Feito’s first novel Mrs March was an absolute blast. An exercise in paranoia on the part of an Upper East Side housewife, who thinks people are talking about her as the model for the not-so-complimentary protagonist of her husband’s new novel – and it escalates from there!
After such a strong debut, could she surpass it with her second novel? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ Just look at the cover which reverses Mrs March – green with red, rather than red with green. Note the nod to Bret Easton Ellis in the title, for the elevator pitch for Victorian Psycho could be ‘Jane Eyre meets Patrick Bateman’ – you’ve never met a governess like Winifred Notty.
This book will be on my best of list at the end of the year. It was wonderfully funny and very disturbing! Read it if you dare – my full review is over at Shiny.
Virginia Feito, Victorian Psycho (4th Estate, 2025) ISBN 9780008739591, flapped paperback original, 195 pages.
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I didn’t realise this had a countdown to Christmas built into the plot – makes me wonder if it might make a good festive-crime (or at least festive-creepy) read…!
Definitely!
I read this last month and absolutely loved it. I flew through it and laughed so much.
It was hilarious and she has everyone on tenterhooks waiting for the inevitable all the way through.
Delighted to hear there’s no second novel syndrome here!
It’s so different to Mrs March, but superb!
I loved Mrs March so will look forward to reading this new one thanks to your excellent review (I can never leave comments on Shiny; they seem to get eaten up/disappear into the ether). But the cover is awful. So hard to read that lime green. Breaking all the legibility 101 rules 🤪
The cover does match the over-the-topness of the narrative though, I think they went all-out to make it stand out! I have never been able to fathom why some comments get eaten up on Shiny – sorry! I must admit, I tend to empty the spam folder without checking most times…