The Lamb

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.