Wrong Train, Right Time (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wrongtrainrighttime) wrote2018-06-24 11:52 pm
wrongtrainrighttime) wrote2018-06-24 11:52 pm
Entry tags:
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
The premise of this novel is very simple: a shepherd dies in mysterious circumstances. His sheep decide to solve the mystery of who did it.
It's a rather absurd premise, but Swann carries it off very well. The perspective of the sheep makes for a significant amount of humor as they struggle to interpret the behavior of the humans now swarming anxiously about due to their dear shepherd's death. It makes for a very fun read, and Swann does a good job of neatly sketching out and defining the personalities of the various sheep who feature in the novel. I wanted to give every single one of them a hug. At the same time, it's a touching story of the sheep bravely facing the uncertainty of both humans and their own futures, out of deep love for their shepherd, and a desire to see justice done.
And the mystery itself is no slouch either. Even filtered through the sheep's limited perspective, following the slow unraveling of George Glenn and his unhappy fate makes for suspenseful reading. Everything wraps up well, which makes the final twist feel very out of place. I'm not sure what to make of it, since it really seems to just...come out of absolutely nowhere, when everything else had been so carefully telegraphed (to the reader, if not the sheep).
Overall, Three Bags Full was a fun and charming read. It was exactly what I hoping to get: an interesting exercise in POV, something delightful but not too heavy. I still worry about the sheep and their ultimate fate...and I hope the sequel gets translated into English too, so I can find out what happens to them.
It's a rather absurd premise, but Swann carries it off very well. The perspective of the sheep makes for a significant amount of humor as they struggle to interpret the behavior of the humans now swarming anxiously about due to their dear shepherd's death. It makes for a very fun read, and Swann does a good job of neatly sketching out and defining the personalities of the various sheep who feature in the novel. I wanted to give every single one of them a hug. At the same time, it's a touching story of the sheep bravely facing the uncertainty of both humans and their own futures, out of deep love for their shepherd, and a desire to see justice done.
And the mystery itself is no slouch either. Even filtered through the sheep's limited perspective, following the slow unraveling of George Glenn and his unhappy fate makes for suspenseful reading. Everything wraps up well, which makes the final twist feel very out of place. I'm not sure what to make of it, since it really seems to just...come out of absolutely nowhere, when everything else had been so carefully telegraphed (to the reader, if not the sheep).
Overall, Three Bags Full was a fun and charming read. It was exactly what I hoping to get: an interesting exercise in POV, something delightful but not too heavy. I still worry about the sheep and their ultimate fate...and I hope the sequel gets translated into English too, so I can find out what happens to them.