Shepherd is a slasher film in written form. It follows Tom, who is living on a sheep farm in Australia back in the days when folks were shipped to Australia as a prison sentence. He is a young boy convicted as a poacher. He enjoys life outdoors and shares a bond with his animals on the farm. But his life is anything but peaceful. We join him as he is being hunted by a former coworker who is out to kill him and everyone else on the farm. We get glimpses of his past and how he came to live on this farm and why he thinks as he thinks.
I expect this was intended to give us a glimpse of life in Australia and perhaps be introspective about the life of this young boy but it was insanely violent – enough to distract from that message. It was very much a stalk and kill story, with very few glimpses of “regular” life. There is a lot of violence which usually wouldn’t bother me but lots of it is against animals. My favorite aspect of Tom’s personality was how much he cared for his animals. He had a very hard life but his heart was still quite kind and strangely ethical. There are a lot of negative sentiment towards the natives, although this is probably very true to the time and we do see a turn in the end, it didn’t make it any easier to read. I’m not sure this book will be for everyone but if you like a nice horror novel or revenge story based in a unique time and place then give this one a look. ⭐️⭐️⭐
Thanks to Netgalley for advanced access to this novel and apologies it took me so long to get to it! All opinions above are my own.
Ok, this was officially my oldest Netgalley approval from May 2020 – what’s the oldest book on your shelf (Netgalley) or otherwise, that you haven’t read yet?
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