I’ve seen Mrs March described as a ‘twisted Mrs Dalloway’ and I can understand why. Mrs March is married to the famous writer George March. His latest bestseller features an ugly and unpleasant prostitute and when someone suggests to Mrs March that the character is based on her, her paranoia grows and her grip on reality starts to slip.

This is a wonderful character study of a mind in freefall and also a chilling exploration of the darkness that so many of us hide underneath a veneer of respectability. The novel references Woolf, Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson and is equal to all of them. Feito has created an unforgettable character and a disquieting and compelling reading experience. It’s amazing to think that this is her debut.

Mrs. March is a look at the wife of writer George March following the publishing of his latest novel. The initial scene is Mrs. March heading into the local bakery where she purchased their breakfast items and treats. The woman who works there casually states that she is reading his latest work and asks how Mrs. March feels having the protagonist be modeled after herself. UMMM....Mrs. March did not know what to say because she hadn't read the book, but did know that the main character is a "whore whose clients refuse to sleep with her". Obviously, this awakening freaks her out just a bit and makes her justifiably angry. She is a complex character who seems to see and imagine herself in the spotlight at all times.
To me, this book was good but I'm not a huge fan of the unreliable narrator and this is told solely through the thoughts and actions of Mrs. March. It also came to a somewhat predictable ending.
I am certain that many readers will love this and it will be well loved. I am in the "it was okay" crowd of less enthusiastic, but more due to my personal tastes than anything wrong with the writing. The writing was good and the pacing was well done.
#MrsMarch #NetGalley #FourthEstate #WilliamCollins

This book has enjoyed a lot of hype on Twitter so I was very grateful to NetGalley, Fourth Estate Books and William Collins for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of Mrs March - always referred to as Mrs March and never informally - who is a wealthy woman living in New York's Upper East Side with her successful novelist husband, George, and their son. The time period isn't revealed, but we are in a pre-internet world where women don't work and host cocktail parties and wear formal gloves in the street. Mrs March seems to love her comfortable existence and keeping up of appearances...right up until a woman in a shop makes a comment about George's latest novel.

The comment is that the heroine of the novel, Johanna (a prostitute), is clearly based on Mrs March and it is this - not cruelly intended - that leads to Mrs March's unravelling. She becomes obsessed that George isn't the man she thought and begins to be preoccupied by some very dark ideas about him. Her mental state deteriorates and the reader is party to Mrs March's increasingly unstable thought processes.

This is all very cleverly presented and the reader is left unsure as to what is real and what is the product of Mrs March's disturbed imagination. Some of what she experiences is genuinely horrific - including an infestation of cockroaches and gory versions of herself - but a lot is deeply unnerving. We hear about paintings altering and wonder - along with Mrs March - whether this is George's plan to undermine her sanity. We see other characters' reactions to Mrs March and feel the disconnection between these and the way she seems to think she is presenting herself. It is really cleverly written and very unsettling - and the dark humour adds to this sense throughout.

As a result of the unreliable narration and the truly bizarre occurences, this is a tricky book to read. Although I was caught up in the story and genuinely keen to see where it was headed, I did find that it felt very fragmented and uneven at times. The second half of the novel really gather pace though, so I was very happy to see it through to the finale.

Overall, I'd recommend this to readers of literary fiction who are prepared to go with the flow - the novel takes some interesting twists and the readers needs to be prepared to be carried along into Mrs March's deepest obsessions and darkest thoughts. This isn't for readers who deal in absolutes as there is a lot of ambiguity in the book. This is an unusual but rewarding book - and an interesting portrait of a woman living in a world of facades, caught between social expectation and mental illness.

Despite the serious issues of dependence, deceit and spousal cruelty this novel raises, I loved reading ‘Mrs March’ as it is written in such eloquent, exquisite style. Unsurprisingly, the protagonist is Mrs March, a woman whose marriage to a successful novelist and subservience to her privileged and affluent New York society surroundings seem to have erased her identity. More surprisingly is that she does not appear to have a first name (or rather, a first name not revealed until the last breaths of this novel), and that, although mother to 8 year old-Jonathan, Mrs March is never described as maternal either. A chance conversation with a local shopkeeper, who surmises that Mrs March’s successful novelist husband must have based his latest literary protagonist on her, sets in chain Mrs March’s destructive spiral into despondency, delusion, and destructive paranoia. Her surname (with its inference to the Ides of March, a date in the Roman calendar that signified celebrations and conviviality), appears crueller the more desperate she becomes….This fictional character portrait and the scenes in New York were so well-drawn that I was amazed that this book is a debut, published by an author who does not in fact hail from New York but has lived in Madrid, Paris and London. I cannot wait to see what Virgina Feito will write next. This novel is definitely recommended!
My thanks go to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC they let me have in return for this honest and unbiased review.

