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.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. This is a violently graphic novel that I struggled through peppered with some really beautiful prose about the natural surroundings. I think it had so much potential but felt, in my opinion, flat. I found it frustrating that the same scene played out multiple times and yet shocking moments were passed over and not returned to. Aspects I found the most intriguing weren’t given any space for exploration. I wanted to know more about Eden’s back story and the bus driver, though I appreciate that a mark of good writing is to make the reader want more.
This was a very atmospheric read but one that would have benefitted from being a hundred pages shorter. I am grateful to the publishers for the proof copy of a much anticipated read.

🥩 The Lamb • Lucy Rose 🥩
★★★★

Read if you enjoy:
🥩 Horror with gore
🥩 Cannibalism
🥩 Coming-of-age novels
🥩 Themes of hunger and love
🥩 Complex family dynamics

Margot and Mama live by the forest and are ever so helpful to poor travelers who find themselves needing help with flat tires due to nails on the floor, or to hikers who lose the trail in bad weather. Mama invites them in from the warm and Margot makes them a drink that sends them to sleep. And then they eat them. Until Eden, who shows up in a snowstorm and has an appetite to rival Mama’s.

A DEBUT? No way. I didn’t expect to enjoy this so much but I LOVED it. Told from Margot’s perspective throughout, there is a certain innocence and naivety despite Margot and her Mama participating in eating people. There was such sorrow infused with folk horror with disturbing yet beautiful writing.

A truly remarkable debut!! I loved it and couldn’t put it down — rooting for the main character the whole way through, this is a story about isolation, hunger, female desire and the tenuous relationship between mother and daughter.

There is gore, yes, but there is also a tenderness that I wasn’t expecting from a book with this…ahem…subject matter? Five stars all day long.

Oh my good gracious - what a book! This release was so anticipated and my goodness did it live up to the hype. Such an emotional, gory, and psychologically screwing book. It all just played out before my eyes and made me feel all the feels…including scowling at the pages and gasping! Lucy, well done 👏🏻

TW/CW: Cannibalism, Child Neglect, Child Abuse, Murder, Body Horror

“It is impossible to truly know someone who hides so much of themselves and consumes so much of others.”

Oh. My. God… Lucy Rose, you ok, Hon?

Let me tell you, the hype that surrounds this book is wholly justified. Lucy Rose will be the one to watch when it comes to the best new names in horror. I’d read Rose’s short story ‘Carcinisation’ in a collection of modern horror stories (‘Of the Flesh’) earlier this year and it was by far one of the stand-outs for me, so when I got the ARC for ‘The Lamb’, I was so excited to get stuck in.

The book begins with, potentially, one of the best opening lines I have ever read, and from there I was hooked. When I tell you I devoured this book, I mean it in an (almost) literal sense. I found that I was making any and all excuses to cancel festive plans to stay home and read this book. I wanted to talk to everyone about it and once it was finished, I wanted to go back and start over. I was just hungry for more. All puns absolutely intended.

A seamless blend of modern horror and classic folklore, Rose has woven the perfect story for fans of ‘Room’, ‘My Absolute Darling’ and ‘Tender is the Flesh’. The characters are all well-rounded and fleshed-out, while remaining mostly unlikeable (by design). You know what they are doing is wrong, but you see the classic battle of ‘Nature VS Nurture’ from the perspective of Margot, who doesn’t know any different, but may know better...

I will be recommending this to any and all horror fans for years to come and because I enjoyed it so much, I have also pre-ordered a signed edition of the hardback, as I know I will re-read this one again.

As always, an enormous ‘thank you’ goes out to the author, Lucy Rose, NetGalley and the team at Orion publishing for an advanced reading copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

An excellent read, quick to finish but packs such a punch. Heartbreakingly told but so atmospheric and beautifully descriptive, I’ll be telling everyone about this one!

A very harrowing read that will definitely find its perfect audience; for fans of Eliza Clarke and Mona Awad.

This was such a horrifyingly unique story, I don't even know where to start.

It's a story about Margot and her growth to understand that what seems like love might just be hiding something much more awful underneath. And just because we are connected to someone doesn't mean we owe them our love.

Reading this story very much felt like reading a fable. There was something magical and untethered about it in a way that just drew you in. The descriptions of the food were both beautiful and incredibly off putting. And you want so badly for Margot to get away and build a better life and at the same time you have to wonder whether it's even possible.

This is probably not the most fitting holiday read but if you have a complicated relationship with your mum it can feel like a weirdly cathartic read.

*I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

As soon as I read that incredible first sentence, I knew this would be amazing and I wasn’t wrong. It’s a beautifully written, heartbreaking and disturbing story, set it a close-knit small village teeming with atmosphere.

The Lamb follows Margot, a young girl who lives with her mum at the edge of the forest, taking in lost strangers, before killing and eating them. It’s a brutal premise, told from the perspective of Margot, setting childhood innocence against a horrific normality, with Margot’s involvement making this such a haunting narrative. We watch her as she goes to school and makes friends despite her mother’s wishes, with her mother wanting her to remain unnoticed and distanced from those around her.

Without spoiling too much, Margot’s mum gets into a relationship which is all-consuming and obsessive, tense in its somewhat dangerous intimacy. Having another adult to conspire with leads to some critical situations, and more danger for Margot. Juxtaposed against Margot’s innocence and kindness, the horror feels elevated, showing a child’s involvement in something they should be protected from. It’s horrific to read, with visceral descriptions of their sickening actions throughout, and a sweet girl you worry for at every twist and turn.

