The Butcher

Name: The Butcher
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Laura Kat Young
ISBN: 9798200880249

Author: Laura Kat Young

Narrator: Amanda Dolan

Unabridged: 8 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 09/13/2022

Categories: Fiction, Horror, Dystopian, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy

Synopsis

A debut small-town horror novel that is a chilling blend of Shirley Jackson meets Devil’s Day by way of WestworldWhen Lady Mae turns eighteen, she’ll inherit her mother’s ghastly job as the Butcher: dismembering Settlement Five’s guilty criminals as payment for their petty crimes. But then their leaders, known as the Deputies, come to Lady Mae’s house, and there in the living room they murder her mother for refusing to butcher a child.Within twenty-four hours, now alone in the world, Lady Mae begins her gruesome job. But a chance meeting years later puts her face to face with the Deputy that murdered her mother. Now Lady Mae must choose: Will she flee and start another life in the desolate mountains, forever running? Or will she seek vengeance for her mother’s death even if it kills her?

About Laura Kat Young

Laura Kat Young is a writer and teacher living in Chicago with her family. Her works blend genre and seek to explore a deeper understanding of human behavior. The 2019-2021 Writer-in-Residence at the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, her works have appeared in The Blood Pudding, Shoreline of Infinity, The Lindenwood Review and others. The Butcher is her debut novel. More can be found at LauraKatYoung.com.

About Amanda Dolan

Amanda Dolan is a professional actor in the MFA program at Brown University. Her credits include Richard III, Macbeth, Falsettos, The Rocky Horror Show, Hair, and The Who’s Tommy.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on September 25, 2022

This book was a dystopian western about a girl who has to be the butcher, which means something different in this world. I really found the book to be fairly boring and I really didn't care what was going to happen.......more

Goodreads review by Theresa on September 07, 2022

Like many young people I am on TikTok. No, no, I am not young per se, but do enjoy ruining my attention span just as much as the next guy. Anyway, I came across mention of this book on something that the kids are calling ‘booktok’ and was pretty charmed by the plot. I then spoke to my friend Netgall......more

Goodreads review by Craig on March 10, 2023

This was a weird, weird book. More allegorical than anything, I wasn't sure if it was set in some post-apocalyptic world or an alternate Western setting. It also reads like a young adult romance novel for much of the running, but I don't think it's meant to be one. Lady Mae (hated that name and its......more

Goodreads review by Louise on August 02, 2022

This is dark, creepy, intense and claustrophobic. There is nothing not to like really. The first half of the book had a great build up to what was to come. It did a great job of creating a sense of dread without ever being graphic. This was an author I'd not heard of before, but it's definitely one I'll......more

Goodreads review by Tasha on August 30, 2022

The Butcher by Laura Kat Young is one of the most heart wrenching, dark, and phenomenal books I have read in such a long time. At the beginning of the book, Lady Mae is awaiting the day when she will inherit her mother’s job as the town Butcher. Her mother, Winona, goes against the law and chooses n......more

Quotes

“The Butcher is being described as Shirley Jackson meets Never Let Me Go meets West World. Pretty wild combination, but it works!” BookRiot

"This is possibly the best prose, the most readable book, that I have encountered this year; also the most powerful setting and the most troubled, perhaps damaged characters that I have read recently.” British Fantasy Society Review

“A brutal coming-of-age story…It’s true horror lies not in monsters or supernatural threats but in the depravity of humanity itself and what happens when a society gleefully pits the least among us against one another to survive.” Paste

“Immersive, original, and unflinching.” Rachel Harrison, author of Such Sharp Teeth

“Intelligent, immersive horror.” Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces

“Psychologically claustrophobic, and a harrowing debut.” Hailey Piper, author of Queen of Teeth

“Savage beauty, unrelenting violence, and unbreakable love crash together in this powerful and hypnotic novel.” Livia Llewellyn, author of Furnace