Book Review: The Lamb by Lucy Rose

‘The Lamb’ by Lucy Rose was published in 2025. It is Rose’s debut novel and explores the idea of love through the lens of cannibalism thematically.

This book can be rather grotesque, and while, in my opinion, this gruesome description could have been used more consistently throughout the book, because Rose wrote it in a stomach curdling way, I completely understand how those moments could have overshadowed the other aspects of the book.

This book follows Margot as she reflects upon the events that recently came to pass, and how she ended up in her current situation. She is a young, inquisitive child who has been raised in a small, decrepit, rural house, where lost souls can stumble upon it when they’ve strayed from hiking trails.

Margot is around twelve years old during the events of the book, and while she begins puberty, her body, and her relationship with it changes, as does the way she responds to her mother and their strange dining habits. Unlike most families that dine on fish fingers, and potato waffles, the fingers Margot and her mother dine on are human. In fact, any meat they ingest is human.

Coinciding with the start of Margot’s periods and the onset of puberty is the ending of a consistent relationship she had with a father figure, The Gamekeeper, who has been sleeping with Margot’s mother, only for her tastes to change when a stranger appears on their doorstep, a woman called Eden, who shares their hunger for human meat and lusts greatly for Margot’s mother, Ruth.

When The Gamekeeper ends up on Margot’s plate, it evokes a complex inner dialogue which leads Margot to question her habits, the life she’s always known, her being complicit in everything, and whether her mother has enough love in her life for both Margot and Eden.

I loved the way Rose explored Ruth’s complex relationship with motherhood, and how it changed her. It demonstrated an irony to her insatiable hunger for human flesh and love from others, considering her own child all but worshipped the ground Ruth walked upon. The toxicity and all-consuming nature of Eden and Ruth’s relationship was fantastic to read.

This book is profound and complicated, with vengeful women, interesting folklore and memorable moments that will linger long after the conclusion of this book. While I’d argue that leaving the ending open to interpretation would have been better, I did appreciate how Rose concluded her novel. Though, that was my only gripe about it.

With a strong narrative voice, great skill in exploring the grotesque and macabre, Lucy Rose is one to watch. I’d certainly pick up another of her books as and when she releases one! Her work was fantastic.