This one is hard to pin down. Rose, a classics teacher, is offered a place at a top girls school in Scotland. Titled and wealthy English send their daughters to Caldonbrae, more of an institution than a school. The school provides room and board, benefits, and even moves her ailing mother to a much better nursing home/rehab center. And pays for everything. But Rose starts to notice some very strange practices at the school; things that definitely don't jibe w/ how things are done in the real world in 1993. A very interesting premise and very shocking twists as Rose goes down a seemingly endless rabbit hole of her own personal values and the weird practices of the school. Very different from any other thrillers I've read in a while!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-ARC of this novel.*

Madam by Phoebe Wynne

Greek mythology is one of the many overriding themes of this story. The part where women are so brutalized and villainized that they are considered heroic for scorching their world and others with their own reign of revenge, brutality, violence, and death, is the part that Rose, a new Classics teacher at the celebrated Caldonbrae Hall, is most thrilled to teach to her female students. Rose seems to esteem and worship the women of mythology who murder others, including their own children. These lessons are taught by her in the name of feminism and glorifying empowered women, although this type of thinking is very at odds with the aims of the school. 

I am not a fan of abrasive Rose. I consider her to be naïve, lacking in common sense, and so unable to read a room that she'll yell and shriek at a room full of people who have threatened her and her loved ones with the most grievous harm. She is at times overly passive and at other times, overly hysterical. She has reasons to be hysterical but she seems to have no survival instinct to show her when she needs to hold her tongue and lash out at a more safe and appropriate time. She does this often, with no chance of making progress towards getting herself out of her dangerous situation. I was rolling my eyes at her right along with her disrespectful students. There are very few characters in this story who are likable and the story is so dark and some of the scenes so disgusting that it was hard to keep reading/listening to the story. 

Caldonbrae Hall is more than a girl's school. It's a wicked, all powerful, corrupt institution that pushes archaic, cruel existences onto the girls in it's grasp. There is more than a hint of Jane Eyre in this story but it's so heavy handed, and Rose is so dull minded in her actions and reactions to the situation, that the comparison fades. The story contains brainwashing, child abuse, gaslighting, grooming, pedophilia, sexual harassment, and so much more. It was all too much for me.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this ARC.

YES.

Gothic setting. Boarding school. Traditional values. A dead classic professor.
A new professor. Secrets. Revenge. Classroom scenes. Classics. "Modern (90s) setting with classic/gothic tendencies.

I love everything about this.

I kept wanting to put down this strange, uncomfortable novel about a young teacher trapped in a bizarre Scottish boarding school for would-be Stepford wives, but I was compelled to finish it just to see if Rose makes it out of storied Caldonbrae Hall alive.
It's a position that comes about rarely, as her new colleagues inform her; once teachers experience this hallowed institutions, they never want to leave; in fact, except for Rose, they're all alumnae.
The secrets of Caldonbrae are many and deep, and the author reveals them as slowly as she shows us Rose's growing fear of the school, its customs, and its inhabitants. The denouement is as shocking as the rest of the story, which I somehow had to finish

The biggest mystery of this book is why did the people in charge of the Calonbrae Hall boarding school think that hiring Rose Christie was a good idea. Set in the 1990's, Rose is a young 20-something woman hired to teach Latin and Classics to rich young women. After moving into the boarding school in a remote part of Scotland, she soon discovers that the school is not what it should be, a serious academic school for girls. Rose is quickly turned off when every female staff member must be called Madam and every male, Sir.

Throughout her first year of teaching at Calonbrae Rose slowly discovers the secrets held in the cliffside school. she develops deep relationships with some of the younger girls but never really connects with the older girls who harass her and scare her. I don't want to give away what is really happening there, but it is a little hard to buy into it all even though Rose continually mentions that they are brainwashed because they don't know any different.

That being said, I couldn't put the book down and rooted for the feminist in Rose and the young girls. The descriptions of the Hall and the surrounding area and the water were exceptional, I could really picture it all.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good boarding school story, and this one was riveting. Without giving away too much, imagine The Firm set in a Scottish boarding school for the UK's elite daughters.

