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.

Dark and intriguing. If you enjoy a twisted story, you’ll enjoy Madam. Definitely different than my other reads! Thank you NetGalley!

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to review.

Rose Christie is a 26 year old teacher recruited by Caldonbrae boarding school in Scotland to teach in the Classics department. She is the first new hire in over a decade to a school very much stuck in the past. Rose is very modern and tries to instill her modern values into the school and her students, but clearly Rose is not wanted there and begins getting threatening letters and threats to her family. As Rose continues to adjust to her job she discovers secrets about the school and its staff she wished she hadn't.

As far as my.thoughts. I'm a bit on.the fence. The general mystery was good overall, but at the end of the chapter there were all these Greek passages I had no idea why it was there or if it pertained to the prior chapter it followed. Had elements of Handmaids Tale as to women.being treated as objects and are degraded. The ending was predictable and a bit out there. Just an ok read.

DNF 20%. Ugh, I really wanted this to be good. I am DNF-ing for 2 reasons:

1. The main character is putting up with way too much and I am not up for stressing through an entire book needlessly, without reassurance that it will be worth it. The MC, whose name I cannot even recall because the school demands all the women are called Madam, should have left on day 1.

2. This takes place in the 1990s but it feels like the 1800s. I think that is intentional, but I am imagining everyone looking like Miss Minchin from the movie A Little Princess. And then the MC mentions modern movies and I am just too thrown off by it all.

No rating on Goodreads but a 1 star here because Netgalley demands a rating.

Madam is definitely an atmospheric novel and it reminded me of an old-school gothic with a dash of early Margaret Atwood, with the focus on the intense bonds women can forge, and how an shift can lead to a ripple of unintended consequences. Definitely a good choice for readers looking for something to transport them that's also thought-provoking.

Rose Christie is the new department head and is the first new hire in more than ten years. She's 26, I am 28 so I felt that I could relate to her a little bit. She is excited to help influence her students and teach them how to grow into being women of the future. She struggles with the extreme traditional expectations and standards at the school. This is a dark, suspenseful read that made me ponder the status of society, our view on women and what to do to move forward. This left me with an eerie feeling.

"𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐬, 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞, 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐲 𝐮𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬.”

Rose is stunned to learn she has been hired to teach at the grand, all-girls boarding school Caldonbrae Hall, an ancestral castle that looks down upon the world from its proud perch atop the rocky Scottish cliffs. Known for its excellence, churning out the cream of the crop, she has been chosen as Head of Classics. It all feels like a strange and yet happy stroke of luck. Her mother is pleased as punch that Rose will be earning her living at one of the most famous, prestigious schools and Rose is thrilled to be getting out from under her mother’s control. Her career is full speed ahead, even if she is more than a little intimidated and full of doubts that she is up for the challenge.

Once inside its great walls, she feels swallowed up by the great swarm of girls, all eyes upon her. Already shame rises, feeling shabby by comparison to these fashionable, fresh-faced beauties. On her first day teaching, despite her experience, she finds herself slipping with little mistakes. Caldonbrae isn’t a place that allows for failure, nor for one to question how things are done. Rose is on her own for the first time and is set on giving her all. She manages well enough until her class with the older girls, bursting into puberty, challenging her from the start. She looks young herself, at 26, and the students test her right away, madly curious of why she is teaching them when she isn’t even married. As if having a husband is a requirement. She feels like she has been thrown to the wolves and knows she must gain the upper hand, or she doesn’t stand a chance.

She takes her job preparing the young ladies for their bright futures seriously, and what is better than a top education? Yet her ideas may be a bit too liberal for the lives these daughters of Caldonbrae Hall are meant to lead. Every school has its traditions, and for 150 years Caldonbrae has produced young women who serve society to make for a better world. As a trip disrupts her teaching, Rose wonders what exactly the students are being presented for, what could be more important than their classes? What has their young, impressionable minds so preoccupied? What is it exactly they are really busy with? She stumbles across a desk drawer with a mysterious handkerchief, remnants of the former teacher she has replaced. There are traces of the woman everywhere, and the students don’t hold back in comparing her to their previous Madam, Jane. The place feels completely out of touch with time, it’s far more “old world” than she could have imagined. As she tries to gain solid footing, she learns there is no limit to the school’s reach. Caldonbrae asserts itself like a master in her entire life, everything within its walls is an old relic, it’s unnerving.

