When I picked up #VictorianPsycho, I had some reservations—#VirginiaFeito’s previous novel, #MrsMarch, had left me cold. In hindsight, maybe I just read it at the wrong time (mood reader problems, anyone?).

But this time, Feito delivers—and what she delivers is a brilliantly twisted story that defies easy comparison. I genuinely can’t think of anything quite like it.

Listening to it at the gym was... an experience. Let’s just say that any audiobook featuring the words “lubrication,” “insertion,” and “elbow” in the same sentence is going to be tough to listen to with a straight face. I can only imagine what people around me thought.

#AnnaBurnett's narration is pitch-perfect—she brings Miss Notty to life in a way that’s both vivid and deeply unsettling.

I have no idea who I’d recommend this book to—but if you're feeling brave, give it a try.

A sneaky little book about a mysterious young woman who definitely does not behave like a proper governess who should instill in her charges good manners, supervise their prayers and teach them French and geography. Instead, Miss Notty sneaks around the house, cuts eyes from the portraits, steals children and kills the unsuspected servants. Gripping, horrible and entertaining at the same time, this is a story of dark compulsions, gruesome secrets and nasty people. But as Miss Notty observes the Pounds, her employers, and their peers, who decides which behaviour is cruel and mean and who the real monsters are?
This is a book that fits neatly into a trend of horrible women in the horror-adjacent novels. The protagonist is weird and yet compelling ( think Wednesday Addams but more bloody) and her allure lies in a complete breaking of rules and conventions. The writing is suffused with equal portions of charm and gore and in places really makes you laugh. (Admittedly it is a sneaky little laugh because a proper guffaw is very much not ladylike.) But as Miss Notty becomes more naughty and the laughs turn into gasps of shock and horror, the reader is left to wonder what makes women turn into proper Victorian psychos.
Many thanks to the publisher and the Netgalley for a free copy of the ebook.

This book is so dark, terrifying, gruesome, and unputdownable. Go blind into this book. This is a twisted atmospheric read with gruesome and sickening details.

Winifred’s character is mysterious and she had an unsettling childhood. While she never felt fear and believes that a demon lived inside her. The description of the Ensor House was eerie. There was something so unsettling and creepy about the house. As soon as Winifred arrives at the house, her story starts to unfold from her present to childhood and growing up. Even the bedtime stories were terrifying in this. Everything that happened and gruesome details kept me on the edge. I felt the pace was medium and the perspective of Winifred kept me engaged throughout the book. There were secrets, mystery and horrifying things. I loved this book.

Thanks to the Publisher and Author.

Having enjoyed Mrs March, I was looking forward to this new novel by Virginia Feito. It begins intriguingly, with elegant and yet sinister prose. As the new Governess to the Pound family, Winifred feels a constant darkness in her and makes references to a bloody past. The book explodes into a bit of an orgy of violence and may prove a little too much for many readers. I’m afraid it did for me.

Set in Victorian England, Victorian Psycho follows young Winifred Notty, a governess with a dubious past and an unusual task in mind. As she arrives at Ensor House to care for the Pounds family's children, her unsettling nature unfolds amidst the bleak and oppressive atmosphere of the mansion.

Feito creates an unusual protagonist who is both horrifying and strangely sympathetic. Through Winifred's sharp observations and unfiltered commentary, Feito adds a layer of dark humour to the narrative that lightens the lingering sense of dread.

With its exploration of themes like revenge, societal hypocrisy, and the darkness within, Victorian Psycho is a great read for fans of a light Victorian Gothic.

Jane Eyre meets American Psycho; I read that tag line and didn't need to know anything else!

Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House in order to become a governess for the two children of the Pound's House. However, it becomes very obvious very quickly that Miss Notty is hiding a secret and the darkness that she has brought to Ensor House soon spills out.

I devoured this novel in one sitting; dark, gory and full of blood Miss Notty is the perfect psycho and I couldn't put the novel down! 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Victorian Psycho follows Winifred Notty, employed as a governess to take care of two horrible children in a horrible household of horrible people, as she descends further and further into a murderous psychotic rage. From the opening pages, I knew I would love this. And I did. Every word of it. It is weird, wild, deliciously macabre, funny and constantly surprising.

From the start, as she approaches and arrives at Ensor House, we realise that Winifred is not your typical Victorian governess.

"Mrs Able opens a short, solitary door. She gestures to it. As I walk inside, the skirt of my dress brushes her limp hand, which she withdraws instantly. Mrs Able, I muse, is a woman who has never held a penis."

Feito takes inspiration from Victorian (and earlier) fiction and non-fiction. There are echoes of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë in the dinner-table conversation, Ann Radcliffe gothic overtones and the bloody violence of sensationalist novels and contemporary newspaper accounts.

The writing is wonderful, from the measured tones that build a vivid picture of the stiflingly decorous Victorian upper class household that one might expect, building gradually to a frenzy as Winifred descends into feral, gory murder.

Victorian Psycho is wild, exhilarating and bloody delicious. I cannot recommend it highly enough, if you've the stomach for it.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher, Fourth Estate, for providing an ARC. All my reviews are 100% honest no matter how I acquire the book.

