Victorian Psycho

One week ago, Virginia Feito released her horror novella, Victorian Psycho. The title actually works as a succinct but sufficient summary: In Victorian-era England, a psychotic governess, Winifred, is bent on revenge and murder, and she narrates her evils over the course of three months leading up to Christmas.

A word of warning: She does harm children, babies, and animals, so take care in reading this gruesome tale.

Why I Chose This Book:

I’ve long been a fan of horror, and I was interested in reading a dark tale set in the Victorian era. The main character is a governess, naturally reminding me of Jane Eyre (who is much nicer and, ahem, not murderous), and the title evokes American Psycho. So many quick comparisons, but this novella stands on its own perfectly well.

What I Liked:

• Winifred is indeed a violent psycho… but she’s oddly charismatic? And funny? In a demented, evil way, of course.
• “Oops” in response to the harm she inflicts on others.
• She’s kind of crazy in terms of her conceptualization of time. She talks about perceiving feelings from the future, losing her place in time, and so on.
• Slowly but surely, layers of her past are revealed to show how she ended up this way and why she’s at this house, terrorizing this family.
• She says out loud the unkind things normal people would keep to themselves. Lol.
• Are her victims a little bit wicked, too?

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• Some of what Winifred does is disgusting and detailed… but that comes with the genre!

Audiobook

Anna Burnett does a superb job of getting us into the mind of Winifred. She delivers the character’s lines with a perfect amount of straightforward simplicity and humor, capturing her disturbed mind. Listening to the audiobook was the perfect way to read this novella.

Final Thoughts

By the time Victorian Psycho ends, I was left feeling a little stupefied. Like, what did I just read? But for all the violence and evil doings here, it was an oddly enjoyable read, with a charismatic but dangerous narrator leading us down her path of violence. I only wish the ending had offered some last surprises.

Special thanks to RBmedia and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Victorian Psycho here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Audiobook Narrator	Anna Burnett
Audience	Adult
Genre	Horror
Setting	England
Number of Pages	208
Format I Read	Audiobook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	February 4, 2025
Publisher	Liveright; RBmedia

Official Summary

SOON TO BE A FEATURE FILM FROM A24 STARRING MARGARET QUALLEY AND THOMASIN MCKENZIE

“This book will be the bloody belle of the 2025 literary ball.” (Oprah Daily)
Most Anticipated Books of 2025: Vulture, Oprah Daily, Polygon, Reader’s Digest, Lit Hub, CrimeReads, The Stacks, LibraryReads, Paste
Best Books of the Month: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Goodreads, Gizmodo, Book Riot, The A.V. Club, Apple Books, Amazon
The American Booksellers Association’s #1 Indie Next Great Read! (Feb 2025)
A Matty Maggiacomo Book Club Selection

“Simmering with rage, propulsive and laugh out loud funny, Victorian Psycho speaks profoundly of horror both within and without us.” ―Catriona Ward

From the acclaimed author of Mrs. March comes the riveting tale of a bloodthirsty governess who learns the true meaning of vengeance.Virginia Feito’s Mrs. March was hailed as “a brilliant debut . . . [by] a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes” (Sarah Ditum, Guardian)―from Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson to Patricia Highsmith. Now, Feito returns with her “silver-polish sentences and her eerie psychological acumen” (Constance Grady, Vox) to unleash an entirely new antihero on us all.

Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess―she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family―Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . .

Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath. 4 black-and-white illustrations