The Butcher’s Daughter: The Hitherto Untold Story of Mrs. Lovett is a new and wonderfully gruesome spin on String of Pearls, which is where the wonderful Demon Barber of Fleet St., Sweeney Todd, first made his appearance. However, this novel (as you can tell by the title) focuses more on Mrs. Lovett.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Content warnings: sexual assault, graphic violence, murder, secret societies, prostitution…that about covers it, so if any of these are a dealbreaker, just be warned before you pick up this book.
Stars: 4/5
First things first, I love it when an author plays with narrative style and the co-authors did that splendidly. From epistolary to journal entries and newspaper clippings, we get a good sense of Mrs. Lovett’s life and how she came to know Mr. Todd and the end she met. If you’re thinking this will be anything like the musical dark comedy, it isn’t. It aligns much more with the original gory penny dreadful. And what I love about this is that not too many books focus on the “sidekick” character. The novel starts with a journalist seeking to learn about Mrs. Lovett, the evil woman who baked people into her pies with the help of a cruel barber. But when one particular nun reaches out and starts asking for help, well what journalist wouldn’t want to know more? But there’s only so much information that can come out of a priory and we enjoy the ride.
I have always been a fan of stories that have a clear narrator, a novel that knows it’s telling a story (maybe a call back to reading storybooks and fairy tales as a kid) and this novel does that, although it’s gruesome and gory and suspenseful. If you enjoy an unreliable narrator, well the authors threw that in here as well. We feel as though we’re looking through the eyes of Miss Emily Gibson, a journalist who won’t let go of the story, even when her own father’s life is threatened. This was a fun read for me and if you’re a fan of either thriller or horror, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy it as well.
Lastly, I loved the ending! And for fear of spoilers, that’s all I have to say about that. (Insert Forrest Gump voice.) This is definitely a book that would inspire me to read more by this duo of authors. Also, shout out to the cover designer because it’s awesome.
The Butcher’s Daughter comes out in May of this year. A great gift for horror lovers!