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dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A delicious read. I picked this up on hearing that it was like "American Psycho" and yeah, our girl is a certified psycho. Her thoughts and actions are messed up, as she tries to blend in with others. The murder spreedoesn't happen until the last few chapters . We see her wear the sheep skin of normalcy loosely, as we learn about her past and what brings her to being a governess at the Pounds estate. If you want someone that feels shame for their actions, Winifred does not, which allows her to be perfectly suited to being an axe-murderer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Murder
Moderate: Body shaming
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Virginia Felto doesn't turn the Victorian lifestyle on its head with Victorian Psycho as much as she would like to chop off that head and place it upside down. Felto is responsible for creating a devious governess with Winfred Notty and letting the reader piece together her current employment and troubled past to find her motivation for working for the Pound family. Like any other written psychopath, you will learn that she has that early penchant for brutality, and the children are not excluded from her malicious impulses.
Through Felto's writing, we can understand Notty's distaste for the upper class based on how those socialites are portrayed as not being that courteous through Felto's description of their repulsive behaviour and disgusting consumption. She brings a flowery style to her narrative that negates finesse in the translation of the governess's horrific behaviour. This manner of writing results in entrancing readers with a contemporary novel reminiscent of stories published within the Victorian era, such as The Picture of Dorian Grey. In short, Felto's horrific novel is a new story set in the old times without cheapening the characterization of the period.
The plot could get muddled and aimless for Notty after being informed by Mrs. Pounds of her eventual resignation after Christmas. Despite the middle muddling, Felto's storytelling is engrossing with further flashbacks of Notty's childhood filled with questionable parenting.
I can say that what happened at the Ensor House is a grand and gory enough finale that commences with Notty getting rejected by her birth father. That was a pretty bloody massacre anticipated to happen as suspected by Notty's victims stuffed in the Ensor House's attic. What I didn't expect to happen was Notty killing Mrs. Fancey's baby with a razor in the nursery. Before the murder, Notty's delusional rage is indicated by her imagining the baby taunting her about her birth father from his crib.
Through Felto's writing, we can understand Notty's distaste for the upper class based on how those socialites are portrayed as not being that courteous through Felto's description of their repulsive behaviour and disgusting consumption. She brings a flowery style to her narrative that negates finesse in the translation of the governess's horrific behaviour. This manner of writing results in entrancing readers with a contemporary novel reminiscent of stories published within the Victorian era, such as The Picture of Dorian Grey. In short, Felto's horrific novel is a new story set in the old times without cheapening the characterization of the period.
The plot could get muddled and aimless for Notty after being informed by Mrs. Pounds of her eventual resignation after Christmas. Despite the middle muddling, Felto's storytelling is engrossing with further flashbacks of Notty's childhood filled with questionable parenting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Whilst wildly different to my past reviews, “Victorian Psycho” is a fast-paced, frivolously frightening descent into the gruesomely ghastly world of Winifred Notty; a protagonist so charmless in her bug-eyed brilliance and horrific humour, it made the less palatable, insecure parts of the novel more acceptable, or at least easier to ignore. Feito’s historical remarks are as viciously funny as they are factual accurate — a refreshing relief to many history-snobs like myself. Similarly, Feito’s mix of modern and Victorian styles of prose and character(s) are comparatively well-balanced albeit still unhinged in their presentation; although it would have been nice to have the other characters, besides Notty (and to an extent Drusilla), be more “fleshed out” (pun intended).
If I have not already made it abundantly clear, the novel is not for the faint of heart; even my stomach churned at certain moments! It shares a variety of graphic gore, an unpleasant cast of deliciously despicable characters and a form of prose and narration some may find off-putting. Yet, if you delight in the disturbed and sometimes wish to axe an annoying man in the face — then maybe ‘The Darkness’ might be calling out to you.
If I have not already made it abundantly clear, the novel is not for the faint of heart; even my stomach churned at certain moments! It shares a variety of graphic gore, an unpleasant cast of deliciously despicable characters and a form of prose and narration some may find off-putting. Yet, if you delight in the disturbed and sometimes wish to axe an annoying man in the face — then maybe ‘The Darkness’ might be calling out to you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was going to give this 2 stars but the climax was wickedly entertaining.
