Review: The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

Gaby Meares

July 30, 2017

So I’m giving this 3 stars because Cannon had some lovely turns of phrase, and some very quotable quotes. Here’s my favourite:
“It’s the small decisions, the ones that slip themselves into your day unnoticed, the ones that wrap their weight in insignificance. These are the decisions that will bury you."

This book started with such promise. Cannon creates a sense of mystery from the opening sentence and we can feel the oppressive heat of the summer of 1976. The story is told from the perspective of a feisty/precocious 10 year old Grace and her best friend Tilly.
As we meet the people who live in The Avenue, we slowing discover that everyone has a secret they are hiding. And then the story starts to lose the plot, quite literally. Jesus in a drainpipe? Really? What was that all about? And poor Walter Bishop, who is The Avenue’s scapegoat and who is treated appallingly by everyone who lives there.
The story builds to what we are hoping to be a resolution……..and there is no resolution! In actual fact, the final chapter made no sense to me at all! I found it totally frustrating.