Margot and her mother, Ruth, live in a little house tucked away in a bit of wood, a small distance from the nearest road. Every now and again, people find their way to the cabin looking for help — hikers lost in the woods, a traveler whose car blew a tire, campers, and lost souls. Margot’s mother calls them strays. She smiles at them, seduces them, gives them hemlock, and then kills, butchers, and eats them. This is Margo’s life, the only life she has ever known.

Margot’s mother is a capricious woman with mood swings and an insatiable hunger. But Margo loves her mother when she pinches her, or hits her, when she tells her stories, or holds her in her arms. They only have each other… until Eden. Eden, who came begging for help at the door one night, who allowed herself to be seduced by mother … but somehow, for some reason, Eden is special. Eden stays. Eden watches. And Eden eats.

Now, it’s the three of them alone in the cottage, and Margot feels her mother slipping away, wrapped tighter and tighter in Eden’s own hungry love.

Let me first say that I did not think I would find a book about a mother and daughter pair indulging in cannibalism to be quite so boring. But the two biggest problems I had with this book are its predictability, and what feels like its lack of purpose. It’s as if the author had an image in mind, but in trying to convey that image, they spent over 300 pages stuck in place and ended up spinning their wheels.

Margo is a child on the edge of puberty for much of the book. She is incurious, placid, passive, and struggles with subtlety or complex thoughts. Her mother has taught her to keep her head down and her mouth shut, especially at school, and so Margo drifts along. She’s bullied by students, mocked by her teacher for not understanding math, and she has no reaction to any of it. For a book that takes place entirely in Margot’s head, she has so little personality and so little character. It’s not just that Margot’s a child of nature, an innocent being … she’s apathetic and dull, even when her mother betrays her, giving Eden more attention and begins to shut Margot out. She is the same blank-minded child at 11 as she was at 4, playing with severed fingers. She watches, because it’s through her eyes that the story is told. But even when thinking about how lovely her mother is, it’s a flat, monotone voice. It’s almost 200 pages of this placid, lackluster narration with no growth.

Margot’s mother is supposed to be a force of nature, a woman who seduces all of her strays into loving her and trusting her. But on page, she’s a petulant child, sulky and manic. She’s indifferent to her daughter, and even the moments that are supposed to be poignant and impactful, there’s the same lifeless disinterest from both characters.

Eden, the interloper, came to find Ruth and Margot, following a trail of disappearing women. Yet when she sees Ruth kill an ex-lover and prepare him for dinner, it’s met with a shrug. Eden seems to delight in control, with controlling Ruth being her single hobby. When Margot begins to take too much of Ruth’s attention, by acting out in school (fighting back against bullies),

Spoiler title
To her credit, Margot does come up with a plan and follows through with it. And it’s clever! I feel like this moment, Margot’s plan
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was the point of the book, the one scene the author built the story around and it’s the best part of it. But it’s one chapter out of 81. (The chapters are, for the most part, very short.)
While reading, I found myself with questions like how does Ruth pay for the house? Utilities? Is she robbing the strays she kills? While Margot makes a point to comment on how all of their items are buried in the back yard — from nail polish to clothing — I doubt her mother is leaving any money behind. And why make Margot go to school? Before Eden arrived, Ruth didn’t seem to want to live with a lack of attention, so why send Margo, her one source of entertainment and validation, away for hours a day where she could be exposed to other people?

There’s no point to my questions because the story isn’t about the details. What it is about, I don’t know. But if you decide to give this a try, know that the ending had a decent moment. Honestly, though, this book is a solid pass for me and I do not recommend it.

Wow, what a deeply upsetting read! I really should have taken breaks while reading it, given how much it wrecked my brain for days afterward, but I just couldn't put it down. Child POVs are rarely well done and often just come off as infantile, but Rose NAILED the tone while also giving Margot a voice of her own. The ending made me feel hollow and numb in the way only a great novel can.

Rating this book is a serious challenge, because it is truly unlike anything I have ever read in my life. Lamb is tragic, absurd, horrifying, and so much more. Those words don't even do it justice. I often rate books that I find challenging based on how often I think I will reflect on them, which is how I ultimately ended up with 4 stars. Though it is relatively short and darker than words can say, due in large part to Rose's vivid descriptions. I listened to this audiobook at work and was infinitely grateful that I packed a salad for lunch that day. Thank you Harper for my eARC in exchange for my honest review.

From the very first sentence, the author sets the tone for this graphic and visceral coming of age horror story, perfect for fans of gory horror and dark fairy tales.

3.5 stars and my thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC.

I guess it was my fault for not realizing a book about cannibalism would have such graphic depictions of cannibalism. Rose writes well, but I think I was just turned off initially because I started this book while eating spaghetti.

Don't let that keep you from trying it, though. It's and interesting read and kept me engaged!

January 14, 2025
Book Review
The Lamb
Lucy Rose
reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads


It is truly hard to believe that this dark and gruesome coming-of-age tale is the debut novel for Lucy Rose. This highly accomplished modern-day gothic novel explores the complex relationships between mother and daughter, as well as between lovers. Not since reading Sweeney Todd have I encountered a story about cannibalism and the perverse desire not only to kill your victims but to bake them into a meat pie.

Twelve-year-old Margot lives with her mother in a secluded cottage set deep in the woods. She has minimal contact with the outside world. Her mother instructs her to remain unnoticed at school—never to draw attention and certainly never to make friends. When lost souls veer off the beaten path and stray near the cottage, Margot’s mother invitingly takes them in, warms them up, and plies them with her “special” herbal blend of tea. After they fall into a deep, happy sleep, they are butchered and baked into the finest meat pies. According to her mother, they taste best when they die happy, served with potatoes and vegetables.