Before that point however, I was really not feeling this book. With all the hype I was seeing, the comparisons to American Psycho, and the initially intriguing narration, I was very excited to pick this up. Unfortunately, I found most of it all kinda pointless.
The weirdness often came across as happening just for the sake of it. Winifred was not particularly compelling, and with how sloppy she is it's a wonder that she made it to the climax without being caught. Any commentary that this text is trying to make on the nature of evil, nature vs nurture, what have you falls flat.
Before that point however, I was really not feeling this book. With all the hype I was seeing, the comparisons to American Psycho, and the initially intriguing narration, I was very excited to pick this up. Unfortunately, I found most of it all kinda pointless.
The weirdness often came across as happening just for the sake of it. Winifred was not particularly compelling, and with how sloppy she is it's a wonder that she made it to the climax without being caught. Any commentary that this text is trying to make on the nature of evil, nature vs nurture, what have you falls flat.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I can't say that I was dissapointed by Victorian Psycho but I'm not the most impressed by it either. In the novel, you follow a young woman who's recently taken a job as a governess for a well to do family. The family just sees her as a regular governess and treats her as such, they are unaware of the darkness brewing inside of her.
This was genuinely just a fun book. It's not outstanding literature because Feito isn't looking to make that here. You're here to watch a woman be cynical, darkly comedic, and brutal. The characters are all pretty on dimensional. Which was fine when we were just following the family. Once the others came over for the holidays, I constantly couldn't tell who anyone was. The main character had a drastic changed between part 1 and part 2. Part 1 felt more like slow and grounded while Part 2 she's just like "oooga boooga I'm crazy and psychotic!" It something that I kind of bothered me when I got to to the end. When it comes to the whole bat-shit crazy woman trope in this, it was done well. We don't root for her but the main character has a fun internal-monologue. However if Feito was trying to do any commentary on misogyny it lowkey didn't work for me. The novel does have the character discuss how the men treat women in this society but it's not the main focus. However, the way she described many of the female characters kinda made any of those kinds of messages feel a bit...lacking. But she is evil and I like her.
Speaking of, the best part of this novel was definetly the humor. If Feito decides to keep making novels with some gruesome comedy I'll keep coming back. A lot of the death and injury scenes are described well.
Overall, if you're looking for a fun novel that you can read in like a day (it took me 3 but we're not going to talk about that), definetly pick up this novel!
Final Score: 7/10
This was genuinely just a fun book. It's not outstanding literature because Feito isn't looking to make that here. You're here to watch a woman be cynical, darkly comedic, and brutal. The characters are all pretty on dimensional. Which was fine when we were just following the family. Once the others came over for the holidays, I constantly couldn't tell who anyone was. The main character had a drastic changed between part 1 and part 2. Part 1 felt more like slow and grounded while Part 2 she's just like "oooga boooga I'm crazy and psychotic!" It something that I kind of bothered me when I got to to the end. When it comes to the whole bat-shit crazy woman trope in this, it was done well. We don't root for her but the main character has a fun internal-monologue. However if Feito was trying to do any commentary on misogyny it lowkey didn't work for me. The novel does have the character discuss how the men treat women in this society but it's not the main focus. However, the way she described many of the female characters kinda made any of those kinds of messages feel a bit...lacking. But she is evil and I like her.
Speaking of, the best part of this novel was definetly the humor. If Feito decides to keep making novels with some gruesome comedy I'll keep coming back. A lot of the death and injury scenes are described well.
Overall, if you're looking for a fun novel that you can read in like a day (it took me 3 but we're not going to talk about that), definetly pick up this novel!
Final Score: 7/10
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Abandonment
Minor: Pedophilia
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
gross! hehe
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Racism
Minor: Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a fascinating read. I’ve never read something like this. I loved that it was in first person, it felt like I was in her mind.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Blood
Minor: Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Death of parent
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Gross and engrossing, this book flew by. I loved to hate all the characters. The end is stated at the beginning, so it's a wild, gorey ride to the inevitable. Definitely not for everyone, but it's a good time if you can find the absurdly macabre fun and funny.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse
Minor: Incest