Review: The Black Sheep

The Black Sheep by Sophie McKenzie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sophie McKenzie is an author I’ve been meaning to pick up for quite some time. So many people I know have read Girl, Missing and seemed to enjoy it – not to mention the fact it always seemed to be pride of place when I’m hunting bookstores for my next read – leaving me curious what the fuss was about. As you can probably guess, I planned to pick up Girl, Missing at some point. However, my introduction to the author came through The Black Sheep instead. Were it not for a Goodreads giveaway, I would be highly unlikely to have picked this one up off the shelf. When I saw the giveaway, however, I thought ‘why not’. I did not expect to win, yet I did. Hence, my introduction to the author.

I’ll be completely honest and say I went into this one tentative. There were so many negative reviews up by the time I received my copy of the book. It left me fearful, yet I would not let it put me off the book. After all, the synopsis did seem interesting. Moreover, initial bad reviews do not mean a book is bad – merely that it isn’t for everyone. Basically, I found ways to convince myself the reviews might have been wrong. Nobody wishes to admit their thoughts of a book are influenced by prior reviews, yet our thoughts so often are.

Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when I found this book to be much better than the other reviews had me believing it would be. I’ll be honest and say it is not a full four star rating. The past few months I’ve read a lot of books that are sitting somewhere between the three-star and four-star ratings. As I read this when I was first entering the bout of between star books, I was more than willing to round up. Had I read it later into the bout, I may not have been quite so willing. Nevertheless, as the book was not the nightmare I had expected it to be, I opted to round up.

Yes, there are issues with this book. Lots of things are extremely predictable. There were many slow points in the book. It is not as controversial as it could be. The editing could have done with a bit of work before it was published (paragraphs told in conflicting perspectives to the rest of the chapter). However, there were things that are quite good as well. It was addictive. You’re curious about the particulars of how things come together (yes, there is predictability, but you do hold out on the particulars in some cases). You’re pulled into the lives of the characters.

It was far from perfect, but in the end I opted to round to a four star rating. It had the potential to be better, yet it wasn’t the horror I’d anticipated after reading so many negative reviews.

As for whether I’ll read Girl, Missing… I’m on the fence. I may very well do so, but it’s highly unlikely to happen in the near future. I have many books on my to-read list that are a much higher priority than the Sophie McKenzie book so many people seem to know so well.

Still, at least I can say I’ve now picked up something by the author.

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