Lucy Rose writes about yearning and desire with clear prose and a cunning eye for detail. The contents of this book are hard to stomach at times (sorry - for the bad cannabilism joke) but the character of Margot shines through as she deals with growing up under the shadow of her mother and learns to understand her own wants and needs. I can't wait to see what Lucy Rose writes next.

The Lamb was the first book I read in 2025, and I’m confident that it will still be one of the best at the end of the year. Stunningly atmospheric, utterly horrifying but with a unmistakeable tinge of hope, no matter how dark the story turned.

The Lamb is a good book that I don't think is for me even though it has every element I tend to love: cannibalism, gore, a mother wound, etc. The imagery is great from start to finish and it is an unnerving read, but something didn't quite click for me. I still urge others to give it a try if it sounds appealing.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cover that lulls the reader into a false sense of security more than with Lucy Rose’s already acclaimed debut, ‘The Lamb’.

It may be beautifully written, but it’s also horrific and uncomfortable, and ultimately heartbreaking. It’s not an easy book to read, and yet the prose is effortless and being sucked in Margot and Mama’s world is immediate and claustrophobic.

A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest since Margot can remember. When Margot isn't at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. 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 white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, little Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires and make a bid for freedom.

With this tender 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.

For the months leading up to the release of this book all I saw were the glowing reviews and it made me nervous. How could ‘The Lamb’ possibly live up to that? It turns out it did.

With the layering of folklore and fairytale, there’s an almost dreamlike feeling to the novel that leads us through the twisted idyll of Mama and Margot’s life in the countryside of the Northwest of England, and the horrors underlying it are sharp and vivid, bursting out with glimpses of Margot’s reality when it’s least expected.


There is, of course, the kidnapping, murder and cannibalism of the ‘strays’ that wander too close to the cottage, but there’s also Mama’s experience of being forced into being a mother and a wife and her resentment of the way is changed her, her body and her life. Though what she does to people and especially to Margot is evil, I id have some sympathy for her at some moments; she was desperately in need of help and support, but instead she was forgotten, ignored and dismissed. The system failed her, but it failed Margot even more.

Less fortunate children who have problems at school and at home are always the ones who need help the most, and a lot of them time, they’re the ones that get forgotten and left behind. They are disregarded as trouble makers and even the people who have identified something as wrong are reluctant to reach out, even though everything is screaming at them that something is wrong, before it’s too late. It’s heartbreaking and a shot of reality in this dreamlike world that screams to the inequalities of the children that are left behind and utterly, utterly failed by everyone around her. It all works into the fairytale-esque nature of ‘The Lamb’.

You know those novels that you want to devour (how appropriate) because they’re just so good, but you have to take it slow because your heart is in your throat? That’s what the last section of ‘The Lamb’ was like. I was hoping, hoping, hoping that what I knew was coming would somehow be magically prevented, even though I knew that’s not how the story would go because this novel is structured around folktales and fairytales. The dark kind, the Grimm’s and the Perrault’s, not the Disney ones, and those end in a weird type of hopeful tragedy, but the tragedy does happen.

‘The Lamb’ is an incredibly powerful and evocative debut that I think will linger all year until those 2025 favourites lists start to appear at the end of this year. Margot, Mama and Eden will dig themselves under your skin and refuse to leave.

‘The Lamb’ by Lucy Rose is out now. Thank you to Weidenfeld & Nicolson and NetGalley for the review copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

Fair warning: this tale is not for the faint of heart. 

I loved it.

If you’re craving a modern Grimm-style fable, then The Lamb is exactly what you’re looking for. 

It’s a haunting, beautiful coming-of-age tale full of hunger, love and horror. It follows the story of Margot, who lives alone with her Mama in the woods, luring lost travellers to their cottage. Things change, however, when one stray catches the eye of Margot’s mother and decides to stay. 

Lucy Rose cleverly explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters with brilliant prose and unsettling parallels. Dread creeps through this tale. Talk of dead kits and feral instincts are contrasted with genuine flashes of true affection and the pure connections made with those outside of our families. 

