Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. It was just a bit too much. Indeed had many horrific elements and the gothic setting was done well- however I just couldn’t suspend belief enough to vibe with it. I felt like it was just all shock value for no reason. That is not the type of horror I’m into,
Thankfully it was a very quick read.

Thank you for the gifted ebook copy I exchange for an honest review.

This was fun! I don't know what it is, but it felt like it dragged a little bit in the second half, which is weird considering how short of a book it is. I'm also just not a fan of child murder, so I have to knock down my rating a bit. I'm a big horror fan, but that's just a personal taste thing. It's still overall very fun and I would definitely recommend it. I would definitely say it's closer to a 3.5 star rating. Definitely 4 if the child murder didn't bother me. I'm definitely looking forward to the movie. Thanks for the ARC!

I have no idea why I picked this up but I’m glad I did. Gory, creepy, and funnier than you’d expect.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was something alright! It definitely pays homage to "American Psycho" in its disjointed stream of consciousness style writing. It was gory and bleak and gothic and all around delightfully dark.

This book was like if Jane Eyre was possessed by the spirit of Patrick Bateman. Seeing as American Psycho and Jane Eyre are my two favorite books of all time, it's like Virginia Feito wrote this specifically for me.

It was literal perfection. No notes other than Virginia, if you're reading this: thank you. Also, call me? (Is that creepy?)

Mrs. March walked so Winifred Notty could run.

5 enthusiastic stars. More, even. I'm in love.

Super quick, super psycho. Loved this book! Will definitely be looking to read Virginia Feito's other novel as well.

Victorian horror at its best - this is a short book where you spend every minute wondering both what are you reading and why can't you put it down! The main character is a governess to a family and you learn quickly that she doesn't like kids and doesn't plan to be there for long. A great read!

Victorian Psycho is completely unhinged in an absolutely wonderful way! I loved the set up of the book like an old-fashioned Victorian penny dreadful. The chapter titles add a perfect amount of wit and make me wonder why most novels have given them up! This book will have you gasping at Miss Notty's exploits and laughing at her turns of phrase. There is some gory violence that I found appropriate for the overall tone and feel of the book but that might be a little over the top for some readers. Overall this is one of the best modern Gothics I've read in ages and any fans of the genre should pick this one up!

Victorian Psycho is definitely one for the weird girls. Is that a compliment? Not necessarily. In the vastly oversaturated current market of "weird girl lit", I do not think that this book adds anything new or revolutionary to the mix. Coming in at only around 200 pages. this is an all gore, minimal story, type of read. I'm not a fan of gratuitous violence in books, especially if the story is lacking, but this was quite literally the definition of violence for violence sake. I personally was not a fan.

🕯️VICTORIAN PSYCHO🕯️by @virgi_stones is my favorite book I have read so far this year! Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher, @w.w.norton for the e-ARC.

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"Superstitions and portents don’t always reach the privileged, or if they do, the privileged assume the warnings don’t apply to them."

Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House three months before Christmas to become the new governess to the Pounds' children. Tending to bratty and self-important Andrew and pouty Drusilla whose head is most certainly in the clouds comes with the benefit of understanding the intimate goings on of the Pounds household. Mr. Pounds, a pompous man with a predilection for the budding pseudoscience of phrenology regales the young governess with his fascinations while the prim and proper Mrs. Pounds scolds and chides Winifred at every move with a firm grasp on her husband's wandering eyes. But Winifred Notty has plans of her own. And she is so very happy to be at home with her new family and has some very exciting and dreadful gifts to give them for Christmas.

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Winifred Notty is an eccentrically wicked young thing and I absolutely gobbled her story up. This deliciously disturbing tale is certainly a train wreck that you can feel coming and cannot look away from.

Do not miss this book if you are a horror fan and love a "good for her" and tangential "eat the rich" type of story. And most excitingly, this has already been picked up as a movie adaptation! I am so excited to see Winifred on the big screen!

Perfect premise. Perfect writing. This book is absolutely masterful at evoking the ick. It's genuinely uncomfortable to read, and that feeling builds and builds... maybe a little too much?

The first half was five full stars. I had to force myself to slow down and savor the story. Unfortunately, the latter half didn't live up to the promise of the beginning. I wanted to be taken somewhere more clever than where I ended up. What was unique in the first half, grew stale by the second, and this book did not, in my mind, stick the landing.

Would still highly recommend to anyone into the grotesque and ridiculous.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!!

Wow, this book was GROSS!! And I loved it lol.

Winifred Notty is a newly hired governess for the Pounds children of Ensor House and she is ….diabolical. Unlike the usual governesses she has a Darkness within her that she happily wishes to unleash on the house. Mayhem ensues!

