Sheep

By Simon Maginn

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0552141224
• ISBN13: 9780552141222
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Corgi Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Something Wicked This Way... erm... Baaaaaaaaaas.

Simon Maginn, Sheep (Severn House, 1994) Simon Maginn's name is almost unknown in America, and that's a crime. While other, some might say less deserving, modern Brit horror authors have crossed the channel with a good deal of success (Tim Lebbon immediately comes to mind), Maginn works away, languishing in obscurity, for reasons unknown. Sheep, Maginn's first novel, struck me repeatedly as I was reading it as doing everything David Searcy's novel Ordinary Horror tried, and for the most part failed, to do. Maginn's writing doesn't have quite the lustre of Searcy's, but the book holds together much more nicely, and the characters are just as well-drawn without the long, drawn-out internal narratives that stop the (almost nonexistent) action in Searcy's book at least once per chapter. The story is a familiar one: city family goes to country to inhabit dark, foreboding house. Odd things start happening to already-unstable mother and seemingly impenetrable kid. Father watches somewhat helplessly as life goes rather sour around him. There's nothing terribly unpredictable here (though it's possible those who aren't very well-read in the science fiction and horror genres won't see the book's major twist coming); what sets Sheep apart and makes it worthwhile is Maginn's ability to take the old and make it fresh again. He does this not only with his main characters, who are perfectly drawn, but with an odd and wonderful assemblage of minor characters; their gay ex-army sheepfarmer neighbor next door, the religious couple down the road, a quite addlepated doctor and his motherly nurse, etc. The reason old plots can come off so fresh is that some authors are capable of imagining people in them that haven't seen them before, and all the different reactions that go along with same. As difficult as it may be to find the work of Simon Maginn, go out of your way to do so. It's subtle, quiet horror that may well renew your faith in the languishing atmospheric side of the genre. ****

Mysterious Bones in Wales

Sheep is the debut novel of Simon Maginn. It tells the story of a family who moves to Wales, hoping to overcome the death of their daughter by drowning. However, the house they've moved into has a horrible past and a series of bloody events lets them know that the past has caught up with the present. Unfortunately, the ending doesn't really live up to the first 5/6ths of the book-- but still worth reading if you're a fan of writers like Ramsey Campbell. Moody, atmospheric, intelligent horror.