The Butcher

A suspenseful small-town horror novel of oppression, heartbreak and buried anguish – Shirley Jackson meets Never Let Me Go with the wild west setting of Westworld.

When Lady Mae turns 18, she'll inherit her mother's job as the Butcher: dismembering Settlement Five's guilty residents as payment for their petty crimes. An index finger taken for spreading salacious gossip, a foot for blasphemy, no one is exempt from punishment.

But one day Winona refuses to butcher a six-year-old boy. So their leaders, known as the Deputies, come to Lady Mae's house, and, right there in the living room, murder her mother for refusing her duties.

Within twenty-four hours, now alone in the world, Lady Mae begins her new 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?

A devastating, alarming page-turner infused with melancholy, humanity – and society's maddening acceptance in the face of horror.



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 www.laurakatyoung.com.

@writerlylaura