Well-written. Dark. Interesting. And SO haunting! I could not put this suspense novel down. Highly recommend!

This was unfortunately not my cup of tea. While I do enjoy this genre, for some reason I didn't enjoy it and DNF about 25% of the way into it. Readers of historical fiction with scandal thrown into a seemingly prim and proper wife's lifestyle will enjoy this.

Elisabeth Moss taking this book and making it into a movie is perfect. If you've seen her Shirley Jackson film (or really...anything she's been in), you've seen how she, as an actress, is able to transform into an otherworldly manic human. There's terror, there's fear, there's rage. Mrs. March is all of that.

Mrs March is the story of a wealthy woman losing her grip on reality. Her husband's latest novel is out and highly celebrated - and yet, people all seem to think one of the characters is her. She's also dealing with a cockroach infestation, her son acting out and her husband being a possible murder.

This book could have gone one of two ways. This could have been a fun romp about a plucky housewife who was a little kooky. Or, this could have been a masterful story about a woman losing her sense of reality while dealing with her lonely childhood.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Current read: Mrs. March by Virginia Feito. I got a copy via NetGalley and began this last night.
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I’m happy to report it’s very good- written in with a sinister vibe where you can’t help but think things won’t end well.
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“George March’s latest novel is a smash. No one is prouder than Mrs. March, his doting wife. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that his protagonist is based on Mrs. March herself: “But . . . ―isn't she . . .’ Mrs. March leaned in and in almost a whisper said, ‘a whore?” Clutching her ostrich-leather pocketbook, she flees, that one casual remark destroying her belief that she knew everything about her husband―as well as herself. Suddenly, Mrs. March is hurled into a harrowing journey that builds to near psychosis, one that begins merely within the pages of a book but may uncover both a killer and the long-buried secrets of her past.”
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Elizabeth Moss (who I once saw an airport, exciting I know!) has optioned this for film so it will be a movie but of course you must read the book!
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This leads me to today’s question- have you ever seen a celebrity while out and about?
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PS the book comes out in August!

What a thoroughly unlikable main character, yet so fun to read about her. Mrs. Marsh (not known by her first name until late in the book) thinks her famous author hubby has modeled his newest book on her and is not pleased at all. She hears about and sees people with the book everywhere she goes, some of it just in her mind.

Her mind- an interesting place to say the least. She was brought up without love or attention and instead gives it to herself. Everything she does or thinks or wears or reads is with the idea that someone will be impressed and does it not for her own happiness.

Her family, her "friends" and her neighbors are not close, by her choice. She really is a miserable person with such an active mind that we wonder if she is having a breakdown of sorts or is she always like this? It was a very different kind of story, but I thank NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Mrs. March's husband is a famous author. She is shopping one day when the store clerk suggests that the main character in his most recent book is based on Mrs. March, but the character is an unlikeable prostitute. This sends Mrs. March into somewhat of a spiral of madness, leading to her suspecting her husband of murder. I don't really know how I feel about this. I liked the book, I liked the ending, but it wasn't spectacular. 3.5 stars rounded to 3.

If ever there was a perfect book for discussion groups and/or book clubs, it would definitely be Mrs. March. There was so much going on in this beautifully written novel that took us on one woman’s agonizing descent into madness and there were so many questions. There was a wonderful sense of everything being off balance throughout the book which lead to a continual feeling of impending doom. An added treat was the captivating cover. My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

I requested this as background reading for a First Impressions Program on BookBrowse (early reader program with promotion from time of sale). Overall, our member-reviewers rated the book 3.9 stars.

You can see their reviews at https://www.bookbrowse.com/reader_reviews/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/15758

Such a twisty, creepy novel, and I loved the fact we never knew her name before the end. What strikes me most is the attention to psychological detail. Her slow descent into madness is intoxicating to read, and the book ushers in the voice of a great new talent.

Despite the acclaim already afforded this novel, I struggled to finish it. I found Mrs. March a difficult character to relate to and while I believe that was the author's intent, I think Feito took it too far and made Mrs. March exceptionally unlikable which in turn made her unreliable and unenjoyable as a narrator.

Mrs. March is the wife of an acclaimed novelist who has just released a book that has everyone talking. But this time they're not just talking about the book itself but its main character who is a woman of less than upstanding character and comparing her to Mrs. March herself. The idea that Mrs. March might have inspired the main character of her husband's book sends her on a hallucinatory spiral that eventually diminishes her ability to function.

I picked up this book and subsequently put it down a number of times, trying my best to get into it and enjoy it but alas I could not. It was a slow trudge to the bitter end.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I was intrigued by the character since I read Elizabeth Moss had already opted to play her in the movie adaptation. And what a character. For fans of psychological fiction, this is a treat. I can't imagine how this will turn into a film since so much is in Mrs. March's psyche.

Mrs. March's husband is a bestselling writer, and his newest novel is causing quite a stir. Rumor has it the main character is based on his quirky wife. This makes the cocktail parties quite awkward. Especially when Mrs. March has her own suspicions of her husband and his mysterious hunting trips. The novel is a slow burn but worth it for fans of psychological thrillers.

When is this book written? It feels like the 1950s but it's never made clear.

