Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
Black Sheep
by Rachel Harrison
Horror | Adult | Thriller
336 Pages
Released September 2023
Rating: ★★★1/2
Goodreads
Content Warnings
I crossed paths this book a couple months ago and was instantly taken by the book blurb and cover. I’ve been patiently waiting and snatched this one up as soon as it showed up at my library. Also, I apologize in advance for the ridiculous amount of dashes (-) that are in this review. Because there’s a lot.
This book follows Vesper, who escaped her faith-centered, cult-y family years earlier. Vesper wants nothing to do with her family but starting over on your own is hard. When an invitation to the wedding of her former best friend arrives, she decides to head back one last time. Unfortunately for Vesper, she should have stayed away.
I admit, I didn’t not enjoy this book at the beginning. In fact, I almost ended up DNFing it around the 50% mark. I’ll highlight what wasn’t working for me first, but I want to be clear: the second half the book completely makes up for the lackluster first half. Vesper, initially comes off as this pretty but don’t-give-a-damn, girl-against-the-world type character. Very I’m-not-like-other-girls. She felt extremely two-dimensional and stereotypical. Next, at the beginning there are little to no horror elements and because of that, it initially reads more like a YA novel than adult. Finally, it was almost eye-rollingly obvious the direction the plot was heading in and after the plot twist I was getting ready to return the book to the library when I changed my mind and kept on reading.
I’m so glad it did because the second half of the book shifts gears. First, there’s the horror elements that I was really missing in the first half but more than that, I absolutely adore the direction Harrison takes the book in. I thought it would it be a kind of trope-y coming-into-one’s-power type book but it ended up being more about familial trauma, cycle-breaking, and the relationships with those that are aware and complicit in the trauma but fail to do anything about it. Vesper became a much more dimensional person and I ultimately ended up enjoying the book.
If you don’t mind being patient for the action to start, and love a good dark family trauma book (and are in a mental state for that kind of read), I recommend giving this one a try.