Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

64 reviews

dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Similar in a sense to American Psycho but clearly a different era. The need to fit in, find family while all the time having dark and antisocial thoughts. Did Winifred imagine everything or were the events part of her dark introspective. Enjoyed the snarky humour in parts. Overall a good dark, twisted read with a gothic feel. Would not recommend if you are sensitive to violence, particularly against children.

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dark tense 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

This book was overwhelmingly meh to me. I guess there was nothing that I hated about it, it just failed to be worth the time I spent reading it. I would say that this book fits into the niche subgenre of “books about evil nannies/governesses”. I know it isn’t totally the same, but it did remind me a bit of the tv show, The Haunting of Bly Manor (hugely recommend that btw). But the thing that rubbed me the wrong way about this book specifically was that it did literally nothing to try to subvert the reader’s expectations of what was going to happen or what the characters were like. The governess is evil and murderous, exactly as you expect from the beginning, the father of the family is lecherous, exactly as you would expect, etc. I just wish it would have done something to surprise me or do something that wasn’t exactly what I expected. I also think the main character was not written the best. She is almost comically, goofily evil, with no real justification for why she is the way she is. She also gets away with the most unrealistic things in this book, like baby swapping and killing a maid and then hiding her in the walls. And it didn’t feel like it was done in an over the top on purpose way, more like a lazy writing way.
The one thing I did like was the commentary on childhood gender roles. In the family the main character is working for, there is one girl and one boy, and the book emphasizes a lot how the boy is taught about history and literature, but the girl is just taught etiquette to prepare her for her debut into society.
I guess this book would be good if you wanted a short, mindless read, but I am just not down for spending my time on that these days. This book was basically exactly what I expected it to be, and in this case that is not a compliment.

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dark funny tense 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

This book was absolutely fucked. I've never read anything like it - the main character is an absolute psycho and she's not, like, likeable, but I was still weirdly rooting for her to lose it and go wild. By go wild, I mean commit a bunch of murders.
Feito's writing is honestly fantastic. From the first pages I was highlighting turns of phrase and entire passages all over the place (which is very rare for me). The descriptions of just about everything are dark and visceral, like if rotting black ooze was poetry. From the beginning, this book is propulsed by a strong, ravenous, violent impulse. It is a quick read - I wouldn't say "easy read" necessarily, because it may certain repulse and nauseate a reader unprepared, but I flew through it in rapt morbid fascination, and honestly some part of me enjoyed the whole thing. 
I have no idea who I could recommend this book to without alarming them, but if you're kinda fucked and in need of a haunting, bloody read about a woman wrecking shit with abandon, you should pick this one up. 

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dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Very entertaining romp. Some disappointing plot holes, but which I was able to excuse. Apart from the psychopathic ride it is also full of female anger. And you will find that the wealthy society is as much unhinged as the bolshie governess.

I could see one of the twists coming, but I was okay with it, because I enjoyed the ride. And I definitely recommend the audio book, because the narrator is fabulous and definitely adds to the enjoyment of the story. Which could have been a bit more elaborated and not been only relying on pure blood thirst.

I liked the female rage and the feminist undertone that actually plays a bigger role in the novel than you might notice on first sight.

"Sounds like a group of women humming in unison."

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dark funny mysterious medium-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

My inner edgelord loved this book. Better than American Psycho by a longshot.

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dark funny 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

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dark lighthearted 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 hoping for Jane Eyre if Jane Eyre was a psychopath, but its kind of light-hearted? Like it's very on the nose and purposefully unsubtle

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dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I audio booked this and I highly recommend it as an audiobook because the Victorian turns of phrase combined with the narrators perfect I to action makes so much of this book so much more comedic.  This is not a typical storyline but rather an almost satiric depiction of victorian life where at times you aren’t sure who the real “psycho” is.  Scenes at the dinner table are grotesque renderings of gluttony and gore. 

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