Mrs March by Virginia Feito
I would like to thank Rachel from 4th Estate for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for affair and honest review
Publisher – 4th Estate
Published – Out Now
Price – £8.99 paperback £2.99 Kindle eBook
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.
Speculative fiction and genre is a mess of boundaries. You can have fantasy that is romance, science fiction that is crime and increasingly its often that horror lurks in the realm of the thriller. A serial killer is just another type of monster? But horror is more than just the supernatural of the beyond human its always about human reactions and what in the right set of circumstances can be released. In Virginia Feito’s excellent Mrs March, we have a psychological thriller about one of the most memorable leading characters I’ve ever met in fiction.
Mrs March has been for twenty years married to George March the famous novelist. She keeps the house elegant; she works hard to be the wife she believes the world needs her to be and she and her son Jonathan all live pretty much simple lives. But Mrs March’s world starts to tremble when buying her usual errand, she is told by the shopkeeper that she is amazed that her husband has made in his latest book a character who so reminds her of Mrs March. But the character of Johanna is a lonely, deluded prostitute that dies alone. Mrs March is incredibly worried that this is true; that the world now sees her differently and starts to wonder why her husband has done such a thing. As Mrs March investigates more secrets suggest George may be hiding a darker secret as a vicious murder is slowly uncovered in the news headlines. Mrs March will stop at nothing to get to the truth.
This is definitely one of my reads of the summer! It’s a brilliant character focused novel where we essentially follow Mrs March from the mention of the book to a rather unforgettable set of final scenes. What absorbs you is the character of Mrs March. Initially we could see her as a snobby middle-class lady who adores her reputation and her routine. However, Feito over the pages makes us see the person beneath the green gloves and ornate coat. We find a woman fearful of ever being seen; one haunted by her experiences growing up and ultimately, she is a very human character under that initial artifice of make-up and fine clothes but she is incredibly flawed too. Mrs March lies to protect her reputation or to get things she wants. Mrs March steals things without often knowing why and we realise all these secrets and hidden thoughts constantly weigh on her mind. Immense pressure can lead to fractures in personality and perhaps also reality.
Feito’s writing is a flow from that moment, and we see all the evolutions and reveals of a character as the wider mysteries of the book present themselves. Has she been used in the book? Is her husband George possibly a killer and most of all who is Mrs March? As the tale revolves and we realise we are seeing the thoughts of someone who may themselves is starting to experience a breach of reality we start to question all the interaction Mrs March sees. Has her apartment got a cockroach infestation? Are people always looking at her with suspicion or her hands constantly falling apart? Mrs March’s behaviour makes both outcomes possible and the horror here is we find someone we may not want to be in a room with but is also someone who doesn’t really deserve to suffer what she seems to. Feito weaves into the story various useful flashbacks into Mars March’s life that link to current events in various haunting ways and all of which help expose the mystery of this character to the reader and make us question exactly where the story is taking her.
Horror isn’t always about the outside disrupting our lives. Sometimes our internal tensions finally erupts and those around us can be on the receiving end. The book is set in a not quite now period of video cassettes, chequebooks and novelists being interviewed on chat shows as great men of the time. It’s a society that expects people to behave a certain way which for a long time Mrs March obey (be it at her cruel family’s home; school or the early days of her being an adult often with tragic results) but when she feels threatened then she realises she can sometimes be other people and all of that may help her get her life back once the truth is known; but it could also overwhelm her.
Mrs March is a tale of pride, suspicion, fear, loneliness, and anger. A toxic brew that is set to a boil and very much we can see bad things are a coming. There is talk of this novel in the style of Shirley Jackson and any fans of her short stories where ordinary people are revealed to be not quite what they seem, and reality is a little more fluid than you expect. Her fans will find this an original tale with the same degree of quality of those stories (not something I would ever say lightly!). Its deliciously wicked and just what you ned to give you a chill on a warm sunny day! Go get it!
