“‘Why did it have to be me?’ The stray echoed the words of the story. ‘But she was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong person,” (Rose).
Margot and Mama live in an isolated cottage in the woods where they eagerly await the visit of strays, people who get lost in the forest of whose cars break down far from the road and look to Mama and Margot for help. When the strays come Mama keeps them warm, gives them wine, then carves their bodies into beautiful meals for her and Margot. But when a stray named Eden comes to the house Margot’s whole world changes, and she must confront the life her Mama has taught her to live and what place she has in it now.
I don’t know how I heard about The Lamb. It wasn’t through BookTok or Bookstagram but I’m glad it found it’s way to me because this was a stellar debut.
Rose’s prose is strong, and with a killer opening line of “On my fourth birthday, I plucked six severed fingers from the shower drain,” you know you’re in for a wild read. It’s a gory one, books about cannibalism tend to be, but still the descriptions had my stomach turning but like a car crash I couldn’t stop reading. I wanted to know more about this twisted family.
Rose does an excellent job creating an atmosphere of loneliness and isolation. The book is claustrophobic and readers feel trapped in Margot’s cottage watching the casual horror of murdering and eating strays as well as the volatile relationship between Margot and her mother, and later Eden. My one main gripe with this is that because of the isolated descriptions I had an idea that this story was set in the past with the descriptions of cassette tapes and landlines or in a pseudo-fairytale land and was shocked when Margot went to school and described her teacher having a laptop. I can understand the disconnect between Margot’s homelife and school life, but it was still a shock to learn this book was set in modern times. Similarly, this revelation and Margot’s name aren’t revealed for quite sometime. While the introduction of a sink full of fingers is a good hook, I would have liked to know Margot’s name and the time the story took place earlier on.
But The Lamb is a stellar debut. I couldn’t stop reading this book and was shocked by the ending. Rose is a talent of a writer and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!
Publication: February 4 2025
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 336 pages (Libby)
Source: Owned
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Gothic, LGTBQAI2S+
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤.5
Summary:
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 picks apart their bodies and toasts them off with some vegetable oil.
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 own bid for freedom.
Sarah O'Connor 