Thankyou NetGalley & SoHo Press for sending me this arc copy, i absolutely loved this book from when i read the description it was the gonna be a untold story of mrs Lovett from Sweeney Todd I knew I needed to read it and it didn’t disappoint, I love how the book started from her childhood and the format of the book of how she was telling her story, the plot twist at the end was true mrs Lovett fashion. I would recommend for all Sweeney Todd fans this book was a true page turner

just as haunting as it is heartbreaking, the butcher’s daughter follows the story of the notorious character, mrs lovett through her correspondences with a well-to-do journalist, miss emily gibson. i’ll be honest, my knowledge of the original sweeney todd is quite limited. i distinctly remember watching the 2007 film on dvd with my mother, and feeling disgusted with the subject matter. other than that, i don’t remember much. therefore, i went into this almost completely blind.

the book started out at a snail pace—there were a lot of lull moments, and the narrative also got me a little confused. i had to flip the pages back and forth a couple of times to ensure that i got the sender of some of the letters correctly. however, as i tried to follow the story, everything slowly came into place. the pace picked up, and i found that i simply couldn’t stop reading even if i wanted to.

the authors’ interpretation of margaret lovett was absolutely fascinating to read. she felt so real to me that her voice even followed me in my sleep. literally! i loved that she was sympathetic, yet terrifying at the same time. there were times that i felt so heartbroken for her that i could just cry, but there were also times where she would do something that got me questioning her sanity. i know that some would argue that she was passive during her stint with sweeney todd, but you have to admit, the ease in which she settled into her life as a (human meat) butcher slash (human pie) baker was bone-chilling (no pun intended). she went from someone who wouldn’t hurt a fly, to an accomplice to a serial killer in 3 seconds flat.

chronologically, the story follows margaret throughout a few phases in her life—as a butcher’s daughter, a maid, a companion/aide, and the famed baker at fleet street. some phases were longer than others, but each phases gave a lot of insight into what made margaret into the woman that she was. the only singular complaint i had was that i wish we had gotten more time with margaret and her son. however, this complaint is a minor one.

overall, i really enjoyed this book and i think it will live with me for quite a while. thank you so much to soho press and netgalley for providing me with the arc! <3

3.5 Stars!

The Butcher's Daughter started with so much intrigue that I stayed up way past midnight some nights to read more of it, but the strength of the first two-thirds of the book felt a bit deflated by the end.

The epistolary writing was excellent, and the inferences surrounding Miss Gibson's investigation were just as interesting as the letters she received. I really enjoyed this book, but once Margaret/Meg/Peggy/Margery takes up residence in the pie shop I was less interested in Sweeney Todd's role in her life and more interested in Aphra, the Doctor's business, and the mystery unfolding in the letters.

The tonal shift between the filtered and unfiltered letters was very effective as the story and character spiralled down from a sympathetic woman falling into difficult times to someone more ambiguously evil, although I did find the wrap-up of the overarching mystery to be a bit cheap.

Overall a great read for fans of Sweeney Todd or people like me, who are even bigger fans of evil women.

The last word, of the last sentence, of the last paragraph, on the last page…and a twist that left me reeling and haven’t stopped thinking about for a day. I loved this book so much I recommended it to my daughter (who hates, on principle, having anything recommended to her.) But when I said “I stayed up way past my bedtime reading”, her response was “There’s no better recommendation than that.”
OK, calm down and take a breath. The book is promised to reveal the untold story of Mrs Lovett (of Sweeney Todd fame). The author uses a series of letters, notes, and newspaper clippings as a device to unfold the story. I’m usually not a huge fan of stories told by letters – but have no fear – this is skillfully done and the reader is rapidly engrossed in what’s happening. Indeed, as the story neared the end, the various snippets of information really deepened the plot and gave various ‘jolts’ of surprise, such as when the fate of certain characters were revealed.
This is a dark, gothic, sometimes horrifying story. The author paints images that will haunt you, but in that delicious spine-tingling way. And joy of joys it is so perfectly crafted that everything is there for a reason and each tiny clue all jigsaw together into a series of revelations – that last of which is sheer genius.
If “The Butcher’s Daughter” was a restaurant it would have 5 Michelin stars and be booked up solid for the next six months. It is the very definition of a page turner – and in case you didn’t guess – I loved it. Indeed, I would say it is my favourite read of 2024 – which given we are 50 weeks in, and I read a lot, is quite some plaudit.
So yes, I did enjoy this book, and I am prepared to shout about it to anyone who will listen. A modern classic – move over Frankenstein, The Butcher’s Daughter has arrived.

