I wanted to like this book, I see where people would love this book, but it was boring. The book was set in 1992, but if we modernized things with access to the internet and texting, the whole story would have been under 100 pages instead of 300-something. The "simplicity" of the 90s is overdone but is done to make it seem more 19th century. Admittedly a good plot point to control your characters, but the characters were not executed well. I was also a little frustrated and upset by the lack of diversity. On GoodReads, it was tagged as LGBTQ, but one side character is a lesbian. And just a personal "prickle" is it being tagged as "historical fiction" when based in the 90s, but maybe that just means I'm getting old.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review of #Madam.

I was excited to read this based on the synopsis that compared it to Rebecca and the Secret History - both books I loved loved loved reading. This book however is not at all like those books. I do love a good gothic boarding school tale but I really couldn’t get into the story. I disliked Rose a lot and was kinda bored after a while with the story. The dialogue was very stilted and weird...I had to keep reminding myself that the book is set in modern times and not the 1800s. As a feminist, I took offense to a lot of the themes and scenes in the books. First of all, why why why have these girls call everyone Madam? It took me immediately to the negative connotations of the word. There were other things I disliked about the book but I pretty much checked out as I was reading it. I wish it had been written differently in a way that kept my interest better. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book to give an honest review.

When Rose Christie is offered a position as the Head of Classics at a prestigious boarding school for girls in 1992, she finds it difficult to turn it down. Caldonbrae Hall – known as Hope to the students and faculty – has sat untouched on the Scottish cliffs outside of the harbor village of Kennenhaven for 150 years. Rose quickly realizes that, as the first new hire in well over a decade, she has entered a world of secrets, staunch traditions, and disinterest in modern education.

It quickly becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. It’s obvious there is more to her predecessor’s departure than anyone is willing to share and that a troubled student needs more help than the school is willing to give. The secrets held deep in Hope’s sanatorium are evidence of the school’s perverse nature and the cycle that it’s staff, students, and parents willingly perpetuate. Rose must decide if she can willingly participate in this “education” or face dire consequences.

As far as gothic settings go, author Phoebe Wynne knocks it out of the park. She has all of the elements – crumbling ancient home, remote setting, lack of contact with the outside world. The school is housed in an ancient mansion that sits at the tip of a peninsula near the rocky coast, guarded by stone gargoyles and a large, imposing gate. Rose compares it to an “extraordinary gray wedding cake, halls and towers and rows of turrets added like great ornaments, with outlines of flying buttresses to decorate.” She also makes note that the headmaster has removed the chaplain years earlier and the chapel itself is no longer for solace, but recitals and programs.

Rose cannot find support from the local villagers who see everyone associated with the school as strange and unwelcomed outsiders. The feeling of forlorn isolation is intense.

Rose herself is believable and fairly likeable. She is young and naïve and struggling with imposter syndrome, so it’s easy to see how she could find herself in this position. Due to her mother’s worsening illness, she is of little support either mentally, emotionally, or physically. Neither, for that matter are Hope’s faculty and staff.

They, along with the students, are all so stiff and tightlipped that they serve the atmosphere well, though not necessarily the plot. Even three-quarters of the way in, there were no answers and no real action. This lack of information and action left me wanting something more. It’s rather frustrating to watch the chapters flip by and you’re still where you were when you picked the book up.

That said, I loved the ending and would love to read a (slightly more action oriented) follow up!

This is, perhaps, the first outright feminist gothic tale I’ve read. Since “feminism” is thrown around so often, the idea of it put me off. However, the scope in which Wynne uses it worked very well. It was a natural extension of the plot and didn’t feel overly contrived.

A Trigger Warning: This book deals with young girls being groomed for nefarious purposes. When the true horrors were finally revealed, there was one scene I still gag to think about. It was truly cringe worthy.

This book had a strong sense of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (1938). There was a slow burn of secrets and ghosts of people past. If this is your style of read, consider picking up Mexican Gothic by Silvia Morena-Garcia (2020); The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892); and pretty much anything by Shirley Jackson and Joyce Carol Oates.

I'm going to be honest here, this book is not good. I was pretty excited for Madam because it was tagged as LGBT and Dark Academia but it's not actually LGBT. There is a side character who is a lesbian and the book includes homophobia. It's set in 1990 but all the characters act like it's 1890. The novel tries to be Dead Poet's Society with feminism and classic lit instead of poetry. And if it wasn't so tedious and boring it might have worked. I mean there's a difference between using Cassandra as an allegory for how women are never believed and whatever it was Rose was trying to do. Also this book has pedophilia, gaslighting, grooming, sexual harassment and assault. So don't read if that makes you uncomfortable. The school seems more like a cult than anything else and the girls are trained to act and behave a certain way and Rose has to liberate them. That's it. That's the whole book. This book would have been a million times better if it were in the point of view of one of the students. Honestly just scrap Rose, she's honestly useless by the end anyway. It's a 1/5 for me.

