This was unhinged and I loved it. What a truly psychotic character. This was so compelling to me--such an interesting concept, such a wild ride. This was funny in my favorite kind of way. I just, I think that this will really appeal to a lot of people because it's just such a novel take on a story. I loved this!

I started this on a whim and read through the entire book in one sitting. What a wild ride with a truly psychotic character. I found this to be unhinged, funny, feminist, and an epic final massacre.

More comedic than I expected -I should’ve guessed given the inference of the title… a dark gothic fairytale for adults, in a way. Gripping and gory and consistently entertaining.

This one just never hooked me! I was excited about the premise but the inner voice somehow not felt insane or evil enough. Even as a slow burn there just wasn’t a lot here for me. Excited to see the movie adaptation one day though!

What if Jane Eyre and Turn of the Screw had a sociopath baby? That's Victorian Psycho for you.
It's a real slasher flick of a book, moving quick and off-kilter until the bloody end. The prose is engaging and intentionally anachronistic at times, which works well in the humorous moments but can take the reader out of the action in some of the more action-centric scenes. The gore is written well and the suspense and pacing work. Unfortunately, I think I had the wrong expectations going into this book; while the setting is Victorian, there's none of the depth that makes me love that era of literature. This book is an homage to modern horror more than a nod to classic lit, and the few times it started to reach for something meaningful behind the violence, it didn't grab hold. I'll still recommend and sell Victorian Psycho, but to a different audience than I originally thought.

Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton and Company as well as the author for this ARC.
#NetGalley #W.W.NortonandCompany #VirginiaFeito #VictorianPsycho #Horror #BookReview #Books #Fiction #Gothic

Title: Victorian Psycho
Author: Virginia Feito
Format: eBook
Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company
Publication Date: February 4, 2025
Themes: Humans as monsters, sexism, family, cannibalism, gothic
Trigger Warnings: Violence against children, child/baby death, animal death, toxic familial relationships, gore, cannibalism, death of parents, violence

Oh, this was fun! I really, really wish the animal death wasn’t in here, but still fun. There are deliciously disgusting twists and turns throughout with an unexpected ending. Winnifred Notty is the new governess to the Pounds’ family’s two children, Drusilla and Andrew. She’s the perfect companion, telling the kids their twisted bedtime stories and seducing the family patriarch. She tries to stifle her less desirable tendencies, but Christmas is coming and Wnnifred is truly a giver….

Evil governess in a gothic mansion? American Psycho meets the Turn of the Screw? Yes please. I enjoyed this whole heartedly. The bitingly sarcastic writing adds a touch of tongue in cheek humor that weaves itself in and out of the narrative. The setting is reminiscent of Henry James’ Bly Manor. Now introduced a gender flipped Patrick Bateman and you have this twisted little story. The real question is does the danger come from within Winnifred or the house? The book twists around this concept, surprising occasionally, inciting laughter that the reader sometimes feels guilty about, and adding shocking violence. Winnifred Notty is a dangerous and severely damaged woman.

This book is not for the faint of heart. It bears repeating that this is a violent and gory story that features multiple dead babies. I could have done without that and the animal deaths. However, I enjoyed it enough that I could skim past those parts and keep going until the sick and shocking conclusion.

All in all, a delicious read that is a treat for fans of American Psycho, The Turn of the Screw, and Hannibal. I highly recommend but maintain that it should be read with caution.

You’ll rarely encounter a book more aptly titled than Virginia Feito’s Victorian Psycho. If you ever wondered what it would be like if a female version of Patrick Bateman existed in Austenian England you are in for a treat as Feito pulls no punches, focusing on an antihero whose savage commentary is rivaled only by her violent tendencies. Already being turned into a movie by A24, this is a new satirical horror classic.

After opening with an illustration of a stately country manor captioned, “In three months everyone in this house will be dead,” we are introduced to Winifred Notty, who has just been hired on as the new Governess of Mr. and Mrs. Pounds’ two children, bratty golden child Andrew and neglected Drusilla. She has a general disdain towards her fellow humans, but especially towards the British upper class and their offspring, which would make her seem a poor candidate for the position, but she manages to convince her employers otherwise.