This one fell pretty flat for me. I had high expectations going in but there wasn't a lot to keep me invested. The thing that kept me going until the end was the atmosphere, which I think was portrayed beautifully by the author.

Wow! I am still in shock over Madam by Phoebe Wynne. This novel starts off with an introduction to Rose, a young teacher who has been offered a grand opportunity to teach at a prestigious all girls boarding school called, Caldonbrae Hall in Scotland. She is both shocked and humbled by such a prestigious opportunity and has packed up her small flat in London to travel to the Scottish coast to live on the grounds of the school. The school provides staff and students with housing and anything else they could possibly need making it completely all inclusive.

Rose is a strong willed independent woman. Her mother was a strong willed feminist in her day, participating in many women's rallies oftentimes taking Rose along. The influence of Rose's mother shines through into her teaching at Caldonbrae Hall. She is a classicist teacher and teaches mostly on the subject of strong willed, oftentimes down on their luck women. Phoebe Wynn's decision to develope Rose's character this way fits in perfectly with the constant conflict that exist throughout the story between Rose, the school, and the girls. Rose's non-step down attitude keeps the reader engaged, and in my opinion often mirrored the way I felt throughout the novel about some of the horrible things that were happening in the school. Rose became the voice for the girls in the school that were being taught that they were voiceless.

Madam was a shocker of a novel. I definitely did not expect Caldonbrae Hall to be the boarding school it turned out to be, the reader will find out what I mean once you read the novel. I was so thankful for Rose being a voice for the voiceless and I enjoyed the way Phoebe Wynn used classic tales of Greek and Roman goddesses to foreshadow what was going on within the story and relate them back to characters in her novel. I thought that was an interesting and creative element to the text. The relation between those Greek and Roman tragedies and the tragedy of the girls at Caldonbrae Hall was soul shaking. I would recommend this to the reader that can keep an open mind throughout the book and can try to think outside the box. There are definitely some dark subject matters, so reader be warned, but if you can get through the darkness you will enjoy this enlightening creative read.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for and advanced copy for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book. I was super excited to read, and as my review below suggests, I wasn’t wholly disappointed. But a few things to keep in mind (light spoilers):

<b>Expectations</b>: Unlike others who seem to be extremely divided, I think this book is a solid 3 stars. Or maybe drop half a star for the publisher’s comparison of it to <I>The Secret History,</i> one of my favorite books of all time. While there are perhaps a few parallels, the books are in no way comparable, and the publisher does this author a disservice by setting such high expectations. A better comparison would have been to <I>Geek Love</I> or even a messed up version of<I>Harry Potter.</I> Or just none at all, seriously.

<b>It’s not light reading:</b>That aside, there was a lot of good going on in this book, including some aspects that other reviewers have mentioned negatively, such as racism, pedophaelia, and child grooming. Of course these things are awful in real life, but it’s fiction and in the novel to draw those exact reactions from the reader. The student sex scenes are not titillating or sexy—they are horrific but vague, as they should be, and they work well with the story. Like I said, <I>Geek Love</I> expectations go a long way here. And the racism? Completely on par for the time period—It’s the early 90s, not 2021. As one of the only Asian kids attending my private catholic school in Akron, Ohio in the 90s, I can assure you the teachers would have been relieved to stick me in a house full of other Asian students and pat themselves on the back for “diversity.”

<b>Too much unrelated mythology:</b> I had mixed reactions to the mythology. On one hand, I learned a lot and really liked Rose’s teaching methods, and I thought they worked well to show how she made friends (and enemies) with the girls. It would have been more clever to parallel them with the storyline, though, and some definitely needed to be cut.

<b>Prologue issues:</b> I think the prologue does the book a disservice. I guess on one hand, it’s good to know everything goes up in flames and discover the secrets within, but on the other, the ending would have been more impactful. The scenes in the last 90% were a little tired and perhaps wouldn’t have come off that way without the prologue the way it was.