Book review: "The butchers daughter" by Corinne Leigh Clark and David Demchuk
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a wild ride this has been! It was such a wonderfully dark read, telling the gripping story of a woman who managed to live many different lives! There were so many well done turns, and I was at the edge of my seat through all of it. Also, the telling of the story through letters worked really well in this case.

I only have two critiques:
- She is deserving of her own book, maybe don't call it "the butchers daughter", as it seems to tie her to a man, and given how this book tells the womans gruesome journey, she deserves her own name attached to the story of her life.
- Always having to have a reason to close a letter is boring and quite infuriating. Peggy didn't always have to justify why a letter needs to end.

Yet, I still recommend you to read this quite unique tale, it is well worth it for fans of horror. Beware of some gore but be ready to be swept into quite a lovely story.

A deliciously dark and delightful tour of the butcher shops, hobby doctors and underground societies of nineteenth century London. Told through various pieces of correspondence and full of vivid, clever details, The Butcher's Daughter is a fantastic retelling of Sweeney Todd that also keeps broader questions about who is telling what story and why simmering just below its surface.

As a huge fan of anything Sweeney Todd, I desperately wanted to read this and it was spectacular. Incredibly vivid descriptions and the writing is just pure perfection. I was really impressed by all of it.

“At Mrs Lovett’s, every pie has a tale to tell.”

As soon as I saw the premise of this book I was desperate to get my hands on it! This retelling of the classic musical Sweeney Todd gives voice to everyone’s favourite beastly baker, Mrs Lovett.

Told through written correspondence between an investigative journalist and the woman she suspects might be the infamous pie maker of Fleet Street, we are immersed into the dirty, brutal and unforgiving world of 19th century London. Our FMC fights to survive by any means necessary in a world built by, and for, powerful men. Through her experiences at her father’s butchers shop, as an assistant to a wealthy doctor and as a maid in a brothel, Margaret is shaped and sharpened into the deliciously vicious murderess we all know and love.

After an uncertain start I needed up absolutely loving this book. I’m usually not one for horror or gore but I’m such a fan of this story that I powered through the more ghastly scenes (the eye scene in the doctors house, IYKYK) and I’m soooo glad I did.

I was expecting a main chunk of this book to be a rehashing of the Sweeney Todd/Fleet Street story, but it was actually so much more than that. We get a full picture of Margaret as a character from childhood to her autumn years and she takes centre stage, rather than being a supporting act for Mr Todd. I also loved that she wasn’t a love-crazed sycophant for the barber, stripping this part of the story (and poking fun at it) really helped to keep her independence and autonomy in the story.

This book was clearly meticulously researched. As a history graduate and absolute nerd I looooooved the richness of the settings. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of the Foundling Hospital and the depictions of unromanticized aspects of the past. This book also doesn’t shy away from presenting the reader with the injustice and danger faced by working class women during this time - and really gives our Peggy lots to be vengeful about!

My only nagging issue with this book was that it was so heavy and dark, but I really enjoyed the twist at the end and felt this added a bit of (albeit dark) comic relief and left me chuckling rather than reeling from the gore. I personally would have loved to see a bit more of the love story on the page, although I really liked the way its exclusion was explained in the story itself, but I’m also just a sucker for a romance so definitely not something that would put off the majority of readers.

Thank you so much to the authors, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the privilege of reading this early!

Thank you to NetGalley for this five star read.
It is not a book I read quickly. The style and format of the story, presented primarily in correspondence between characters, is filled with vivid description and the specific detail and wording of the writing is perfect for setting the atmosphere of the era where the tale unfolds.

If you're already familiar with the story of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, you will find a whole new version of it here, through the voice of Mrs Lovett. You can decide how reliable a narrator she is, but the final twist in the story is so much fun.