In spite of her mother’s warnings, Margot forms a strange but somewhat satisfying relationship with Abby, one of her schoolmates, and with the kindly bus driver. Her emotions become tortuously disrupted when they consume Abby’s lecherous father, who frequently visits her mother. Their relative tranquility in the woods is abruptly disrupted by the arrival, during a snowstorm, of the beautiful Eden. Margot’s mother does not consider Eden a “stray” but instead recognizes her as someone with the same kind of “hunger.” From this point forward, the mother-daughter dynamic will be forever changed.

Lucy Rose proves to be a marvelous and accomplished storyteller with this debut outing. Her prose and pacing are pitch-perfect as the conflicts, intrigue, and suspense escalate. This novel will appeal to aficionados of Angela Carter and lovers of the tales of the Marquis de Sade. This deliciously dark and enthralling story builds toward a twisted, unexpected, and yet strangely comforting ending. I eagerly await the continuing oeuvre of Lucy Rose.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.

Mama and Margot live in a little cabin in the woods. Margot goes to school, Mama finds food, both trying to remain as anonymous as possible. In the evenings, they eat... but it's not only rabbits that they catch in their traps. Sometimes, it's "strays" or lost hikers. When a "stray" woman named Eden comes to town and Mama falls in love, the dynamic of the mother and daughter change irreconcilably.

I had high hopes about this book, but ultimately, I was struggling to get through it by the end. It felt double the length due to its repetitive storytelling (which I guess is kind of how middle school feels, so kudos to getting into Margot's headspace). I kept reading because I thought something interesting was going to happen with the Eden character, but the payoff was not worth it to me. There was a lot going on that wasn't tied up-- the bullying boys at school, Abbie and her dad, the fairytale aspect or the folk horror aspect. Recommended for those who liked "Tender is the Flesh" but want something less dystopian/scifi and more dark fairytale prose.

Lucy Rose has crafted a wonderfully dark and horror-fillled novel centered around identity and womanhood. Throughout the novel, we are privy to Margot’s perspective, where we watch her relationship with Mama and Eden unfold. The novel is dark, sad, vicious, and full of gore. It’s always so interesting to see cannibalism be paired with femininity, identity, and motherhood — and Rose does an outstanding job doing just that!

This is objectively amazing but I never want to read it again.

Lesbian cannibal horror. I simultaneously loved and hated every moment of it. Rose has solidified her name as one to watch in literary horror.

I think this book is successful at what it is doing, and I think a lot of it is absolutely stunning. The descriptive language, the interiority, the sort of surreal-yet-mundane cadence, all of it comes together to craft something that at a prose level is really special.

Plot and theme-wise, I can see the intent, but something just didn’t land well for me. Which feels wild to say considering I think it IS successful it IS good you SHOULD read it. I just need a little more for a five star read, myself.

Nevertheless, I’m already recommending it, already selling preorders, so. A win is a win.

This story was as dark as it was captivating. The descriptive language was hypnotic, almost making the horrors in the book seem mundane, and the mundane seem beautiful. I raced through the pages, needing to know how it ended.

The Lamb was a tough but compelling read, once I started there were so many times that I wanted to look away but I just had to see it through to the end. It was vile and filled me with dread. Disturbing, disgusting, frightening. If that is what you’re looking for, this book delivers.

Where can you go wrong with a cannibal lesbian love affair in a little cottage in the woods?
Although this story was deeply disgusting and most often very sad, it was also surprisingly sweet and lovely at times. Well written horror, not for the faint of heart. Overall, I enjoyed this dark and gothic fairytale and would certainly read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for providing this arc for me to review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an advance reader copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I think the description "a contemporary queer folktale about a mother and daughter living in the woods" is good way to boil this down into an elevator speech. Personally, I have been describing The Lamb to others as a cannibal Ground Hog Day, where the same fate meets anyone who gets too close to Margot & Mama's cabin!

Description:
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember.

When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.

But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make her bid for freedom.

With this gothic coming-of-age tale, debut novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire, and animal instincts—and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.

There is no relationship more fraught or complex than the relationship between mother and daughter. In "The Lamb," that complexity is taken to monstrous heights.

Margot's Mama has always been hungry, but Mama's hunger is no ordinary hunger. Desperate for a twisted kind of love and connection, Margot's Mama hungers for "strays" -- unlucky vagabonds and travelers with no one to miss them. As Margot grows and finds connection with people outside the walls of her home, she begins to see the cracks in the story she has been told all of her life. She begins to see people as people, and not simply as meat.

This book is incredibly well written. I was amazed at the descriptive writing and could not put the book down. The content may be heavy for some, but it was such a thrill and I was really surprised by the ending. This is definitely the best book I've read in a long time and I will be thinking about it for a while.

It might be weird, but I like a good book with cannibalism in it. And this one is by far the best I have read. This is for fans of folk horror, extremely troubled mother daughter relationships, and body horror. The prose is beautiful and haunting.

Love story, folk tale, and horror! Gothic tale of cannibilism was so unexpected for me as a book that I would love, but surprise! The motherhood elements are really enthralling, and an overall incredible book for me.

Rose's debut novel weaves a gothic tale of cannibalism, motherhood and growing pains. Our narrator is a curious child named Margot who is staunchly devoted to Mama. Yet as Mama's taste for strays consumes her and a mysterious new stray, Eden, enters their homestead, family dynamics begin to shift. I wanted to love this book. It has all of the themes that typically lure me in but I grew restless with the lack of plot. Note that I'm no stranger to a "just vibes" sort of novel. The Lamb could have been perfect had it only trimmed some of its fat. In fact, it would make a killer novella.

Many thanks to Harper for an ARC via Netgalley.

What a freaky little book! That was so unexpected, but an incredible ride. Equal parts gorgeous and horrific. Very excited to see what Lucy Rose does next.