Thrillers & Suspense
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Mrs. March: A Novel
"I read Virginia's novel in one sitting and was so captured by it I knew I had to make it and play Mrs. March. As a character, she is fascinating, complex, and deeply human and I can't wait to sink my teeth into her." ―Elisabeth Moss
A Jenny Lawson "Fantastic Strangeling Book Club" Selection
Oprah Daily • Best of the Month
USA Today • Books Not to Miss
Who is Mrs. March?
George March's latest novel is a smash. No one could be prouder than his dutiful wife, Mrs. March, who revels in his accolades. A careful creature of routine and decorum, she lives a precariously controlled existence on the Upper East Side until one morning, when the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that her husband's latest protagonist―a detestable character named Johanna―is based on Mrs. March herself. Clutching her ostrich leather pocketbook and mint-colored gloves, she flees the shop. What could have merited this humiliation?
That one casual remark robs Mrs. March of the belief that she knew everything about her husband―and herself―thus sending her on an increasingly paranoid journey that begins within the pages of a book. While snooping in George's office, Mrs. March finds a newspaper clipping about a missing woman. Did George have anything to do with her disappearance? He's been going on a lot of "hunting trips" up north with his editor lately, leaving Mrs. March all alone at night with her tormented thoughts, and the cockroaches that have suddenly started to appear, and strange breathing noises . . . As she begins to decode her husband's secrets, her deafening anxiety and fierce determination threaten everyone in her wake―including her stoic housekeeper, Martha, and her unobtrusive son, Jonathan, whom she loves so profoundly, when she remembers to love him at all.
Combining a Hitchcockian sensibility with wickedly dark humor, Virginia Feito, a brilliantly talented and, at times, mischievous newcomer, offers a razor-sharp exploration of the fragility of identity. A mesmerizing novel of psychological suspense and casebook insecurity turned full-blown neurosis, Mrs. March will have you second-guessing your own seemingly familiar reflection in the mirror.
A Jenny Lawson "Fantastic Strangeling Book Club" Selection
Oprah Daily • Best of the Month
USA Today • Books Not to Miss
Who is Mrs. March?
George March's latest novel is a smash. No one could be prouder than his dutiful wife, Mrs. March, who revels in his accolades. A careful creature of routine and decorum, she lives a precariously controlled existence on the Upper East Side until one morning, when the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that her husband's latest protagonist―a detestable character named Johanna―is based on Mrs. March herself. Clutching her ostrich leather pocketbook and mint-colored gloves, she flees the shop. What could have merited this humiliation?
That one casual remark robs Mrs. March of the belief that she knew everything about her husband―and herself―thus sending her on an increasingly paranoid journey that begins within the pages of a book. While snooping in George's office, Mrs. March finds a newspaper clipping about a missing woman. Did George have anything to do with her disappearance? He's been going on a lot of "hunting trips" up north with his editor lately, leaving Mrs. March all alone at night with her tormented thoughts, and the cockroaches that have suddenly started to appear, and strange breathing noises . . . As she begins to decode her husband's secrets, her deafening anxiety and fierce determination threaten everyone in her wake―including her stoic housekeeper, Martha, and her unobtrusive son, Jonathan, whom she loves so profoundly, when she remembers to love him at all.
Combining a Hitchcockian sensibility with wickedly dark humor, Virginia Feito, a brilliantly talented and, at times, mischievous newcomer, offers a razor-sharp exploration of the fragility of identity. A mesmerizing novel of psychological suspense and casebook insecurity turned full-blown neurosis, Mrs. March will have you second-guessing your own seemingly familiar reflection in the mirror.
Editorial Reviews
"[Feito] manages to capture this world entirely, while simultaneously ratcheting up the tension caused by Mrs. March's increasingly fractured psyche, in a way that recalls novels by Patricia Highsmith and Margaret Millar. And like these predecessors, Feito explores issues of autonomy, insecurity and madness, all wrapped up in the domestic life of a housewife whose whole being has been shaped and molded by how she believes others view her. Feito works hard to make sure readers know that there is something amiss in this character's fragile mind.... The final pages are shocking... readers may find themselves tempted to return to the beginning in order to understand just what Feito has so convincingly managed to achieve within her accomplished debut."
