This book absorbed my attention until the very end. I think that although it is a gothic style mystery with a main female character whose name is taken away from her by the position she is in, the comparison to Rebecca lets it down a little. The similarities to the older classic end with the heroine's disempowerment and the pull of the Caldonbrae property.
This is a unique tale, one that had twists and turns which means it can stand alone without relying on older works.
The story is breathless throughout and I actually found myself feeling the dizzying anxiety that Rose feels as she becomes increasingly aware of the horror of her situation.
I did think that the big reveal could have been more dramatic but also understand that it was realistic to slip it into an everyday conversation unexpectedly. The ending was satisfying with the potential for more to come from this world.
The thing I enjoyed the most as someone who has studied and loved Classical Civilisations was the exploration and discussions around the women from the stories and epic poems and plays that are interspersed throughout creating a springboard for the novel's narrative and shaping the characters' behaviour.
Rose's influence and relationship with her responsive students remind educators that it can be hard to teach most of the time but it is always worth it when a student responds.
Not an easy read but an entertaining and interesting one all the same.

Madam was a very readable and pacy book, but I didn't believe a word of it.

I attended an English girls' boarding school in the 1990's, sitting my Latin GCSE in 1993, so this should have been a real blast from the past for me, but everyone acted and spoke like they were in a sinister version of an Enid Blyton novel. It just didn't ring true at all. No music? Wearing silk dresses with buttons? All those male teachers?

Having said that, I read it quickly and had fun, so it's worth 3 stars!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

A solid Gothic mystery filled with suspense and atmosphere, gloomy world-building and lots of intrigue that kept me turning the pages. The page felt a little slow and stilted at times which did leave me feeling a little underwhelmed.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding this book so I was delighted when I received an advanced copy but for me, the book fell a bit flat in certain aspects.

I won't say I didn't enjoy the book because I did but for me, there were parts of the story missing and there were parts I could have lived without. There is a long journey to get to Caldonbrae, Rose is late and running to catch a train but then we just suddenly arrive at the school. Then the story goes straight to the following day. There was no description of the school or Rose's flat. I needed to know to the setting at this point.

Now we know that there is something odd about the school, that education is not the main aim of the school but (without giving spoilers) I expected something more than what it was. Although it would be awful to think a school would exist in the 90's, I just kinda thought 'is that it?'

Although Rose was there to do whats right, she seemed to do a lot of shouting and not really achieving much. There were points were I thought 'just calm down and think'. I could understand her anger but flying off the handle was never going to get results.

As Rose is a Classics teacher, we are given lots of little short snippets of Greek Mythology, but towards the end I found myself skipping these pages because I didn't think they added anything.

All in all, I did enjoy the book but it just needed more. I wasn't excited about reading it, I wish their was more suspense and I just wanted a stronger main character.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus for the advanced copy.

2.5/3 out of 5 stars. This book sounded like something I would really enjoy. However there were a few things that niggled me. The plot felt very all over the place. It would go at a snails pace for ages and then suddenly try to thrush the plot forward making for a reading experience similar to whiplash. I found the schools values and the threatening, coercive hold over Rose at the boarding school unbelievable and unrealistic for Scotland in the 1990s. I agree with a lot of reviews that say this book feels like it’s set in the 1890s not the 1990s. Most characters were so wet and weedy they were infuriating and the dystopian elements felt stilted and artificial. I wasn’t buying this book as a whole.

But I can’t deny I loved the boarding school setting and the descriptions of rugged Scotland. I found the Greek history and myth sections really intriguing but the plot was too slow and cumbersome to get higher than a three star rating. Wynne is a very impressive writer and the author has strong potential. I certainly will be checking out anything else this author writes.