Mrs. March is never given a first name, and we only see her through her own eyes. She's not the slender ingenue, more the sturdy matron dressing in sensible clothes, always perfectly turned out. Following her mother's advice, Mrs. March lives a relatively ordered life while her husband does the creative thing as an author... until his newest book, a bestseller, seems to have a lead who is based on Mrs. March. What follows is a possible mystery, a possible descent into madness or a great gaslighting by Mr. March and everyone else in Mrs. March's life. The ending was really shocking, but to get there took a lot. The pacing is slow, and there were many passages where I wanted to say "let's move this along!!"

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

This is a dark and chilling look into the descent of a woman's psyche when she believes her husband's new book might be based on her own life. From the beginning we realize Mrs. March (that's all she's ever called) is an unreliable narrator as she is cold and not a warm parent to her son. There's a lot of odd behavior (on everyone's part) which keeps you off-kilter as you attempt to figure it out! I did enjoy it but I would have liked more context and more closure (but that's just me)! I would certainly read more by Feito in the future as the writing is unique and fascinating!

Mrs. March has the perfect life: an apartment on the upper East side of Manhattan, a husband who is a famous author, and an unencumbered life of luxury. Her husband's new novel features an unlikeable, sordid woman. Mrs. March is horrified when people assume the character is based on her. Slowly her stability fractures and the reader is caught between paranoia and reality. The fear mounts. This is an excellent character study

This was very interesting – a "descent into madness" book. I don't think I would classify it as a thriller, it's much more literary. But there is a crime element... Since I knew that Elizabeth Moss had already signed on to play this character in a movie, I pictured her the whole time. I can't wait to watch how this on is adapted!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4043891961

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for the digital advanced reader's copy.

I'm still not sure what to make of this one. It reminded me of a dark and dysfuctional Walter Mitty.

This is very much a character-driven novel. If you're all about the plot, skip this one.

However, if you love delving into the dark side of the human psyche, pick this one up.

It's New York City in the 1970s (maybe? The time period is never specified, but there are clues throughout the novel), and, if you ask her, Mrs. March is very satisfied with her life. Her husband, George, is a successful author and her 8 year-old son is lovely and well-behaved.

However, as the reader, you are given access to Mrs. March's ongoing internal monologue, and things there are not as satisfactory as they seem, and you soon realize that Mrs. March is a complicated, traumatized woman.

She is definitively not likeable.

The more you stay inside her head, the more you realize how disturbed her thoughts are, even though for a period of time you want to give her the benefit of the doubt.

When the book ended, it felt a bit anticlimactic, but only because Mrs. March's thoughts ultimately could only send her in this final direction. I could see the ending coming, and I dreaded it, but I couldn't do anything to stop her.

I honestly can't say I liked the book, but I was captivated by Mrs. March's twisted interior world. Mrs. March is a memorable character, and I couldn't put the book down.

*violence, adult situations, sexual situations

I tore through this paranoid, propulsive, compulsive debut novel of Hitchcockian suspense. I enjoyed the way that the abstract, almost outdated, sense of time and place enhanced the unsettling, noir tone of the book. I was also impressed by the author's commitment to Mrs. March's complete and total unraveling. Somehow, the absolute unreliability of Mrs. March as a narrator makes her stand out in the crowded world of unreliable narrators. There was a part of me, as a reader, who really wanted more backstory about her. I wanted flashbacks where we saw her whole, and functioning normally. I wanted to to see the decline happen, so I could better understand it. But that would be a different book! I like what Fieto has chosen to do: for me, Mrs. March's suspenseful plummet into madness rivals the best of those from the golden, midcentury age of "housewife hysteria."

Virginia Feito's debut novel is an intriguing read that includes themes of marriage, betrayal, and madness.

I enjoyed Feito's writing style and her protagonist, Mrs. March, is a carefully crafted unreliable narrator.

I struggled a little with this one because I have a hard time enjoying a book when I don't like the main character, but the plot is intriguing and keeps you on your toes.

Oh my - how to provide feedback for this disturbing and haunting book. Some readers categorized this as a thriller but I certainly did not get that feeling at all. Mrs. March starts out as simply a paranoid character but starts to devolve into full scale, well crazy. I am sure this is a politically incorrect word for her condition but I am only commenting on how the book read. You just have a feeling that she is a completely unreliable narrator of her own life but somehow you want her to just be slightly paranoid and ultimately okay. I suspected an unhappy ending but was surprised by how it all played out. The writing is excellent as you slowly follow Mrs. March down the rabbit hole and the last few pages are perfect as you begin to see how this will unravel. I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley and the publisher W.W. Norton and Co. The book is scheduled for release on August 10, 2021.

Mrs. March, the privileged wife of a well-known author, begins to suspect her husband of a terrible crime. As she unravels, the real and unreal merge into one disconcerting blur. What secrets will she uncover as she searches for the truth?

This was an interesting premise that didn’t deliver in the end. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with the book, but it never grabbed me like I had hoped. Several major plot points and nagging details were never resolved and there was no real tension in this purported thriller. I’ve ready this type of story several times before and didn’t feel like Feito added anything new.