‘How should the guilty be punished?’ cover tag line.

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Butcher’ by Laura Kat Young. My apologies for the late feedback.

This novel is a dystopian Western horror, though not of a supernatural kind. In Settlement Five if someone is found guilty of a petty crime they are subject to ‘atonements’ in which a part of their body is dismembered. Alongside the slaughter of animals, this task falls to the local Butcher. Currently the community’s Butcher is Winona. When her daughter, Lady Mae, turns 18, she'll inherit her mother's job as the Butcher.

One day Winona refuses to butcher a six-year-old boy. Settlement Five’s leaders, known as the Deputies, are not pleased and come to her house and murder Winona for refusing her duties. At the same time Lady Mae’s close friend Arbuckle flees the settlement while she is forced to take up her mother’s job.

Time passes and Lady Mae comes face to face with the Deputy who had murdered her mother. It presents her with a choice as to whether she will seek vengeance, keep her head down or flee, aware that she will be hunted down.

I am not particularly enthusiastic about Western novels, whether dystopian or not. I found this quite a weird premise. It seemed so counterproductive to cut bits and pieces off citizens and expect a community to thrive. I also found it difficult to relate to Lady Mae.

Overall, I found ‘The Butcher’ an okay read though not quite my cup of tea.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book more than I thought i would. Although it had some moments of gore (to be expected given the title) which is not my thing. This was a very interesting story. Every time I thought that I figured out where the story was headed, I was wrong. Definitely pulls at your heartstrings multiple ways. Will be reading more by this author.

I feel like the idea behind this was solid, but the story itself was a bit wanting. Looking at reviews, other people seemed to feel like it dragged- I didn't get that sense, but did feel that some of the inner monologue of the main character felt rather repetitive. This felt more like young adult fiction than adult, but doesn't seem to be marketed as such. Still a decent, quick read.

This was a very different read for me, a dystopian horror romance I would say? It was a very dark tale, very gruesome at times and the ending was very bittersweet. It was split into three parts and each part was as haunting as the next. I really had no idea where it was going, and even so close to the end I was wondering how it would possibly tie up. I enjoyed the fact it kept me guessing.I felt like this novel packed a lot into it and I really enjoyed reading the main characters internal dilemma over her role in the community and the lack of choice, justice and forgiveness in her world.

I enjoyed this and I really like the main character but I really felt for her for what she went through in this. I want to add this to my collection. Trigger warning for death, loss of a parent, loss of a partner.

This book has a different quality about it that makes it very easy to read and make you think about it after you put it down. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

The Butcher is an adult western dystopia where "An Eye for an Eye" is taken a bit too literally. An interesting premise and discussion of power, control, and justice; however, I was left wanting more. More information about the world. More coherent plotting. More compelling narrative. This was almost painful to read but my interest was piqued enough to see how it ended, but the ending didn't offer a satisfying payoff. I didn't enjoy this at all and I'm so sad about it.

eARC & ALC provided by the publisher via NetGalley and LibroFM for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion nor the contents of my review. Quotations are from an unfinished proof and subject to change upon final publication.

The Butcher is a dystopian/Western revenge story with a strong romance storyline. Lady Mae is a great main character. She is brought up in a stark world where her mother is responsible for butchering criminals. As a child, Lady Mae is forced to watch the murder of her mother which then puts her in the position to become "the butcher" for the settlement.

Laura Kat Young has created a dark world where tragedy and pain are both keys to survival. I thought the idea behind this story and the characters were interesting, but the book felt a little disjointed. The first half had great build-up and suspense, while the second half was rushed and disorganized. I also was not a fan of the romance because the writing felt different in those sections.

I enjoyed it while reading it, and I would recommend it to people who like dark, gruesome dystopian tales.

A dystopian horror with excelent twists and a powerful main character. I didn't know what to expected because I started reading without memory of the plot, and wow. It haunts you in a good way. It is dark and mysterious, and the western vibes are really well written. I just found the ending a bit... boring, comparing to the feels it brought to me during the rest of the reading.

Imagine reading a dystopian horror novel that follows our main character. You picked the novel up reading that it was supposed to be a horror but came more off as a hallmark romance tragedy. Now the dystopian world is the only thing that is keeping you interested while reading it. However, the main character wants nothing to do with the world and blocks most of it out so there’s no longer any world building outside of the small settlement it takes place in.

Fully aware this is 2000 & late, but I purchased my own paperback copy & finally got around to reading it and yo, this was a really good book. Super haunting, absolutely will stick with you days after you finish it.

Dystopian western - small town horror with a coming of age story baked in. What an interesting mix of tropes/settings.

This book is heartwrenching and dark.

The Butcher is a horror delight set in an isolated settlement in a dystopian world. When Lady Mae inherits her mother's job as the Butcher, she's expected to dismember guilty residents for petty crimes. She witnessed her mom murdered for refusing to enact death on a six year old boy. Will Lady Mae escape to the mountains, do her job, or get vengeance on the deputy who took her mother's life? Highly recommended! Be sure to check out The Butcher today.

