158 – Catriona Ward & Rewriting the American Gothic (Like, Literally)

If you thought The Last House on Needless Street was tricksy, just wait until you hear about Looking Glass Sound. This is Cat’s ode to the Maine of Stephen King, the enigmatic narrators of Shirley Jackson and… well, a host of other comparisons that I foist upon her in the next hour.

Above all that though – the book is so typically, inimitably Catriona Ward. It’s a destined Gothic classic that takes the genre, crumples it into a ball before rewriting the whole thing. 

We cover the purpose of metafiction in horror, how writing a book is like falling in love, the eeriness of the Maine coast and her fascination with the Neverland Ranch. If that isn’t enough Cat also tells us a ghost story that happened to her just the night before.

Tricksy, very tricksy…as Gollum would say.

Enjoy

Looking Glass Sound was published April 20th by Viper Books in the UK and 22nd August by Tor Nightfire in the US.

Other books mentioned in this episode include: 

• Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis
• The Rules of Attraction (1987), by Bret Easton Ellis
• The Secret History (1992), by Donna Tartt
• My Other Life (1996) by Paul Theroux
• Any Human Heart (2002), by William Boyd
• The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson
• Death of a Bookseller (2023), by Alice Slater
• Mrs March (2021), by Virgina Feito 

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