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A review by randomdawdler
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
4.0
I thought this was a very good novel. I thought it had a poetic flow to it. The characters are good, though I did get a bit muddled with some of the characters (who was who). Its quite a vivid portrayal of family life in Britain in the 70s (during the record summer heatwave of 1976, although it also goes back in time to the 60s at times), tackling multiculturalism, fears about people deemed not 'quite right', local gossip/suspicions following certain events that happened in the local community a few years prior. There are various secrets held by people in the community, there are some plot twists and it covers themes such as identity and adolescence, religion (including miracles) and fate.
I liked the writing - I found the chapters to be mostly fairly short and the format/layout made it quite readable. I enjoyed reading it - it felt like quite a challenge as its over 400 pages long and I tend to prefer to stick to books that are about 350 pages or less but I managed to read this book in 3 days, while on holiday. I reckon this is a quite easy book to dip in and out of - the chapters/sections are fairly short (10-15 pages tops or thereabouts on average, going by what I remember), although once or twice I found myself feeling so engrossed and intrigued by the plot, that I didn't want to put the book down when I'd planned as I just had to read on to find out what would happen.
If I had to categorise this (genre wise), I'd say its a mystery (not a mystery in terms of what it is but moreso that its primarily a mystery/crime story, of course!).
I thought that the ending was both apt but also a little unclear - it leaves the reader on a bit of a cliffhanger. I suppose its one of those ones where your to 'fill in the dots' as it were. All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this and I look forward to hopefully reading more from Joanna Cannon in the future.
I liked the writing - I found the chapters to be mostly fairly short and the format/layout made it quite readable. I enjoyed reading it - it felt like quite a challenge as its over 400 pages long and I tend to prefer to stick to books that are about 350 pages or less but I managed to read this book in 3 days, while on holiday. I reckon this is a quite easy book to dip in and out of - the chapters/sections are fairly short (10-15 pages tops or thereabouts on average, going by what I remember), although once or twice I found myself feeling so engrossed and intrigued by the plot, that I didn't want to put the book down when I'd planned as I just had to read on to find out what would happen.
If I had to categorise this (genre wise), I'd say its a mystery (not a mystery in terms of what it is but moreso that its primarily a mystery/crime story, of course!).
I thought that the ending was both apt but also a little unclear - it leaves the reader on a bit of a cliffhanger. I suppose its one of those ones where your to 'fill in the dots' as it were. All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this and I look forward to hopefully reading more from Joanna Cannon in the future.