I could hardly call this book an easy read, but it is absolutely enthralling. It was hard to put down, and I’m not one for annotating books, but I felt the urge to underline lots in this. 

Margot is an incredible character. You feel every little thing with her and her story will definitely stay with you. I know those last few chapters will haunt me for a while yet…

Part parable, part horror, part love story, this book deserves to be on your tbr (as long as you aren’t squeamish). I think this will definitely make it onto my list of top reads for 2025, and I will be eagerly awaiting what Lucy Rose writes next👀

(Feb 2025 - upgraded to full five stars as I can't stop thinking about it)
4.5* rounded up.

What a stunning, difficult and challenging read The Lamb is.

A coming of age tale, a story of love, obsession and insatiable hunger, it is an incredibly dark, disturbing, moving, and gory folk horror debut that hasn't left my brain since finishing it.

For a debut this is an unbelievably bold story to tell especially as it is a deeply uncomfortable read that will stretch your comfort zone to the max. It is both ethereal and grounded in reality with an unnerving sense of dread that pervades the narrative from page one.

Margot and her story that will likely stay with you and is one I highly recommend and I'm excited to see what Lucy Rose will share with us in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group | W&N for this digital review copy of "The Lamb" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

A debut novel that uses cannibalism as a metaphor for familial dysfunction, female oppression? On paper, this should be extremely my bag, but sadly The Lamb left me somewhat wanting.
12-year-old Margot lives with her mother, Ruth, in the countryside of England. The two keep to themselves, partly due to a rejection of society, but mostly due to their eating habits. Both are cannibals, luring lost travellers they nickname “strays” to their home, before drugging, cooking and eating them. When beautiful, mysterious Eden arrives, Ruth and Margot’s lives are disrupted, and things only go further awry from there…
Sadly, I really wanted to love this more than I did! Lucy Rose is a great writer, and her prose is arresting and beautiful. All the components of the book should have made it work for me: body horror, adolescent longing, sapphic longing, feminist critique. And there’s lots to love here: it feels like a fairytale, and the atmosphere is a gothic horror confection. The ending is a hard banger that I thoroughly enjoyed, subverting my expectations nicely. But overall, it failed to coalesce for me, for a couple of reasons.
Number one: I felt the novel was too long, and - dare I say it? - became boring and repetitive after a while. I appreciated Rose’ commitment to building an atmosphere - which it has to be said she does very successfully - it took too long for the plot to reach its climax which deeply undercut it for me. The novel feels like it’s trying to hit a word count, spinning its wheels before the grand and gory finale. Now, that finale is good stuff, don’t get me wrong, it just took way, WAY too long to get to it.
Secondly, there’s a frustrating lack of logical consistency to the book, which I could manage if it leaned further into the fairytale tropes but was undercut by a few odd choices. Ruth and Margot live off the grid but Margot goes to school. Ruth constantly tells Margot not to draw attention to herself; so why send her to school at all? Furthermore, the family appear to be self-sufficient but Ruth nearly always has a bottle of wine in hand. Girl, do you have a vineyard out back? Are you nipping to Tesco between kills? Why does no one have a mobile phone, and why aren’t Margot and her mother struck down by prion diseases?? I need answers!


Finally, this is not a criticism of the author but a me problem: it felt deeply English in a twee way that I simply cannot stomach. I avoid this kind of twee Britishness like the plague so it really took me out of the reading experience.
A book that many of the girls will love - it’s got rave reviews elsewhere - but one I sadly did not enjoy.

The Lamb by Lucy Rose is a hauntingly beautiful tale that intertwines elements of fairy tales with a dark, visceral narrative. Set against the backdrop of a secluded cottage in the woods, the story explores themes of coming-of-age, family dynamics, and the insatiable hunger for love and acceptance.

Margot and her Mama live a secluded life, keeping to themselves (apart from when Margot goes to school), surviving on more than just love… Mama’s hunger is insatiable, especially when it’s for the flesh of a “Stray” who has gotten lost wandering The Fells.
When “Stray” Eden, stumbles into their world after a snowstorm, everything Margot knows is thrown into question.