As Winifred’s past is revealed in drips and drabs, we quickly begin to suspect that she is more dangerous than she wants to let on and that her arrival at Ensor House is no coincidence, though she mostly manages to maintain her composure as the Christmas holiday approaches. The Pounds are hosting a sizable group of their upper crust friends and their families this year and want everything to be perfect, but Winifred may have other plans in mind.

Told from Winifred’s perspective we are privy to her thoughts as she experiences life with her new employers and they are hilariously scathing, doubly so when she inadvertently lets one escape from her lips. When describing Mrs. Pounds she notes, “The lines on her sallow forehead seem to be mating to beget more lines.” Over dinner, when asked about children she lets slip, “Can we honestly proclaim that they’re any better than their insufferable adult counterparts?”

Even when the horror truly kicks in towards the novel’s end it still carries a sardonic wit. At least as Winifred has described them, one would be hard pressed to think of a group that, if not necessarily deserving of their fates, aren’t exactly deserving of better either. Laced through with unsubtle rage at society’s disdainful treatment of women and members of the so-called lower class, both then and now, there’s some meat to the madness. Wickedly subversive, hilariously vicious, and highly entertaining this will likely go down as one of the year’s best books.

I enjoyed this! The atmosphere throughout this is very eerie and there are several disturbing moments throughout which I loved. This is a well-written, unique horror story that I would recommend! Special Thank You to Virginia Feito, W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you have a tolerance for Victorian prose and a penchant for funny, violent murderesses, you might enjoy this as much as I did.

In this short little tale leading up to a gloriously bloody Christmas, we see Winifred devolve into madness while trying to hide her inner urges from her awful employers.

I'll reiterate that this gets gruesome (truly, no one is safe). My jaw dropped a couple times–it was super messed up. But it's also oddly hilarious. Winifred's commentary pokes fun at the conventions and morals of the time period in a very witty way. Her appalling actions are handled so comically that you just have to laugh at the absurdity.

This was just a good time, right till the bloody end. Recommend for my fellow horror lovers!

Read if you like:
🏚 The Victorian era
💀 Unhinged narrators
🕯Dark humour/satire
⚡️ A shock factor
🔪 Short horror (with some gore)

This book is so unhinged, in the best way possible. It's an atmospheric story that transports readers to a different time period, featuring a main character who is absolutely (for lack of a better word) psycho. From the outset, as the governess for two young children, Winnifried Notty appears to be putting on a show, presenting a facade that hides their true nature. Behind closed doors, however, they unravel, revealing a more sinister and erratic persona. I mean her actions are just so unpredictable and absurd that just thinking about it right now makes we want to laugh. It's a short book and a really really fun read.

WINIFRED NOTTY YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS!! This is one of those books that feels like it was written just for me (a little freak.) It's like Jane Eyre meets Halloween. I loved it! Feito does a sensational job of immediately absorbing you into the words on the page and world that they've built. Though the language isn't always entirely accurate (our modern vernacular is inescapable no matter how hard one tries) it was wholly entertaining. A new auto-read for me because Feito feels like an author who will always bring their true story to live and that is always a story I want to read.

This book has the feel of being dark just to be dark. Of being shocking just to be shocking. Of being gross just to be gross. It didn't lead to anything in the end. I want a story that ebbs and flows. I want more than just a self-proclaimed "Victorian Psycho" giving daily examples of why she considers herself so. It leads up to a violent event that falls flat for me.

This was such a fun and disturbing ride. Reading from the point of view of said Victorian Psycho was great. I loved how out of left field some of her comments came and just how unhinged she was. This was very campy and just an entertaining horror overall. I will say some parts moved a bit slow for me but once we get into it we are into it. I also like seeing the Victorian upper class and how they behave through the view point of once again a Victorian psychopath and just her comments on the class structure overall.
I highly recommend if you want an entertaining horror
May also be good for the holiday season.