What I enjoyed most about the book was just how damn funny it was. I did not expect to laugh as much as I did. The author has a gift with words, humor, and breaking the 4th wall with her readers.

This is my second read from Virginia Feito and I will definitely be reading whatever else she puts out.

Victorian Psycho was a raging story about Winnefred Notty who takes a job as a governess with nothing but the darkest intensions. Whether it was the Laudanum given to her as a child, her mothers neglect, or just pure psychopathic nature, shes consumed with thoughts of violence and anti-social behavior. The unbecomings of the Pounds household becomes increasingly transparent, and Winnefreds growing resentments are too much to withold any longer. Mr. Pounds has a wandering gaze and an inclination towards the new governess, and Mrs. Pounds has a curious way of punishing Mr. Pounds for his misgivings. As Christmas approches she begins to plot her gift of revenge against the family and the servants she's been working amongst.

This story is packed with sardonic quips, clever insights, and at times is darkly funny as the reader immerses themselves into the mind of a victorian psycho.

I loved this book! It was sick! I appreciated female rage and the critiques of victorian social norms. not for the faint of heart or squeamish!

I had to read this after seeing the news that it is being made into a movie starring Margaret Qualley. It was dark, twisted, and hilarious. Imagine Patrick Bateman but as a governess with a grudge who's sick of society's shit.

Thank you Netgalley and RBMedia for providing this audiobook for review. All opinions are my own.

In the same way that American Psycho used Patrick Bateman to satirize 80s yuppie culture, Victorian Psycho gives us Winifred Notty to take down the Victorian "polite" society. Winifred accepts a governess position at Ensor House. There, she is charged with schooling the spoiled Poundses children and ensuring their moral upbringing. That proves problematic as Winifred possesses no morality or understanding of human emotions.

The novel delivers on its title as Winifred is a true Victorian psycho. She makes a conscious effort to mimic emotions and decode expressions. She's curious but she doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She simply does not want to be found out and sent away. When she slips up and murders someone, she is equally detached. She is inconvenienced by having to cover her crimes, but never upset. Her combination of curiosity and stoicism makes her a fascinating character. She's also incredibly funny. Her sardonic observations and unexpected reactions had me laughing out loud.

Meanwhile, the Ensor House, who are so self-involved that they fail to realize the danger they are in. These characters embody familiar archetypes of gothic fiction. They're awful people and I found myself rooting for them to be killed off the same way I root for teens in an 80s slasher to meet their bloody end. I should mention that Winifred has no problems harming children or animals so if that's a trigger for you, you might want to skip this one. I wasn't bothered, I think because we're in Winifred's perspective, and for her murder is clinical. She also does not notice or describe the emotions of those she harms. She simply describes the acts though she is not one to skimp on the gory details.

Don't take that to mean that this is even close to as grisly as something like American Psycho. This isn't extreme horror or splatterpunk. I was more grossed out by Winifred's constant need to lick things and put them in her mouth than by her murders.

So, if you enjoy pitch-black humor, satire, and a bit of bloodshed in your gothic literature, check it out. I finished this in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to A24's upcoming film starring Margaret Qualley and Thomasin McKenzie. If the movie is anything like the book, it's going to be a lot of fun!

If you’re a fan of the “I support women’s wrongs”, Good For Her, feminine rage genre/movement then do I have the book for you (it's also subtly sapphic).  Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito is a story about a bloodthirsty English Governess, Winifred Notty, in the Victorian era who tries to maintain a sense of normalcy and suppress the evil inside of her, until the time is right, while caring for her charges, and living amongst the Pounds family, the rest of their staff, and friendly visitors at Endsor House. 

 I fail to understand why men think violence will intimidate women. Women, who bleed all over themselves every month, who rub blood clots between their fingers and burst them like insects, and sometimes can't because they're not blood clots, they're tongue-coloured strings of meat from the womb. Women who burst open in childbirth, vagina splitting and anus sagging, tiny, hardening fingernails clawing inside of them, placentas like thick filet mignon.

