Mrs March is the tale of a rich New York woman, set at some point in the second half of the twentieth century, following her descent into paranoia and delusional fantasy. It starts when the assistant at her favourite bakery suggests that the pathetic sex-worker main character of her husband’s latest bestselling novel is based on Mrs March herself. Mrs March can never shop there again, even though she was used to eating their delicious olive bread daily.

Mrs March is anxious and unhappy. She sees copies of the book everywhere and is convinced others are laughing at her. Things get worse when she starts to suspect that her author husband is actually a murderer and sets out to discover the truth.

Claustrophobic domestic noir with a shocking ending. A recommended read.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

An unusual book with an unlikeable protagonist, I’m unsure how I felt about it. It was darkly funny in places and was really interestingly written but equally quite hard to keep diving back into.

I think I've had high hopes for this, hopes that didn't really materialised. I cannot say it's necessary the novel's fault but rather that it was not my cup of tea: the main reason being Mrs March. She is the type of person I really dislike in real life. Her inner monologues were so cringeworthy I found it hard to put up with her and her issues. And as the novel focuses on Mrs March and her inner turmoil, at times I've found myself so bored, I had to take small breaks in order to be able to keep reading. Her descend into madness is well observed and it was interesting to glimpse the differences between her perspective/perceptions and real life, but I feel the reader would have gained so much more if other characters' take on events would have been explored more - in particular the dynamics between her and her son. But luckily the end worked so well(a bit unexpected and thoroughly satisfying), or at least it worked for me, that I've decided to give it a full 3 stars.


Many thanks for the opportunity to read this :)

This was a interesting book, all from Mrs March point of view. You very early on get the sense that all is not quite well in her life. The writing style was intriguing and did ensure I finished the book however can't really say I fully enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley & publisher for the copy in exchange for a honest review

I’m still undecided about this book. It ticks all the boxes for me; a Patricia Highsmith sounding protagonist, a deliciously dark Noir plot and set in New York, my favourite city, what’s not to love?

The eponymous Mrs March is a well to do woman living on the Upper East Side, with her highly successful author husband George and their 8 year old son. The story is set in either the late 1960s or early 1970s, it’s very difficult to tell, but certainly in an age before mobile technology. Mrs March is a very tightly wound individual, who lives a structured and privileged life. She is a woman deeply uncomfortable in her own skin. One morning at her favourite bakery, she learns something about the main character in her husband’s new book which sends her into a downward spiral of delusional paranoia and obsessive behaviour. She begins to questions everything she ever thought she knew about her husband and how much she really knows him.

The entire story is told from within Mrs March’s own mind. We do not learn her first name until the final page. Her identity is defined by everything her husband is and does. She was a victim of early childhood sexual abuse and had a cold and unloving relationship with her mother, In turn she finds it head to form close relationships and has a very disassociated relationship with her son. She does not like to be touched and has a visceral hatred of her own body. As she continues to unravel, she imagines her husband has committed a crime, all the time being blind to what is actually happening.

While there were many aspects of this story that I potentially would have loved, it left me feeling cold and unattached. Mrs March is a very unlikeable character, her self- disgust and loathing is contagious, and uncomfortable. On an interesting note, Elizabeth Moss has optioned this for a film and for once, I might prefer the movie to the book. This is a very unique debut novel from this author and I wish her well 3.5* from me.

Many thanks for this ARC from @netgalley and @4thestatebooks which I received in return for my honest review.

I didn't find this book as funny as My Sister the Serial Killer as referenced by the publisher. For me it was a very long drawn out book, which I found distressing and depressing in the main.

I was drawn into this book by the mention of New York and Mrs March living on the Upper East side. What I didn't expect was her life to be more like the 1950s than I suppose 2020's. There is a mention of a microwave otherwise I'm not sure I would have known it wasn't the 1950s.

Mrs March (and she is called that all through the book - even when she is a child) is very hung up on social etiquette. Doing, saying, living the right way, it was just exhausting to read about it. There is a glimmer of humour in all of this until you realise that she has serious mental health issues.

I only kept reading as there was an allusion to uncovering a murderer, and I thought maybe I had the wrong end of the stick so to speak. This part of the book did grip me more than the beginning, but if you want a light hearted read, this won't be the book for you.

The writing in this book is undoubtedly very good and you can place yourself in the character of Mrs March very easily. Too easily in fact. I just became a little saddened by the whole tale.

