Where this was said
Victorian Psycho: First Impressions and the Power of Winifred's Voice
At 35:06 · chapter starts 32:55
The book club discussion proper opens with all three hosts confessing they were hooked within the first chapter. Paul admits he was nervous going in because any title referencing a famous work sets a high bar — but Virginia Feito had him by the end of the first chapter, when Winifred offhandedly muses that Mrs. Abel has 'never held a penis.' Ash recalls the line 'as so often happens when one slits an infant's carotid artery' as the moment she realised this book was unlike anything she'd read. The group unpacks the magic trick at the heart of the novel: Winifred is an unreliable narrator who kills indiscriminately — babies, innocents, everyone — and yet her voice is so humorous and confiding that readers root for her anyway. Paul pushes back on the online reading that Winifred only kills bad people; she's an equal-opportunity murderer, which he finds far more honest and disturbing than a revenge-fantasy narrative.
Victorian Psycho's Winifred doesn't just kill the rich and villainous — she kills babies, innocents, and servants with equal enthusiasm. The magic trick is that her voice is so funny and inviting that readers root for her anyway. Paul Tremblay calls it one of the best reader manipulations he's read.
Winifred, the protagonist of Victorian Psycho, kills everyone including infants, not just the upper-class villains, subverting the expected 'kills only the bad guys' trope.