I absolutely loved this! It was dark, funny, gory and wonderful and I ate it up. Winnifred was a fantastic protagonist and I loved the small ways her psychotic nature would manifest in the early part. The Pound family and their social circle were grotesque in all the best ways and the action builds to a glorious climax. Overall this was an utterly bonkers and fabulous read and I highly recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow! Virginia Feito has done it again! What a fun, dark novella of a truly Victorian pyscho. I loved watching Winifred get away with murder once again and again while she spirals into a deep frenzy, right up until Christmas.

Wow, that was quite something. If you're the sort of person who needs to like your main character, turn away now because Winifred is not remotely likeable, there's no Dexter-ish charm here. Winifred is strange, twisted, prone to fantasies and odd impulses. She also gets away with murder. A lot. Told solely from her point of view her brief, blood-soaked tenure as governess to the Pounds children reads like Dickens and Tarantino got together and decided to write a novel.

All the evils of the Victorian period are laid bare - baby farms, everyday items laced with poison, child neglect, social rigidity and moralistic hypocrisy all go into creating the monster that is Winifred. An absorbing, compelling read not for the faint of heart.

In ‘Mrs March’ Virginia Feito gave us a just a taster of how well she writes about an unravelling woman. But in ‘Victorian Psycho’, the protagonist is clearly beyond unravelled, and verging on the utterly bonkers, from the outset.
Winnifred Notty, new governess to the entitled and bratty Andrew and Drusilla Pounds, is a Tsunami of Psychotic and I love her! Such a fantastic character.
There are strong hints that she’s not the usual demure Victorian Governor - Mary Poppins she’s definitely not. The quote from Jake the Dog in Adventure Time, immediately came to mind - “I’m not cute! I’ll mess you up!”
This book is a darkly humorous gore-fest. Winnifred Notty has a seemingly endless amount of ways to inflict terror, damage and pain. Nevertheless, you can’t help but be on her side as she endures her work at Esnor House for the entitled, pompous and hideous Pounds family .
A solid Five Stars!

On paper, this was the perfect book for me - Gothic, historical, horror, comedy. In execution, I found it ever so slightly lacking. While I loved the setting, the humour, and the writing itself, I didn’t find the ‘reveal’ to be that satisfactory, and felt that the final act came too quickly. I would absolutely read what Virginia Feito reads next, however, and look forward to reading Mrs March at some point! 3.25/5

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Victorian Psycho has the right amount of shock factor, gore and tension. The Victorian setting adds a layer of eeriness to the novel as well. The protagonist is funny, psychotic and well developed.

A really good all rounder for horror lovers. I have nothing bad to say about this.

What can I say about Victorian Psycho other than it is completely insane and a wild ride of twists and turns in a dark Victorian setting.
Brilliant characters with depth to even the minor players and a storyline that kept me guessing throughout

Sure to be the hit of the summer this novel is a blaze of light in its genre. Deftly written, gripping and well plotted this should be the read of the summer.

Possible contender for the most nuts thing I’ll read in 2025, this was exquisitely written – the beauty of the prose contrasting sharply with the grotesquery of the subject matter. The main character is exactly as the title suggests – someone so far on the antisocial personality disorder spectrum that she could rightly be called a psychopath complete with ticks and desires most people would find abhorrent and a complete lack of empathy and remorse. That said, there is method in her madness and it’s an interesting journey to follow her on – an interesting killing spree at least. There are moments of ghoulish dark humour and buried beneath the gore, a meditation on whether or not we all have something monstrous withing and whether women are subjected to a different expected standard than men. This pulls no punches and delights in its slasher style narrative – read in one sitting.

That title! That cover! With my background in Victorian literature and love of all things Gothic, I knew Victorian Psycho would be right up my alley.

I think the best way to describe Victorian Psycho is ‘batshit fucking crazy’. It’s a short book but it packs a serious punch, immedietly drawing us into Notty’s world and mind. Through the madness, Feito writes a refreshing take on Victorian society, class, and the Victorian family.

I think there’s a lot of places in which this book could have fallen flat, but it came together and worked so well. The main reason for this is Notty’s wonderful, totally compelling voice. She’s completely unhinged, but also funny, witty, and extremely charismatic. The decision to write this book in a first person POV was absolutely the correct one – I don’t think it would have worked without the view into Notty’s head.

Victorian Psycho is one for the ‘weird books for weird people’ crowd (like me). This most certainly not be for everyone, but the right reader will love this messed up, compelling, gory tale.

Do not read if you can't stomach violence. Irreverent, weird, ridiculous. If you're a reader who can't get over illogical happenings (I get it), this one probably won't be for you but it worked for me.

It's dark, gruesome, and intense. With that said, it's sometimes difficult to follow the plot. Also, if you're like me and look for someone to relate to, you won't find it here.

A grim and compelling gothic story about a governess wreaking havoc at a stately home where she has been employed to teach the two children, Andrew and Drusilla. Written very much in the style of a Victorian novel, it is quick to read and guesomely engaging.

With thanks to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.