Boarding school? Check. Classics themed with mythology analogies throughout? Check. Feminist dystopia? Check check check. Ticking three of my favourite themes, I was excited to read an EArc of Madam, a  debut novel by Phoebe Wynne. 

Rose is a Classics teacher at a school in Kent when she is headhunted to take over as Head of Classics at a prestigous girls boarding school in the north of Scotland.  With her father dead and her mother needing expensive care, the offer is too good to turn down. Soon Rose finds herself in a school that's more like a fortress, one where she is by far the youngest member of staff, where there has been no new teacher for decades, where despite excellent grades academia is unimportant. The pupils dress like victorian schoolgirls, the teachers are addressed anonymously, she herself now just Madam, and her predeccessor is spoken about in whispers. 

Rose finds herself struggling to fit in and to engage her pupils. Stalked by a venegeful sixthformer who seems to blame Rose for her predeccessor's mysterious disappearence, Rose tries to make sense of the school's odd traditions and oldfashioned outlook. Trapped by geography, by responsibility, by her growing need to help her pupils, she starts to uncover secrets that lie at the very heart of the school. 

Dark and twisty, Madam was an enjoyable read, although Rose wasn't quite interesting enough to carry the book, and at times it veered into  very close to melodrama. But if, like me, you enjoy a boarding school setting with a classical twist, then Madam is well worth a read.

I asked for this title as the description was everything I like - Dystopia, boarding school story, Handmaid etc.
I have mixed feelings about the book - I think the pacing and length are a problem. While I appreciate that Rose is living through a nightmare that unfolds, nothing happens for much of the time, then when it does, we flash by without looking at reactions or consequences. Elements read like a YA story, but a couple of the flashpoints are disturbing and not dealt with as far as I'm concerned.
A puzzling book. Not much character/realationship development. I really wanted to like it, but was very glad to have finished.

After Bridget Collins’ “The Betrayals”, this is the second “boarding school” novel in a short while and again I stumble at plot and style. Again, hint after hint after hint about what really happens at the school and again there comes a point when I am past caring. As maze-like and unintelligible as the layout of this school are the interrelationships of its inhabitants. Hint: something happened, a pupil died, a teacher was fired another pupil now has mental issues and stalks Rose, the new classics teacher. Hint: sixth-formers are raised for some specific purpose. All strewn with wimmin-centric classics tales in Latin and English, followed by overly-long interpretations. Even with the hints drip-fed to the reader, I could see the main theme a mile off, it was so achingly *shockhorror* obvious. From then on in, it’s just tossed auburn curls, bodices and hissy fits.
It’s neither “brooding” nor “gothic”, just annoying.

The first half of this book is really quite sinister,a boarding school that clearly has secrets.
Pupils that dont want to learn,and pretty much tell you so.
Secrets that everyone knows apart from the new teacher.
As Rose struggles to settle into her new job,the school takes over her life in every way.
Once the secret was revealed,it was pretty much what I'd been expecting,and there were few surprises through to the end.
For me,definitely a better first half,but all of it was enjoyable.

I tore through Madam! What a clever book this is. Rose is a young classics teacher who gets recruited to join the staff of a prestigious and yet secretive all girls boarding school in Scotland. Once there however she’s confused by the strangeness of the girls and the other teachers; and the more she learns the more horrified and yet also the more enmeshed she seems to be in her new position. The school was a masterpiece of horror: an antiquated system run by the rich and powerful and not is all as it first seems by a long way- Caldonbrae is in fact hiding a dark secret which threatens to trap Rose once she learns it. As a character Rose is passionate for her subject and caring for the girls under her instruction, which made her a great protagonist. I loved how she fought back against the brainwashing of the girls with her ‘ancient women’ - the story brings the tales of women from Greek mythology or classic history to show how women are powerful and fought back against their circumstances. To me this was similar to A Thousand Ships by introducing a cast of classical women such as Daphne and Medusa, but was ultimately much more successful. 