<b>Great concept & time period:</b> I think the concept is great and unlike some reviewers (“it could have been set in the 1890s instead of the 1990s”) I think that’s just the point. I am sure, as bad as conditions were, they would not have been completely fictional in the 1890s. But the 1990s? Much more eyebrow-raising and unexpected.

<b><I>tl;dr: this book needed a better editor but the concept and tolerable writing make it worth reading (preferably on a dark rainy day with a cup of tea. Bag in.)</b></I>

I found this book extremely frustrating, but stuck with it til the end. The story was a bit disjointed, where the pacing of the story was sometime hard to follow along with. As a character, I didn't particularly like Rose due to her inability to take decisive action. I loved the setting. Wynne did a great job of setting up a gothic, eerie environment, but other than that this story fell a bit flat for me.

Oh this book had so much potential, but it really missed the mark for me. I love a dark, gothic setting and what could be better than an old boarding house high on the cliffs of the sea?

The dialogue felt very out of place and I kept forgetting that I was reading a story that takes place in the 1990s, not the 1890s. I suppose that was the point considering the importance of the traditions in the school, but it just felt weird.

I kept waiting for something exciting to happen, but nothing really did. The ending felt a bit rushed to me.

I did like the idea of the book and the setting was perfect.

This may have been the wrong book for the wrong person, but I found this one to really be distressing. While the first half or so is quite slow, once the true secrets of this school were revealed it seemed each reveal was more horrifying than the next. While usually a remote, creepy setting is definitely my jam, the weirdness of the setting never really gelled for me- supposedly this is set in the 1990s, but the descriptions of the school, the secrets, teh uniforms, etc. make it seem set much earlier (I think this dissonance is intentional, to make Rose's feminism and independence seem even more out of place, and to make the point of how unusual the school is in a relatively "modern" world). There are some really upsetting moments in the story that I think are taken a little too far. While the story was successful in creeping me out, it wasn't for me.

Madam is a hard book to review. There were a lot of great elements in this book, but there were also quite a few that didn't work for me.

Madam tells a story about Rose, a young Classics teacher who has recently accepted a position as head of Classics at Caldonbrae Hall, a rather mysterious girls' boarding school that is known for being exceptionally prestigious--though much else about it remains a mystery. When Rose arrives at Caldonbrae, she is slowly introduced and inducted into a world that she couldn't have ever expected to encounter.

As a Classicist, I jump at the chance for any Classics-related elements, and I also love books set at boarding schools, so this book was a no-brainer for me to pick up. I really appreciated the snippets of Rose's lessons about ancient Greek and Roman women, as I felt they were really carefully and well done, and I also appreciated the occasional chapters that included an except in the original Latin or Greek and a summary of the person who is mentioned (i.e. Medea, Dido, etc.).

Wynne did a great job of creating a rather dark and mysterious atmosphere. There was definitely a sense of foreboding the entire time, and there was no doubt that something was about this school, even though it wasn't entirely clear at first what it was (though it quickly became apparent to me, which I will discuss). The characters were incredibly secretive and, like Rose, I knew we weren't getting the full story from anyone.

Another area Wynne excelled at was in developing important, difficult discussions about topics that can be a bit sensitive. I can't really dive into too many specifics without spoiling the story, so I'll say that this book helped me to stop and have my own internal debates about what is right or wrong, how consent works, and who is able to give consent.

All that being said in the positive, I did have quite a few issues with this book, most noticeably with the characters, pacing, and storytelling. My first issue was with the characters and the fact that, outside of Rose, they all felt rather flat and similar to one another. There are a variety of girls and age ranges that Rose teaches, but each one sounded fairly similar to the other when speaking, and I'm not sure I ever really was able to accurately remember who was who outside of a select few characters. I had similar issues with some of Rose's fellow teachers who seemed to have similar dialogue styles and spoke very similarly. Perhaps having the characters and teachers seem nearly the same was meant to be a literary technique to show just how this school affected each and every person, but in doing so it just made it hard for me to really connect with or care about many of the characters.

