FANTASTIC STORYTELLING!!! I loved an unhinged main character with lots of passion. Jessamyn is meant to be a star. She gets a chance to to work on the theater's production of Sound of Music. Although she got a role, it wasn't the role she was "meant" to play and she is determined to get it regardless of the cost. I love how unreliable Jessamyn is. Reader's see some of the unreliability, but it's not in full display until the end and we really get to see the full display of the deception Jessamyn was weaving throughout. Great novel!

One of my favorite kinds of books is women spiraling on the edge and She’s A Lamb definitely delivered on that. Holy hell. It reminded me of Temper by Layne Fargo but with the main character an unhinged, delusional, hilarious lunatic.

The book had me hooked when we find out Jessamyn is dating her stalker. “If you’re going to be consistently harassed and abused, and if no one is going to do anything about it, you may as well find a way to enjoy it. Make it work for you.” This is just one of many balls to the wall insane things she does and I love her for it.

As much as you (well, I at least) wanted Jessamyn to win, it’s clear from the start things aren’t going to end well. Like watching a tornado barreling down on a house in slow motion.

This book was just so much fun to read and had me laughing out loud at certain parts. Absolutely loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I LOVED this book. Jessamyn is a delusional icon and I say that with my whole chest. She’s Rachel Berry if Glee was written by Ottessa Moshfegh and set in a regional Canadian theater production of The Sound of Music. The secondhand embarrassment was exquisite, the spiraling was delicious, and I couldn't stop laughing.

The audiobook narrator, Stephanie Willing, is Jessamyn. Truly one of the best voice performances I’ve heard—she captured the delusion, the self-importance, the unraveling… all of it. I don’t even usually like audiobooks and I was HOOKED.

This book gets the girls who romanticize their downfall. It’s about chasing validation, missing red flags (that you planted yourself), and refusing to read the room because you’re too busy picturing your standing ovation.

Sure, Jessamyn is unhinged. But she’s also trying. And failing. Spectacularly. I loved her for it.

If you loved All’s Well, Pearl, or any story where the protagonist is a chaotic theater kid turned delusional anti-heroine, this is for you. Bonus points if you’ve ever considered sabotage a valid career move.

Give me more unwell women who treat local auditions like Broadway finales, please. I need it.

I love an unhinged FMC as much as the next person so had such high hopes for this book! It started off so strong and I was desperate to know what was going to happen next, Jessamyn was giving deranged Rachel Berry but without the talent. The audiobook narrator was such a highlight, she was so entertaining to listen to and I felt perfectly brought to life the character of Jessamyn.
I didn't love the pacing and it really seemed to drag in the middle right as I was wanting something bigger to happen. I was desperately wanting to see her descent into madness, however, the climax seemed rushed and ending seemed abrupt and left a lot of plot holes.
Overall, I enjoyed the first 75% thoroughly before the ending kinda lost me </3

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ALC.

First, the narrator did such a phenomenal job bringing Jessamyn to life. I loved the way you could hear it in her voice as Jess slowly devolves into her delusions as the story goes on.

Second, Jessamyn was a character you love to hate. Hearing her inner dialogue was a delight. It was so ridiculous at times that I rolled my eyes. By ridiculous, I don’t mean the way it was written, but that Jess thought these things and were true.

You get hints and ideas throughout the story of what is really going on, but Jessamyn is such a delusional and unreliable narrator that you don’t get full details until towards the end.

I thought some of her unhinged actions would have happened a little sooner, but it worked for the story.

A part of me felt bad for Jessamyn. She’d clearly had trauma that hadn’t been worked through and people coddled and humored her, some even took advantage of her.

That being said, it doesn’t excuse her ultimate actions. Yet it makes you think, if people had been truthful and if she’d gotten the help she so clearly needed, could it have been prevented?

I will definitely read more by this author.

