A Wild Sheep Chase

A Wild Sheep Chase had its moments but it was a very long, dragged out. At the beginning of the novel it introduced a character who was at the very least interesting, but the author devoted a good amount of time to her back-story and then it turned out not to matter at all. It wasn’t until the book got half way in that it started the sheep chase. It was also weird that it was presented as a Japanese horror when it did not seem like a Japanese book at all. It was not until I heard names of places that I realized that it was not taking place in the United States. It also did not seem to fit the horror description. It seemed more of a “fantasy realism” novel; the way it involved ghosts, ESP, and sheep taking over people. It also felt a little Film Noir. The way the main character seemed to be like a detective with his fem fatal. He is either drinking alone or there is a “partially there” girl in his life. The book also had a weird timeline. The book jumped around a lot from years past, to sidetracked memories, but these little blips in time lasted for chapters. It also seemed like the character “the rat” came out of nowhere and he was one of the most important characters of the story. The beginning of the book should have included a large chunk of his background. You almost could have edited out the first part of the book and it still would have made sense and maybe would have read more like a horror because of the pace of it. Also wouldn’t the murder at the end be linked back to the main character because the town new he was the only one up in the house just before the man went up at the end to meet with “the rat”? or wouldn’t the man know that he was going to blow up because of his sixth sense?