With its folksy style, the story is both enchanting and unsettling. This story is intense and deeply emotional. It explores complicated family dynamics, the cruelty of a selfish mother, and the pain of growing up and realizing the world is not what you thought.

Margot’s tale is heartbreaking yet deeply moving, while Eden’s arrival brings about uncertainty and upheaval. The supporting characters, from the kindhearted bus driver Mr. Hill to the mysterious gamekeeper entangled in Mama’s life, add layers of intrigue.

I loved this books so much! I was hooked straight away (maybe I’m biased because I am also Lucy Rose) I was both entertained and a bit grossed out! Honestly, this is exactly what I hoped "Tender is the Flesh" would be like.

📚 Thank you @netgalley for the ARC!

#TheLamb #LucyRose #NetGalley #horrorbooks #Bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #MustRead #Bookworm #ARCReview

This is phenomenal. Folkloric, mother/daughter horror. Consisdering this is a debut as well??? I cannot wait to see what Lucy Rose does next. An immediate auto buy.

With short snappy chapters you can fly through this hazey bloodsoaked wonderland. The opening line mentions severed fingers and that is great base for the rest of the novel to unfold onto.

Intense, creeping, and brimming with horrific suspense, The Lamb balances carefully between the spheres of literary fiction and horror.

Hikers are vanishing. People who stray from the path are never seen again, swallowed by the wild things which live in the solitary woods. Margot is one of the wild things, a self-proclaimed changeling child, she lives with her Mama in a house that is not quite a home. They are different than the rest of the world, isolated not just by their rural home, but by their very existence. When things begin to change, Mama as much as Margot, the tenuous peace of their reality is challenged; the sticky, painful sinew that ties them together may be as easily torn as any other meat, and both of them are hungry.

Rich in imagery, The Lamb is as readable as it is experimental, neither fully embracing, nor rejecting, its literary potential. Reminiscent of Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss, and as casual with its gore as The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks, this is a novel focused on the violence of womanhood, and the softer otherness of girlhood. Rose's strength is in her characterisation, and her willingness to go as far as she needs to to realise her themes, but I do worry that this book was plot weak in places, the story meandering. I enjoyed the overlapping readings this book inspired, like many novels on the precipice of literary fiction The Lamb is open to a few interpretations, but I didn't feel that one rose to the surface above the others, sometimes leaving me confused as to which metaphors, which ideas, were those intended by the author. This, for me, is what holds this back from its full literary potential - although authorial intent should not restrict one's reading, the confusion of the ideas, the way one reading upset another, made interpreting this story difficult.

This also struggled with motif vs repetitiveness. Rose clearly has an excellent understanding of literary form, and I felt in places employed motifs well, the rabbit for example, which appears throughout the book in different places, was a fantastic motif which tied things in together, drawing connections between events and individuals. Other things came off as repetitive, for example the description of near identical dresses, and the repeated references to ash / the fire / the hearth. This, in my opinion, made the novel feel less polished, although no less successful in its themes overall.

I think The Lamb has a lot to say, and I can imagine it will inspire a devoted and enthused readership. Rose is an undeniable talent. That being said, I worry the ambition of this book outweighed the story delivered. I wanted a bit more, a slightly fuller narrative which could support the exceptional character building, and rich language, of this work. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

‘I wondered why we couldn’t fit together like other mamas and their kits. I wondered if we were born with something broken inside us. Maybe it was in the deepest marrow of our bones, some place we couldn’t see or touch. Maybe that’s why we couldn’t love each other the way we were supposed to.’

In The Lamb, we follow Margot as she navigates her increasingly fraught and grievous relationship with her Mama. Mother and daughter live together in a cottage in the woods, luring in ‘Strays’ to feed Mama’s insatiable hunger. When things begin spiralling beyond their already unconventional life, 11-year-old Margot has no choice but to take matters into her own hands, whenever and however she can.

Part coming-of-age narrative, part unsettling folktale, The Lamb does not shy away from its commentary on complex mother-daughter relationships, particularly within an individualistic, family-unit-oriented society.