The story of an ambitious, yet extremely delusional, woman who is convinced she’s one step away from her big break as an actress, despite evidence to the contrary. I enjoyed her inner dialogue and being front row to her slow, explosive demise. However, this needed to be more unhinged! It definitely gets dark, but I wanted it to really GO there.

ah!!
The audiobook to this was so fun to listen to it was such a trainwreck. It was so hard to listen to because the main character Jessamyn is worst than the shittiest person you know but it was also sooo entertaining, like watching crazy reality tv.
the narrator, stephanie, ATE this up and left z e r o crumbs, she really sold every character. she made this as fun as it was.
though as i said, it was hard to listen to because jessamyn is such a wreck but i also like to laugh at shitty people so this fueled something in me, something that i feel is akin to "good thing i'm not THAT bad", yanno?
the story is fascinating because i'm not really sure how much time is passing throughout the story and so much of it really seems to blur together but drag on at the same time. i felt the last few chapters seemed a bit rushed/ jumped into but i did enjoy the ending overall, i thought it was a fitting way to end. i had fun with the story and i thought the writing was unique and captivating.
anyway, i def recommend if you love reality tv, gawking at a car crash or find yourself obsessing over the delusion that your grade-school bully would get what's coming to them.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC opportunity!

Man, this book really surprised me. It was so good! Girly was so delusional and actually mentally ill. We are front row and center to her downward spiral into trying to be the star she always wanted to be, and along the way, we find out that pretty much every way she sees herself is a lie.

This definitely wouldnt be for everyone but it was a mess (on purpose, and in a good way!) that i couldnt look away from.

If Pearl was a delusional, struggling actress in regional Canadian theatre, you'd get Jessamine in She's a Lamb!

Jessamine believes she is a star. She deserves to be Maria in The Sound of Music - it's a role she was born to play, and it's the role that will skyrocket her to the Broadway fame she knows she deserves. But when her rival gets the role instead, Jessamine isn't discouraged. She knows this is a test of her dedication, commitment to the part, and willingness to work harder than anyone else.

This was yet another unhinged woman book, but finally one that worked a bit better than my other recent flops. Jessamine was a highly believable, complex character - despite her clear delusions, you feel for her, understand her trauma, and might even root for her at points. The escalation was wild, desperate, and even a little fun. Even so, I felt the plot was messy and certainly too drawn out, and some of the side characters could have been trimmed to neaten up the narrative a bit.

This was FANTASTIC. I genuinely couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook. The narrator and author do such a great job of sending you into this spiraling panic.

Was definitely pulled in to this being sold as in the same vein as All's Well which is one of my favourite by Mona Awad - a book I can still viscerally remember reading - and this is sort of approaching that territory. It never gets as discombobulating as Awad gets and I found the delusion quite easy to see, whether that was because of the writing or the narrator I'm not sure. I think if you think you'll like it you will but I wouldn't use it as a way to explore this genre.

By now, if there’s one thing I stan for, is supporting both women’s right and wrong 😅 And it is one of the reasons you’d find me reading books about unhinged women just like in the case of this book.

She's a Lamb! follows the story of Jessamyn an ambitious and self-delusion character whose quest for a better life teetered between determination and obsession.

You know when someone is trying their best to succeed at all costs, but along the line, they are making terrible choices but somehow, you are still wishing the best for them, that was the case for me and the main character. And it was funny because she was an unlikeable character.

I also liked how the book critiques the challenges women face in the entertainment industry.

Although this novel is said to be dark, which it kinda was, it was a 2/10 level of dark for me.

If you like books with unhinged characters, you should check this out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An episode of Glee if Lea Michele played herself. 10/10

Jessamyn, you poor delusional baby!! What a wild ride! Unhinged and delusional, a main character you will love to hate and hate to love. Jessamyn was so well fleshed out. I absolutely adore her. To be in her head was like being on a theme park wheel spinning round and round, going to puke any moment, but hold it in, waiting to explode.. The narrator Stephanie Willing was amazing, she didn’t narrate, she was living in that role. As I’ve listened to the audiobook, I could feel the self-humiliation and it was so painful. I truly think this is one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to. I haven’t listen to many, because I usually don’t enjoy them, but this first person narrative works miracles for the book. Highly recommend it. It was a bit predictable, of course, but still more realistic and obsessive than you would imagine. 4.5 starts.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with the ALC.

i'm a simple girl. if a book has a delusional female lead, i'm going to read.

"she's a lamb!" is for the perfectionists. the girls who love "pearl". rip pearl, you would've loved this book. i'm usually not one for the "just vibes, little-to-no plot" books, but this one... i'll make an exception. jessamyn was such an amusing character to follow-- her inner monologue cracked me up. she is so deep in her delusion, her magical thinking, that it's comical. not many books make me audibly chuckle, but this one succeeded. the audiobook narrator nailed her character; i would listen to her read a grocery list, honestly.

it was shy from being a five star simply because i think it would have been better with more horror elements. not to mention the last five percent dragged a bit with not much payoff. the ride of the storyline was great. the destination the ride took me... meh! that's what tends to happen with lit fic novels for me.