I recommend reading this book with a large cup of tea, cozy beside a fire this winter. You won't regret it.

Retellings are in vogue right now. If I were being generous, I'd say it's out of a desire to see the humanity in people who have traditionally been denied it. If I were being snarky, I'd say it's a lazy shortcut to sales. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

"The Butcher's Daughter" is at its strongest when it isn't tied back to Sweeney Todd - which, honestly, is for most of it. Sweeney himself doesn't appear until about 3/4ths of the way through the book. The rest is taken up with our heroine, Margery, as she finds herself in the employ of a mysterious doctor with ties to the Freemasons, an invalid wife, and a secret laboratory she's not allowed to enter. This part of the story is genuinely quite compelling, and I honestly wish the Mrs. Lovett aspect had been ditched entirely and the book had leaned into the Gothic of it all! Because as soon as this section ends, the pace slows and the characters get less interesting, the milieu less vivid.

(Speaking of the characters getting less interesting - man, Aphra was such a cipher! And she shouldn't have been! It kind of felt like the authors wanted there to be some kind of romance in there, but it added nothing and I didn't care about it.)

While Clark and Demchuk don't completely fall into the feminist retelling trap of "this female villainess is actually a victim and never did anything wrong," they don't entirely avoid it either. Margery isn't a good person, but she is also arrayed against significantly more powerful forces than herself. This strand, too, is neglected - because we have to get to the pie shop, the Freemasons plot is largely left by the wayside. In the end, the most interesting parts of the story are restricted to hints and innuendo, while the main plot is dragged down by its ties to a story it really doesn't need to be connected to.

That said, there is a lot to enjoy here! The prose is engaging and propulsive, and there was never a moment when I wasn't anxious to know what happened next. I'm not sorry I read it, and it's entirely possible I'll read it again; but I wish it had been greater than the sum of its parts.

(And yeah, that last line - I'm not fussed, honestly. It's a penny dreadful, what do you expect? Once again, though, that suggestion of a storyline was far more interesting than the main thrust of the plot. Just lean in and go full Alan Moore! You know you want to!)

The only knowledge I had going in was having seen the movie. Ironically, it was the butcher shop part that interested me the least. I definitely think I missed some of the diabolical goings-on with the letters on the read through.
Thank you very much to Soho Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

A stellar and gruesome tale drawing inspiration from Mrs. Lovett, famous sidekick to Sweeney Todd; the demon barber of Fleet Street, this book was a spooky and dark treat. I thought this story driven narrative gave lovers of horrors characters to root for while making me hold my breath, worried about the next tragic thing that could happen at any moment to the titular main character. Written in letters, the reader is immersed in the gritty London streets of the late 1880s and told important plot details through the post, listings, news articles, and other documents that artfully decorated the pages. I really enjoyed this one! While I was worried that some elements felt left out from the original storyline that I am familiar with and cherish, I believe this adaptation (or prequel I suppose) stuck the landing and will be enjoyed by lovers of the horror/historical Ficiton genre!

I'll admit this book fell a little bit flat for me. The format was interesting, and despite having a few different sources of letters, we end up with a very one sided view of the story. I would have appreciated more sources to perhaps get a more well rounded view? Or something that would have added more depth to the very pasteurized image of the timid girl just trying to do her best that we see through Sister Catherine's writings.

The ending just felt... I don't know. Trite. Cute. It wasn't the "gotcha!" moment that I felt it was trying to be. Given how interesting the subject matter of this book is, I felt like it didn't quite rise to the occasion. I will still recommend it to readers who are a fan of the era, but it won't be something I'd wholeheartedly recommend to most readers.

This was incredibly layered and well done! I’m particularly impressed by how effective the “found documents” format worked, it truly enhanced the storytelling and added an air of mystery and intrigue!

I took off one star for the bizarre choice at the end that seems so tonally different than the rest and actively contradicts most of the novel. The majority of it is about the real life horror and brutality powerful mean wreak on vulnerable women and girls, and in no way glamorizes or represents it as titillating. We particularly connect to sex worker and identify the complex web of power and exploitation of brothels. To then wink and joke about her son becoming a man who slaughters sex workers is just so inappropriate and bizarre. It undercuts the power and beauty of the way the text represents and critiques sexual and reproductive violence by turning it into a punchline when Lovett’s son does it to women. I would sincerely suggest changing the tone of the final chapter or even just the last word.

