I really don't have words for this book. Not a single character in this book has any redeemable qualities. This book is just crazy, gory, violent and hard to put to down.

5⭐️

Dark & unsettling. This book was so hard to put down, I simply didn’t want to stop reading!

Winifred Notty was hired as the governess at the Ensor house, and she came with a plan for every person in the house…

I loved this book so much! We are truly put into the mind of a psychopath and we don’t know what is true and what is not. It was a dark fever dream of a book.

I would consider this book a dark literary horror.

This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This book is such a fun and wild ride! It’s filled with great ponderings on privilege and sexism, weird rich people doing/saying weird rich people stuff, feminine rage, creepy victorian kids, explorations of a sprawling manor, satire, and black comedy.

The fmc is as charming and fun as she is brutal and grotesque! I both loved and kind of hated being inside her unhinged mind, watching her give in to her intrusive thoughts. From the beginning, you know exactly what you are getting into and Winifred wastes no time giving you hints! And sometimes, you aren’t sure if what she’s thinking is just a fantasy or if it’s actually happening. Her mind is like a gruesome fever dream!

From the beginning of the book I was reminded of the 1961 psychological horror film, The Innocents, in which a woman takes the job of governess to two strange children & madness ensues. This book has a similar gothic dreamlike vibe that I adored.

I loved Feito’s unapologetic and macabre writing style, and I hope to read more from her in the future!

This was a grossly good time. I love reading about women going on a murder spree so this was obviously going to be a hit for me. I liked that this took place in the Victorian era and enjoyed reading about a woman going crazy during this time period. Definitely will be fun for all my horror loving babes.

I almost always love a story with an unhinged FMC that tends toward violence, and this was no exception! I felt the pacing was very good and throughout the story I kept asking myself WTF when she would do various small acts of violence. The way tale wrapped up, including a visceral description of their Christmas feast which made me incredibly queasy, was absolutely fitting and well done.

The concept was interesting, and the blending of Victorian and modern language was cool, but I was just bored and annoyed with how cool the plot line could have been and how bad the execution was. I understood what this book was trying to do and what the satire was trying to portray but this just did not do it for me. I felt the satire was too on the nose, and the desire to be an “unhinged woman” book was just not working for me. And I love books about violent, chaotic women. But this just did not feel complete to me. The amount of belief I had to suspend just to read it took me out of the story. The lack of any character arc was disappointing. It just felt like how vile and subversive can we be without making sure it makes sense as a story. I could see someone being into this but it wasn’t me. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an early copy of this book.

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito is filled with dark humor, sardonic wit and grotesque imagery. Ultimately you, the reader, will be rooting for Winifred Notty. She is sometimes an unreliable narrator who can live in her memories - past, present, future and imagined. I found myself laughing out loud throughout my reading experience. Looking around me because I found myself laughing at the oddest things, only to notice that I was alone. I was so very enthralled, entranced and entertained. ARC was provided by Liveright/W. W. Norton & Company via NetGalley. I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!!

What a wickedly delightful ROMP through a completely uninhibited Gothic delight!!! Victorian Psycho is everything i wanted it to be and more, a wonderfully sinful glimpse into the mind of a governess with an oh so bloody goal.

Feito's style of writing hooks you from the first words on the page, and you can't help but slip deeper and deeper into Winnie's thoughts as you wonder if this might not be just how you feel too.

Preferably read at night while making a list of your enemies, this wild story is perfect for anyone who's ever wondered well... what if I just got revenge instead

Hmm....where do I begin with this novel?This is a dark, twisted, and disturbing read! I was left feeling guilty for laughing on numerous occasions, while making me a little uncomfortable and sad at the same time. A writer who can elicit that kind of response from their reader is definitely very skilled.
🖤 Victorian Psycho follows the story of Winifred Notty who has taken a job as a governess caring for Drusilla and Andrew. In the beginning she does try to be "normal", but as the reader, we get front row seats to her cruel mind, and it is a disturbing place. Her sarcastic, dry, dark dialogue had me laughing. Eventually her true nature surfaces and we witness her casual cruelty. She is a psychopath with an inability to experience fear and empathy. The writing is sharp and spot on!
Some might find the darker themes a little too intense, but if you're a fan of psychological thrillers, historical gothic novels, dark humor, and are not squeamish, this may be the books for you!
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review this brilliantly entertaining novel.