Listening to this characters insane delusions spiral out of control is the most fun I have had with someone so intolerable in a long long time. Jessamyne is Rachel Berry meets Cher Horowitz. She’s hot and she knows it, she knows how desirable she is and uses it to her advantage, she’s cunning, competitive, malicious, deluded, delightful, destructive, charismatic and clueless. She is both victim and perpetrator, her internalised misogyny doesn’t protect her from patriarchal abuse, no matter how much she believes she would never “put herself in that situation.” Her story is funny and tragic, both joyful and disturbing. I can’t wait to know what everyone thinks of this book when it is published.

REVIEW FOR SHE’S A LAMB
Thank you NetGalley and DreamScape Media for this arc. My rating for She’s A Lamb is 3.5 rounded up to 4.
For those who want to go in with very little information: She’s a Lamb is about an aspiring theatre artist who gets a part in a regional production of the Sound of Music as a child-minder. However, she believes she deserves to be the star of the show and plans to sabotage the girl playing the lead.
Positives
1. The voice actor is fantastic - absolutely nailed the unlikable protagonist. And there’s a scene toward the end where she voices another character giving an emotional speech - her performance was so good, I teared up. Hoping to listen to more work from Stephanie Willing in the future.
2. Much like its comp Yellowface, She’s a Lamb is a very propulsive and easy read. Meredith Hambrock’s writing is so fun that you fly through the pages. In short: it’s the kind of book that gets you through a slump.
3. Because the main character is so unhinged and because it’s campy, the book is a lot of fun. Very entertaining.
Negatives
1. I do understand that the writer tried to emulate June from Yellowface but some of the writing is too close to the original. For example, in Yellowface there’s a sentence that goes like this: Publishing picks a winner, someone attractive enough, someone cool and young, and oh, we’re all thinking it, diverse enough. In She’s a Lamb, there’s a very similar sentence, structured exactly the same way. I feel the writer/editor should have noticed and removed this, because it does not bode well for the author to have such a close resemblance to the comp text.
2. The lead character is not at all self-aware, so much so that it becomes comical and absurd. June in Yellowface was a terrible person but we’re allowed into her psyche so that at least when June justifies her actions to herself, we understand where she’s coming from. Jessamyn, on the other hand, is too delusional to stay a realistic character. And unlike in Yellowface, the POC character who plays the lead in the show is not fleshed out enough for us to root for her either.
3. Even though Jessamyn is fun in the beginning, she gets annoying after a point - I think the one way to work around this was by shortening the book. This was way too long, in my opinion. Definitely needed some tightening, not just in terms of scenes and subplots but also on a line level.

I’ve read a lot of books with delusional female main characters, but this one definitely takes the crown.

Jessamyn’s goal in life is to become big and famous and one day end up on Broadway. So far it isn’t going as successful as she’s hoped but Jessamyn is nothing if not determined.

It took me a little to get into this. The book starts off strong, the delusion is cracked up to level 100 without letting the reader get used to it, and it made me struggle to connect with the main character at first. As the story progressed, I understood her delusion more and more until I honestly kind of loved her for it. You can’t say she didn’t put her all into this.

The level of delusion never let up, and because of that, I felt that there was always a bit of character depth that I couldn’t quite reach. I wished I could have felt that more, but overall, I really enjoyed this one.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the e-arc!

It's been a while since I've read a book that scratched the itch for my favorite genre, unhinged girlypop books. This one, though, hit the spot. We love a delulu queen.

3.75 stars

Jessamyn is destined for the limelight, and it seems she is the only one who knows it.

Following this delusional romp into the Vancouver theater world was an absolute blast- I loved
being on this journey with the FMC as she struggles for a place as the lead in "The Sound of Music."
The audiobook narrator is compelling and does a wonderful job of bringing the reader into the madness of Jessamyn's mind.

While I do think this narrative is very entertaining, it lacks the multidimensional aspect I tend to love in this kind of storytelling. What you see is what you get, and there's not much below the surface. In effect, I feel the conclusion of the book suffers because there isn't a very strong resolution or discovery. I found it a little deflating.

I would still recommend this book to someone who likes unreliable narrators and unhinged energy- it's an undeniably fun journey.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advance e-copy in exchange for an honest review.