This was a really odd book. It's incredibly cleverly written, with a very unreliable narrator, but unfortunately as the book went on, that got harder and harder to enjoy. There isn't much of a plot, and as Mrs March descends further into her own mind, it's harder to tell what's real and what isn't.
I understand that that was probably the point of the book, trying to follow someone as they slowly unravel, rather than being focused on the plot, but it did make for a difficult read. I would have liked some kind of epilogue that tied things together as I felt like I left the book just as confused as I'd felt going in.

Mrs March is a society lady, married to a successful author, who suddenly finds herself in turmoil when she is asked if the main character of her husbands new best seller - a prostitute! - is based on her! Mrs March begins a descent into madness, convinced everyone is gossiping about her and that her husband has done this to purposefully humiliate her.

I really enjoyed this read - I love historical stories of high society, and there was a definite vibe of ‘Rebecca’ and ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ going on too!

I’m excited to hear that Elisabeth Moss has already bought the rights and will be making a film from the novel.

Mrs March is married to a famous and successful author. She has a seemingly perfect life, but as the book unfolds it becomes clear that she is not coping and is really not well. Her husband’s new book may or may not have an unpleasant central character that he based on her, and her paranoia about this leads her mental health to spiral out of control.
There are some very good lines and interesting characters., and I was fascinated by Mrs March - I was unsure whether I liked her or not, but it didn’t really matter. .
This book won’t be for everyone, but it is classy and well written and I am glad that I got to read and review it.
Thank you to the author, her publisher and @NetGalley for the opportunity.

Mrs March follows a woman who is told her husband may have used her as the inspiration for an unsavoury character in his latest novel, and her descent into madness afterwards.

This novel was outstanding and I loved every part of it. I am not surprised this story is going to be made into a movie, it had a very cinematrographical narrative. I personally understood the confusion about the time period as the author's way to show Mrs. March was an eccentric character.

goodreads.com/booksireadandliked
Disclosure: I would like to thank the publisher and author for my advanced review copy of the book. This is my honest review

This is the story of Mrs March over a relatively short period of time. Her life goes upside-down after the woman that works at the bakery suggests that Mr March may have used his wife as inspiration for the protagonist of his latest novel. Mrs March is baffled by this comment (she's an unlikable prostitute!), and from this point onwards she starts obsessing about everything that happens around her and takes it as some hidden message/the world is laughing about her.

I didn't love this book. I didn't expect to like the characters based on other reviews I had seen, but I at first sympathised with Mrs March. I foud her funny at times -- how she sees the tiny flaws in others, but not in herself; how she's continuously judging everyone -- especially at the beginning. But after a while, we're left only with her paranoia. And that's ok, but personally for me, it wasn't enough to keep me interested in the story and to know what would happen at the end.

Having said that, it's well written and, like I said above, very funny in the first half. I think a lot of people will enjoy it, but sadly it wasn't for me.

This is an honest review of a free ARC. Many thanks to 4th Estate and William Collins and NetGalley for a free copy of this book.

DNF 50%
I struggled right from the beginning. Just trying to read 50 pages a day was difficult.
The pacing was just too slow. There was nothing to balance the slow pacing. Nothing gripping me.
Mrs March was too unlikeable that I didn't want to be in her head. I just didn't care for her. She was also strange. Avoiding someone because they said your husband took inspiration from you for his character? Seems a little dramatic to me.
The synopsis intrigued me but the half I read was underwhelming. I couldn't force myself to read anymore. Its possible it got better in the second half but I failed to see it.

I was provided with an advance ebook copy of Mrs March via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.

Wow.

I don't think I've ever read quite something like this before.

This novel follows Mrs March, the wife of a famous author as she goes about her somewhat glamourous life in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I couldn't quite work out when this was supposed to be set, though I was imaging it being post-war 1960s ish. One day, whilst going to her usual cafe, a barista there points out that she thinks Mrs March inspired the main character in her husband's latest novel. This causes great offense, as the woman in the book is a prostitute who is so unlovely and unattractive that no customers will sleep with her.

From there in, Mrs March becomes extremely paranoid and suspicious of her husband. She becomes convinced he has murdered someone and she keeps seeing dead this around her apartment which are obviously not there. At this point, it becomes clear that she is slipping into madness and is an unreliable narrator.

This book was really gripping for the first 50% or so, though I found my interest slipping towards the end. It was a really great psychological thriller though and one I would definitely recommend.