.
.
“Withstand in the Evil.”
.
“To this day I can’t help wondering what it is like, fear. Coursing through your blood like poison, eating away at your hopes, your ambitions, your self. I think it has to be the worst thing in the world.”
.
~ Book Review! ~
.
Oh my GOD people, HOW is it only January and I’ve read contenders for top books of 2025 already!?
.
VICTORIAN PSYCHO by @virginiafeito is a twisted and insane tale of depravity and unhinged vengeance set in Victorian England. Winifred arrives at Ensor House to take on the role of governess with a hidden past and a sinister agenda for the Pounds family.
.
Winifred is detached, calculative, perverse, and deceptive. The gradual unraveling of her mental state is meticulously crafted, making her a terrifying character surmised by brutality, cruelty, and violent compulsions. Being inside her mind was disconcerting; Feito excelled at portraying the depths of her disconnect from humanity. She sure as hell gave Maeve Fly and Kim White a run for their money (shock)!
.
“Human expressions are like hides I’ve peeled throughout life, rolled into a ball, and slipped under my skin.”
“I drink and set my cup down to scratch at my neck. It itches- from the noose, perhaps, although that hasn’t happened yet.”
.
This story has multiple similarities to #saltburn in that it is filled with sardonic wit and propulsive dark humor, an atmospheric and disorienting setting, and unlikeable nuanced characters that fuel Winifred’s rage and obsession. The ending was absolute maniacal madness that left me absolutely flabbergasted.
.
If you revel in exploring the depths of female rage like in Maeve Fly or Full Brutal, I implore you to check out VICTORIAN PSYCHO! Pub date 2/4/25! Thank you @netgalley and @liveright for the ARC!
.
Rating: 5/5
.
“Little girls everywhere will know they can aspire to kill, too- ‘tis not only the men that do.”
.
“It was grand. It was all grand.”

⭐️: 4.5

This book left me like 👁️👄👁️ LITERALLY. From beginning to end. This book is the perfect mix of gothic horror, unsettling, gore and dark humor. The setting for this book was perfect, Christmas time in the early 1800’s. Our antihero Winifred, is exactly what the title says she is! But the more we get a deep look into her upbringing, the more you kind of understand her. This book was dark and left me with my jaw on the floor so many times 😂 like I was so shook during some of the chapters. I’m going to need A24 to make this a movie asap😆

Thank you NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for the arc!

"Little girls everywhere will know they can aspire to kill, too—'tis not only the men that do."

WELL, I, for one, AM terribly impressed even if Miss Winifred Notty is not. Victorian Psycho is a razor-sharp satire brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in an ending as shocking as it is gruesome. It's a clever novella that takes the proper exterior of Victorian society and gleefully tears it apart.

It really had me during the parts where the grotesque nature of Victorian society shines through—some of the choices they made, some of the things they said.

The story plunges us into the twisted world of Winifred Notty, who arrives at Ensor House as governess for two young charges, Drusilla and Andrew. Beneath her composed demeanour, however, lie violent impulses that she struggles to control. Told with a chilling detachment of American Psycho—which I recently watched, making the satire hit even harder—this novella is a grotesque and feminine reminder.

With this short story, you may want to dive more into the psyche of other characters. You will not get to - instead, you will be horrified by alarming moments that will have you taking a step back from wanting to get to know any character.

Winifred Notty is a creature of Victorian society's creation, and following her story leads to a chillingly entertaining descent into madness.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eArc.

Victorian Psycho follows our delirious and quite funny MC through her job as governess to two children- but more so through the fever dream that is her mind.

Victorian Psycho is for a very specific reader- fans of Earthlings by Sayaka Murata and other “weird lit” books. If you enjoy unhinged women and aren’t put off by TWs (which I suggest the average reader does check) I’d highly recommend this.

I really enjoyed this book- I did want more of the story, but it was well written and gruesome. Thanks for picking me to read this book early.

I really, really wanted to empathize with our Victorian governess, the eponymous psycho Winifred Notty, who has arrived at Ensor Estate to care for and teach the two Pounds children. There's that whole high class, casual cruelty, which is so distinctive and uncaring. The snotty nosed entitlement of the children, the callous indifference to the servants, the pecking of limbs and gouging of eyes amongst the servants who create their own internal hierarchies of rank.

When Winifred declares, upon her arrival to Ensor, that within three months all within will be dead, I thought she might be an avenging angel for her social class.

Indeed, I quickly learned that our dear governess has a screw or two loose. The story is told through Winifred's eyes, sometimes in flashbacks and flash forwards that served to jumble the reader's reality as I quickly realized how mentally unstable Winifred actually was. And how quite agile and creative she is in the killing field.

I enjoyed the humorous titles to the chapters, as well as some beautiful illustrations that harkened to a good old Victorian classic book of the bygone era. Followed almost immediately by sharp descriptions of blood, viscera, and rot and decay. This is not an easy book to read for anyone with a tender stomach. Heed the title and stay far away. For those readers who enjoy a descriptive dismember of the hoity toity by an insane protagonist, this one's for you! I quite enjoyed it.

