Sachin is 20% done with The Tainted Cup

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 09:27:10 -0700

Sachin Dev is 20% done with The Tainted Cup.

Sachin started reading 'The Tainted Cup'

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 09:23:48 -0700

Sachin started reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Sachin added 'The Third Rule of Time Travel'

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 20:17:57 -0700

Sachin gave 3 stars to The Third Rule of Time Travel (Paperback) by Philip Fracassi

Sachin added 'The Lamb'

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 23:22:27 -0700

Sachin gave 4 stars to The Lamb (Hardcover) by Lucy Rose
bookshelves: 2025-great-reads
The Lamb by Lucy Rose is a gut-punch of a novel, that leaves you gob-smacked, rattled and disturbed about the toxic nature of love, a harrowing examination of guilt, the possessive nature of love and the myths we inherit. The narrative that begins almost like a dark fairy tale about a mother-daughter duo soon spirals into a fragile tale of rural solitutde and grief.

Readers be warned that the book features cannibalism. There, I have said it. Margo and her mother live in a deserted forested land, away from the rest of the world. But they hide a terrible secret - the mother craves for "strays"; anybody who strays into the forest and is lost is a stray and little Margo is brought up to think that eating their "fingers" and the rest of their body is the natural order of things. Strays deserve to be eaten.

Yet as she grows up, she struggles to place people in this box of "Strays" or not. Take for example, the horrible boys who travel with her in the back of the school bus who keep bullying her, calling her a 'freak'. Or the Gamekeeper, the large man who keeps popping into their house and whom her mother seems to like a lot. Or her best friend at school, the innocent and beautiful Abbie with whom Margo secretly hopes she can spend the rest of her life with.

Margo's relationship with her mother is tender and intense at the same time. She idolizes her mother and wants to continue living under her shadow. But very soon, a stray enters their life, with whom Mother herself gets obsessed. That shatters the myths that Margo held, any romanticized version about the kind of future, she could ever have with her mother. It's a relationship that is unhinged at the best of times and edged with slow dread. She is being abused, and she never realises it. It is heartbreaking and emotionally disturbing to be living inside little Margo's head as she slowly unravels the truth behind her mother's love. The initial narrative and chapters were a bit slow, like a chapter in Margo's life as we slowly reveal the true nature of these two and their forest hideout. But post the halfway mark, we are hit with a cold, nauseous realisation that continues to grow, gnawing away at our insides about where the novel is heading to. In the end, I couldn't stop turning the pages fast enough.

The Lamb is not an easy read. But it's a necessary one. Unsettling, lyrical, and devastating in its restraint, Lucy Rose has crafted a modern pastoral horror that lingers like smoke.

Sachin is on page 260 of 325 of The Third Rule of Time Tr

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 23:21:41 -0700

Sachin Dev is on page 260 of 325 of The Third Rule of Time Travel.

Sachin wants to read 'Boys in the Valley'

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:54:23 -0700

Sachin wants to read Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi

Sachin is currently reading 'The Third Rule of Time Travel'

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:52:13 -0700

Sachin is currently reading The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

Sachin is currently reading 'The Lamb'

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 09:07:09 -0700

Sachin is currently reading The Lamb by Lucy Rose

Sachin added 'Black Sheep'

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 09:04:59 -0700

Sachin gave 4 stars to Black Sheep (Hardcover) by Rachel Harrison

Sachin added 'കോഫി ഹൗസ് | Coffee House'

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 12:21:29 -0700

Sachin gave 4 stars to കോഫി ഹൗസ് | Coffee House (Esther Immanuel, #1) by Lajo Jose

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