Review by ashnuit - Victorian Psycho

ashnuit 's review for:

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

4.5

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is exactly my taste so I might be a bit biased, but I loved this. Victorian Psycho is funny and grotesque, hitting all those notes I love in a Victorian or gothic novel with the bonus of a truly deranged MC. It’s uncomfortable, often improbable, but the humor carried me along as the story descended into chaos and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

The story follows a young governess named Winifred Notty as she takes up her new position caring for the Pounds’ two children, Andrew and Drusilla. This, however, is where the plot diverges from the familiar as we soon discover Winifred’s eerie and violent tendencies. With each death we get closer to discovering the truth about her traumatic past and how she was molded into the being she is today.

Beyond being witty and brutal, Victorian Psycho offers the reader an unflinching view into the mind of someone who would have often been relegated to the attic in a traditional Victorian novel and is a far cry from the feminine characters we might expect. And yes, at times it does seem impossible that Winifred should get away with what she does for so long, but I think this highlights how she is not the sole evil within the story. Each character is flawed and self-serving, indulging in some degree of immorality that harms others for their own benefit (well, aside from the babies). There was something about this book that reminded me quite a bit of A Series of Unfortunate Events with how none of the adult characters recognized just how bad Count Olaf was until it was too late, how the narrator would cheekily wink at us throughout but we as readers could do nothing but watch. I guess the difference was that I was rooting for Winifred despite what she does because she sees the world with a degree of clarity the others willfully blind themselves to— “I have found that, when faced with the inexplicable, humans will find ways of explaining most horrors away.”

This was great fun, and I look forward to not only adding a physical copy of this to my collection, but to future works by Virginia Feito. Thank you W. W. Norton & Company and Liveright for the advance copy to read and review.

Content Warnings