"Nastily good fun" screams the review from Metro. "....darkly funny..." states the Amazon introduction. I don't go along with either of these epithets but I do agree that it is "..full of suspense and paranoia.."

This is the story of Mrs March, who remains a formal character without a christian name who is married to successful author George March. He has penned a novel, at the heart of which he depicts a rather unprepossessing and vapid prostitute. As the novel opens, Mrs March is at her local deli ordering her staple olive bread, when she is alerted to the possibility that the character in her husband's novel might just be based on herself. This sends her into a dizzy spin and the ripple effect of this understanding informs the trajectory of the novel.

The inner workings of her mind are gradually revealed. She hosts a party for her husband and his novel in their apartment, where they entertain the friends, hangers-on and some ghastly people from the publishing world. She views the whole proceedings through narrowed eyes before she retreats from the mêlée. She is convinced her husband has had something to do with the death of a young woman in Maine. Paintings rearrange themselves and appear unfamiliar - yet nothing has changed, but the way she perceives people and life around her certainly has. She goes shopping and wonders if she is being assessed by those with whom she has contact; this is paranoia writ large.

She does all the usual, mundane things that would preoccupy a well-to-do woman win her milieu. Her inner ills start to be projected out onto insects, the cockroaches are manifestations of inner turmoil. She is in fact demonstrating all the signs of being one of Freud's erstwhile 'hysterics', a condition which is now termed conversion disorder. This is the outward manifestation of inner distress, attributable to a past, traumatic event. Indeed, the author alludes to something possibly untoward when Mrs March, as a young teenager, found herself in Cadiz on holiday with her family - it is never spelled out, but there is perhaps a reason for including the random trip to Spain.

There is dark humour and there are many astute observations, but overall this is a woman teetering on the edge of psychological disintegration and so I cannot countenance that the novel is nastily good fun as per Metro's description. As a reader, we enter into her world and start to perceive the mental workings of someone whose thought processes are several degrees out of kilter.

There has been discussion about the era in which it is set. The style and much of the description feel as though the narrative is set in the 1950s, but given that Mrs March offers her credit card details over the phone and there is mention of a microwave, it feels more that the author has added to the discombobulation by messing with time.

I imagine Mrs March is not given a christian name to keep the audience at a distance, in the manner of Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt - the reader is not invited in too closely, so that that her story can be appreciated objectively. Do we ever really know who the real Mrs March is?

This is a starkly coloured and propulsive story of distress and dislocation that can, at times, be disturbing and depressing. It is very well written and a very solid debut. Elizabeth Moss will be starring in the big screen adaptation.

Hoo boy! That was one crazy ride! This is one lady with an awful lot of problems! I felt like I was with her all the way down in one spiralling trip to the land of Madness. This was a hard book to put down and was devilishly good. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Well, this I really enjoyed. Honestly, at first I was a little put off, feeling that I was reading something that felt like Mad Men, however, something clicked for me - the temerity of Mrs March morphs into a strength that just carried the novel for me. Razor sharp wit, the way Mrs March reviews her life, the 'characters' around her - brilliant. The blurb for this reads Shirley Jackson meets My Sister The Serial Killer and this is that with so much more. Definitely an author I will keep an eye out for more from and a recommendation to others as well.

Mrs March takes us into her head, back to her childhood, forward through her insecurities and into an increasingly disturbing mind. The wife of a celebrated author, she is horrified to think that he may have based his latest character on her and she becomes convinced that everyone is talking about it. Darkly funny, cruelly observant, this is a book that takes you by the lapels and grips you until the end.

I was so excited about this book and it did not disappoint!

Mrs March was described as Shirley Jackson meets Ottessa Moshfegh meets My Sister the Serial Killer and I love all of these things. I also read straight away that it was being made into a film starring Elisabeth Moss. This book is going to make such a fantastic film.

Mrs March is dark and gripping and an up-put-downable descent into madness. I read it in two days but could easily have read it in one sitting.

