This is my third book by Rachel Harrison, and just confirms what I already knew: This is an author who belongs on my auto-read list. I really enjoyed Cackle and Such Sharp Teeth — and Black Sheep is another terrific expedition into darkness and disturbing developments, but written with such a sharp voice that I still found myself laughing despite the awful events.

It’s going to be hard to talk about Black Sheep, because there’s a big twist that happens pretty early on and turns every expectation on its head… and while some reviewers may reveal what that is, I’m not going to. Suffice to say, I had a screeching-brakes moments of “wait… what???”, and was quietly blown away after that.

Given that, there’s really only the barest of bare bones to share. When Vesper receives the wedding invitation — to the wedding of her best friend and her own former boyfriend/first love — it’s the cap of a very depressing day working at a chain restaurant and then getting fired. What else could go wrong? When Vesper left the family and community six years earlier, it was with the very clear knowledge that she could never return. So who invited her to the wedding, and why?

With everything else in her life basically sucking, Vesper decides to go, and journeys to the remote rural town where she was raised. Her mother’s house is as she remembers — her mother Constance is the queen of slasher horror, and her house is full of terrifying bits of movie memorabilia. Vesper finds herself welcomed back by her friend Rosie and the rest of the family, but little disturbing things keep happening.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear why Vesper left in the first place — and increasingly difficult to not shout at her to run away as fast as she possibly can. But as Vesper discovers, the past doesn’t necessarily want to let her go, and some things can’t be escaped forever.

Black Sheep is creepy and wonderful, and Vesper herself is sharp, world-weary, and sarcastic, torn between memories of loving moments in her past and the scary possibility that her community and its religion are even worse than she remembers:

I was so tired of being told that faith was the answer to everything when it never seemed to solve anything. I wondered what the difference was between being told to have faith and to be quiet. I suspected there wasn’t one.

I highlighted so many great passages while reading Black Sheep — but most are too spoilery to share, so I won’t.

Let’s just leave it like this: Black Sheep is fast, entertaining, dark, and full of great surprises. In a sense, it’s utterly ridiculous, but also, Vesper herself lets us know how bizarre she finds every single thing about her life.

Black Sheep never feels less than riveting. Don’t miss it.