I don’t remember where I heard this, but supposedly the hills are alive with the sound of music. And supposedly this music makes people do weird things when they’re in charge of children who are also on the hills.
Which brings me to Meredith Hambrock’s potentially disturbing new novel, She’s A Lamb! (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), in which a woman doesn’t land the lead in The Sound Of Music and, well, it kind of gets worse from there.
In the following email interview, Hambrock discusses what inspired and influenced this story.
To start, what is She’s A Lamb! about, and when and where does it take place?
She’s A Lamb! takes place in Vancouver, in the theatre scene.
The novel features a struggling young actor who has had some small success, but knows she’s meant to be a musical theatre star. When she’s passed over for the lead role of Maria in a small production of The Sound Of Music, she takes a job as the child-minder for the kid actors in the show, and becomes obsessed with the idea of playing the lead role.
Where did you get the idea for She’s A Lamb!, and how different is the finished story from what you originally conceived?
I was working at a theatre company as an usher, and thought I’d write this premise, but as a romantic comedy. As I was writing, the lead became so unlikeable and difficult and hilarious. I followed her voice to a place much darker.
So, is there a significance to the play being The Sound Of Music as opposed to a different play with a lot of kids in the cast, like Annie? Or a play you made up, like The Goonies: A Magic, Musical Fantasia!?
The book has something to say about patriarchy. I was working as an usher during a production of The Sound Of Music, and part of that job means you watch the shows over and over again. On, you know, maybe my fifteenth viewing of The Sound Of Music, I became annoyed by Maria’s narrative: she’s kicked out of her home, the abbey, in the beginning because some of the nuns don’t like her. Still, she chose to live at the abbey and wanted that. But because she won’t behave, she’s forced to become a “mother” to a bunch of kids.
At the same time, I was seeing the rise of trad wife content online. There was just something about Maria that really rubbed me the wrong way, and Jessamyn being forced into something of a meta-narrative in this novel will hopefully force readers to think about patriarchy in this context. There’s definitely something about this story of a woman’s own vision for her life being swallowed up by patriarchy.
Now, this is normally the point in these interviews when I ask about the genre of the book in question. But with She’s A Lamb!, I’m really not sure. Is it just literary, does it have some psychological horror, is it a cautionary tale but only if you’re one of the Kardashians? How do you describe it, genre-wise,?
I always try to write entertaining books that have something to say about the world. It has elements of horror, though I think real horror fans will wish for more. I’m a bit squeamish.
Some parts are gross though. I did a reading of this one chapter and really alienated the audience in a way I wasn’t expecting.
She’s A Lamb! is your second novel after Other People’s Secrets. Are there any other authors, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Lamb! but not on Secrets or anything else you’ve written?
Lamb! is definitely inspired by the unhinged woman books written by authors like Mona Awad and Ottessa Moshfegh and Halle Butler.
That said, the response from readers has been that this one is a bit lighter than those books, which I’d agree with. I write TV comedy, so I think that sensibility can find its way into my novels. Additionally, I love a big, juicy plot.
What about non-literary influences? Was She’s A Lamb! influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
I’m not sure, though I’ve been told it’s a bit like the films Black Swan and Pearl.
I also stumbled upon trad wife content online while revising this novel. Videos of women who submit to their husbands and live like it’s the 1950s. So some of that leached in, I think.
And then, to flip things around, do you think She’s A Lamb! could work as a movie or a TV show?
Oh definitely, I think it could make a great film, though the novel is very voicey and written in the first person point of view. I find that these are the most difficult kinds of adaptations to do well because voice over in film has a tendency to be so cheesy.
So, if someone wanted to make a TV show based on She’s A Lamb!, who would you want them to cast as Jessamyn?
My editor has always mentioned [American Horror Story‘s] Emma Roberts as Jessamyn, and I’d totally agree.
And would you want to work on it as a writer? After all, when not writing novels, you’ve written episodes of such shows as Corner Gas Animated.
I absolutely would! I have a few ideas about how to translate the voice, visually, and I think it would make a great, tight story.
So, is there anything else you think potential readers need to know about She’s A Lamb!?
The narrator is very unlikeable, so I like to remind people that this is fiction and not a memoir.
Good to know.
Finally, if someone enjoys She’s A Lamb!, what novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out?
I’d recommend All’s Well by Mona Awad. It’s about a theatre professor / former actor who is struggling to keep her job, and is forced to deal with her mutinous students who want her to stage Macbeth instead of her pick, All’s Well That Ends Well. It’s dark, funny, and very strange. Loved it!