This book was a trip in the best way possible. The main character is an unreliable narrator who is suffering from a mental psychosis, though at times it questions whether it is nature or nuture that led the character to be the way she is. As a shorter book, it plunges you quickly into the plot and has you gasping aha! while also questioning just how much darker and twisted it could get. Definitely not for the faint of heart but perfect for those with a cross section of interests in the darker parts of the victorian era and the stability of the mind.

I have never read ANYTHING like Victorian Pyscho. This is horrific and hilarious all at the same time. I mean, just look at the cover. READ THIS!

I was really looking forward to this one mostly because of its fun title and cool concept. But when I started it I realized I might be a little burnt out on this “unwell women” genre that’s been so popular the past few years. I didn’t suffer my way through this or anything, but a lot of the choices made here felt obvious. I was a little underwhelmed with the ending. A lot of the book just felt like sick for the sake of it. Maybe Im desensitized but it just didn’t make an impact on me.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Gruesome in the best way, Victorian Psycho is a sharp, blood-soaked thriller that doesn’t hold back. The writing style is unique, with the main character frequently breaking the fourth wall—not in a cringy way, but in a way that makes the madness feel even more intimate. At first, it seems like there’s no real method to the chaos, but as the story unfolds, the reasoning behind it all becomes clear and I did not see it coming. With plenty of on-page violence and gore, this book is not for the faint of heart, but at just over 200 pages, it’s a quick, compulsive read. I couldn’t put it down.
Thanks to NetGalley and Liveright Publishing for this e-ARC that I chose to review.

Thank you @atriabooks and @liverightbooks for the ARC of this unforgettable novel. So good, I had to get a finished copy.

This book was disgusting in all formats yet so well written; honestly, horror is a favorite subject for a reason. The ability to want to throw up and laugh at the same time is how this novella made me feel.

Winifred might have been out of her wits but jeez did I adore her. If you think she’s the antagonist, you must read it again, she’s far from it. The chapter headers added some charm to what is about to happen and trust me, you will not believe what you are reading: ABSOLUTE GENIUS.

It was a quick read that I recommend reading but not after you finished your chicken dinner.📚

Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children.

Winifred has a problem though, her mind wanders and where it goes is rather dark and scary. She has compulsions she wants to hold in, a darkness that wants to take over. She tries,but it can be hard when you have willful children and rude employers. When she breaks she breaks and the ensuing result is nothing short of jaw dropping.

Gory as all get out yet strangely humourous, I found it almost impossible to put this down. And once I knew why Winnie was there...well it became almost impossible not to root for her.

If you like a good horror that is not only bloody but intelligent and engaging, Victorian Psycho is the one.

Highly recommended. Published 2/04/25

Thanks to @netgalley and W.W. Norton and Company for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

I knew that this novel would not be a typical Victorian saga when, in the opening scene, the new governess, Winifred “Fred” Notty, considers how her breasts were “jiggling in my corset” as she is being transported to her new post at Ensor House in Grim Wolds. When Fred is introduced to the housekeeper, Mrs. Able, she muses that she “is a woman who has never held a penis.” If there is any question that Feit has upended the Mary Poppins trope, it is demolished when it is announced in the first charter that “in three months everyone in this house will be dead.”

Fred will be working for the Pounds, attending to their two lazy and spoiled children, Drusilla and Andrew, although the former’s education is of no moment to her father who is concerned that she is “of an age when she risks her fertility from the ravages of overeducation,” and the latter is eight years old and soon bound for boarding school. Fred taunts her charges by telling them that she eats fat children and then horrifies them when she bashes in the head of a doe with a rock. Fred’s disdain for the children is compounded by the lecherous Mr. Pounds whose gaze often settles on Fred’s bosom and the jealous Mrs. Pound who find ways to retaliate against the sultry governess with her own cruelties.
This is a bloody and grim tale but, somehow, deliciously entertaining. Feit’s “heroine” is cold, sarcastic, naughty, deranged, deluded, impulsive, charming, and straining to control the darkness within her. A movie adaptation starring Margaret Qualley and Thomasin McKenzie is set to start filming next month. Thank you Liveright and Net Galley for this wildly grotesque and utterly entertaining novel.