The Lamb
A Novel
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4.0 • 72 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
DAKOTA JOHNSON TEATIME BOOK CLUB PICK · INSTANT #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER · WINNER OF THE NOTA BENE PRIZE · SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARDS NOMINEE
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rose debuts with a potent and grotesque tale about a girl raised to be a cannibal. Margot learns from her mother to feed on "strays," people who stumble upon their cottage in an English forest seeking shelter. When Margot reaches puberty, her mother reacts with disgust, plucking the hair growing from her armpits and beating her. "Men are forever thought of as boys," she tells Margot. "But girls? Once we're mamas or once we're ripe, we can never be girls again." When a beautiful woman named Eden knocks on their door, Margot's mother invites her in and falls deeply in love. With Eden living with them, Margot's mother's hunger increases, causing Eden to worry their murderous lifestyle will be exposed. Meanwhile, Margot's kindly school bus driver notices a bruise on her cheek and asks if she's safe at home. She lies about what happened, trying not to break her mother's cardinal rule against drawing attention. The rule figures into the novel's dramatic final act, when Margot worries she'll be punished, perhaps even eaten, if she doesn't escape. 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.
Customer Reviews
Earthlings but Make it Enchanted
This is probably the best book I’ve ever read, even better than my cherished Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. In The Lamb, Lucy Rose tells two stories. One is a fable of greed and evil destroying innocence only to destroy itself in turn. The second is an allegory of the way children, tender lambs, are bred and led for the purpose of the adults who stake ownership over them. Instead of selfless love, there is regret, envy, and anger over the feeling of losing control. As the changelings morph and break free from the spell cast upon them by their owners, they reject all that is wrong and corrupt. They break free and leave corruption behind or they destroy it as it simultaneously destroys them to cease the continuation of depravity.
Strange
Not bad, especially for a debut, but very very strange.