitous than in a chick-lit book is signposted when Rob finds animal bones and skeletons in her older daughter Callie's room, as well as evidence that Callie may have been trying to kill Rob's younger daughter Annie. (Callie's POV also involves her seeing ghosts and having a ghost best friend.) So Rob takes Callie to her childhood home (the eponymous Sundial) in the desert, which she thinks will help, though it's not very clear how.
We then get flashbacks back to Rob's childhood (as a story she is telling Callie), and this also seems incongruous at first, because the flashbacks are of this little family in the desert -- Rob, Rob's twin sister Jack, with their father, father's girlfriend/wife (it isn't quite clear in the beginning), and another guy, sort of an uncle type, who lives with them, and it comes across as this kind of hippie, love-will-conquer-all kind of environment.
Me: Well,
rachelmanija told me that this was terrible awful horror with ALL THE WARNINGS but besides the animal bones and ghosts and Rob basically kidnapping her child to take her to the desert, which okay that's all a bit strange, so far it seems not so bad --Book: Also, the parents do brain surgery experiments on abused dogs.
Callie: This is all getting Really Weird. My ghost best friend also thinks it's really weird!!
Me: ...okay. I can see this getting more horrific.
Spoiler: it gets more horrific. (Love does not conquer all.) This book does, indeed, come with ALL THE WARNINGS. Child abuse, child harm, dog death, dog abuse, spousal abuse, miscarriage, death, violent death, umm... yeah, the list goes on and on. (In
rachelmanija's post, linked below, she has a more complete list. There is so much!) It's really very dark. Also, warning for Magic Science. I am not in the bio-sciences but I am really pretty darn sure genetic manipulation Does Not Work Like That. Just roll with it.I also feel compelled to warn you also that this is the kind of book where it's all set to end on a note of hope and then the author cannot resist putting in another twist at the end to imply that everything actually is hopeless after all. Because my brain actively resists that kind of thing, my brain therefore came up with all kinds of ideas and headcanons as to why the ending wasn't actually hopeless after all. That is to say, I demand fix-it futurefic for this book :P
(My brain really does resist hopeless endings, especially when they haven't been signposted or I think it's going to end hopefully -- my brain's other move, if it can't at least vaguely justify an ending that isn't hopeless, is to get angry about why the entire worldbuilding is Wrong and Bad and Stupid and no one would think it was realistic for a second!! but I didn't have to resort to that with this book.)
With all that, this book has so many plot twists, many of which are well done and TOTALLY BONKERS, that I did like it (besides Last Hopeless Twist), because I am all about Well Done And Bonkers Plot Twists, and I will check out more Ward... just not anytime soon, because it was extremely intense.
rachelmanija's post, which made me want to read it, is here, with spoiler cuts -- but if you decide you don't want to read it (which makes total sense given the Many Many Warnings) it is worth reading the spoilers because: bonkers plot twists!