I can’t believe this is a debut - I’ll be recommending it to everyone this year

This is one of those books that you cant help but enjoy. It was a pleasure to read. Mrs March the main protagonist seemed to come to life. In most of our families there is one character we cant understand, perhaps a little 'odd' but they just go about their lives.
Mrs March had survived in life so far but her life was complicated. Mrs March's husband George was a successful crime writer and then she started trying to solve a mystery about him. What part of this story is in her imagination is sometimes difficult to work out.
We never even find out the first name of Mrs March, she is an enigma.
The character Mrs March is so believable she almost pervades from the book. I felt I could imagine everything about her and that is not always something easily achieved. I found this book an easy read that was always a pleasure to pick up again. There was no way I could have worked out an ending myself, so I knew I would have to get to the end.

This book would make a great present for a friend, especially someone who is bored.

Very much enjoyed this psychological study of Mrs March as her life unravels; Feito offers what feels like a real insight into the character’s mental state as she starts to question her husband and their relationship after he (possibly) bases the central and unappealing character of his latest novel on her.
There is an element of a thriller to this as mrs March (unnamed until the end) starts to investigate her suspicions, but there is a significant disconnect between her experience and others, and this is where the novel is best for me.

Can’t wait to see Elizabeth Moss play Mrs March!

*Many thanks to Virginia Feito, 4th Estate William Collins, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
Definitely a disturbing read, with a complicated character, whose name we learn in the last sentence of the novel. Opening of the book brings to mind a famous novel by Virginia Wolf, however, several pages into it and we know this book has its own life.
Mrs March, whose husband has just published a book everybody's reading, is cold and distant, probably the effect of the upbringing. A casual remark she hears changes her and unleashes events leading to a tragic finale.
I was intrigued by the period, it is hard to define, but the clothes and hairstyles and some hints would place it in the mid-sixties. Not much is offered to make a reader feel for Mrs March, though she deserves sympathy after the truth about her childhood is revealed.
A solid debut.

An interesting read. I thought I would choose a different type of book to my usual choices but I really couldn't connect with it. I found the first half a bit tedious and read the rest out of fairness to the author. I'm sure some readers will adore this book, but not for me.

Mrs March was a woman of routine. Each day she would venture to her favourite shop for the best olive bread that she had ever tasted, but today would put her on a new course in her life and destroy everything that she had accepted in the past. Mr March, her highly successful best selling author husband, had just released a new novel, which was rapidly becoming known as his best book yet. She was thrilled to be living in the glory of his success, especially entertaining their high society and well-known friends, along with the prestige that came with it.

She had skimmed the book but not read it herself, so when the shopkeeper asked her if the protagonist was based on her, she began to look at the smiling people more as laughing at her. Mr March’s story was about an ageing and less desirable prostitute. How could he do this to her after all she had given up for him!

Oh wow! What a beauty this is. Mrs March is quite a character, with all of the story being told from how she sees the people around her react. Set in the 1950s, the era is perfectly captured by author Virginia Feito, who has made it into a very visual and captivating story. It is a story that plays with your mind and makes you doubt every character in every chapter. It is wickedly devilish.

When Mrs March makes a shocking discovery, it throws a whole new light on Mr March and sends Mrs March on a mission. Is she onto something? Is she crazy? Or was I? I didn’t know anymore. A perfect build-up to a mind-blowing end. I cannot wait until the movie is released. Yes, the movie. It will be a belter!

I wish to thank 4th Estate Books for inviting me to read and review this book which I have reviewed honestly.

Mrs .March by Virginia Feito is a very dark, yet funny and also haunting novel. I hadn't known what to expect when I started the first page but I was very quickly hooked. Mrs. March is married to Mr. March, a writer. Her life at first is simple and mundane. She follows the same daily pattern until one day, while purchasing her daily bread at the patisserie, she is told that one of characters of her husbands novels seems to be based on her. Until then she never really understood his writing but this stimulus sets her off on a voyage of discovery which leads her to ask the questions, does she really know her husband at all.
This book was so well written, intriguing throughout. I really couldn't put it down. It was dark and mysterious, a real page turner.

I will update the review with a link to our blog closer to publication date.
I'd like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I reviewed this clever, sometimes disturbing book in my podcast with Liz Jones for Mail+ I have recommended this as a perfect book club book as there is so much to think about and discuss. The character is not very likeable, (although I did feel sorry for her frequently) but her thought processes and her relationships kept me locked in. Defo an author to watch and I look forward to the film!