Please note that this is a strong “mummy issues” narrative told from the perspective of a child, with frequent on-page verbal and physical abuse. There are a whole host of other trigger warnings worth checking before diving in.

I am astounded by Lucy Rose’s ability to craft a narrative that is simultaneously heartfelt and skin-crawling, with twists I truly did not see coming. From the very first sentence to the final reflection, this book is one that can easily be devoured in a single sitting. I personally went into this story knowing very little and enjoyed the experience all the more for it.

I had an incredibly memorable time reading The Lamb and cannot wait to read more from Lucy Rose.
I’ll end by saying this: we must protect Steve. At. All. Costs.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

TWs/CWs:
Graphic: Child abuse (The child abuse is physical and emotional in nature, not CSA), Child death, Gore, Cannibalism, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pedophilia

Hauntingly beautiful….

Thankyou NetGalley & publisher for this arc copy this book was hauntingly beautiful the darkness of the story got me hooked however the descriptions and characteristics the main character explained things throughout the book felt beautiful and poetic this book was absolutely beautifully written for a horror book. I absolutely enjoyed

A beautifully written gothic debut, The Lamb had me hooked from the very start. Despite the subject matter which can be at times a little gruesome, this is a lyrically beautiful tale of love, desire and despair.

WE ARE SOOOOOOO BACK!

This is absolutely banging, I sped through it! The writing is immersive and stomach churning and the characters are complex and fleshed out (har har). It's hard to write a review because it's been such a long time since a book has left me this raw (har har) and gobsmacked. I was rooting for Margot so hard. The portrayal of love in all its most horrid forms, girlhood, hunger... ahhhhhhh. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while.

Mama and Margot live in rural Cumbria, waiting for strays to happen by their cottage so Mama can seduce and devour them. But when a woman called Eden turns up, Margot starts to question the foundations of her upbringing. I was attracted by the idea of a dark folktale that centred on a mother-daughter relationship plus that gorgeous cover, but The Lamb was definitely not for me. I have to admit that I just don't do this kind of cannibalistic gore and didn't realise how explicit the book would become. But even putting that aside, nothing about this spoke to me. From its opening sentence ('On my fourth birthday, I plucked six severed fingers from the shower drain') I felt like it was using shock to give the impression of literary daring without actually doing anything new. Once you accept the nasty premise, The Lamb just... is. Rose's writing doesn't do anything different, either ('Snow turned into mud rivers as cars and tractors and vans trudged through the newly fallen, pristine snow. Nature was beautiful. But we did such a good job of making it ugly.') It is, at least, very quick to get through. 2.5 stars.

The Lamb is a dark folk-horror following a young girl, Margot, and her mama as they anxiously wait for strangers to come to their door in order to satisfy their ever-growing hunger. This book is both twisted and beautiful, and the cannibal elements were definitely gruesome. Margot as a narrator was heart-breaking and enjoyable at the same time, and by the end I felt deeply attached to her. I do wish the author went into more depth on certain themes such as female hunger and troubled mother-daughter relationships, as I felt like these were only lightly touched upon. I would recommend The Lamb for those interested in female-led gothic stories.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2025 and it did not disappoint!

Captivating and horrifying all at once - definitely not one to read while eating.

Lucy Rose somehow manages to write beautifully about cannibalism, visceral gore and the ties of family.

A remarkable debut and I look forward to reading future works.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher
5 ⭐️

I cannot tell you how much this isn’t for you if you have a weak stomach.

I love horror but I’m not a fan of gore. I struggle with gory films and hide behind my coat in the cinema. With books I usually try to skip on a bit if I know a section is gory.

I like to read while I eat my lunch. I realised on page 3 of The Lamb that that wasn’t going to be possible.

By 3% in I was sure if I had the stomach for this at all.

I’m glad I preserved as this book is fantastic and went in ways I didn’t expect.

Though I will be honest, I’m still feeling a bit sick.

A visceral exploration of hunger, obsession, and depravity, this is both a horrific and beautiful story.