Black Sheep (Hardcover)
Staff Reviews
It’s not easy being the black sheep of your family. Especially when your family is made of religious extremists. Rachel Harrison has gifted us a wicked novel about toxic family dynamics and the pressures of finding your path in life.
This book is devilishly fun. It’s for everyone who was raised by narcissists, for everyone with toxic family members, for everyone with religious trauma, for every black sheep.
Reading this book felt like watching Eddie Munson shred Metallica in the Upside Down. BLACK SHEEP rocks.
— Ryan
Ryan's September 2023 pick (2 of 3)
It’s not easy being the black sheep of your family. Especially when your family is made of religious extremists. Rachel Harrison has gifted us a wicked novel about toxic family dynamics and the pressures of finding your path in life.
This book is devilishly fun. It’s for everyone who was raised by narcissists, for everyone with toxic family members, for everyone with religious trauma, for every black sheep.
Reading this book felt like watching Eddie Munson shred Metallica in the Upside Down. BLACK SHEEP rocks.
— From RyanDescription
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.
About the Author
Rachel Harrison is the national bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth, Cackle, and The Return, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut collection, Bad Dolls. She lives in western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.
Praise For…
"Think The Princess Diaries meets Dante's Inferno. That's Black Sheep. Only Rachel Harrison could write something with such fiery playfulness and such stunning acerbic wit. Undoubtedly the most enjoyable and compelling horror novel you'll read this year."
-Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
“Rachel Harrison has quickly secured her place as one of my favorite modern horror writers. Black Sheep is a devilish good time made all the more compelling with an exploration of the complexities of family dynamics. Compulsively readable, Harrison’s newest novel is a battle cry for every outcast daughter who has questioned her place among family and weighed the damage of going home again.”
-Kristi DeMeester, author of Such a Pretty Smile
“No other contemporary author harnesses the humanity found in horror quite like Rachel Harrison. With Black Sheep, she warms your heart, then breaks it, then rips it out.”
-Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters
"Once again, Rachel Harrison finds light in the darkness and darkness in the light…Black Sheep sits proudly among her family of contemporary horror classics."
-Nat Cassidy, author of Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings
"Surprising and snappy, Harrison catches you on Hellraiser hooks with a ceremony of grim wit and communal dread. Black Sheep makes a firm case for dodging every family get-together."
- Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth