This book started off super rough. I don’t mind a book written with different types of media, but this book didn’t flow smoothly. That made it extremely hard to get invested in the story. That being said I did muster enough interest to keep reading and slowly the book seems to flow a smidge easier. If you are looking for “Mrs. Lovett” to meet Sweeny Todd right away you will be sorely disappointed. You will have to wait till about 75% of the way through the book before their paths cross. Now that being said, the journey she takes to get to meeting him is extremely important to the plot. I did enjoy how everything tied together and the final twist was perfection. Do I think that readers will be enchanted by this book, maybe if they can muddle through, but I don’t know how many people will be able to get past the bumpy story telling. Thank you to Soho Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I’ve been loving dipping into horror again recently and when The Butcher's Daughter crossed my radar I was immediately intrigued. I’m not an incredible connoisseur of Sweeney Todd, but I’ve read some retellings and watched some movies so I was intrigued about how the story of Mrs Lovett would be approached. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this one.

The style of telling the story via letters I think will be much better in physical format (when the letters from different people and fonts can be used to better distinguish different people sending letters to the journalist) or in audiobook format. I don’t recommend the ebook for this particular story unless there are serious format changes from the eARC.

Regardless of format, the first quarter of the novel is solid and I was devouring the story until it started to fall apart at the Doctor’s home. Once Mrs Lovett (Margaret at the time) is impregnated during an occult ritual that she believes is a dream (yeah that happens), the threads of the story begin to disintegrate.

From that point, Margaret moves on and is taken into a brothel where she works as a maid and a caretaker for a young deaf girl while she works with clients. I honestly did not see a point to having Margaret at the brothel besides simply being a place where she could spend time until the baby was born. The deaf girl who she becomes close friends with (and could possibly read a sapphic relationship with, which I would have loved) is given no agency and actually shoved into a different area of the plot that is incredibly unsatisfying.

The rest of the plot feels like a tumbling of clunky coincidences to get Margaret into the position of Mrs Lovett and it is far past the 50% mark when the mantle of Mrs Lovett is taken and Sweeney Todd is introduced. I would have preferred a closer examination of their relationship, but instead this story treats them as acquaintances stuck with each other, which is a choice, but not one I prefer.

What really had me land on my final rating was a lack of continuity so stunning that I could not tell if it was a choice regarding an unreliable narrator or if it was legit just missed in editing. It felt lazy and smacked me as a reader believing I had missed something - but no, it’s revealed later in the book after having been said at the 50% mark.

I will say the final few lines of this novel are incredibly schlocky and I loved them - they were almost worth getting through the entire book for. I think this book would have been better if it would have leaned 100% into the schlockiness and embraced the penny dreadful essence entirely.

*I received an eARC from Soho Press, Hell's Hundred, & NetGalley. All opinions are my own*

This was a delightfully bloody take on the Sweeney Todd story and I really enjoyed it! The choice by authors Clark and Demchuk to tell the story through letters and news clippings was very interesting and effective. I thought the various London settings were vividly portrayed, and I was very invested in the characters' outcomes. I thought Clark and Demchuk did an excellent job balancing the necessary ambiguity of an unreliable narrator with enough hints as to how the story actually happened/ends. I really enjoyed that last little twist at the end!
My only complaint has to do with the formatting of the digital ARC I received. Because the story is told entirely through various documents, the digital ARC was unable to format them correctly, so it was difficult to parse separate sections at times. I'm sure the finalized digital version will have fixed that problem. I fully intend to purchase a physical copy and am excited to re-read it with the correct formatting!

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and alc!

