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. "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 "A modern Grimm fairytale. Heart-wrenching and sensuously lyrical, yet sinister, depraved, and stomach-churningly good." - Susan Barker, author of Old Soul 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,
