The film-maker’s evocative debut novel, a feminist gothic horror, explores loneliness, cannibalism and queer desire

Feminist horror appears to be increasingly popular. Film-maker and, now, novelist Lucy Rose finds the genre therapeutic. “I think it’s coming out of the margins… because we’re living through times of deeply concerning political change and people are frightened,” she said in a recent interview. .

Rose’s evocative debut joins a crop of novels featuring cannibals, from Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender Is the Flesh to Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings. In The Lamb, Margot lives with her mother, Ruth, deep in the Cumbrian countryside. Ruth lures strangers she calls “strays” to their dilapidated cottage, drugs them with hemlock, before dismembering and cooking them for dinner. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of Eden, a young woman who bewitches Ruth. Gradually, Eden replaces Margot in her mother’s affections, increasing her sense of alienation.