INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher : Harper Perennial
Publication date : February 2026
Format: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length : 336 pages
Genre: Horror
WHY DID I GET THIS BOOK?
I first heard about this book when it was published back in February of this year. It caught my attention, but I was busy trying to read through my winter TBR and my book club’s book, so I set this one aside. A few weeks ago, I found this book on sale through Kobo. The price was right, so I went ahead and got it, saving it for an October read.
MY PERSONAL OPINION: “THE LAMB” by Lucy Rose
Truth be told, I don’t know where to place this book in my brain. I knew the premise of the book (at least that it was about a mom-daughter duo living on the outskirts, and that they were cannibals), but oh my, from the very first chapter, I thought, I am either going to read this super fast, or I am going to DNF it. Truth be told, any book that has cannibalism as a premise will be grotesque, and this book was no exception.
The main character is a young girl (I think from 11 to 13 years old) named Margot. Margo lives with her mom in their isolated homestead, where lost people (they called them strays) sometimes show up for help or are lost. And then they become the meal. Literally, the feast. The story is only told by Margot’s as she navigates her relationship with her mom, her hunger for human meat, new potential friends at school, and a new “intruder” in her home.
The ending is brutal, and it left me speechless and brainless for a while, thinking WTF!!, but after a while of thinking about it, I understood the author’s story.
My only complaint would be that, at times, reading the POV of a little girl can be tiring. I wish it could have an adult perspective as part of the tale. It got repetitive at times as well, and since it is a hard subject to read about, at times, I had to put the book down and move on to ANYTHING other than reading it.
PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:
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.
MY RATING: 3.75
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: LUCY ROSE
Cumbrian dwelling in the North East. Writer of folktales and fables.
Lucy Rose’s fiction and non-fiction have been published by Dread Central, Mslexia, The Observer, The Nerd Daily and more, and her films have visited BAFTA- and Oscar-qualifying film festivals internationally. She is also a Forbes Under 30, a Books Are My Bag Fiction Award Shortlistee, Shirley Jackson Award Nominee and a Nota Bene Award and Somerset Maugham Prize Winner.
Lucy’s Sunday Times Bestselling debut novel, The Lamb, is published by W&N Books in the UK and Harper in the US. It was selected for Foyles Book of the Month, named best debut novel of 2025 by Cosmopolitan and Spotify, chosen for Dakota Johnson’s Tea Time Book Club, became a Goodreads Choice Award Finalist and Netgalley’s Literary Fiction Novel of the Year 2025.
Lucy lives on the north-east coast of England with her black cat, Figgy, and is currently working on her next story.
BOOKS BY JHUMPA LAHIRI
- The Lamb: a Novel
- Of The Flesh: short stories
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