Very different to my usual kind of read – and strangely compelling!

Mrs March reaps the rewards of her husband’s successful career as a novelist. Living in a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side she thrives on the attention his latest book brings her way. Calling in at her favourite bakery each morning, she is upset at the staff’s assumption that his main character – a prostitute, no less – is based on his wife. That’s her last visit to the shop, depriving her of her favourite olive bread each day. As she begins to probe, she realises there are more thing she isn’t aware of.

Mrs March – I wondered if we’d ever get to find out her first name – is a bit of a lonely creature. I wasn’t sure of the period this was set in; the lady herself is either living in or is a product of the 1950’s and 1960’s. With rigid ideas on the proper way of doing things, she sticks to her fur coat and dated style. Doing things properly is very important to her. Notably, while she thrives of the fame and fortune her husband’s new book brings, she doesn’t actually read it herself. As the story progresses we live inside the mind of Mrs March, and a rather weird place it is to be. With spots of humour, this is a cleverly constructed novel which keeps the reader on their toes and quite unable to put it down. I can’t put my finger on what made me stay with this one, but it is not easily forgotten. For me, this is a four star read.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

This stellar debut novel by Spanish author Virginia Feito tells the story of Upper East Side housewife Mrs March, who begins to unravel when she suspects that the detestable protagonist in her writer husband’s latest novel is based on her.

It’s a thriller noir, set in New York in some unspecified pre-technology period of time (in my head it was 1950s/60s though it could be earlier/later?).

I was drawn in from the first page and found it totally unputdownable. It was one of those books that I wanted to pick up every spare few minutes that I had. It’s a masterpiece in character writing.

The atmosphere is claustrophobic and unsettling. The reader lives and breathes Mrs March and her insidious paranoia (she is referred to as Mrs March throughout the book - we only find out her name on the last page, which I loved). The descriptions of her clothing, her apartment and NYC are cinematic and redolent of another era.

Superbly executed, I actually gasped while reading it 😯. The humour is wickedly dark. If you’re a fan of a slow burn character-driven psychological thriller, pick this one up when it’s published next month. If you love Mad Men, Patricia Highsmith and Alfred Hitchcock, this will be right up your street.

If you’ve followed me a while, you’ll know I don’t give many 5 stars (maybe one a month), but this one is certainly worthy. 5/5 ⭐️

**Mrs March will be published on 11 August 2021. I read an advance digital copy of this book courtesy of the publishers @4thestatebooks via @netgalley (thanks to the publisher and author for the copy). As always, this is an honest review.**

Mrs March is married to bestselling author, George March, who she met while she was a student. George has a daughter, Paulette, from his previous marriage, who lives in London. Resentful of her stepdaughter, Mrs March has son Jonathan, now eight, an elegant apartment – complete with housekeeper – and enjoys the wealth and status that George’s career gives her. However, a chance remark in a bakery throws her existence into doubt.

It is interesting that the book on Mrs March’s bedside table is “Rebecca,” as the leading character in this novel remains ‘Mrs March,’ defined by her marriage, her mother, and, as the novel unfolds, by her relationships to others, rather as herself. She is, undoubtedly, an unreliable narrator, but when she is asked whether the character in George March’s new novel is based on her, Mrs March is horrified. For the main character in her husbands latest, and very successful novel, is Johanna – wanton and unwanted.

As we follow Mrs March on her descent into delusion, despair, and hysteria, we learn of how she met George, a promising author, considering the most attractive man on campus. How she listened to his ideas, acted as his sounding board, and supported him. Recently though, less interested, she has only skimmed the draft of his recent work and finds herself obsessed by this innocuous statement. Of course, once the statement has been made, Mrs March finds the book everywhere – in shopping trolleys, being read aloud in a restaurant, and she imagines that everyone is aware that she is Johanna and are sharing the joke. Looking for clues, Mrs March is even reduced to searching George’s study, where she comes across a news article on a missing woman close to a hunting lodge that George visits, which increases her suspicions about George’s motives and behaviour.

This novel has some excellent scenes – I thought the party, near the beginning of the book, worked particularly well. Mrs March is obviously a damaged woman, and this is a disturbing novel. The author has been compared to some of my favourite writers, which I never think serves anybody well. The comparison is more in style, but much of this reminded me of Mrs Dalloway, with the snippets of Mrs March in a restaurant, department style, school office. I think this would be a good choice for reading groups, as there is a lot to explore. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I absolutely loved this book, I couldn’t wait to keep reading it! Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Mrs March is a darkly humorous tale of paranoia and a slow descent into madness. The story was beautifully written, with descriptions which conjured up images of Mrs March and her world perfectly. I found myself questioning what was real and trying to work out the truth; my curiosity was piqued from the beginning. This is an excellent book and I can wholeheartedly recommend this to fans of Shirley Jackson, psychological suspense novels and those who appreciate dark humour.

