Published By: W&N
Pages: 336
Released On: 30/01/2025
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest 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. 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 white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, little Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires and make her own 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.
*****
Thanks you to NetGalley and W&N for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
NetGalley has this under the “horror” category, and as a self-confessed wuss, I don’t read horror. But I haven’t been able to move online without talk of this book so I thought I’d be brave and give it a read. Sadly it didn’t hit the heights I was expecting.
Not to repeat myself but I hate horror things. I hate scary books and films and just everything, and so there is always a bit of apprehension before I’ve event turned the first page.
In a positive way, I’ve heard lots of things saying how creepy and unnerving and disgusting this book is, and from the first chapter, I can definitely see why. It is grim.
It doesn’t seem to know what it is. It’s horror yes, but it’s also a thriller, psychological, crime, romance, coming-of-age, folk tale – it’s a bit all over the shop.
I will state a positive for me is that it has very short chapters. I don’t do long chapters, I think short ones make the book more thrilling and easier to enjoy.
There is a lot of prose and narrative and less dialogue. It does get more chatty as it goes on, but it’s still mostly narrative. Most published books I have read are quite heavy on dialogue, so it’s nice to see a change.
I did have to take a pause at several times because it is disgusting. But instead of it being a positive, because I felt nothing really happened (see below), I felt the gruesome bits were just added to keep the reader interested.
It was slow. Because it started with such a bang I thought it would continue like that, but it is slow. Very little seems to happen, it’s more just a day-to-day narrative with a bit of gore in it. Which meant I wasn’t as excited as I thought I’d be.
It didn’t quite live up to what I’d been reading. Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable, it’s completely unique, creepy, and an interesting idea. And I liked it, but I didn’t love it, which I was expecting given the other reviews I’d come across.
It was too long in my opinion. It was a good concept, but too drawn out. I think it would have worked better as a short story or novella, because it never really went anywhere.
Was it about feminism? About family dynamics? About relationships? Or was it just an excuse to write gory description? I’m not sure.
If I had to give it a rating, I’d say about 3 out of 5. It’s interesting, different, creepy, an enjoyable read, but it didn’t have the wow factor for me. I think it’ll be quite forgettable now I’ve finished it.
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