There is a student following her like a shadow, and the former teacher’s absence haunts her. Something is very wrong here. Feeding the girls a diet of classic, feminist heroines, like Dido, Rose is teaching the students to take their lives into their own hands. But will the expectations of their school, parents, and society erase any hope for freedom they may entertain? Can courage be taught, particularly by Rose whose own life has been guided by her mother? Is it possible to imagine a life outside the path laid for them? Rose’s own road has ‘diverged’ with a troubled student, Bethany. Suddenly she is preoccupied with the girl’s tortured mind and disturbed by how the school handles such a delicate situation. Rose starts making a mess of things, risking her future as a Madam, poking her nose where it doesn’t belong. How far will she go in following in the former teacher’s footsteps, will it lead her to the real story of why Jane left?

Institutions like Caldonbrae demand their staff adhere to its strict traditions-with such impressionable, fragile young, minds it’s always best to maintain an outward display of self-control and respect of the old ways. Rose just doesn’t understand, her modern beliefs don’t fit the mold that has thrived behind these walls for well over a century. Is she really strong enough to handle the truth? More, is she brave enough to confront such a challenge? Does she know best what’s good for the ‘lucky girls’ anymore than those in charge of the place?

There is a gothic feel and with the school cut off even from the locals, it’s a world unto itself. It’s a funny question, how does a woman serve society… hmmm? I agree the tale seems so far from modernity, but the timeless feel is a way to show how sheltered and controlled everything is. How easy it is to do whatever you please when those in charge are complicit in what they believe is for ‘the greater good’. It was a decent read, and the feminist theme using classics to start a fire in young minds was clever. The ending was interesting. I think Rose is meant to be odd herself, afraid of life, seemingly unadventurous, hence she appears to be someone that would easily fall into line with the school’s rules and demands. We wonder, does she have her own flame burning? Curious what others will make of this mysterious, dark tale.

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟏𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏

𝐒𝐭. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧’𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. Its slow pacing and too much mythological storytelling in between the actual plot of the main story just wasn't for me. I think if this story was told in the past, and not the 90s, this might have worked a bit more, storywise. Maybe this will find its proper audience, but that audience wasn't me.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Set in the 1980's, this could have been set in the 1880's. It has all the right elements for creepy and gothic. There's weird people with odd behavior, cold, archaic spooky buildings set out in the middle of nowhere .. but the story really fell flat.

2.5☆

Caldonbrae Hall is an all-girls boarding school in Scotland. It has been a prominent school for over 150 years. 26-year old Rose Christie is the newest teacher they’ve had in years, and also the youngest. She is hired on as a Classics teacher with a Latin focus. As excited as she is for this new journey, she quickly realizes that not all is as great as it seems.

The students she teaches treat with her with disrespect, the Headmaster barely gives her the time of day, and the rest of the staff aren’t very supportive.

Beyond that, there is uncomfortable tension in the air as Rose realizes that students are to follow the rules, rituals, and beliefs of Caldonbrae Hall to a tee...and so is the rest of the staff. There will be serious consequences otherwise.

The beliefs are utterly ridiculous, not to mention aged, in this bizarre tale that moves at a snail’s pace. It was infuriating to see how much Rose put up with, and what kinds of things she saw...while still staying at the boarding school. She’s a good person with little backbone for the majority of the book, but the behavior was mind-boggling.

Additionally, the book takes place in 1992, but you’d almost never know it. It seems more fitting in a previous CENTURY, given the way everyone talks and the ideas and beliefs the school has for the students. It’s jaunting to hear one character mention movies such as Batman Returns and The Silence of The Lambs, because other than that, it feels like the 1900’s.

Although slow from beginning to end, I was semi-interested during the first 1/3 of the book...wondering where it would go or if anything exciting would happen. Things happen alright, but they’re not exciting, entertaining, or delightful to read about. The suspense and intrigue were seriously lacking. There is also an overabundance of Greek Mythology discussed in the book, and I didn’t see how that tied into the story...although admittedly, I did skim some of those sections.

While this one sounded intriguing and will undoubtedly be enjoyed by some readers, I am not one of them.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on: 5/18/21.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

What a great thriller- think if The Stepford Wives had been human, this is the story of their private boarding school and it’s archaic methods of training/brainwashing.
Set in a beautiful but eerie castle on the cliffs of Scotland, the structure of the school itself is almost a living, breathing creation that meanders and entraps, with no logical layout or airy welcomeness.
Rose Christie is in awe and honored when she’s offered a prestigious position at the school, especially considering they haven’t hired new people in years. As a benefit of employment her ailing mother is taken into the school’s care, and moved to a nice home with excellent nursing. Rose is almost immediately suspicious of the methods the school enforces on its all-female body: you must address your teachers as Madam or Sir, you may only discuss certain topics, your diet, curriculum, hobbies and interests are all strictly monitored and controlled by this school led by pompous, haughty and and extremely creepy men.
There’s never a slow point or a dull moment once Rose settles into her dorm. The classes are nerve-wracking, the dining hall is anything but relaxing, there’s no TV or radio, no contact with family or loved ones unless strictly monitored. Rose is kept in the dark about her mother’s welfare. There’s these odd ceremonies for the students, similar to a coronation ball but with no other young adults present. And then there are these really perverse classes, one in particular that Rose walks in on: a vision that you won’t soon forget.
When you start this book, get ready for a tense ride. I had to keep reading, because I knew it wasn’t going to end well, I just didn’t know who and how many would not survive.
Sincere thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is May 18, 2021.