The blurb for Mrs. March (2021) evokes Ottessa Moshfegh, Shirley Jackson and My Sister, the Serial Killer and it was this which made me keen to read it.

The taut opening is splendid and I was primed for a dark, tense, psychological domestic noir.

Whilst always interesting and intriguing the early promise unravels as extraneous details and superfluous background information detract from the central narrative. There's still plenty to enjoy in this claustrophobic tale of paranoia and psychic breakdown however it would work better as a streamlined novella or short story.

I really enjoyed Mrs March. Reading it was like being reminded of several other novels. In the beginning we meet Mrs March — a rich New York wife who lives in Upper East Side, very supportive of her husband George who is an author, loves hosting soirees and browsing bookshops — I was immediately reminded of Mrs Dalloway (also probably because of the Mrs in the title). Soon enough the book gets darker; very dark in fact; and I was reminded of the claustrophobic stillness and paranoia in Rebecca and The Yellow Wallpaper. The novel brims with secrets and the protagonist reveals only so much. At times you want to scream at her 'What are you doing/thinking' but you follow along any way to see what she is upto with her bizarre theories.

The plot line is quite simple. When Mrs March finds out that her husband's magnus opus features her as the unlikeable protagonist, she is shocked. How could she be 'her'? And why does all the readers know it? She is the perfect wife. So how could this happen? Mrs March begins to observe her husband more closely — she finds lies, sudden disappearances in the name of writing, and news articles that correspond to his time away from home. She dons a detective hat while being on shaky ground in her marriage and life. It is the writing, the reveals and hidden info that gets to your head and keeps you interested in the story.

Read this for the fine spiralling into paranoia, the anxiety and fear that cripple the female mind , the suspicion and questions that build up, the story building in mind which might be far fetched from reality. A lovely portrait of a wife. Virginia Feito is a good writer indeed.

I have to admit that I gave up on this one about halfway through as I wasn't enjoying it and life is too short! It's strange as I LOVED it to start with. In the beginning, when the woman in the bakers shop revealed what she thought about the protagonist of Mr March's latest novel, I thought it was a touch of genius. It really captivated me. I really thought it was something special and perhaps it is. But by halfway through, I found that it was a) too slow and b) I didn't care enough about Mrs March and what happens to her. I feel like the style of this book keeps me at a distance from the protagonist - probably deliberately so - and that this makes me care about her less. Even calling her Mrs March all the way through rather than letting us know what her first name is serves to distance her from the reader. The writing is excellent though - it's just a shame this one wasn't for me.

This was a very addictive story that I found myself becoming completely absorbed in and I really loved it.
It’s a very disturbing read as it becomes clear the main character of Mrs March
is slowly losing her grip on reality but is everything she is imagining all in her head or are strange thing’s really happening this is part of the mystery to solve and oh it’s a compelling read. The writing in this book was just superb it captivated my imagination as Mrs March’s behaviour became more and more erratic and her slow disintegration into mania took over her life.
This was a book that was a hard read in some ways, hard because I felt so much for Mrs March but because the story was so beautifully and cleverly written it was also a read that I just couldn’t put down and also at times there was a lot of humour in the writing.
So I loved the book it was much more that I had expected and very different I believe it’s going to be a movie also and I look forward to that very much, many thanks to Virginia Feito for an amazing read.
My thanks also to NetGalley and 4th Estate, William Collins for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a deliciously dark chronicle of the descent of a woman into madness. Frosty, and sharp but riddled with self-doubt Mrs March is at the centre of New Yorks decadent, luxurious 1950's (?) clique thanks to her husband, a celebrated author, until off-hand comments about a character in his new novel send her hurtling down a spiral of paranoia and delusion. It's hard to 'like' Mrs March - she's aloof and detached from the outset, but her unravelling is written with such a dark, comic noir touch it reads like a melodramatic film noir which may not be everyones taste, but I loved it!

I confess that I got nearly half way through Mrs March and then had to discard it. I had tried hard to like it, and there were elements I was enjoying. But ultimately it couldn’t decide if it was a thriller or a darkly comic novel. In the end nothing could convince me to care for Mrs March as the protagonist in her increasing paranoia. The book was neither educational nor entertaining.

I definitely got vibes of Mrs Dalloway mashed up with The Bell Jar and told in Patricia Highsmith's matter-of-fact prose. The pressures of class and gender work on Mrs March (always that Mrs) till we get to a predictable Roald Dahl ending. I've seen ecstatic reviews so am disappointed to be lukewarm here but I never really connected with the character and the distanced prose with minimal dialogue didn't help, as well as this being pretty well trodden ground. *Love* that cover, though :)

Mrs, March doesn't have a first name. She's a tightly controlled person, living a wealthy, privileged life, married to a famous novelist. One morning, she sets off to buy her favourite olive bread from her favourite patissier, who remarks that the woman in her husband George's novel reminds her of Mrs. March. The character the patissier refers to is a prostitute.
So begins the unravelling of Mrs. March. Her well ordered, pristine life starts to fall apart. Are there really cockroaches in the bathroom? She spirals further and further into psychosis as she imagines the worst about her husband and her seemingly perfect life.

