Victorian Psycho

Jane Eyre meets Shirley Jackson (think: We Have Always Lived in the Castle) in this Victorian horror-comedy. In the movie in my mind, Tim Burton is the director. Upon arriving at Ensor House, the new governess informs the reader with casual cruelty that, "It is early fall, the cold is beginning to descend, and in three months everyone in this house will be dead." This before she, the servants, her employers, or the spoiled children have even been introduced! Miss Winifred Notty (wink) is an antiheroine molded by time and circumstance. It is her head we dwell inside, privy to her disturbing history and irreverent musings. We observe as she feigns politeness and maliciously complies to do her duties. We witness how each member of the household is their own particular brand of horrible, spurring on the Darkness that resides in her. This nasty novella doesn't spare innocents or shy away from on-the-page violence and gore, culminating in a deliciously macabre finale. It is a fantasy of female rage and wickedness, and boy, is it fun.