My thanks to #NetGalley, @QuercusBooks and @phoebewynnewrites for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not sure what to say about this book. Frustrating, annoying, badly written? Yes those words will do. I really wanted to love it but found as I dragged my way through it that all hope was lost. Time I won’t get back sadly.

I don’t think I have every been so frustrated reading a novel and not in a good way. I really struggled to finish reading the novel and I’m not sure that had I not been required to review it I would have done. The novel was slow and I could not find a single way to empathise with the main character. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rose is unsure when she gets a job offer, but takes it because her mother is ill, and she finds it difficult to afford the care she needs on her current salary. There are other reasons, but this is possibly the main one. When she arrives at the Hall, she finds it very different to what she had imagined, and the revelations keep coming out,  secrets that do not need  to be kept beyond her probationary period, and they are shocking. I will say no more, for fear of spoiling the ending, but I recommend this book.  I particularly like the way the author  uses her experience as a teacher, in the sense that she is influencing some of the girls  without knowing it, at first.

DNF 25%

When netgalley approved my requested for Madam I was low-key ecstatic. However, my giddiness was short lived.
This was not the Gothic story I was hoping it would be...the 'boarding school' setting leaves a lot to be desired and although on GR this novel falls under the LGBTQ+ genre this is not a queer novel (even if I haven't finished it I have a feeling that there may be one side character who is queer). I probably could have been fine with Madam not being a very Gothic or sapphic read but I just could not look past the way the story is presented. I don't think the author is to 'blame' for this but their editor.
disclaimer: I did not finish this book so this may prove to be a fantastic read. If you are thinking of reading this book I recommend you read reviews from other readers.

Here are a few of the 'issues' I had with this book (feel free to disagree):
-the prologue, which takes place in summer 1993, strikes me as a wee bit overwritten. We have "soft silk dresses", "slim girlish arms", "the cool sweet air of the night swirled high above them as if in mockery". Still, I did like the following line, "the school building felt none of this urgency, standing firm despite its burning injury, holding fast as it was eaten from the inside out", which reminded me of Shirley Jackson.
-the prologue is followed by a letter from the headmaster to former head of Classics which doesn't add a lot to the narrative. I guess it hints at some mystery, but it was kind of too on the nose (her employment "must be terminated" and it promises "severe repercussions" if she were to discuss "the school anywhere outside its grounds").
-we then are introduced to our supposed protagonist, Rose. There is clunky scene in which she speaking to her mother on the phone, followed by her rather detailed journey to Caldonbrae Hall. Although Rose is "young" (twenty-six) she will be the new head of Classics at Caldonbrae. Her mother, who lives in Kent, is sick (cue dramatic "cough" to signal she is not well) and Rose feels kind of guilty at the prospect of going off to Scotland. Anyhow, we read of her journey. She stops at a cafe bar where a man with strong There Be Strangers™ vibes makes some cheesily ominous comments. Her train is late (oh no!) and Rose flushes "with alarm". Next thing you now Rose is Caldonbrae Hall and her driver is a bit brusque.
Do we get a detailed description of the place? No. Do we read of Rose making into her new home? No.
The scene cuts from her leaving the car to "the following morning". Talk about anticlimactic. What was the point of that drawn-out journey? Once we get to the interesting place the story just skips ahead only to skip back with a quick "the night before" in which we just read of Rose being informed that the headmaster was too busy to come meet her and she is taken to her flat (in a building near the hall? How big is it? How many flats? Do all members of staff live there? Who knows. It may be a grey building).
-When the narrative skips ahead again Rose is walking about the place, and we get a very supreficial overview of Caldonbrae, which is described as "hauntingly empty" (insert eye roll here). She spots a creepy girl who, of course, has "dark hair" and "staring eyes". Ffs. Then we get this classic line, "when she looked back at the school again—was it minutes, hours later?"
-There is no sense of place and the passage of time is not clearly rendered. I have no idea how many members of staff Rose meets, how many staff members there are....she's given a timetable that isn't correct or something and that's kind of it. The one or two colleagues she talks too are creepy and allegedly older than she is.
-Rose's first lessons are not great, the girls are disrespectful and seem to claim that they had a hand in her predecessor's departure. Rose is unnerved by the creepy girl. Every member of staff she talks to sounds as if they belong to a cult. Rose keeps forgetting the strict rules (she has to wear a smart blazer at all times, she can only address her colleagues as 'Madam' or 'Sir'—surely this would get confusing? If she asking after someone wouldn't it be easier to use their surname than to refer to the position they are in or the subject they teach?—and she asks too many questions). Although Rose seems to know that this school is more traditional and old-fashioned than her previous one, and that she is in fact closer in age to the older students than to youngest members of staff, she seems surprised that her colleagues would not select movies such as Batman Returns or Alien 3 on Movie Nights (a real ingénue).
-the writing. Not only do we have "squinting smiles" but apparently characters cannot simply "say" things (a girl "piped up", another one "chimed in", they "snap", "bark", "garble", and Rose "splutters" a total of 7 times in the course of the whole book). The author goes to great efforts in order not to use "said"....and it shows (not in a good way). A great book that discusses this (the under-usage of "said") is Stephen King's On Writing.
-not only is Rose a boring and nondescript main character but she is far too credulous. She seems more fitting to a book set in the early 19th century and not the 1990s.