I’m sorry to say I had to give upon this book. Puzzling, unsettling, depressing, and without a likeable character to latch on to, I decided that life is too short to persevere when I’m not remotely enjoying a book, and really don’t want to pick it up again. Not for me sadly.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title.

That is the weirdest book I have ever read. I kept on going as I wanted to see what happened. Odd. Strange. Maybe I'm missing something but I am sorry to say I was just left confused and with a feeling of somehow having been cheated.

I will give the book 3 stars because I am kind...

I'm left feeling a bit freaked out

What an absolutely addictive read! Deeply dark, deadpan and twisty, let yourself get caught up in Mrs March’s mind and enjoy the ride.

So who is Mrs March? Well, she’s an affluent New Yorker who is very concerned about what others think of her and always keeps up appearances at all times – no matter what is happening. She lives in a swish Upper East Side apartment with her young son Jonathan and her husband George, an author whose new book is a huge success.

Many people think that the lead character of George’s book – Johanna – is inspired by Mrs March, this would be wonderful except Johanna is described as essentially an unlikeable prostitute. Mrs March feels humiliated, although her husband never quite admits she was his inspiration, she now doubts him and his possible motives.

We follow Mrs March as she goes about her day-to-day business; keeping out of her housekeeper Martha’s way, buying bread, trying to ascertain if her husband is a murderer, you know, the normal things.

We get deep into Mrs March’s brain in a very close character study and the tone and clever writing mean often you are not sure if the things she is experiencing are real or not. From her imaginary childhood friends, to her certainty that her husband is up to no good, you have to keep turning those pages to find out where Mrs March’s thoughts are going to jump to next.

I assume this story is set in the modern day but there is never a reference to say, a mobile phone or Google or things that would definitely place it in the now. The way Mrs March is ALWAYS referred to as such (we only learn her first name at the end) and the lives of the rich New York elite could be now, or could easily be, for example, the 1970s. This ambiguity certainly works to enhance the general sense of paranoia and unease that consumes Mrs March.

Deliciously dark, deadpan – some lines had me laughing out loud – while also taking a look at the dangers of isolation and the power of delusions and vivid imaginations. It definitely had echoes of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and a wonderful Gothic twist at the end too. A brilliant read!

There's some clever writing in this tale of a woman's descent into madness, but I never felt invested in the story or characters.

The character of Mrs March feels grimly realistic and being inside her head is a disconcerting experience. The author clearly has a great eye for human frailty.

But Mrs March is an unlikeable character and perhaps because of this, I found I was struggling to get through the book. There's also a long section which feels like the story digresses into a murder-mystery for a while, which felt odd.

I'm sure there's a market for this book but it didn't quite work for me.

I really can't believe this is a debut. Mrs March feels almost Hitchcockian, the reader is kept in high suspense right from beginning to end. No matter what the title character sees or thinks she sees, hears or thinks she hears we are there alongside, not at all certain ourselves. I agreed to this publisher ARC on the strength of the story being optioned as a forthcoming project from Elizabeth Moss because there is no denying she is an actress who chooses interesting parts. I honestly can't wait to see this book come to life, it already leaps off the page and I genuinely don't think anyone else would have done it justice. I also don't know what Virginia Feito may turn her hand to next but whatever it is, I'm happy to have another go.

“Mrs March” by Virginia Feito is an unusual novel but not really to my liking. The story moves along at a reasonable pace as the eponymous character falls deeper and deeper into her paranoia. The writing style is readable and I’m sure many other readers will find the story fascinating.

This is Virginia’s first novel which, looking at all the other reviews, I’m sure will be successful and I wish her well in her future career.

As I read this book I was reminded of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway which I read some time ago as part of my degree. Both books focus on the individual named in the title and something about the style of writing I found similar. I recall not being particularly enamoured of Woolf’s book and I found myself thinking the same of Mrs March. The first dealt with the events of one single day when Mrs Dalloway was preparing for a party; this novel focuses on the events that occur after Mr March’s latest novel has been published and the path it leads his wife to tread.

I found Mrs Dalloway boring and tedious and I can only apologise for feeling the same way about Mrs March. The only sympathy I had for any of the characters in Mrs March were for Martha the erstwhile ‘help’. As for structure, complexities and language, it just wasn’t a hit for me. I found no humour in it whatsoever. My only positive, I did continue reading until I had completed the book.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.