A young woman arrives at an English manor house to work as their governess, but she has a secret agenda…
This is one of those books I kept seeing on everyone’s list of favorite books, so I finally read it.
It took me a while to get into it because this book is so visceral and the main character is so unhinged.
For example, upon meeting the housekeeper at her new place of employment as a governess, she remarks that the housekeeper’s hand “has never held a penis.”
WTF does that have to do with anything?
But I decided to give this book a chance to win me over, and sure enough, it succeeded.
As I write this, it’s been a few weeks since I finished reading it and I look back on it as one of the best books I’ve read in a while.
It is very visceral and gross. If you don’t like blood or body horror, stay far away from this book.
The main character has found employment as a governess at the country estate of a wealthy family in the process of raising a boy and a girl, both entitled little shits.
The mother is miserable and cruel to just about everyone, including our Winifred Notty, our main character.
The father is cruel to everyone but the Miss Notty, with whom he flirts shamelessly, even in front of his wife.
Miss Notty does appear to be truly psychotic, having poisoned all her classmates as a child just to see what would happen.
In the course of the book she kills several other servants working for the family and a baby.
She must be an expert at getting blood stains out of clothing because no one ever suspects her of murder. They just don’t like her and they can’t quite put their finger on why.
The book is full of jokes about Jane Eyre and other gothic tales of unfortunate governesses. Miss Notty’s employer constantly hitting on her is a big one, as are her regular stops to address the reader as Reader.
It’s also a story about men taking advantage of women and driving them crazy.
SPOILER 🚨
We find out towards the end of the book that Mr. Pounds is Winifred’s biological father. Not only did he abandon Winifred and her mother, but he wrote letters to her mother telling her she should kill their bastard daughter because she’s such an abomination.
So Winifred’s mother goes on to marry another man, who is also terrible, until Winifred’s mother dies under mysterious circumstances…
Mr. Pounds’s first wife also died under mysterious circumstances, and there are comments about her lacking sanity and how hard that was on poor Mr. Pounds 🤮
This book by Virginia Feito is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re looking for a bloody revenge story with a side of humor, this one’s for you.