I was really excited for this book because it is a secretive boarding school story. It is literally one of my favorite things to read about. I wish it wasn't hard to get through. A couple of years ago, I might have not blinked an eye at the triggering content of the novel, but now I am tired of reading about child abuse and sexual harassment, especially towards minors. I am also tired of stereotypes of minorities and the use of the white-savior complex. All of this makes it not feminist and it should not be touted as such. I wish it was better.

I wanted to love Madam; for all intents and purposes it screamed my name. Unfortunately, it was an interesting concept with poor execution. It ultimately fell flat for me on every level and frankly it wasn't ready to be published.

The author had three paths in the book: (1) she introduced lesbian relationships of equals and non-equals with devastating consequences. I didn't understand the point of all the negativity about relationships, either lesbian or non-lesbian, (2) the second storyline about raising young girls to marry without consent had merit but fell short of constructing the structure necessary to explain why and why not and (3) the mystery of a former teacher that was neither developed well nor presented with an understandable purpose. The setting of the story was the book's best presentation.
I would not recommend the book for YA reading and not for adults either.

Caldonbrae Hall is a girls’ boarding school that boasts the best of the best – a place where young ladies are taught to be refined, intelligent, and productive members of society. The institution is also known for how strictly it adheres to tradition; faculty are all hired from the inside or through powerful, close connections. So no one is more surprised by her appointment as head of the Classics department than Rose Christie herself. Rose, who previously only taught at a state school for a relatively short period of time, is both thrilled and intimidated to become a part of Caldonbrae’s legacy. But her first encounters at the school are not very welcoming. Things don’t improve in the coming weeks or months, either. Rose’s fellow teachers are frustratingly withholding and even the girls are privy to information that she is desperate to know about. By the time she learns Caldonbrae’s true purpose, Rose is in too deep. She must make the decision to abide by what she knows to be right, risking her own well-being as well as her mother’s; or the school’s archaic rules which demand she look the other way in exchange for the status and conveniences only money can buy.

I had high expectations for a novel with this kind of premise, but truth be told, it just exhausted me. The nature of the boarding school's dirty secret became apparent pretty quickly, so I was annoyed that Rose was slow on the uptake. I couldn't dispel this irritation with her character throughout the book, even while bearing in mind there's a stark difference being the reader, on the lookout for these things, versus imagining myself actually in the character's situation and how the wildest conjectures would not usually occur to me off the cuff because they're just that: wild. There's also the question of Rose's judgment, the details of which I won't delve into much to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say she makes some bad calls. With Rose in one corner floundering and unsure of herself, and the rest of Caldonbrae's inhabitants (yes, all of them: the headmaster, the teachers, the students, the groundsmen) in the other corner jeering her and being otherwise infuriatingly patronizing, there really are not many appealing people in Madam.

I was a bit charmed by a few of Rose's students, as well as the Greek and Roman mythology excerpts Wynne chose to sprinkle throughout the story. These elements offered something of a respite from the smothering atmosphere created by Rose and her interactions with the school staff. The climax and conclusion weren't bad, but lackluster. The climax in particular seemed a little rushed and possibly because of that, felt hollow. I think the story would have been more enjoyable had I been able to identify with Rose, and if the narrative gave readers a chance to break away from her perspective through a subplot, maybe with a Caldonbrae girl who thrived there. As it is, Madam is a tepid read that has its moments, but doesn't quite cut it for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this eARC and provide an honest review.

I loved this book! It was such a strong well written story. It was exactly what I needed with everything going on in the world! A mind bending escape!

Overall, I did enjoy “Madam” by Phoebe Wynne, but I think my expectations were too high and not entirely met. The book follows Rose Christie, a Classics teacher in her mid-20s who is hired to be Caldonbrae Hall’s new head of the department. She soon realized that illustrious, all-girls, British boarding school, its students, and her fellow teachers are not at all what she expected. Rose struggles to reconcile her modernist beliefs with the school’s starkly traditional culture and the manner in which it claims to be educating “girls for the future.” She also begins to suspect that there’s more to the abrupt departure of her predecessor than anyone is willing to let on. The reader slowly follows Rose down a dark and mysterious rabbit hole to uncover the truth about Caldonbrae. From the description and first few chapters I had anticipated there to be a little more suspense or shocking revelations, but the book was a slow for me as times and I thought the climax and ending fell a little flat. What I did love was the girls British boarding school setting, classics stories and feminist themes woven throughout, and overall gothic atmosphere.

I would recommend this book for fans of “Cracks” by Sheila Kohler, “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and “A Great and Terrible Beauty” by Libba Bray.

