The Lamb
Eleven-year-old Margot lives deep in the woods of Cumbria with her mother Ruth, in a small cottage cut off from the world. Strangers who lose their way are taken in, fed, and never seen leaving, because Ruth and Margot are cannibals, and the lost are their food. When a charismatic woman named Eden arrives and stays, she pulls Ruth's attention away and forces Margot to question the only life she has ever known. Lucy Rose's debut is a folk horror about hunger, mothers and daughters, and the stories we are raised to believe. It was a TeaTime Book Club pick by Dakota Johnson.
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What you might want to know about The Lamb
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A girl and her mother live alone in an isolated English cottage where they lure in lost strangers, until a new visitor threatens the bond between mother and daughter.
It is a literary folk horror novel about a cannibalistic mother and daughter living in an isolated English forest, with the bond between them at the story's center.
Yes. Dakota Johnson selected The Lamb for her TeaTime Book Club in February 2025.
The Lamb was written by Lucy Rose, published in 2025 by Harper.
The Lamb is 336 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Lamb takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Lamb is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