I loved the concept of the book, very different horror story to the “norm” I did find it to be slow in parts but overall I enjoyed it

Wow. The Butcher was a LOT. It is scary, it is dystopian, it is strange, it is intense. It is also a bit slow at times, but ultimately I'm glad I gave it a try as Lady Mae is perhaps one of the most memorable characters I've read this year.

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

A dark distopian novel about a young woman singled out from birth to become the butcher - both of animals, but also the executioner... and all the hate that might imply.
This one was just not for me. Obviously, I was intregued with the premise, but I did not connect with the writing. The characters were very distant, and not very in-depth, the main character was very childlike, the discussions on guild, redemption, forgiveness and the likes got very heavy. Those are all important topics, and I applode the writer for wanting to open the discussion, but having the characters quote books to each other on the subject felt very stilted. I would have preferred the actions to speak for itself with a lighter-handed commentary.

I wasn't sure what to expect when going into reading The Butcher but got so much more than I could ever imagine. The story of Lady Mae, and how she inherits being the town Butcher who is responsible for killing those sentenced to death. I think it's super interesting that this job is designated to women only, especially in a patriarchal society. When Lady Mae's mom refuses to kill a child, she is murdered in front of Lady Mae, changing her life forever and leaving a permanent mark on her life. Whether she knows it or not, Lady Mae's life is just starting.

For fans of: The Hunger Games. Westworld

2.5 Stars (not rounding up on this one). I wanted to love this book so much! The idea was awesome, but fell so short. This read like a Young Adult book, so I hope they change the genre and market it away from adults and more towards teens. In a nutshell? This is The Giver book with a little bit (but not a lot) of graphic pieces thrown in. Maybe The Giver mixed with the grotesque parts of either The Hunger Games or Handmaid's Tale-ish? Basically a dystopian novel. I wish the author (knowing it is written for adults), included the "gross parts." It would end short of describing anything butcher-like, which is the reason anyone picked up this book to begin with. I also did not appreciate the back and forth telling. The main character would be in the present moment with something essential happening, and with no notice the next paragraph would be about her childhood and the birds chirping in the wind (a made-up example, but you get the idea). It was a lot of unnecessary fluff that was not essential to the story. Another repetitive thing that annoyed me, was everyone breathed or sucked through their teeth. A thesaurus or another phrase (because who sucks through their teeth 9000 times; what does that even mean?) would be great, because the phrase was in this short book 25 times! I hate to be mean in a book review when I get an ARC, but hopefully Young or her publishers will take some of these suggestions, as a lot of the reviewers say the same.

"The Butcher" follows Lady Mae, a tween/teen that the town kids hate. That's because her mother is the butcher. A woman who butchers the town's animals, as well as the penance for the town people who break the law. The idea was great, she cuts a finger or a hand off of a person for any wrong doing, but there was never any detail about that part. Lady Mae will have to take over her mother's job when she turns 18 because that's how their world works. One day her mother refuses to butcher a boy, so she is killed by the Deputies of the town. Lady Mae has to decide to flee where her childhood friend took off too, or just do her required job. (Her friend treats her like a child even when Lady Mae becomes an adult, and even with all of her schooling, she sounds/reads like a child throughout the book). Hence why I would love for this to be considered a YA book.

I wanted to like the Butcher. In fact, I think I really would have if there wasn’t some issues with formatting as an e-book! Every chapter was cut short. Every single one. And it took me until the fifth or sixth chapter when something major was happening to realize just how much I was losing out on. The first few it felt like they formatted just a little short, and I would be missing a word like ‘said’. I could still get the gist of everything. That was, until a major scene with Lady Mae and her mother cuts short, and in the next section we’re at part two. I can piece together what happens from the synopsis, but it really put a damper on my experience not being able to actually read what was occurring. I found this so disappointing I couldn’t finish it, and I can’t really give a proper review.

From what I did read though, this seems like a fascinating dystopic world. Lady Mae is going to be an apprentice to her mother, who is the butcher for their village. The butcher doles out atonements. These can be atonement’s for minor crimes, where a person may lose a finger tip or something. For larger crimes, bigger or more atonement’s can be asked for by the aggrieved party.
The butcher is not a well loved person in the community, although fear of atonement’s keep people from doing anything to Lady Mae’s mother. Instead, she bears the brunt of their aggressions.
The book starts to speak towards a change from the atonement’s, what life could be. The village was becoming very unsettling with how the story was progressing, and I thought the writing was really well done in slowly building up this tension as we wait to see the changes in people’s mindsets and how they’ll react.

I don’t think this is a true horror book, although it was classed as one. Part two may have some more real horror. But it was quite atmospheric and tense, so I can see readers who don’t like horror being more okay with this and still getting that unsettling feelings.

I will try a print copy of this book one day because I am curious about what I missed and how the rest of the story pans out. But I am disappointed in the formatting and hope that people who buy the e-book copy don’t have the same issues I had.