If you like reading about horrific mother-daughter relationships against a backdrop of murder and cannibalism, with small town vibes and heartbreaking horror, this needs to be on your shelves. I’ve never read anything quite like it and I’m sure it’ll be living rent-free in my brain for years to come!

3.5 rounded up to 4 for netgalley

I liked this book in theory much more than I liked it in practice, actually.

The first 20% and the last 20% were exceptional but I really struggled with that middle 60% because of how slow and repetitive it got. Partly a 'me' problem as I perhaps wasn't in the mood for how slow-paced this book turned out to be, and I don't have that sense of 'disgust' towards cannibalism to keep me engaged.

The writing itself was gorgeously lyrical, and the depiction of a difficult mother-daughter relationship really spoke to me at times.

But I'm really struggling with having anything to say about it other than that, either good or bad. I've been left feeling surprisingly mid about this book (and I went into it actually half expecting a 5 star read!) and I don't think much of it will stick in my mind for long. Sorry :(

NetGalley has this under the "horror" category, and as a self-confessed wuss, I don't read horror. But I haven't been able to move online without talk of this book so I thought I'd be brave and give it a read. Sadly it didn't hit the heights I was expecting.

Not to repeat myself but I hate horror things. I hate scary books and films and just everything, and so there is always a bit of apprehension before I've event turned the first page.

In a positive way, I've heard lots of things saying how creepy and unnerving and disgusting this book is, and from the first chapter, I can definitely see why. It is grim.

It doesn't seem to know what it is. It's horror yes, but it's also a thriller, psychological, crime, romance, coming-of-age, folk tale - it's a bit all over the shop.

I will state a positive for me is that it has very short chapters. I don't do long chapters, I think short ones make the book more thrilling and easier to enjoy.

There is a lot of prose and narrative and less dialogue. It does get more chatty as it goes on, but it's still mostly narrative. Most published books I have read are quite heavy on dialogue, so it's nice to see a change.

I did have to take a pause at several times because it is disgusting. But instead of it being a positive, because I felt nothing really happened (see below), I felt the gruesome bits were just added to keep the reader interested.

It was slow. Because it started with such a bang I thought it would continue like that, but it is slow. Very little seems to happen, it's more just a day-to-day narrative with a bit of gore in it. Which meant I wasn't as excited as I thought I'd be.

It didn't quite live up to what I'd been reading. Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable, it's completely unique, creepy, and an interesting idea. And I liked it, but I didn't love it, which I was expecting given the other reviews I'd come across.

It was too long in my opinion. It was a good concept, but too drawn out. I think it would have worked better as a short story or novella, because it never really went anywhere.

Was it about feminism? About family dynamics? About relationships? Or was it just an excuse to write gory description? I'm not sure.

If I had to give it a rating, I'd say about 3 out of 5. It's interesting, different, creepy, an enjoyable read, but it didn't have the wow factor for me. I think it'll be quite forgettable now I've finished it.

I’ve had to let The Lamb sit and marinate for a while before reviewing because I’m OBSESSED. I had to sit and stare at a wall after finishing The Lamb. Margot has always lived in the forest with her mama, just the two of them, waiting and praying on passersby - or ‘strays’ - to knock on their door and satiate their hunger. One day Eden turns up, a stray, but different from all the others; she is permitted to live. She brings significance to the lives of Margot and her mama, providing for them in more meaningful ways than just the corporeal. She is biblical in both name and nature, surviving the forest, becoming it.

Despite the bloody butchered content, Rose’s writing is delicate and rolling, truly unputdownable. Although an unconventional one, the minutiae of childhood is astutely perceived; I adored the perspective of such abhorrent acts through the innocent eyes of a child. The Lamb felt like a Gothic fairy tale, a twisted exploration of nature vs nurture. Despite Margot’s upbringing and the unsaintly influence of her mother, Margot’s innocence arguably prevails. Margot is not so seduced by Eden as her mama is, reflecting her strength of character, although by the time both Margot and the reader come to realise the fractured effect Eden has on the small family, it is too late. At its core The Lamb is about love, and how even the purest forms of love can become conditional.

This book is masterfully told with such vivid imagery. It didn’t feel like I was reading this, rather having an outer body experience. I’ll be getting my hands on a physical copy as soon as I can to reread with a pen. I will also most likely be turning veggie.

An unbelievable debut. Perfect for fans of Angela Carter and Eliza Clark. Perfect to be read at this time of the year.

The Lamb is a disturbing but engrossing tale of a mother and daughter serial killing duo, living an isolated existence in the woods and enjoying a particularly despicable diet. The exploration of love and dependence is thoughtful and eye-opening, and whilst there are scenes of a more graphic nature which many would find hard to stomach, if you can handle the gore then there is a lot more to this novel than just senseless violence. Rose creates a protagonist who is deeply flawed, but as a reader, we still see hope in her and want things to work out for her. This is a story of abuse and power and the horrifying side of humanity. An absolutely excellent read.

I absolutely loved this and finished it in 2 nights. This is a gory, folksy tale centred on a mother/daughter relationship and their insatiable appetite for human meat. This absolutely felt like a fever dream and I could picture the whole story so clearly, which is a testament to the author’s writing.