― Christine Mangan, New York Times Book Review
"Essential reading for the social media era.... [A] brilliant debut novel.... A brilliantly tense psychological study from a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes – Du Maurier, for one.... It's also a fine addition to the current wave of feminist-inflected horror.... But what makes Mrs March most unsettling of all is that Feito's meticulous construction of a collapsing mental world is underpinned by piercing insight into "normal" minds. The chilly paranoia that Mrs March experiences, the belief that everyone is judging her as she is judging them, the appalling prospect that she is known not on her own terms, but as someone else has portrayed her – all these are the regular nightmares of the regular status-hungry person in the social media hall of mirrors.... Feito has done that most horrible, wonderful and truly novelistic of things: she has seen right through Mrs March and into the shameful, petty, maggotty secrets that everybody carries."
― Sarah Ditum, The Guardian
"As literary as it is pulpy, Mrs. March straddles the line between psychological thriller and social satire ― think HBO's The Undoing or The Talented Mr. Ripley. Like those blockbuster titles, Mrs. March portrays a rarefied world as hellish Grand Guignol. The pleasure of the book is in watching all that psychotic menace come out into the open, and in trying to figure how much of it is actually real. Mrs. March might think she sees a woman across the street drenched in blood―but what if she's simply had too much wine? She might believe the figures in a painting have turned their backs on her―but what if she's just crazy?.... Inde...
― Christine Mangan, New York Times Book Review
"Essential reading for the social media era.... [A] brilliant debut novel.... A brilliantly tense psychological study from a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes – Du Maurier, for one.... It's also a fine addition to the current wave of feminist-inflected horror.... But what makes Mrs March most unsettling of all is that Feito's meticulous construction of a collapsing mental world is underpinned by piercing insight into "normal" minds. The chilly paranoia that Mrs March experiences, the belief that everyone is judging her as she is judging them, the appalling prospect that she is known not on her own terms, but as someone else has portrayed her – all these are the regular nightmares of the regular status-hungry person in the social media hall of mirrors.... Feito has done that most horrible, wonderful and truly novelistic of things: she has seen right through Mrs March and into the shameful, petty, maggotty secrets that everybody carries."
― Sarah Ditum, The Guardian
"As literary as it is pulpy, Mrs. March straddles the line between psychological thriller and social satire ― think HBO's The Undoing or The Talented Mr. Ripley. Like those blockbuster titles, Mrs. March portrays a rarefied world as hellish Grand Guignol. The pleasure of the book is in watching all that psychotic menace come out into the open, and in trying to figure how much of it is actually real. Mrs. March might think she sees a woman across the street drenched in blood―but what if she's simply had too much wine? She might believe the figures in a painting have turned their backs on her―but what if she's just crazy?.... Inde...
Readers Top Reviews
Teresa Dawesrosie
This book did not live up to its reviews the characters were unconvincing and there was no pave or development in the narrative. Very disappointing.
KaffmattM. Dow
Good review in The Week so I bought it. I have an 80 page rule: if it still doesn't work after 80 pages I give up and ditch it. This was SO irritating. Mono line, mono plot, boring character - only one properly - ish deliniated in the first 80 pages. Not sure I'll bother to send it to charity and have some other reader have to struggle too so in the bin - and I hate throwing books away but this was terrible
TIMOTHY P. Kaff
I enjoyed this story intrigued to see where it would lead to and end. Very different from my usual choices but I will now look for another novel by Ms Feito.
-ianTIMOTHY P.
Kudos are very well deserved, what an astonishing marvellous debut, I was utterly captivated by the writing, the dark humour, the extraordinary voice
Galvan -ianTIMOTH
Narcissistic. Spoiled housewife. Every single anxiety I couldn’t put this book down! A great read! I loved every bit. Just when I feel sorry for her she strikes again….
