The Lamb

De: Lucy Rose

Narrado por: Emma Rydal

A DAKOTA JOHNSON TEATIME BOOK CLUB PICK · INSTANT #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.

""A dark, gorgeous concoction.”—New York Times

“Beautiful, terrifying . . . . Destined to become a classic.""—Washington Post

From an incendiary new talent, a contemporary queer folktale about a mother and daughter living in the woods, for fans of Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, and Julia Armfield.

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.

©2025 Lucy Rose (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

wow

My rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5)
(Taking off half a star only because I may never emotionally recover.)

Ummm...??

To start, if you can't handle gore, skip this one. If I had to describe this book in one word it would be brutal. From start to finish it was just brutal. Full of dread and anxiety in the best way. It's one of the most unique stories I've ever read. I blew though it in one sitting with my mouth hanging open for the majority of the time. The narrator was SPOT ON. Her performance made me fall in love with this poor sweet girl just to rip me to shreds over and over.

Extraordinarily well-written and narrated

This is not so much of a horror story--though there's plenty of gore--as it is a coming-of-age story of a young girl who is trying to make sense of the world around her. The narrator is pitch-perfect, exuding this matter-of-fact, naive tone while describing horrendous acts through the eyes of the girl called Little One. As the story unfolds and Little One discovers who she is and what she believes in, she also has to face hard truths about her mother.

Sacrifices and Insatiable Appetites

I'm genuinely so impressed with this book that it left me both breathless from how beautiful it was written and horrified by how visceral it all felt reading it. It has it all: cannibalism, dread, a less than stunning mother daughter bond, a mysterious beautiful stranger, and blood. Oh yes, lots of blood.

If you have deep mother issues, take healthy breaks from this one.

Dark, heart wrenching and powerful

Am engrossing and visceral story - full of emotion and darkness as well as empathy. A story of the fragilities of youth. Powerful.

I don’t even have words

I came upon this book knowing very little, and this book has changed me. I am no expert nor reviewer but as a horror lover this to me feels like literary horror, very heavy on the horror.

The writing and the story deeply impacted me, I don’t think I’ve felt so much emotion for a character as I did for Margot in years. Her voice was so powerful and genuine, I became emotionally invested and had to pause several times and put the book down because I didn’t want it to end.

I have since read some reviews complaining about the ending and the pacing but I absolutely disagree I thought it fell right in line with the story. I felt it was very well paced and I never lost interest, I was just afraid. I absolutely didn’t expect the ending (and I’d been trying to imagine how this would end) but I really loved it and it made me cry. It was terrible and beautiful in the best ways

I can’t believe this is a debut novel, it was so polished and beautiful while showing the often ugly complexity of humanity, mother daughter relationships, coming of age, toxic relationships…

This is my top book of 2025 and I will read Lucy Rose’s next book sight unseen.

Devastating and brutal.

I feel like I’ll just be sat here staring at the wall for the foreseeable future. Incredibly heavy.

Beautiful writing, visceral horror

I loved this book! The narration was great, the story was amazing! It had one of the most vivid opening sentences I have ever read. I was surprised by how it ended, but it was so good! Not for the squeamish, lots of gory details.

The writing

I love the writing of this book. I pretty much finished it in a day

WOW

I'm really kind of speechless on what to say. I enjoyed this book so much even though it was very macabre. I don't know what I'll read next to top this!