3.5 stars

i absolutely adore the sweeney todd movie starring johnny depp, helena bonam carter, and alan rickman, as well as the broadway play (which i saw with josh groban!!) so when i saw there would be a novel highlighting mrs. lovett’s backstory i begged for it on netgalley and edelweiss.

i absolutely adored the first 50% of this book — mrs. lovett’s origin is sad, and she is a victim of circumstance that inevitably hardens her into the murderous woman she became.

while i loved the originality and expansion of mrs. lovett’s character (specifically her sapphic lover), i did not like the direction the authors took in changing the entirety of the plot i knew. while it’s not necessarily bad, and i still enjoyed the changes, i was unprepared for a complete change in plot, as i was under the assumption it would be more character development and expansion.

as for the audio — there was a full cast, and i adore full cast narration. the narrators did a phenomenal job.

overall, this was still a fantastically gorey victorian horror novel, but fans of the movie/broadway show note the changes!

The Butcher’s Daughter was everything I wanted in historical fiction horror. I really loved our main character, she was so strong, slightly unhinged, vengeful. I was intrigued with what the doctor was doing, the eras of body-snatching and live human experimentation days really peaks my interest but what really had me was Sweeney Todd! When I initially picked this up, I didn’t read any blurbs, I was hooked on the title. Imagine my excitement when our MC became Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd was her tenant, I wanted so much more from him! His character was written so well. The ending really had me too - is her son truly who I think he is?! 🤯 I mean, what she said about everyone will know who he is and the timeline… it HAS to be him. I hope there’s a sequel! I listened to this on audio, Jill Tanner, Steven Crossley, Amy Scanlon all did a great job - it was amazing. Thanks to Recorded Books/RB Media and SoHo Press/Hell’s Hundred for my copy!

If you loved Sweeney Todd, then this is a title for you. Featuring Mrs. Lovett before she meets Sweeney, this novel gives the reader an inside scoop on her motivations and a glimpse of just how far she will go to survive.

It’s 1887 in London. A correspondence between a journalist, Miss Emily Gibson and the infamous Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd’s accomplice has been found. She is known for baking men into pies and selling them in her shop.

This starts as a slow burn horror story. It is not a re-telling of Sweeney Todd. We get full look at our main character as fleshed out brilliantly. The horrors she went through. It’s gruesome at times and know that this has ALL OF THE TRIGGER WARNINGS! Period!

The descriptive scenes were done very well as I could see everything so vividly in London 1887. The writing is top notch.

The MC was phenomenal!! I could feel all the emotions as she described them. The twists will blow your mind as well. I alternated between the e-ARC and the ALC.

I really enjoyed this gruesome tale! I recommend it for horror fans with NO TRIGGER WARNINGS!

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

thank you for this, but I could not get into it. may not be the right time for me.
it was very confusing to read along the letter correspondence.

I'm sure it will get better, but for the moment I can not get into it

If you fed Sarah Waters and Angela Carter into a meat grinder and baked them into a Jack Ketchum pie you still wouldn’t come close to the sensation of reading this. Just superb.

A fresh retelling of Sweeney Todd, starring Mrs. Lovett as our protagonist.

What is already a well known story has been used to create something new, while still retaining the core of the original. The story is told through diaries and letters, creating the effect of reading the newspaper while living in victorian times, and discovering the events of this story.

This was a fun read, I always wanted to know what happens next, and while I don't read much historical fiction, the author made the reader feel right at home. Go into this blind, while some things may not be a big surprise for those who know Sweeney Todd, this has more than enough to not feel like going through the same story again.

For fans of retellings, victorian times, and a crimson baked barbershop.

This gothic, blood-soaked feminist retelling of Sweeney Todd will have you celebrating women's wrongs.

The set up of this book as a series of letters between a journalist trying to find an aging Mrs. Lovett after the famous events of her pie shop and the barber shop above it, is really interesting. The authors are already assuming we know a little of the dark deeds that happened, but give Mrs. Lovett the time and space to tell the entire story from her perspective - including how she got her name.

I love feminist retellings and this was the right amount of dark and dreadful. This isn't a fast-paced story, which is fine because I liked seeing what terrible tragedy was going to happen to Lovett next and how she'd endure.

