You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
applesodaperson 's review for:
Victorian Psycho
by Virginia Feito
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder