About the Book
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.
About the Author :
Lucy Rose is an author and award-winning writer/director with an interest in the gothic, girlhood, and horror. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in Dread Central, Mslexia, and other publications. Rose's films have visited BAFTA- and Oscar-qualifying film festivals internationally. She lives on the northeast coast of England with her black cat, Figgy, and is currently working on her next book. The Lamb is her first novel.
Review :
"A superbly creepy folk-horror tale . . . at heart it's about dysfunctional family dynamics, female rage and empowerment." - Financial Times (UK)
"The prose is really good, Margot is quite compelling, and overall this is a creepy and atmospheric read. The Lamb heralds a promising new talent." - Bookreporter.com
"Wild, evocative, and deeply felt, I was hooked on The Lamb from the first sentence. Reading Lucy Rose is like gently sliding your hand into the open mouth of a wolf--tender, terrifying, and exhilarating all at once." - Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe and The Book of X
"For all the darkness oozing from the pages, the prose glistens gloriously . . . . the novel establishes a duality between horror and beauty that flows through every crevice and crack of the narrative, leaving the reader repulsed and raptured in equal measure . . . . Underneath the blood and human feasting that floods the surface, The Lamb is many things--a cultural commentary on motherhood and womanhood, a twisted queer love triangle, a coming-of-age story that rots and blossoms . . . . [Rose is] a fearless new voice in horror." - Southern Review of Books
"One of the best first lines of a novel that I've read in years." - The Rumpus
"Beautiful, terrifying . . . . Rose's novel feels destined to become a classic . . . . it reminded me of The Juniper Tree, one of the most enduring and powerful of folktales, with its message of retribution and renewal." - Washington Post
"Stepping into the world of The Lamb is akin to entering into a gothic, fairytale land existing quietly in the realm of the present day. From the opening lines to the very last, Lucy Rose's debut had me fully immersed and always hungry for the next page." - Chicago Review of Books
"What makes this twist on Hansel and Gretel particularly unsettling is the twilight world it occupies between the 'safe' remove of folk tale and the clinical glare of realism. Rose's incantatory prose eases us into Margot's skewed perspective as skillfully as Mama coaxes strays into her home . . . . Rose's parable gradually winds toward a conclusion as hard to shake as its opening. While the title dares us to read The Lamb as a Christ allegory, this dark, gorgeous concoction is layered with insights into the insidious perpetuation of family violence." - New York Times Book Review
"Lucy Rose can certainly write . . . The Lamb grips all the way to an unexpected denouement that is as comfortless as it is eerie." - The Guardian (UK)
"The Lamb is written in terse and pared back language then it bubbles like a simmering stove towards a memorable and nightmarish conclusion." - Irish Examiner
"Evocative . . . . The Lamb is a hard tale to shake." - The Observer (UK)
"[A] gleefully gruesome tale . . . . Femgore at its finest." - People
"Grimms' Fairy Tales meets Mommie Dearest in a twisted debut novel about the complex hungers of mothers and daughters . . . . The rich, almost unguent prose carries the story through its gruesome developments without, surprisingly, being gratuitous, as it digs deep into the viscera of the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, lovers, and one's own physical and emotional hungers. A gruesome yet illuminating coming-of-age story that will keep readers awake night after night." - Kirkus Reviews
"Rose debuts with a potent and grotesque tale . . . . Rose's portrayal of the cannibalism feels at once vividly real and metaphorical, satisfying both as horror and as a portrait of the dark side of feminine rage. This modern folktale hits hard." - Publishers Weekly
"A brutal meditation on motherhood, feminine rage, and what it takes to survive. It's equal parts scathing and sentimental, and fans of Rachel Yoder's Nightbitch and Kristi DeMeester's Such a Pretty Smile will be perversely delighted by Margot's bloody coming of age." - Booklist
"This is the genius of Rose's folktale: She blurs the lines between hunger and gluttony, human and animal, love and revulsion. It's hypnotic, grotesque and beautiful all at once." - BookPage
"Lucy Rose's The Lamb reads like a cross between Hansel & Gretel and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But behind the horror lies a beautifully written coming-of-age story like no other with an unforgettable protagonist. Quite depraved but utterly captivating--I loved it!" - David Coates
"A modern Grimm fairytale. Heart-wrenching and sensuously lyrical, yet sinister, depraved, and stomach-churningly good." - Susan Barker, author of Old Soul
"This book was written for me in particular. Queer gothic folk horror? Say less. The Lamb follows a mother and daughter living alone in the woods, tending to the strangers who show up at their door. When a beautiful stranger shows up and the daughter begins to fall in love with her, all hell breaks loose. I'm ready for this book to consume me." - Literary Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of the Year"
"Billed as being for fans of Angela Carter and Julia Armfield (a deadly combination if ever I've seen one), The Lamb by Lucy Rose is a modern fairy tale and gothic coming-of-age." - Polygon
"I absolutely devoured Lucy Rose's The Lamb. It was macabre and wickedly captivating from the opening pages. It reminded me of Strange Sally Diamond and Dog Rose Dirt. Twisted, cunning, and deliciously dark, I ate it all up." - Jo Morey, author of Lime Juice Money
"The Lamb is a gorgeous, lyrical, evocative, hunger-inducing, and deeply moving novel that I just gobbled up, reading it totally compulsively right to the end." - Nussaibah Younis, author of Fundamentally
"Stunning, shocking and surprising at each turn--everything one would want from a novel, and so much more. Lucy Rose's fearful and fantastic imagination is a powerful weapon." - Benjamin Myers, author of Cuddy
"Deliciously dark and shockingly bold--someone needs to make this into a film right now! Lucy Rose is one to watch. This is one of my favourite debuts in a long time." - Kirsty Logan, author of Now She is Witch and Things We Say in the Dark
"This is the book I've been waiting for. Dark, twisted and utterly enthralling, The Lamb is a novel I will never forget. Lucy Rose's prose gave me chills, perfectly capturing the horrors and beauties of girlhood. Dear reader, I predict you will be as obsessed as I am." - Molly Aitken, author of Bright I Burn
"The maternal bond is well-trodden ground in contemporary fiction but the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of Lucy Rose's first novel, The Lamb, is different. . . . The Lamb, which has been described as a 'rare' and 'tender' coming-of-age story, is not out until February but it has already created a buzz. . . . Rose is now set to join a new generation of horror writers who have helped to attract younger readers to the genre and have created a mini sales boom." - Sunday Times (London)
"Outstanding and disturbing and transformative. A new generation of literary horror begins with Lucy Rose. Brutal yet tender, The Lamb is a book that refuses to offer its reader the easy way out. A masterclass in suspense with an unflinching focus on intergenerational violence, The Lamb will leave you with a twisting feeling on the inside. Sensational. Read now, before everyone you know gets there first." - Genevieve Jagger, author of Fragile Animals