Virginia Feito captures the rigidity of Mrs. March's life to perfection. The slow slide into madness is expertly done, and the sense of isolation and emotional distance is maintained throughout the novel. It is impossible to get close to Mrs. March, or feel empathy for her. It's as though she exists behind glass, slowly falling apart with nowhere to go and no one able to reach out to her. She simply won't allow it.

It's an uncomfortable novel but well worth the effort.

It’s very rare that I simply give up on a book but I had to give this one up half way through. It simply wasn’t for me. I just didn’t get the point of it all. I’ve read the glowing reviews and wondered if we were reading the same book! Mrs March is a unlikeable, mentally unstable woman, I can’t think of anything good to say about her and my disinterest was such that I couldn’t even be bothered to skip through the book so see the ending.

Deeply unsettling, creepy exploration of a woman's unravelling.
Set in a New York somewhere since the 1950s, this third person novel follows Mrs March as she goes about her increasingly terrifying daily life. It's a life of privilege, on the face of it, married to a famous novelist, household staff, catering, private schooling for her son, but things go from feeling subtly out of kilter through mild paranoia to something quite different.
The writing is brilliant, ensuring that you experience Mrs March only from her perspective, and experience other people from Mrs March's perspective (a lot of times this is Mrs March's solipsistic view of what others are thinking about her).
I could not tell where this would end up, and yet when the perfect denouement arrives, it seems like an inevitable outcome.







thanks to Netgalley and 4th estate for an ARC.

An interesting read Well-written, an uncomfortable descent into madness. An unlikeable yet compelling main character, watching her slowly unravel is akin to watching a car crash. I actually enjoyed the ambiguity, the character with no name, the ambiguous time period. It won’t be for everyone, but I look forward to talking about it with customers. A great book club choice.

Mrs March is a superbly haunting read that i demolished with an ever increasing dread, beautifully atmospheric. Mrs March is the ultimate unreliable narrator as we are taken on an intimate journey of self destruction with her inner voice, seeing her paranoia, anxieties and dissociative behaviours playing out on those around her with devastating consequences.

Both darkly funny and unrelentingly sad the characters are beautifully drawn creating a very engaging, almost dream like novel. A very clever read, one that will stay with me for a long time.

This highly accomplished book has the makings of a modern classic. The eponymous heroine, Mrs March, is the stay at home wife of a highly acclaimed novelist. Evidently snobbish, highly introspective, privileged and judgemental of other people, she is seemingly nudged into psychosis and madness by a casual remark by a reader of her husband’s latest book that the heroine is based on her, a comparison that could not be more unflattering. For Mrs March, whose first name is not revealed until the end, her identity and way of life are inextricably linked to her being the wife of a famous novelist, though significantly, she is a younger second wife who he married after an affair. Obsessed with status and living an unfulfilled life, she interprets the unravelling of her life and unusual events around her in a highly paranoid way indicative of an overactive imagination. The setting, the formality of her always being referred to as Mrs March and her mindset makes you think of it as set in a pre-feminist era, yet there are other features that place it firmly in a much later era. A book to return to and a great book for a book club discussion.

It’s a long time since I have been so confused and conflicted about a novel. It is a well written story, it’s just I’m not sure what the real story is. It could be a parody or an imitation of some 1930’s novels or is it woman’s descent into paranoia or early dementia?
It is impossible to set it in any time frame by using the usual clues and this is obviously deliberate. It does mean that the reader, like Mrs March, has nothing familiar to grasp at to anchor the story in a particular period of time.
I am assuming it is about a world that seems to be unravelling and the Mrs March’s attempts to hold on to what she thinks is reality. So the final question is was the ending in her imagination or did she really?

I really tried to enjoy it but in the end found it too long and boring. I admit I skimmed through the second half of it because it wasn't going anywhere! It's a shame - I appreciated the setting, and the characters were well thought of, it just needed to deliver the punch much sooner!

The venerable but gossipy New York literary scene is twisted into a claustrophobic funhouse of paranoia, horror, and wickedly dark humour. George March’s latest novel is a smash. No one is prouder than Mrs March, his doting wife. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favourite patisserie suggests that his protagonist is based on Mrs March herself: “But . . . ―isn't she . . .’ Mrs March leaned in and in almost a whisper said, ‘a whore?” Clutching her ostrich leather pocketbook, she flees, that one casual remark destroying her belief that she knew everything about her husband―as well as herself.

"Mrs March" by Virginia Feito is a tome about a wealthy housewife who loses her grip on reality. Mrs March is an unreliable narrator. Are the events real, or a product of her inner turmoil and descent into madness? This riveting, unputdownable, debut novel has been optioned for a cinematic adaptation. I am excited! Highly recommended.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.