Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
Publication date: January 13, 2026
Genres: Debut, Fiction, Humor, Vacation Reading
Bookshop
How wonderful to find a novel that had me laughing out loud by page 10. Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash drops you right into the deep end of a deeply dysfunctional family from the perspective of their parish priest as he meets with their youngest daughter. They no longer come to church, the parents are stuck in a rut of vitriolic mutual dislike, and their three teenage daughters are each challenging in their own way. The oldest, Abigail, is only interested in using her looks to get ahead; Louise, the middle, wants to dedicate her life to God, and Harper, their youngest has just made a confession to the priest that included slashing the church van’s tires and sending a video of Nordic pornography to everyone on her father’s work email list. And with that the lives of the Lambs begin their gallop across the page in ways that are disturbing and humorous.
Just how lost the Lambs are is creatively illuminated by the choices they all make and the people they interact with including a priest willing to admit he’s sinned but not ready to stop, Abigail’s older boyfriend—a taciturn war veteran, a jihadist, and a divorced neighbor with a passion for clay. Not to mention the many flavors of trouble Harper creates to alleviate the boredom she feels. Early on her mother is informed by a teacher is concerned about her 8-year-old daughter because “her teddy bears had implemented a death penalty”. What’s not to love?
There may be no character development Lost Lambs, but the writing, sly and twitchy with acerbic humor, means you can’t skim either. Every sentence is crafted for maximum reaction in the kind of way that made me want to get a drink with Cash. Each character has a story arc, but they all connect to a much larger plot involving a cabal of elderly rich men doing whatever they can to ward off death and a priest who’s decided to go along with his sins rather than atoning for them. The mayhem generated by the oversized plot twists is tempered with dark humor and one-liners that kept me laughing even during the serious parts. Lost Lambs is an encouraging debut from a writer whose voice is the antidote to the expected.
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*I received a free copy of this book from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in exchange for an honest review.*
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