The Lamb The bestselling literary sensation of 2025

This book is absolutely heartbreaking and horrifying while still weirdly poetic. The Lamb sinks its teeth into you slowly , then tears right through to the bone. I personally love books with cannibalism as a metaphor for love and grief and Lucy Rose did this PERFECTLY. For me The Lamb is about those who were forgotten and unloved. A tale about those who are supposed to care about you but don't. It's about abuse, girlhood, queerness and love. Now I'm going to listen to Eat Your Young by Hozier and stare at a wall, while hoping that everyone reads this masterpiece.

We read about love. Love between a mother and a daughter, between two women, and love for the beauty of the body and mind. Set in a small, shabby house in the woods, Margot catches strays with her mother. Those strays are people who got lost in the woods surrounding their tiny home. They catch them to eat them. Margot never thought that something was wrong with the way they lived, even though she needed to keep the strays their little secret. She also believed that her mother truly loved her until Eden showed up and her mother fell in love with the woman who was a stray and whom they were supposed to eat. Fighting for her life and her freedom, we follow Margot on her quest to stay alive in a house of people who could easily eat you for dinner. I fell for everything in this story. From the setting in the woods to the mother-daughter relationship, the strays, and the love and hate. I also feel deeply for Margot and her wish to become free. I couldn't get through this book quickly enough. Written unbelievably smart and charming in the most horrendous way possible.

Lucy Rose’s The Lamb beautifully managed to combine horror with coming of age. The story follows Margot and her mother who, for a long time now, have been feeding on „strays“, people who came to their secluded house asking for help, people who no one will be missing, according to Margot‘s mother. Lucy Rose’s vivid writing style regarding the cannibalism made me sick to my stomach more than just once („finger food“ is quite a disturbing term for me from now on). But next to the disgusting (and still somehow beautifully written?) cannibalism, The Lamb is a coming of age story at its core. It about Margot‘s changing relationship with her mother, her growing feelings for a school friend, and figuring out who she really is outside of her mother‘s control. Recommend for everyone who is looking for a literary horror (and is not too queasy).

I went into this book ready for cannibalism and horror but I wasn't ready for the heartbreaking path this little girl was put onto. I would absolutely recommend reading this book if you are into horror but also a critical approach to family dynamics and how they make you who you are. Very moving in a horrific way!

This horror story grabs you from page one and won´t let go. With a spinne chilling atmosphere and some of the most gruesome scenes I´ve read in a while. It´s that kind of horror that makes your stomache turn in the best way possible and definetly not for the faint of heart.