Given that I dislike everything about this book I am doing myself a favour and calling it quits. The best thing about Madam is its cover design.

Date reviewed (Canada) - October 18, 2020
Date reviewed (UK) - November 20, 2020
... I am bi-country at the moment

...oh, now I know why it looked familiar - I disliked it last month when I read it.


When life for the entire universe and planet turns on its end and like everyone else you "have nothing to do" while your place of work is once again closed and you are continuing to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation as the #secondwave is upon us,  superspeed readers like me can read 300+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today.

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

A riveting, modern gothic debut with shades of The Secret History, The Stepford Wives, and a dash of Circe, set at a secretive all-girls’ boarding school perched on a craggy Scottish peninsula.

Let the fire burn...

For 150 years, high above rocky Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat untouched, a beacon of excellence in an old ancestral castle. A boarding school for girls, it promises that the young women lucky enough to be admitted will emerge “resilient and ready to serve society.”

Into its illustrious midst steps Rose Christie: a 26-year-old Classics teacher, Caldonbrae’s new head of the department, and the first hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose is overwhelmed to be invited into this institution, whose prestige is unrivalled. But she quickly discovers that behind the school’s elitist veneer lies an impenetrable, starkly traditional culture that she struggles to reconcile with her modernist beliefs—not to mention her commitment to educating “girls for the future.”

It also doesn’t take long for Rose to suspect that there’s more to the secret circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of her predecessor—a woman whose ghost lingers everywhere—than anyone is willing to let on. In her search for this mysterious former teacher, Rose instead uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, forcing her to confront the true extent of the school’s nefarious purpose and her own role in perpetuating it.

A darkly feminist tale pitched against a haunting backdrop and populated by an electrifying cast of heroines, Madam will keep readers engrossed until the breathtaking conclusion.

This book utterly FRUSTRATED ME ... there were actually times I wanted to toss my kindle at the wall I was so exasperated. It may be easier to review this in point form:
1. The story moves at a snail's pace and it realllllly hard to get into.
2. It is not just FEMINIST, it is misanthropic, anti-anyone with a  and bordering on Femi-nutsy
3. The main character is just not likeable ... in fact, I came to loathe her.
4. Telling someone that they are DRAMATIC all the time is, well, annoying
5. The story didn't really pick up or be interesting until at least 2/3 of the way through.
6. This should not be a novel, this should be a screenplay for Netflix
7. The real story in this bk is the students, not the teacher
8. I never connected to the story --- it was uber-Stepford-Wives-arranged-marriages which is the antithesis of the book's promised feminism

You might like this book - I did not. It is very polarizing. (I did promise to be honest!)