This is my first favorite of 2025!! Victorian Psycho is a disgustingly good time. If you are a fan of weird girl horror and also love gore this one’s for you friend! Fred was such a wild character that at times I would have to reread whole passages and process what she just did. When I got to the baby race (iykyk) all I could imagine is ‘Yakety Sax’ playing in the background. If you get the chance pick this one up, I promise it’s a fun time! Thank you to NetGally and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

This book was exactly what I needed. It was mostly vibes with little plot, but the vibes were immaculate. Please don’t judge me for saying that. It was visceral, disgusting and disturbing. I loved the art and how the story was told. The twist about 2/3 of the way in really did get me, I was expecting anything of the sort. Sometimes this read to be shocking just for the shock, but it worked for me anyway. I really was excited to see how the author tackled this storyline and I think they did a great job!

Thanks go out toNetGalley and the publisher for an ARC

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to say about this was as it didn't really do much for me. I don't so much mind the unreliable narrator / what is this character even saying style even it's been a bit overplayed at this point. But I do think it's very easy for it to come off as forced, and unfortunately that's how I felt through the majority of this one. I do think the time period and aesthetics are one of the things that will work in it's favor for an adaptation (and can see why they rushed to put one with Margaret Qualley.) But the book left me craviving something that just wasn't there.

Frumpy, forward, and most definitely frightening, Winifred Notty isn’t the meek little governess that Mr. and Mrs. Pound perhaps expected at Ensor House—their brooding Yorkshire estate near the village of Grim Wold—to tutor their children in Virginia Feito’s horrifying satirical fever dream, “Victorian Psycho.”

This 208-page novella starts as a frenzied romp of fun lunacy that starts when Winifred bites a butchered calf head and chortles about eating the children. It then digresses into a bloody killing spree gone amuck.

Granted, I did find some sections quirky and humorous—although, far fetched—like the baby-swapping incident. But, for me, “Victorian Psycho,” is a pass.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Virginia Feito, and Publishers: W.W. Norton & Company | Liveright for this Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) to review.

First off, I would like to thank W.W. Norton & Co., the Liveright Publishing Company and NetGalley for the amazing opportunity to read and review an advance copy of Virginia Feito’s Victorian Psycho.

The Ensor House in the village of Grim Wolds, helmed by it’s wealthy high society inheritors - Mr. and Mrs. Pounds - is in desperate need of a governess in advance of the oncoming Christmas months for the two children of the house, the haughty and spoiled Andrew Pounds and his older sister, the cheeky and secretive Drusilla Pounds.

Enter our narrator, Winifred Notty, a sort of nanny for the rich Victorian set with a somewhat obscured past, but armed with a smiling and sneering promise to whip the children back into shape, fix their manners and have them mindful of their school lessons. As the reader, it becomes clear very quickly that Winifred (or “Fred” as she instructs the children to call her, named after “the demon that lives inside her”) is anything but a typical child-minder, with intentions that feel unclear, but are more than certainly ominous. This idea that nothing is as it seems is made even more evident by the first words that Victorian Psycho shows you which promise that in three months time, everyone that inhabits Ensor House will be dead.

What follows is a fascinating dive into the mindset of a person that at every juncture in her life has been abandoned, left for dead or told that she was nothing short of pure evil. Winifred’s interactions with the children at lesson times border on the surreal as she drops hints here and there to illustrate the ugliness in life and that by virtue of being alive, all creatures are in pain. Brief scenes of her unstable past and, confusingly for Winifred, possibly even a future version of herself and her surroundings, reveal an unsatisfied and growing darkness that has always been inside of her and feels more than ready to be unleashed.

But as the story progresses and Winifred is granted access to the inner workings of the stately Ensor House and it’s many housemaids, cook staff and servants, the repulsive nature of the Pounds family is exposed as the perversions in which they partake and their obsession with being at the forefront of whatever counts for high society among their rich friends in Grim Wolds leaves you wondering who is ultimately most evil in this tale.

The children rarely pay attention to Winifred and mock her incessantly, the house staff openly reject her and despise her, Mr. Pounds lecherously follows every move that her body makes and Mrs. Pounds is openly hostile and hateful of her existence and her presence in the house. Winifred indulges in the obscene nature of reality and where most women of her time would find repulsion, she finds solace in the natural decay provided by life and death.

Victorian Psycho is a master work of short fiction in the vein of some of T. Kingfisher’s best work, Patrick Suskind’s Perfume and even a breath of Edgar Allen Poe in it’s story building and overall vibe. The interstitial illustrations and captions are beautifully drawn and reminiscent of a time when the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Lewis Carroll were so graciously filled with these small delights. It’s a quick read that provides you with a near constant anxious and unsettling feeling as bits and pieces of the book’s initial promise that everyone in the story will eventually be dead are revealed slowly, while the dark, tragic and deeply disturbing history of it’s narrator is shown to you in all of it’s horror and reckless abandon.