This definitely gave me mixed feelings but I did enjoy parts of it. I think my friends would really enjoy this book, it definitely seems like it would be up their alley!

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.” -begins the description of this broody thriller. Rose Christie is the first new hire teacher in many years. She teaches Classics and her story is told peppered with mythological stories of women and lessons for her students. Immediately it becomes clear that something isn't as it seems at this gothic school. The horror builds quickly and some uncomfortable topics are broached. It wasn't my favorite of the year but has a twisty ride that is worth taking.

This book is set in Scotland and is about an all girl private boarding school for the elite. Having gone to an all girl private school from seventh grade through high school, I am struggling to put into words my feelings about what I’ve read. There are many things about the Hope School administration, faculty, school environment and expectations that rang true bringing back those feelings of not measuring up. The main character is Rose. She is new teacher that comes highly recommended by a former colleague. At the start of the new season, Rose is placed on probation until such time that she proves she can be molded and fully committed to the Hope School archaic ways. Rose’s overall naivety and her relationships with her family, faculty and students should make anyone take a serious look at their life. The final event in this book is very disturbing.

The book starts with Rose Christie receiving an amazing job offer to teach at the prestigious school Caldonbrae in Scotland. The students are all female with a mostly female staff.

She explains to her mother, who is thrilled, yet Rose is hesitant. I'm not keen on her mother from the start and the few times she appears in the story I have a mixture of pity and loathing. Rose eventually excepts the position and wonders if the distance is enough to sever ties with her mother. You don’t know what’s between them at this point but you can tell Rose is anxious to escape.

There’s something slightly Gothic with a sinister atmosphere about Caldonbrae. You pick up on that as soon as Rose arrives at the school. She has no one to meet her, only written apologies from the headmaster and a promise to get together the next day. (This doesn't happen for weeks).

After settling in she is required to give a speech to the students and you see right away it’s rather a Hogwarts setting. The headmaster other teachers sit behind her as she steps up to the lectern to address the girls. There are four separate Houses (think of Gryfindor, Slytherin, etc.) and the students are placed in different ones according to their value or status. All teachers are called Sir or Madam by the students.

One of Rose's first classes is a complete disaster with all of the girls challenging her with impertinent questions and telling her they don’t wish to be bothered to learn Latin or history. They state they’ve gotten rid of the other Latin teacher and by the end the teacher didn’t care. The smells like a lord of the flies story but with female students which could be even scarier. As you learn more about the students and the "curriculum" you'll be applalled. Could something like this go on in this day and age? Too scary to think it could and feminists will be apoplectic.

Publication date May 18, 2021 by St. Martin's Press. Genre: Literary Fiction and Women's Fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book. I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Thank you for granting me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review! This review will be published on my blog, pagesandprose.net, April 23, 2021. It will also be linked on Twitter and shared on Goodreads. I have already discussed this book in my March Wrap-Up video on YouTube (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAkQjnk6QoQ&ab_channel=PagesandProse).

Madam is a feminist-motivated gothic dark academia novel set in the 1990’s at a boarding school that happens to be one of wealthy society’s best-kept secrets hidden in plain sight. It sets a tone of unease right from the get-go, only to creep its way to an overwhelming feeling of trapped desperation. I was surprised with how much I couldn’t stop thinking about this story once I put the book down, as I didn’t realize how much it was truly impacting me until I finished the last page.

If you’re fairly experienced with gothic literature, then you probably know what you’re getting into when it comes to the pacing of this story; this book is slow. Wynne really takes her time setting up the story and painting us a picture of Rose, our main character, and the boarding school as she is allowed to see it before the blinders are completely removed. I think that the slow pacing did aid in creating the atmosphere of this book, however I think it also caused some of the foreshadowing and hints to be a bit too heavy-handed. That’s not to say that the big reveals weren’t still impactful, because I think that they were, but some of the shock-factor was gone. (I will say, though, that there was one particular scene that had me sick to my stomach and thoroughly disturbed.)