This novel creates terror just by suggesting what our mind is capable of. Overthinking and coming to farfetched, incorrect conclusions, is something most of us are guilty of. For Mrs March, this affliction evolves into something consuming, propelling this prim, socially-conscious woman into acts of solid treachery.

I had gone into this expecting historical fiction, however it was incredibly difficult to pinpoint a decade. Mentions of dishwashers and other modern items confused me, whilst Mrs March’s socialite status and fixation felt older than a microwave would suggest. I’m still pondering this, but also enjoying the sensation of the indefinite time period.

Feito refers to our protagonist as Mrs March throughout the pages, with no mention of her first name, which creates a feeling of separation. She’s a flawed, unlikable character, and it’s difficult to support her decisions and actions. Obsessed with reputation and aesthetic, she uses her life simply to impress others, and garner their respect and admiration. She believes people are laughing at her, judging her, and continues her interminable quest to gain the approval of New York.

Initially, Mrs March’s whims and odd behaviour can be easily understood as those of a woman who, rightly or wrongly, is desperate for admiration and awe. It soon becomes clear these actions could be attributed to a mental illness, something causing hallucinations and wild assumptions. My original feelings of distaste for this woman quite quickly turned to pity and heartbreak. She’s incredibly misunderstood, in need of help with no friends to give it to her. Feito’s slow burn approach of changing our minds on this character is wonderful; the realisation hits like a bus, and when we discover what we’re dealing with it’s far, far too late.

And the finale is quite simply a chef’s kiss. This isn’t the type of book which would benefit from a clear, well-explained ending, and Feito doesn’t give this to us. Mrs March remains the equivocal, unresolved character we first encountered, and the culmination of our time with her bears those same qualities.

Unsettling, dubious, and with a subtle tone of voyeurism, this is a stunning, disturbing and compelling debut. I truly hope Feito blesses us with another of her creations in future.

Mrs March may be the strangest book I've read in a while. It's difficult to pigeonhole it and stick labels to it. It simply defies reasonable logic which is why it has taken me so long to review it and why it's so delicious to read.

There are no rules here. Mrs March is an unraveling woman making her wholly entertaining for us, the readers, as we watch her spiral out of society-defined norms. It's almost a guilty read as we gawk at her antics and wonder where it could all lead. Where it leads is not difficult to suss out but the journey there is quite a perilous one.

I went to bed early on more than one night so as to dive back into the off-kilter world of Mrs March. I am beyond thrilled Elizabeth Moss is making her into a film as no one can do tortured and expressive facial ticks quite like the talented Ms. Moss. A great read so worth the time. I couldn't recommend this more.

George March has a new book published, its his magnum opus and well on its way into the best seller list. When Patricia at the bakery dares to suggest to Mrs March that surely the main character is based on herself and yet isn’t Johanna a whore??? Mrs March is horrified and vows never to buy her pastries there again. The following day the couple host a pre Christmas party for the great and good of the literati world where Mrs March fears they are talking about her and far worse, laughing at her. ‘Do you think she knows? About Johanna?’ .... this is the straw that broke the camels back as she sinks into despair and paranoia as she loses her grip on reality.

Wow. What an excellent debut which is an absorbing read but which also makes you feel uneasy in a number of ways. It’s a character driven dark exploration of someone’s mind as she veers and swings from manic with her mind in overdrive as she becomes increasingly suspicious of George and then she’s almost passive, fearful and lacking in confidence. There are some vivid scenes such as the party which is the catalyst to what follows and at times it’s difficult to know what is illusion and delusion. Mrs March has a disturbing past and that too adds to the unsettling feel. You are desperately sorry for her as she’s so alone, excluded and has been all her life. We don’t even know her Christian name until the end which makes her an appendage to George rather than a person in her own right which is clever. . Who exactly is Mrs March?? It’s not only her character that disturbs as so does her eight year old son Jonathan, what is going on there???? George is more peripheral but is absolutely key to the ensuing events as you wonder too, exactly what is George guilty of? I enjoy puzzling the time frame too, the brilliant cover suggests 1950’s and early 1960’s and this adds to the whole intriguing puzzle. The ending is very good and like what has gone before leaves you full of disquiet and unnerved. This is one book I will not forget and it’ll be fascinating to see how Elisabeth Moss portrays her.

Overall, this is a very compelling book as it has so many facets to it from the exploration of a troubled mind based on past and present events, to a chaotic life with growing suspicions of her husband which builds and builds to a dramatic conclusion. It’s clear that as a writer Virginia Feito is going places.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to 4th Estate and William Collins for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.