The book reads like a diary from Ms. Notty to the reader, who is not a completely unreliable narrator, as she does let us in on the dark thoughts in her mind, but sometimes waits to reveal them, or is unsure whether or not they are even real. As she continues to let us in more and more, she becomes increasingly more feral. Just barely qualifying as a novella with its slightly under 200 pages, Victorian Psycho has short, easily digestible chapters, and headings that come before them to clue you in on their happenings. Instead of walking you through every moment of her time at Endsor House, Fred sticks to discussing only the most vital ones that had the biggest impact on her, or vice versa. While some may not be a fan of the format of the story due to the length and slight jumps in time, I was. I found that it made the book stick out to me in comparison to books of a similar genre or theme. Feito utilizes each page well, and is able to paint a complete picture of each incident that takes place and the full story, despite the short nature of the book. The diary-like aspect of the book allows us to connect with Fred quickly, and gives us just the right amount of insight into her mind and the heinous acts she commits that we can start to piece together things like why, when and how they may happen, but are still shocked once they do. As a fan of horror, it’s natural for the mind to wander and try to predict what macabre events might unfold in the story we’re consuming, oftentimes imagining a much worse fate than what is delivered, but Victorian Psycho is unafraid to go there, and holds nothing back. Feito masterfully builds up the tension throughout the book, with small moments of unease that eventually lead to actionable offenses by Fred, then brings her back down to earth to clean up her messes and resume her act of normalcy before doing it all over again. Fred’s crimes are just the right amount of cruel and grotesque to keep you appalled, yet interested to see how she recovers, and what she will do next. 

Albeit her clearly odd and wicked nature, you can’t help but like Fred. She has an internal struggle with the darkness inside her as all she really wants to be is loved, but this has kept her from feeling that, and humorously recounts her days not only at Endsor House, but other momentous ones throughout her life as well. You are successfully put into her shoes, and feel like most of the people around her get what’s coming to them, after their unpleasant and mightier than thou behavior towards Fred. Of course the punishments she doles out are far more cruel than the victim’s crimes they are answering for, which are mostly just bad attitudes, but it is easy to make excuses for Fred. Even though the Pounds family is mostly unlikable, they are still represented as simply flawed humans who have their own hang ups,  rather than mythically evil people who we are actively rooting against. In fact, if anyone is mythically evil, it’s Winifred Notty, but by the time we come to understand just how evil she truly is, you are already too connected to her, and can’t help but feel compassion for her, rather than completely disgusted by her atrocities. Once it gets to that point, there’s no turning back for Fred, and each chapter is filled with even more shocking acts, until the culmination of her time at Endsor House. It's as if the evil had been bubbling up inside her this whole time, until suddenly it overflowed and Fred is no longer able to stop herself from committing one shocking act after the next that will leave you feeling floored each time, especially since she transitions from her dormant, as normal-as-she-can-be state to action with such haste and ease. 

I first heard about Victorian Psycho in December, when news of A24 acquiring the rights to produce a film adaption of it with Margaret Qualley and Thomasin McKenzie attached. Author Victoria Feito is set to write the screenplay, with Qualley’s past Sanctuary collaborator Zachary Wigon set to direct. I can easily imagine Qualley in the titular role of Winifred Notty, and have no doubt that she will kill it. While reading the book, concerns did cross my mind about how the film would be able to pull off the delicate balance of being sympathetic yet fearful of Fred that the book’s first person narrative effortlessly captures, but there’s certainly no better person to write the script than the author herself, and I’m sure she will know just how to remold the story to get all of the same things across in each version of it.  

I’m thankful to NetGalley and W.W Norton & Company for receiving an ARC of Victorian Psycho. Only when I saw the title available on NetGalley did I realize that it had yet to be released, as it came out February 5. With the current risk averse state of the industry where producers only want to make sure fire hits, and place high importance on things like the amount of followers the creatives involved have, Victorian Psycho securing a film adaption prior to the book’s official release definitely set some pretty high expectations for me, and thankfully it did not disappoint! You might think of it as The Haunting of Bly Manor meets American Psycho meets Crimson Peak, all of which I love, so as a sort of combination of them, its safe to say I loved this story. Ultimately, I give Virginia Feito’s Victorian Psycho five out of five stars, as it perfectly delivers everything you expect from a Gothic Horror story.

WOW. This book was a wild ride. From the very beginning, there is a sense of foreboding that just seems to build and build. I wondered where this story was going to go, and felt like the main character kept making very strange choices. It almost felt like a fever dream. There was a twist that I was able to predict pretty early on, but overall, I enjoyed the crazy journey that was reading this book.

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito is an exhilarating dive into psychological horror, where the boundaries of reality and madness blur in the most captivating way. Feito’s writing is both elegant and unsettling, drawing readers into a world where tension mounts with every page. The protagonist’s unraveling psyche is portrayed with a depth that keeps you questioning what is real and what is imagined. Feito excels at creating an atmosphere of dread, making each scene pulse with unease, while the darkly gothic setting feels both timeless and incredibly fresh. It’s a thrilling, thought-provoking novel that not only plays with the conventions of the genre but also offers a nuanced exploration of mental deterioration. Fans of psychological horror will find Victorian Psycho a fascinating and deeply immersive experience.

I really wanted to enjoy this story more, but I found it to just be okay. I disliked all the characters and thought they all got what they deserve!