Well, the best way to describe this book is to just throw out some adjectives: creepy, morbid, atmospheric, gothic, and a bit unhinged. As you can see this was a fun one to read! Winnifred was so well written I was rooting for her even though she was unhinged!

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

This is for those of us who love stories about unhinged women snapping as violently as possible!! With a Victoriana setting, we follow a governess who doesn't particularly like the family she works for... or children in general. To be fair though, Winifred Notty finds most things unsatisfactory, as evident from her first appearance on the page. She's intentionally misanthropic and odd, intended to be so unlikable that she's almost endearing.

This story has no issue poking fun at the grotesque and paradoxical facets of high society life and the depravities of the wealthy. Easily bored and with a mind prone to fits of violent fancy, Winifred finds her own ways to occupy herself. Madness is less a crux or fear than an old friend, biding it's time waiting for a moment to encourage embracing her inner darkness.

Tonally this story fits somewhere between <i>American Psycho</i> and an adult version of <i>A Series of Unfortunate Events</i>. I had a positively delightful time develing into the marrow of Winifred Notty's psyche. Wry and matter-of-fact, Winifred has no issue detailing the specifics of her eccentricities and distaste for others. The occassional breaking of the fourth wall didn't feel disjointed, but rather like a friend winking and offering a humorous aside.

This is a grisly tale full of violence, bloodshed, inequality and cruelty. A wild ride from start to end!!

Winnifred is a Victorian era governess about to take on two young charges. She bears no resemblance to Jane Eyre, our narrator is a deeply disturbed individual whose love of terrifying the children in her charge is seriously creepy. With peaks into her own childhood, Winnifred slowly reveals why she’s so intent on destroying the mental wellbeing of her charges

This is a creepy and darkly humorous novella set in the Victorian age and it's a fun, morbid, and fascinating read.

Our narrator is a governess who accepts a job to take care of two children of a wealthy family. But almost right away we can tell that this woman is different. Yes, she is a psychopath and little flashbacks about her past are crawling with dread and blood.

She has a secret and that will be revealed later in the book but the humor mixed with the terrifying thoughts swarming her mind makes for one hell of a great read.

You'll definitely want to pre-order this one. It's bloody, quirky, and will give you the creeps. I highly recommend it.

This book provides a variety of adjectives such as gothic, eerie, blunt, bleak, dark comedy, and grotesque! The antiheroine of the book, Winifred Notty, is a time-travelled, gender-reversed version of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman, with one big difference: she's made a monster instead of being born a villainess. The situations she's gone through since childhood, her psychologically damaged mother's attempts to take her life, and the way she's leaving the world may affect her deteriorated perspective.

She finally gets acceptance for her new governess job, teaching the Pounds family's two children: eight-year-old Andrew and his elder sister Drusilla. She's planned to instruct them in English, French, writing, music, dancing, drawing, and arithmetic, which will help Andrew prepare for his boarding school next year and Drusilla (who will focus on ornamental needlework) find a better suitor for herself instead of filling her head with extra knowledge.

Winifred gets introduced to the Pounds family: Mr. Pounds seems more excited about her arrival, taking her on long walks and requesting her attendance at the dinner table each night, while his wife reluctantly accepts her existence, more suspicious about her motives and acting hostile around her.

Winifred is not like a regular, obedient Victorian governess they hired, telling the worst kind of nightmarish dark stories (more brutal than the Grimm Brothers) at nighttime to the children, telling the people she's coming from a place where they eat children - and she's probably not joking. As we learn more about her past and her previous jobs at other houses that she took a little too far, we realize she's a really dangerous woman with a distorted and uniquely vicious mind. But interestingly, none of the people, including the servants of Ensor house, are like angels; they're even worse than her. When Winifred starts conducting her jaw-droppingly shocking destruction plan that leads her to give an unforgettable show at Christmas as a big gift to this family, the only thing you can do is stop reading this book when things get extremely gory or wear your big girl pants and read it until reaching the climax that will probably make you gasp or scream a little louder.

Overall: The unique, bold, extremely dark but sarcastic tone of the author makes your reading experience so special. The drawings inside the book, the heart-throbbing conclusion, unexpected twist, the vicious-sociopathic but interestingly engaging antiheroine, and eerie cover of the book made me clap harder for the entire execution! If you're open to reading something original, unexpected, gripping, and if historical gothic themes are your genre, this book will suit all your needs.

Many thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company / Liveright for sharing this unique historical book's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.