Mrs March

Written by Virginia Feito

Narrated by Elisabeth Rogers

‘Nastily good fun’ Metro

SET TO BECOME A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING ELIZABETH MOSS

Shirley Jackson meets Ottessa Moshfegh meets My Sister the Serial Killer in a brilliantly unsettling and darkly funny debut novel full of suspense and paranoia

George March’s latest novel is a smash hit. None could be prouder than Mrs. March, his dutiful wife, who revels in his accolades and relishes the lifestyle and status his success brings.

A creature of routine and decorum, Mrs. March lives an exquisitely controlled existence on the Upper East Side. Every morning begins the same way, with a visit to her favourite patisserie to buy a loaf of
olive bread, but her latest trip proves to be her last when she suffers an indignity from which she may never recover: an assumption by the shopkeeper that the protagonist in George March’s new book –
a pathetic sex worker, more a figure of derision than desire – is based on Mrs. March.

One casual remark robs Mrs. March not only of her beloved olive bread but of the belief that she knew everything about her husband – and herself – sending her on an increasingly paranoid journey, one
that starts within the pages of a book but may very well uncover both a killer and the long-buried secrets of Mrs. March’s past.

A razor-sharp exploration of the fragility of identity and the smothering weight of expectations, Mrs. March heralds the arrival of a wicked and wonderful new voice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Aug 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9780008421748

Reviews for Mrs March

[Sandra Zuks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you like an unreliable narrator & a first person POV, that delves into the mind of someone who is losing their grip on reality. This read is for you.

[Chrystal · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Well I won't be watching that movie.
I found this book terribly boring it was a long drawn out tale of basically nothing.

[Liz Parnell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent! Such a clever book! And the narrator was just perfect for it! It was read in such a matter of fact manner, that, the story and the events almost sound bland and run of the mill, except that they really are not! The further into the book, the more things spiral, yet are read in a way that they are almost normal! I understand from some of the other reviews that this is to become a film starring Elizabeth Moss. It's a shame that she didn't narrate the book, as she did such a fantastic job of the Handmaids tale, but I can totally see this being an amazing psychological film and Elizabeth Moss will be perfect for it.
If you are expecting an edge of your seat thriller then this is not for you, but if you want a well written, thought provoking, mind bending but relatively true to life look into a spiralling world of paranoia and psychosis then read on!

[flourgirl49 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To me, this book is a cross between Shirley Jackson and Evan S. Connell's book "Mrs. Bridge" from many decades ago. It's a psychological study of a woman who is mentally unstable and getting worse as the days go on. I loved it and look forward to the author's next venture!

[bostonbibliophile · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If Shirley Jackson and Ottessa Moshfegh had a book baby. Some messed up shit! i liked it? I think?

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If John Cheever]] and Otessa Moshfegh got drunk and wrote a book together, it might look a lot like this novel. Taking place in New York at an undisclosed time -- the story mentions some modern items, but not others, while simultaneously appearing to take place in the early sixties -- the story follows Mrs. March as she prepares for a party being held for her husband's best-selling book. She's picking up macarons when she's asked if the main character of her husband's novel is based on her, sending her into a tailspin that accelerates the more she thinks about it. A woman much invested in outward appearance, she's horrified to be thought to resemble the character in the book who is an aging prostitute everyone finds repulsive. This is the story of a woman's descent into madness and the entire novel is from a close first person, leaving it ambiguous whether all of it is entirely in her head or if things are happening around her. Is her husband malicious or merely unobservant? Is her son a creepy weirdo or just a kid with an unstable mother and an absent father? Are all of their friends laughing at her or just enjoying the party? This is a book with a lot of promise that didn't quite deliver on it. I'm curious to see what Feito writes next, and while I did enjoy this one, it was pretty flawed.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this book. Mrs. March is the story of the descent into insanity of a woman who believes her author husband used her as the unlikeable protagonist of his latest book. She herself is the unlikeable protagonist of this book and I alternated between pity and aversion toward her. The writing is excellent and the author drops a lot of clues - almost too many because it's fairly obvious where the story is going. But ultimately the story is too grim, at least for my enjoyment, mostly because of the woman's son Jonathan. His behavior seems to show that the madness may continue into the next generation.Anyway, I'll be interested to see what Elizabeth Moss makes of the character in her upcoming movie.