Rose is a young teacher who is recruited for a prestigious job as teacher and head of the Classics department at a remote all girls school in Scotland. However, once Rose arrives she begins to wonder why no one mentions the teacher she replaced. She also discovers that all the staff and students are continuously watched and behavior out of the norm is not tolerated. Rose has so many questions about the history and the running of the school, but she finds that she's constantly left in the dark.

I was excited to read the book, but it didn't live up to my expectations. It was good, but not noteworthy. Rose's character was so mousy and flat. but maybe that is why she was recruited as staff for the school, they needed someone they could easily manipulate and mold.

The book reminds me of Stepford wives. Without going into spoilers, this all girls school has another purpose that is definitely controversial. But once you are let in on the secret, you are now stuck with serving the school and it's purpose.

Interesting read, but with just ok characters. I received a complimentary ebook from Netgalley.com.

Overall this was a solid slow-burn of a mystery. I think the best element is that it is quite haunting. I think this one will be one that people either really love or just don't connect with. The slow burn style is often one that lands that way, I find. For me, I think it was trying to do more than I think it ultimately managed to succeed at, and I was left with some holes and some things I wanted a bit more from, but I enjoyed it and there will certainly be readers who connect with this one in very specific ways. The gothic boarding school setting will absolutely appeal to readers like myself who jump at the chance for a setting like that.

While I definitely think this book will prove to be a popular thriller, it just missed the mark for me. The dialogue was stilted and the writing was rather clunky. The characters, including the protagonist, were flat and rather unbelievable. However, the plot moves quickly and the mystery is engaging. Although, there are a few rather disturbing scenes which think more than a few readers will be offended by. I would recommend this only for readers that enjoy dark, gothic thrillers and for fans of Ruth Ware.

Well written with good character development but very predictable to me. A secluded school that traps all students and breeds them to be the perfect wives and married off to the highest bidders. The newest madam sees what is happening and is doing everything in her power to save people that do not want to be saved. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Suspenseful read that tugs you along, but for me, was ultimately underwhelming. Paints a complicated picture of abuse, misogyny, and complicity at an illustrious all-girls school while ultimately failing to pack the feminist punch that was presumably intended. Slow buildup to a fiery end.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for the early copy.

I liked reading Madam by Phoebe Wynne. This atmospheric, slow building , Gothic feeling suspenseful thriller kept me entertained and engaged.

An odd but very interesting atmospheric read; got me out of my most recent reading slump, so that’s a good sign!

Hot Take: A modern Jane Eyre without a Mr. Rochester where Jane embraces her isolation to teach other girls the power of being alone.

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I struggled to rate this book because it wasn't the "thriller" I was expecting. Yes there's mystery, nefarious secrets, a gothic manor on the moors, and a deadly fire, but the whodunnit isn't the point of Madam. This isn't a spiraling suspense or a slow burning thriller with an unreliable narrator. And while there's at least one crime being committed, the question of guilt runs much deeper.

In fact, the question of guilt is one that runs throughout the narrative and may be the most important question of the book. What does it mean to be guilty and what does it mean to be a victim.

Wynne's writing style is at times slogging and the way she strings the narrative together is occasionally jarring in a way that doesn't seem intentional. Rose is not a heroine you find yourself rooting for as you read. She's frustrating and indecisive and real in a way that hits so close to home it's painful. But she serves her purpose well, working as an entry point into questions about the many ways we can be guilty, we can be victims, and how we can--even with the best of intentions--lead others astray.

Without giving anything away, there's a lot in this book I want to discuss. It would be perfect for a book club or a contemporary lit class. It asks questions worthy of criticism and discussion. However, it's not a Paula Hawkins or Ruth Ware style mystery-thriller.

If you're looking for a fast-paced page-turner, this is not the book for you. But if you're looking for something dark and brooding to talk about over a glass of wine, this may just be the perfect pick.


READ WHILE YOU WAIT: The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins (for Jane Eyre vibes); My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (to explore the rhetoric of victimhood and gender)

Phoebe Wynn's Madam is a dark and atmospheric novel made for fans of the slow burn.

When Rose Christie gets hired as the new classics teacher at Caldenbrae Hall in Scotland, things seem a bit too good to be true. And, we all know when that seems like the case, it usually is. The previous classics teacher seems to haunt the all girls' boarding school, and Rose is left wondering what secrets her new school is hiding.

For those looking for a fast-paced thriller, this book might not hit the mark. It's not until the end of the book that the action really picks up, but the writing is strong. Fans of Gothic novels will appreciate this one.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I’m sorry but I got as far as when the new teacher gets accused of harming a student and quit. It was very slow and I just lost interest. After my quarantine brain recovers I may come back to it and change feedback and rating.