My other issues with the pacing and storytelling go hand in hand, and much of the problem has to do with the inconsistent pacing. There were times when this book felt like it was moving at a pretty steady pace and I found myself fully engaged, but then it just seemed to keep dragging on and replaying the same general ideas over and over. It's not that I didn't enjoy the story, but I just felt as though it got stuck in a few places and didn't tell the story progression in the most effective manner. I also found the entire twist/reveal of the novel a bit predictable, which isn't the worst thing, but I feel like a lot of the book hinged on that and I was just waiting for Rose to catch up. Perhaps it was willful ignorance until she simply couldn't ignore it anymore--I certainly wouldn't blame her for that!

Overall, I've given Madam 3.25 stars! This book was a bit bizarre, but for all that I still found myself enjoying it and having a hard time putting it down. I just had to know how Rose was going to handle each situation, even if it was hard to read. I look forward to reading more from Phoebe Wynne!

Madam is an eerie, well-told gothic story. But wow it is slowwwww. The big twist doesn’t come until about halfway and by then I was just dying for the story to get on with it. Rose, the young Classics teacher, is a strong heroine who is not afraid to cause some “good trouble.” I genuinely enjoyed Rose’s feminist lessons utilizing Greek mythology (Medusa is a personal favorite). The story had so much potential. I just wish it had been shorter and better constructed plot wise.

This is a strange story of a woman who is hired as head of the Classics department at a private all-girls school. Rose is happy because the school moves her ailing mother to a better facility closer to the school. She also gets her own apartment. She begins to teach classes, and finds that there is something very different happening at this school.

Rose Christie is nervous but excited when she's hired on as the new Head of Classics at Caldonbrae Hall, a boarding school for girls in Scotland. A renowned establishment for 150 years, Caldonbrae is a far step above Rose's current teaching gig and will offer a chance to help her mother, who is struggling with MS. Rose is the first external hire in over a decade, making her an immediate outsider, along with her youthful age. She quickly feels over her head at Caldonbrae, where the teachers and students alike seem to lord over her. But soon Rose realizes that everyone seems to be on to a secret, except her. Why did the last Classics teacher, Jane, leave so suddenly? As Rose learns more about Caldonbrae, she quickly realizes it is nothing like she expected.

"One way or another someone was going to get eaten alive here, Rose realized. She'd be damned if it was her."

I'm a sucker for boarding school stories, but this one did not live up to the promised hype for me. It grew on me a small bit by the end, but when I say this is a slow burning tale, I mean SLOW. I was incredibly tempted to "DNF" this book, but stuck with it, skimming or fast reading portions of it. The big twist, so to speak, doesn't come until halfway through (55% in fact). At that point, we have sat through lots of classics lessons and pontificating about Caldonbrae and gotten to know a lot of girls at the school.

Although, "getting to know" is probably generous, as there's a lack of character development throughout most of MADAM. There are a variety of girls at Caldonbrae thrust upon us, but I found it nearly impossible to keep many of them straight. (It doesn't help that the UK version of schooling is hard to follow, with thirds, fourths, and more tossed about, but rarely ages. Woe to us idiotic Americans!)

We know little about Rose, are offered a scarce backstory, and pieces about her father that are supposed to form her personality seem tossed in haphazardly. Instead she drove me crazy with her dithering and inability to make decisions. Most of the time I just wanted to shake her. She was in an impossible situation, perhaps, but she seemed unable to grasp anything for much of the book, or realize the seriousness of her circumstances.

I think MADAM was going for ominous and creepy--everything building up to its explosive ending (which is hinted at in the beginning pages), but it falls short. Instead, it seems more annoying and perplexing. When the twist is revealed, it's an interesting one, yes, but I couldn't help but question it, wonder how such a thing could be sustainable. MADAM just couldn't keep up the eerie tone it was trying for.

There's definite storytelling potential here, and I did find myself somewhat attached to a few of the girls by the end, when things pick up slightly. MADAM tries to align the classics (think tales of Medea and Antigone and such) with its boarding school girls, but often the tacked on tales of these mythical and classical women feel like unnecessary, added on pieces. It reaches too high, trying for a feminist angle, but falls short, with a fast ending that cannot possibly live up to all those classical, high-reaching aims.