[maryreinert · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not sure why I selected this as not my usual read. Set in the early 60's, Mrs. March is the second wife of a very successful writer in NYC. His latest book is about a very unattractive prostitute; Mrs. March is casually told that the tittle character is probably based on her. From then on, she spirals downward slowly losing sense of reality. There are Christmas parties, events focused on her only son, and daily life -- all she wanders through with a paranoia. Once she finds a newspaper clipping of the murder of a young girl in Maine where he husband has recently been hunting, she is convinced that her husband is the killer.Will admit I rather scanned the last fourth of the book which seemed to get unbelievable; however, her world itself was unbelievable. Probably not bad as a thriller, just not my thing.

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mrs. March by Virginia Feito is a 2021 Liveright publication.I have been wildly curious about this book, so I stopped the presses and squeezed it into my reading schedule. Honestly, it was impossible to get a real grasp on what to expect, I just knew the story was cray-cray, and to be ready for one dark, twisted journey inside the mind of Mrs. March. The book, though I never noticed a specific year mentioned, appears to be set sometime in the sixties- I’m guessing. Mrs. March’s husband, George is a writer and has just released a new novel that everyone is talking about. Mrs. March is taken aback when an offhand remark suggests her husband patterned a character in his new novel after her. Mrs. March is absolutely mortified, as the character in question is an unattractive prostitute!! From there, the reader has a front row seat to Mrs. March’s unraveling. Mrs. March is by turns both sympathetic and despicable. She’s buried behind her husband’s success, her identity tied to his, and I wondered if this was why Mrs. March’s first name was never used. She is swallowed up by George’s larger than life persona, by appearances, and perceptions. Yet, in her madness, she seems determined to step out his shadow, to break free from her prison- but George must be villainized, so that her actions are justified. Honestly, it’s almost impossible to explain the situation without either giving everything away or sounding completely incoherent. Suffice it to say, this is a wickedly brilliant debut. Be warned, though, the conclusion is ambiguous, but I don’t think I’d want it any other way. Someday I’ll have to re-read this one because I’m sure I’ve missed some nuances; a hindsight view would illuminate. The author has been compared to Highsmith and Hitchcock, and Elizabeth Moss is begging to try on the role of Mrs. March- so there you go- that’s should be enough information to give you a prod in the right direction. 4 stars

[avanders_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved. everything about this book. except the end. It wasn’t bad…. Just a bit of a letdown for me. Still, strongly recommend. A “what am I reading?!” in the very best way.

[huntersun9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On one hand I felt frustrated that Mrs. March didn't just READ THE DAMN BOOK, but on the other hand, the gradual disintegration of her sanity was very well-written. Her amateur investigation of the murder was far-fetched to me. But the descriptions of her judgemental nature and self-centeredness were chilling. It was good character study.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mrs. March is slowly slipping into madness. When her husband George March, an author, published his latest book, her break with reality becomes more intense. She believes the book was written about her. Since the both is about ‘a whore’, she is devastated. George denies it, but she doesn’t believe him. As a young girl, Mrs. March invented imaginary people. Now as an adult, she imagines things that aren’t there. As she loses her grip on reality, she becomes dangerous, leading to a catastrophe. Very strange novel, in my opinion.

[miss.mesmerized · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mrs March leads the classic life of a New York upper class housewife and mother. Her husband George is a successful writer whose latest novel has catapulted him to the top of the bestseller list. Mrs March was raised to this life, from her childhood on, she has learnt how to behave in society and how to present herself and her family in an adequate way. Yet, her whole life has somehow become only a scenery of a life and she has lost herself. When a young woman’s body is found, she is intrigued and soon she finds more and more evidence that her husband’s inspiration might not just come out of himself and his imagination but might actually stem from actual experience. Is she sharing her bed with a murderer?Virginia Feito’s debut novel “Mrs March” is an intense psychological study of a woman who has lost connection to reality and is gradually plummeting into an abyss. Brilliantly the author shows how a strongly self-controlled character more and more loses power over her life and in the end can hardly distinguish between what is real and what is only imagined. It is quite clever how the protagonist is presented to the reader, she is only ever referred to as “Mrs March” thus defined by her status as a married woman and without a first name. She is not given anything that she brings into the marriage from her childhood. From her flashbacks you learn that her parents treated her rather coolly and that she has always felt like not doing anything right, not being the daughter they had hoped for, not fulfilling the expectations, until, finally, they can hand her over to her husband. The only persons she could bond with was her – rather malicious – imagined friend Kiki and a household help, yet, she couldn’t cope with positive feelings since this concept was totally alien to her. Behind the facade of the impeccable woman is a troubled mind. First, it is just the assumption that people talk behind her back, compare her to her husband’s latest novel’s protagonist – not very flattering since this is a prostitute who is paid out of pity instead of for good service rendered – then she sees cockroaches and finds more and more signs which link George with the murder of the young woman the whole country is talking about. From her point of view, it a fits together perfectly, but she does not see how she herself increasingly fractures. Most of the plot happens behind closed doors, she does not have friends or family she is close to, thus, there is nobody to help her. As readers, we know exactly where she is headed to and then, Virginia Feito confronts us with an unexpected twist which lets you reassess what you have just read. The distinction between reality and paranoia sometimes isn’t that clear at all.A wonderfully written, suspenseful kind of gothic novel set in New York’s upper class whose signs of class affiliation are repeatedly mocked while also showing that not all is well just because you live in a posh apartment and can wear expensive clothes.

[froxgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a Hitchcockian misery of a novel. I had the same visceral reaction that I did to Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh - the narrator was so awful, dysfunctional, pitiable, that I could barely crawl through it to the inevitable distressing finish. The plot has the second wife of a successful writer living in fear that the blowsy prostitute lead character of his latest acclaimed novel is based on her and that everyone in the world knows this. But who is everyone? She has no friends. She has a housekeeper, a doorman, a disturbed son, a cruel mother, an indifferent sister - not one person to invite her out for coffee and assuage her fears. The cruelties inflicted by each character on Mrs. March, and her subsequent actions, are so overwhelmingly awful that I could hardly care if she was imaging them or if they were real. There's also the utter strangeness of the dedication - "for my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Feito" and also to them, within the acknowledgements - "Please stop paying my phone bill" - might be seen as humorous but left me chilled. So what's a reviewer to say but: I didn't enjoy one single reading moment, but I also can't shrug off the skill of the writer.Quotes: "Their diets weighed heavily on them, like eternal penances. Her own mother merely pecked at her food, as if afraid it might fight back.""Lisa had always been shellacked with a sort of sterilized calm, as if she wasn't really experiencing things, only looking at them from a distance."

[nicx27 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The eponymous Mrs March is proud of her husband, George, a celebrated writer, and of her status as his wife. His new book has just been published and on Mrs March's daily visit to buy her favourite olive bread she is pleased that the patisserie owner has read George's book….until she dares to suggest that the main character, a prostitute, is based on Mrs March herself.Mrs March (as we know her throughout the course of the book) seems to be a woman teetering on the edge. She's deeply unstable with a façade that suggests respectability in all things. That one exchange in the patisserie leads her to descend down a very slippery slope into paranoia, seeing things that aren't there and mistaking things that are.In many ways this is quite a disturbing read. Mrs March is not a likeable protagonist and to witness her spiral into something akin to mania is not a pleasant experience as I wondered how far it would go and how her story would come to an end. The author has done an excellent job at putting across her creation's distress at the sense that everybody must be talking about her, looking down their noses at her, someone who is upstanding in every way possible. I can't say I found it the easiest of reads but it's certainly a fascinating one, the weight of keeping up appearances and putting on a show bearing down heavily on Mrs March's shoulders.Think Mrs Dalloway crossed with Alfred Hitchcock and I think you would get this dark and unsettling character driven story. It's a very good debut novel from Virginia Feito.

[kerri.huff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was intrigued by the character since I read Elizabeth Moss had already opted to play her in the movie adaptation. And what a character. For fans of psychological fiction, this is a treat. I can't imagine how this will turn into a film since so much is in Mrs. March's psyche.Mrs. March's husband is a bestselling writer, and his newest novel is causing quite a stir. Rumor has it the main character is based on his quirky wife. This makes the cocktail parties quite awkward. Especially when Mrs. March has her own suspicions of her husband and his mysterious hunting trips. The novel is a slow burn but worth it for fans of psychological thrillers.

[beckyhaase · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

MRS. MARCH by Virginia FeittoThe feeling of portending disaster looms from the very first page, The disturbing adjectives and descriptions add to the malevolence. I hated this book and loved it at the same time. The writing is wonderful. The character of Mrs. March spirals out of control splendidly. I don’t want to say much more because this book needs to be read without knowing even the basic plot. It is not quite a thriller, not quite a book of psychological horror. It is definitely a book that grabs you and then doesn’t let go until the shocking end. (Yes, I saw it coming, but didn’t want it to happen.)Did I “enjoy” reading this book. No, unequivocally. But it was a great book. Would I recommend it to my book group, No! Would I recommend it to a very select group of friends that I know well. Yes!5 of 5 stars