Review by bookwyrm42 - Victorian Psycho

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bookwyrm42 's review for:

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

3.5

challenging dark 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

The narrator's lack of affect was often incredibly successful in creating unnerving scenes and some very dark humor. Her

murder spree

was less so: in the last several chapters some things happened that I side-eyed very strongly.

We're supposed to believe that she murdered and stashed multiple servants without anyone's ever noticing or making a fuss or smelling the decay? When there's close to a dozen guests in the house who traveled their with their own staff retinues? And sure, she makes a throwaway remark that she and Drusilla were able to murder everyone because no one worked together to stop them, but that's too many damn people for some of them not to have escaped or to have rushed them or simply for Winifred and Drusilla not to have gotten too physically tired to successfully murder them all. And the one maidservant got away and got on a train while covered in old blood and maggots and just vanished out of the story? There's no way all of that happened, but by including a time lapse of multiple days where the two of them were just playing with corpses, the author doesn't allow for the description to be as unreliable and detached from reality as it needs to be.

If that had been handled differently, I would have liked the book more.

Content Warnings