While Lovett was surrounded by terrible things happening to her, I never felt like she was a victim of her circumstances. She always had agency and like black mold, she thrived.

Pick this up if you want
🔪 Feminist retelling of Sweeney Todd
🔪 Sapphic Gothic Horror
🔪 Supporting women’s wrongs
🔪 Epistolary
🔪 Cannibalism
🔪 Meat pies

This book is best read while sitting in an empty kitchen, cleaning blood from your butcher’s knife.

Rating:1-1,5/5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Soho Press for the ARC.

This book opens with promise—an epistolary format and a moody, gothic tone that hints at something in the realm of Sweeney Todd. Unfortunately, what follows never quite lives up to that potential.

While the concept of telling the story through letters is appealing, the execution feels off. The so-called letters read more like stylized first-person narration interrupted by dates and signatures, rather than actual correspondence between characters. It lacks the organic, back-and-forth nature that makes epistolary storytelling immersive and emotionally impactful.

Tonally, the writing leans into the melodrama, but without the payoff. It reads like fanfiction—specifically fanfiction for fans of Sweeney Todd—but without a clear direction or much narrative momentum. Despite my interest in the premise, I found myself increasingly detached from the story and its characters. I simply couldn’t get into it.

I’m truly grateful to have received an advance copy, and I really wanted to enjoy this—but ultimately, it left me wondering what the purpose of the story was, and why it was told in this particular way.

🥧🔪🩸A pie for two pennies🩸🔪🥧

"For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because if mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed." Psalms 31:10

Dripping with gothic atmosphere, this was chilling, mysterious and thrilling tale told in an exchange of letters, the way the book is formatted with letters, reports, newspapers clippings, recipes and other inserts just aid to make this a true experience. Blending it all with the audiobook, curtesy of RB Media and NetGalley, this was an immensely immersive read. The way the narrators set the tone and following the pages was like walking the alleys along with Mrs. Lovett, in her tale on how she came to be, and what made her that way.

The evolution of a story of Mrs. Lovett, from victim to victimizer.

It's a lifelong story, where we follow her from youth and what drove her to make the choices she made. With a diverse cast of characters, compelling story, a mystery being investigated, and an enveloping atmosphere that absorbed me from beginning to end.

🩸I would say this is a book that you would love if you blend the book and audio because the cast of narrators push this to be over the top!

🩸I was able to purchase a copy early from Barnes and Noble, and I cannot tell you how beautiful the illustrations and formatting is.

🩸 Recommend if you loved Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito and The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen.

***some of the descriptions in this book are graphic, so be aware of that***

I would love to thank NetGalley, Hells Hundred for the e-book ARC, and RB Media for the audiobook ALC. I can't wait to see what this duo of authors come up with next!

I really enjoyed this and was so pleasantly surprised by it. I found Meg to be a fascinating protagonist and was thoroughly entranced by her various trials and tribulations. With some despicable characters and truly horrific moments throughout the narrative , I actually thought the part dealing with Mrs. Lovett was the least compelling and was sometimes taken out of the story a little by it's epistolary nature. Nevertheless, I had a great time with this and would highly recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you Soho Press/Hell's Hundred for granting my wish for an ARC.

Who else watched the 2007 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and was left wanting? Who actually is Mrs Lovette? And what happened to Toby? So many questions lol. I think one would actually benefit from reading the original Victorian penny dreadful that started it all.

So I was happy to see Mrs Lovette get some love an attention, become the star of show for once.

This is a mostly epistolary novel, where the events are told through letter exchanged between an obscure nun and a lady journalist investigating the whereabouts of Mrs Lovette (in the movie/musical she is pushed into the oven by Mr. Todd, but here it seems that her imprisonment was common knowledge, yet the journalist, Miss Gibson, thinks otherwise).