I went into this book with a healthy knowledge of Mrs. Lovett from her original debut in the penny dreadful as well as the musical- and as fun of a story as this was it was quite hard to find the Mrs. Lovett in it.

I did enjoy her time at the doctor’s house, but I think the plot synopsis did it a disservice by telling us in advance she escapes from a mad doctor. If that was left for us to find out I think it would have been more compelling. The doctor’s house also felt quite rushed and I would have preferred to spend more time there instead of the lengthy pages of the brothel.

My biggest let down however was that in all the source material we know Mrs. Lovett to be an active participant in the Sweeney Todd story- at times almost making him continue for her own amusement and wishes. This Mrs. Lovett had none of the evil wit, she has had all of her agency taken from her. She only continues out of fear of Todd’s retaliation. That’s not the Mrs. Lovett we are all reading this book to know.

The last line of her dossier is the Mrs. Lovett we want- but now that line feels out of place from the shy timid Lovett you’ve created!

Still enjoyed the story- just read it as a random character not Mrs. Lovett

I went into this book with a healthy knowledge of Mrs. Lovett from her original debut in the penny dreadful as well as the musical- and as fun of a story as this was it was quite hard to find the Mrs. Lovett in it.

I did enjoy her time at the doctor’s house, but I think the plot synopsis did it a disservice by telling us in advance she escapes from a mad doctor. If that was left for us to find out I think it would have been more compelling. The doctor’s house also felt quite rushed and I would have preferred to spend more time there instead of the lengthy pages of the brothel.

My biggest let down however was that in all the source material we know Mrs. Lovett to be an active participant in the Sweeney Todd story- at times almost making him continue for her own amusement and wishes. This Mrs. Lovett had none of the evil wit, she has had all of her agency taken from her. She only continues out of fear of Todd’s retaliation. That’s not the Mrs. Lovett we are all reading this book to know.

The last line of her dossier is the Mrs. Lovett we want- but now that line feels out of place from the shy timid Lovett you’ve created!

Still enjoyed the story- just read it as a random character not Mrs. Lovett

Content Warnings: Medical Horror (Surgery, Lack of Consent, Sexual Assault, Forced Pregnancy, Abortion, Anatomical Specimens), Gore (Animal and Human), Misogyny, Cannibalism, Sexual Assault, Descriptions of Pregnancy, Child Birth, and Abortion, Descriptions of Butchery

I have mixed feelings about this book. I have to address the immediate elephant in the room which is: I went into it expecting a significant portion of the book to touch Mrs. Lovett's time with Sweeney Todd. What I got instead was the opposite; time in the pie shop was extremely limited. The time spent in that location, and how it was retold, I thought was good and enjoyed. I also quite liked seeing Mrs. Lovett as a young girl in the Butcher shop.

However, the rest of the book was very hit and miss for me. The elements I found intriguing (e.g., mystery in the doctor's house, mystery in the convent, Free Mason spin off cult) were either cleared up too soon, not threaded through consistently, or dropped. The majority of the time in the brothel was boring, which was unfortunate because I'm all about LGBTQ+ rep in fiction; it just didn't really add much to the overall story or character building, for me. I was also disappointed that we didn't get to learn much about Ms. Gibson, to whom all the correspondence in the novel is addressed.

My final dislike is perhaps more due to my personal taste: I hated everything involved with Mrs. Lovett's child. I hated the enduring of multiple sexual assaults and non-consensual abortions, everything surrounding her pregnancy because, and most of all that the son becomes a justification for her deeds in the pie shop. The medical horror is purely on me; I have a huge personal squick with anything related to pregnancy. The change in Mrs. Lovett's character I thought took away the appeal of her being a morally gray and active participant in Sweeney Todd's crimes.

At the same time, I kept reading this book all the way to the end, despite my critiques and personal dislikes. I love an epistolary novel with engrossing unreliable narrators as well as a good penny dreadful, and this book delivered both. In that vein, I'd recommend it to anyone who also likes that specific combination.