*OP Sheep [Paperback]

Simon Maginn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A grief-stricken family, a tragedy-haunted house on the cliffs of Wales and a small town's secret history are the plot threads that British author Maginn weaves together in this tantalizing novel, a synthesis of supernatural and psychological horror that was written before his Virgins and Martyrs (1995) but is only now being published Stateside. Contractor James Tullian moves his family temporarily to Ty-Gwyneth, an estate outside a rural sheep-farming town, to give them a fresh start following the drowning death of their young daughter. Shortly after James unearths a pile of charred bones near their home, his wife, Adele, begins incorporating gruesome images into her increasingly morbid still-life paintings. Meanwhile, their seven-year-old son, Sam, falls victim to peculiar fits and visions. Townsfolk suspect that the Tullians are succumbing to the legacy of madness and murder that overwhelmed the house's previous tenants, but James fears that his loved ones may be manifesting psychopathologies that predate their move and that now have found the perfect place to vent themselves. Maginn sifts the novel's truth from its mystery like an expert archeologist, meticulously exposing deeper and darker strata that underlie even the most innocent events. Oscillating between the bleak thoughts of his emotionally tortured characters and the stark, moody Welsh landscape, he creates a thick atmosphere of dread that forces the weight of the past inexorably down on the present, yet never impedes the brisk momentum of the tale. This is the rare example of a novel of subtle horror that should appeal to lovers of the fast-paced modern horror thriller.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 361 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565049101
• ISBN-13: 978-1565049109
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,694,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon Maginn was born in Wallasey, Merseyside, in 1961. He studied music at the University of Sussex, specialising in percussion and composition. His first novel, Sheep, a WHSmith Fresh Talent Award winner, was published to great acclaim in 1994, and was filmed as The Dark, starring Sean Bean and Maria Bello, in 2005. Other titles include Virgins and Martyrs, A Sickness of the Soul and Methods of Confinement (nominated for Novel of the Year by the British Fantasy Society, 1997). Rattus, a novella, will be published in 2010. He lives and works in Brighton, UK (Britain's hippest coastal city, apparently), where he has lived since 1984. He also writes as Simon Nolan (As Good as it Gets, The Vending Machine of Justice). Visit www.simonmaginn.com for more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something Wicked This Way... erm... Baaaaaaaaaas., May 20, 2005

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sheep Hb (Hardcover)

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. ****

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious Bones in Wales, April 19, 2000

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: *OP Sheep (Paperback)

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.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Everything but the Kitchen Sink..., April 28, 2006

By 

Book Knurd "You'll Poke Your Eye Out!" (Paradise) - See all my reviews

This review is from: *OP Sheep (Paperback)

The author's decision to include every horror cliche known to man into this story turned a story with promise into a unfulfilling mess.

Below is a laundry list of the evil forces at work in this story:

1. A house with a mysterious history

2. A murdered/insane family that once lived in the house

3. A murdered/insane family who now lives in the house

4. A sinsister man who only appears in the distance

5. A boy, a mother, a father and a house; all of which might suffer from demonic possession

6. Tight-lipped townfolk who have information but won't tell the people who need it most

7. Unexplained deaths of people and animals

Incorporating all these angles results in a story that tries to be all things to all people. Ulitimately it leaves the reader with little to no understanding of what is actually driving events. Is it a demon? Madness? History fated to repeat?

To compound the confusion, there is no clear indication how all these things tie together. There are past story lines that seem to have no logical connection to the present. The only connection to all is the house...and if the house were the source of evil, then why the shadowy figure? Why the death of many people in the past? And more importantly, why the death of the young sister long, long before the house ever came into the picture? And with every potential source of evil you can identify, there are as many unanswered questions with each. Bleh!

The only thing that was moderately intriguing about this book were the sheep, but even they were just a backstory with no direction or ending.

Survey says: Don't waste your time.

Wait...if you do finish this book, ask yourself this...why on earth did the author include James' (the father) change of heart towards Llewyn at the end? Though the rest of the story is simply puzzling, this plot twist is totally baffling.