The backdrop is Victorian London, a setting that I can never resist, where it depicted the fancy ballrooms and drawing rooms of the aristocracy or the grimy streets from Dickensian world. The horror and gore were appropriate to the story and not heavy handed. The twists and turns kept on coming!
My only criticism is that this story was meant to be told in the form of letters, and these letters started short and concise as letters are meant to be, then became more of a disjointed memoir, no one writes letters this long lol.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. And I can’t wait for the audiobook release so I can relive it again.

4.5 stars! Horror at its finest! Everyone knows Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. But what was Mrs. Lovett's background? Well, this is her story and what a story it is!
The novel unfolds around letters penned back and forth between a journalist, Miss Emily Gibson, and the mysterious Mrs. Lovett. Mrs. Lovett relates a pretty horrendous tale of her life through her correspondence, and Miss Gibson may find out more than she bargained for. The ending is delicious!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Hell's Hundred for this digital e-arc.*

Thank you Netgalley & Hell’s Hundred for an eARC♥️♥️♥️

This book is like a spooky letter from the past—dark, mysterious, but weirdly charming. It tells the story of Mrs. Lovett (yes, *that* pie-making villain from *Sweeney Todd*) through old letters she writes to a curious journalist.
At first, it feels like a classic Victorian horror tale—mad doctors, dirty London streets, and, of course, suspicious meat pies. But as you read, you start to see the human side of Mrs. Lovett. Was she truly evil, or just trying to survive in a cruel world? The way she tells her story makes you almost… *like* her, even as she confesses terrible things.
The back-and-forth letters give it a cozy, intimate feel, like uncovering secrets in an old diary. You’ll be hooked by the mystery, but also moved by the strange friendship that grows between Mrs. Lovett and the journalist.

📜 Historical fiction with a dark twist
🥧 Villains who aren’t *all* bad
✉️ Stories told through letters and secrets

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 – A haunting, sad, and surprisingly sweet read. Maybe skip the pie while reading, though.)

*"A ghost story with heart—and just the right amount of horror."*

I liked the first half of this book but when I got the halfway point and it did a 180* in character change. This would have been fine if it made any sense to the character we know of Mrs. Lovett. It would have been nice to see some suggestions to this behavior earlier on in the story or an explanation as to why she was hiding it instead of the sudden change.

The Butcher’s Daughter: The Hitherto Untold Story of Mrs. Lovett by Corinne Leigh Clark & David Demchuk ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This book, an epistolary novel that brings Mrs. Lovett’s POV from Sweeney Todd, which Gregory Maguire blurbed about, is literally a literary dream for me. This book was everything I hoped for and so much more. I was so engrossed. I couldn’t read this one fast enough. The pace, while slower because I hung on every word, grew in intensity by the end. And the ending! I screamed. Goosebumps. Loved it. Round of applause.

What the authors were able to do through the letters was remarkable. The setting work felt authentic but not staged. I was transported to London and all its griminess with the narrow alleys, lurking people, and cluttered streets. The characters leapt off the page, and I couldn’t help but want to know them (even the really bad ones).

It was bloody and gross and stomach churning. Be warned it is graphic in its depictions. But I so so so enjoyed it. It would have been five perfect stars had there not been some things that left me with questions.

Fans of Sweeney Todd, Victorian-era reads that focus on the underbelly of society, and intense reads will enjoy this.

This story is told entirely through a collection of letters, diary entries and other documents which made it so interesting and so much more fun to read. It feels like the reader stumbled upon something forbidden, an archive of hidden lives and lost voices.

What stands out the most is how the book reclaims a well known story like Sweeney Todd, reclaims it and lets it speak on its own. This time focusing on Mrs. Lovett - Todd’s partner in crime.

This retelling feels grounded in time and place, plausible in its London scenario. The authors build a life shaped by desperation, limited options and a society stacked against her. There’s a quiet fury beneath it all.

And just when you think you’ve mapped the whole plot, it twists again. The ending lands hard, closing Mrs. Lovett and Gibson’s arcs in a very shocking manner.