I think one of my favorite aspects of this story was something that is commonly found in academia-centered fiction, and that’s when the course material of whatever class the book is centered around, in this case Classic Civilizations, is brought into detail in the book. Typically this takes the form of scenes of characters having discussions about different topics, which was the case here in Madam. Not only that, but every few chapters Wynne would take us a step out of the story and present us with a short quote in Latin from an ancient text or play, followed by it’s English translation and a very brief essay. Each text or play was focused around a famous ancient woman and their story, and the following chapters would usually end up quietly referencing this. I think that this just helped link pieces of the story together really well, while also adding an interesting extra layer to the novel. I also think that it made the ending all the more satisfying.

The characters in Madam are quite interesting, because so many of them are rather dislikeable, but for various different reasons. Then there’s Rose, who I really felt a sense of solidarity with. I adored how strong-willed and level-headed she was, as well as how quietly passionate and devoted she was to teaching and Classics. Wynne was also able to really yank on my heartstrings with a few of the students at the school, particularly the trio of girls that latched on to Rose. There were several scenes of Rose and the trio discussing the school and their lives that I think were really well-crafted and made me not only emotionally invested in the characters but also feel a stronger sense of dread and helplessness as the story went on.

Madam is a rather dark novel focused around women’s lifestyles, tradition, and the freedom of choice. If you’re looking for a slow-paced novel with a richly gothic atmosphere that heavily incorporates stories of women from ancient civilizations, I definitely suggest checking out Madam by Phoebe Wynne when it’s published May 18, 2021.

It’s quite difficult for me to not finish a book, I truly hate doing it, but the way this story was structured along with the stilted transitions from moment to moment, just didn’t work for me. I have no doubt that the writing style and story lines will work for many others and I did enjoy the Scottish setting where the story takes place. Maybe it would’ve picked up and grabbed my attention at some point but I just couldn’t force myself to find out. I made it 25% into this book but will not be finishing it now or in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the e-ARC

"Phoebe Wynne's Madam is 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.

They want our silence...
They want our obedience...
Let them see our 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 unrivaled. 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."

No one has been sleeping well anyway, so why not give yourself a deliciously Gothic reason why!?!

Sinister boarding school stories enthrall me, as a rule, but "Madam" wasn't wholly satisfying. Something about it felt contrived and unsubtle. I was most interested in the legends of women from ancient Greece and Rome, and how our protagonist, a young Classics teacher named Rose, wove them into her attempts to awaken independence in her female students. (Though it is a stretch to cast Medea or Agrippina as feminist role models!)

The author is good at creating an atmosphere of paranoia and confusion. As a new teacher, Rose keeps falling afoul of hidden rules, realizing she is the only person who hasn't been clued in to the school's secret purpose. However, the big reveal took too long to arrive, and there were a lot of redundant scenes of Rose getting in trouble and receiving mixed signals from her colleagues. It got to the point where I didn't really understand several supporting characters' motivations because they kept switching their attitude towards her.

I did not buy Rose's relationship with her terminally ill mother, at all. Mom is supposed to be a "bra-burning" feminist activist (whether any feminists really did this is historically debatable, BTW) but she seems completely in thrall to the prestige of the boarding school and conventional in her attitudes toward her daughter. Would it even have been legally possible for the school to get power of attorney over her, without telling Rose? The school's all-powerful reach began to seem like a cartoon villain set-up.

I'll leave it to a reader with more experience in anti-Asian microaggressions to discern whether something was weird about the segregation of the Japanese students and how they were exoticized by the school. Rose objects to it like a good liberal protagonist, but was the subplot really necessary?

My interest in the book picked up in the last third, when I was racing to discover how Rose might escape her captivity in this unethical and seemingly all-powerful institution. The solution was appealing as poetic justice, but so simple that I was left wondering "If that's all it took, why didn't anyone do this sooner?"

2.5/5⭐️

Mixed feelings here.

Gothic feel but set in 1990s Scottish Highlands at a prestigious 150 year-old girls boarding school. Rose, the new Classics teacher begins to discover a nightmarish sinister curriculum underneath the glamorous illusion.

While billed as a feminist tale, I was disappointed in the naivety of Rose and her meekness through much of the book. While she did finally step up, it seemed too swift and almost like an afterthought. The story was also just mentally exhaustingly drawn out as it dealt with the appalling subject matter of how these girls were being judged/groomed for their future lives. For me, the denouement gave me conflicting emotions of relief mixed with dismay/sadness rather than any satisfactory closure.

While I had no problem with the writing, and I’m sure there are those who will love it, to be honest I was relieved as I finished as it was a wearying and depressing read.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for providing me the early ARC for review. The opinions are strictly my own.