Review: Veal by Mackenzie Nolan

Veal by Mackenzie Nolan

Blurb from Goodreads:

Delores “Lawrence” Franklin is a failed capitalist and a runaway headcase. Following a corporate meltdown, she decides to start fresh in Mistaken Point, a small town known for two things — Mistaken Point University, where she and her best friend, Anastasia Lanes, are now enrolled, and the grisly murders of countless young women.

At her new part-time arcade job, Lawrence meets Francesca “Franky” Delores — gritty, off-putting, and chronically serious, as opposite to Lawrence as her name would suggest. Soon, Lawrence discovers Franky is convinced there is a monster on the loose, a patchwork creature born of hatred and responsible for the supposedly solved string of violence haunting the town.

Against the advice of Franky’s closest friend, Pippa, Lawrence, and Stasia join Franky in a sticky, summertime search for a yellow-eyed monster between classes, shifts at the arcade, and eating popsicles by the pool. Motivated mostly by her unquenchable attraction to Franky, Lawrence allows herself to be pulled in strange directions, trying to appease Franky’s mania. Through the trials of hunting a monster only some of them believe in, Pippa, Lawrence, Stasia, and Franky discover truths about womanhood, relationships, and the reliability of urban legends.

 This book was so so weird and not always in the best way.  I found it hard to follow the action at times - perhaps it was me but I think the writing could have used a bit of a boost in high action sequences.  That said, this felt true and genuine.  Parts of it were interesting and unique.  For some, this will be a slam dunk.  

Veal comes out next week on October 14, 2025, and you can purchase HERE.  

I'm part of a newer generation, but I can still recognize the implicit horror, the sweeping current I almost fell prison to, had my mother got what she wanted and locked me into the modern version of stay-at-home mom: the girlboss that works forty hours a week and climbs the corporate ladder and smiles politely at every man attempting to undercut the success along the way and somehow still has time for two-point-five children, a husband (hah!), a mortgage, barbecues with annoying neighbors, church Sundays, eternal dieting, turning down the things you want, food especially, placating small talk, somehow remembering every stupid name of your coworkers' every stupid child.