"...she wondered how an establishment that promised to educate 'girls of the world' could somehow make its women feel so small."

Overall, there's a lot going on in MADAM, but it just didn't gel for me. I couldn't root for Rose for most of the novel, and the classic pieces inserted into the plot didn't work. There were sparks I enjoyed, but overall, this wasn't a favorite.

Gothic novel about an all-girls’ boarding school on a remote coast of Scotland in the 1990s. Rose Christie is the newly hired Classics teacher. She gradually discerns that all is not as it appears on the surface. Something sinister is going on. The narrative follows Rose as she figures out the school’s dark secrets.

The setting is described vividly. I enjoyed the inclusion of a half dozen stories of women from Greek mythology, which are woven into the storyline to support the feminist theme. It is extremely slow to develop. I am not sure it should have taken that long for Rose to start piecing together the mysteries. She is supposed to be a smart, capable woman.

The theme of this novel questions a woman’s place in society, but this topic is not explored in any depth. The ending seems a bit too convenient. I liked the concept for this novel but found the execution lacking.

Madam is a scandalous slow burn thriller about an all girls boarding school in Scotland during the 90s. Something darker lurks below the surface of this acclaimed educational facility & once revealed, made me go 😳.

It all revolves around a new teacher who is introduced into the fold. She immediately realizes something is not right, but although she is bold, she is powerless against controlling stronger forces running the institute.

I was FREAKING OUT while I read this. I kept thinking: Will the teacher be able to help the girls around her? Can she even help herself at this point?? How will she fix this?!

This book reminded me a bit of a British Skull & Bones high society that centers around the control of young women. I thought it was absolutely chilling.

The story also incorporates the study of Classics and Latin, which was an interesting addition and gave me some Donna Tartt, Secret History vibes. Also, there was a prominent feminist element at play.

If you don’t mind a slow pace and enjoy stories that take place in a gothic setting, strong minded and sometimes cruel girls in a boarding school setting, and dark secret societies, then get this book.
I give it 3.5 stars/5 and rounded up to 4 for this review

To what lengths will a teacher go to help save her students, when the teacher's only power is in the power of story and free thought?

In 1992, Rose Christie, a young teacher from Kent, is hired as an instructor of classics at an elite girls' school on the coast of Scotland: sprawling, labyrinthine Caldonbrae Hall. The teachers and the students begin pushing Rose's already tenuous boundaries as the administration gains control over all aspects of her life while deliberately deceiving her. The author creates a du Maurierian sense of creeping loss of agency and horror in "Madam" as Rose is acclimated to ever-more outrageous conditions and haunted by the ghost of her predecessor, a teacher of classics named Jane who has disappeared. When Rose discovers that she is effectively a prisoner on school grounds, it seems that things can't get any weirder, but the weirdness has only begun.

By the time Rose begins to uncover what horrors have been concealed in Caldonbrae's venerable halls for 150 years, she feels compromised, implicated, and trapped. The only hope for Rose and a few of her most precocious students lies in the stories she tells her classes which are also retold throughout the novel: epic tales of powerful women of history and myth. Women like Boudicca, Medea, and others, who rejected control and took their own dark fate into their own, sometimes bloody, hands.

Some loose ends where story lines aren't followed through or followed up, not-so-deep characterization, and some stumbles with pacing, but overall, a really good Gothic suspense novel.

I actually stayed up till 3 am reading this one. I wanted to see if there was any glimmer of hope in this world, since it seemed like the protagonist had no way out and her students would never be free. I think the ending was kind of horrific (300+ people dead? Harsh.) but I recognize that this institution would probably have survived if the governors, parents, etc. had lived.
It's interesting--the fact that this is so horrific is because the practice is happening in the late 20th century. Having a school like this, brainwashing women to be Stepford Wives to rich, powerful suitors was not an uncommon practice in history. It's awful because of the time it's happening in, not just because it's happening at all.
I think this would be a great book to give to folks who have finished "The Handmaid's Tale" or fans of dark academia that makes you think.