BOOK REVIEW | BLACK SHEEP | RACHEL HARRISON

BOOK REVIEW | BLACK SHEEP | RACHEL HARRISON

ABOUT THE BOOK

A cynical twentysomething must confront her unconventional family’s dark secrets in this fiery, irreverent horror novel from the author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle.

 Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.

 Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.

 When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.

REVIEW

Vesper Wright is a young woman with issues. As a child she was brought up in a religious cult until she walked away. Now she makes a living by being a waitress in a crappy chain restaurant and avoiding interactions with others. That is until she receives a wedding invitation to her childhood friend’s wedding.

Shocked by this turn events because when she left, she was told that she could never return, she makes the decision to attend. When she gets back to her childhood home, she soon finds herself reluctantly being drawn back into the fold.

Rachel Harrison gleefully casts her caustic eye on the horrors of religious fervour.

As usual, Harrison mixes her customary snarky female characterisations with the palpable tension of the situations that she puts her characters in.

The characters themselves border on the line of caricatures, but Harrison has the knack to keep them on this side of believable without falling into pastiche.

The plot itself takes a surprising turn of events, but again, staying this side of credulity, keeping the reader engaged right up to the last page.

In Black Sheep, Harrison delivers her usual female centric blend of horror that is mixed with good doses of horror and a black sense of humour.