Thanks to the author Phoebe Wynne, Quercus books and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I actually found this a little disappointing and I think that’s partly because of the way it was marketed. I read The Secret History meets Rebecca (which are two of my favourite books of all time) and so I went in with certain expectations. I felt like the comparison was pretty surface level and didn’t actually reflect the atmosphere of the original books. Having said that, I read this in one sitting and loved the plot. I would still recommend it to others, it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s atmospheric and chilling from start to finish, and I can see something like this still going on somewhere in high society. Here’s hoping that it doesn’t but I wouldn’t be surprised!
Some scenes (the basement!) are somewhat far-fetched however as a teacher myself so much of this rings true. It would be difficult to leave an institution knowing that harm would come to your students if you did so, and with the added threats faced here it’s not difficult to see why she stays!
My only criticism would be the ending; I would’ve preferred it to have ended a chapter before as I think it would’ve been harder hitting if it hadn’t jumped forward in time. All in all though it’s an excellent story and one that I’ll be recommending to anyone who’ll listen.

Rose Christie starts works at Calonbrae Hall, a boarding school for privileged girls that come from wealthy and influential families. The school has been going for years and is located in a remote part of Scotland. She is employed as the head of classics and cannot believe her luck at being recommended for the job.

Rose soon realises that maybe this is not her dream job after all. The pupils are reluctant to learn and education seems to be on the back burner for these elite girls. Brooding, atmospheric and unique, with an interesting late eighties/early nineties setting, Madam is definitely one to watch.

There were some interesting ideas in this book, particularly around class, power and the role of women, and it was well written. However, for me, there were too many lessons in Greek myths which added very little, but contributed to the book being over long.
Thank you to netgalley and Quercus books for an advance copy of this book

This has to be one of the oddest and most unsettling books I have ever read.

Beware! Spoilers ahead!

This is the story of Rose Christie. She is a Classics teacher and is awarded a job as head of department at a prestigious all girls school in Scotland. At Caldonbrae Hall, Rose is initially placed on probation and not given a full teaching timetable. She is denied a meeting with the headteacher and finds the staffroom uncomfortable as she is largely ignored or the subject of gossip. One of the students, Bethany, develops an obsession with Rose and follows her around the school. In the first of many unsettling developments, Rose is accused of assaulting Bethany and is denied the chance to defend herself. She is not allowed to speak to Bethany but gleans from her other students that Bethany has been sent to the 'San' a part of the school that Rose hasn't visited but learns from the library is a Sanitorium built when the girls had TB years before.

The unsettling developments continue, with someone breaking into Rose's flat and leaving threatening messages, the head girl openly bullying Rose, and then the discovery that the school isn't quite what it seems. Rather than being an educational institution for the countries elite families it acts as a marriage bureau with the girls being sectioned off according to their academic abilities - high achievers get matched with younger more eligible men with the less achieving girls being matched with much older men or remaining at the school as teachers. When Rose discovers the true nature of the school she tries to fight back. However, the headteacher threatens Rose that her teaching career - if not her life, will be over if she breathes a word to anyone outside the walls. Rose instead has to knuckle down and try and join in with the abuse of the girls in her care. It is a small band of students who take matters into their hands, emboldened by Rose's tales of Greek and Roman heroines.

I found the story timeline to be disjointed and confusing. Set in the 1990's it beggars belief that a school like this could exist - it was more like a throw back to the 1890's. Rose is a character that I struggled to care about. She had so little character development and was so passive to the treatment that she witnessed besides being 'outraged'. The threats towards herself and her mother were somewhat silly - could a school really have tentacles that reached right throughout society? This novel is pitched as a gothic/horror story but it really falls somewhere in the region of just being downright disturbing. I never like to leave a book unfinished but I came so close to just not finishing this at all.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review - I'm just sorry I didn't like it more.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

Well well well this was something unexpected. Not sure how it’s sitting but it definitely gave me food fir thought. Not as much a “thriller” or gothic novel-more of a dystopian novel but the dystopia already exists. 3.5 rounded up

What a creepy gothic page turner, a brilliant read, couldn’t put it down, one to watch this year, great read, one to recommend.

3.5/5 Stars.

This book felt like similar to the film Mona Lisa Smiles in the best way. We follow Rose Christie as she starts at Caldonbrae Hall as the head of classics for the boarding school. But Caldonbrae is 150 years old and has some deep-rooted traditions and expectations of its only recruit outside the institution.

I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC for this book from Netgalley. I loved the book, a definite page turner and my first experience of a "dark academia" book. The character Rose is strong even in the face of many of the awful things that happen to her and some of the awful choices she has to make to protect people she cares about. The incorporation of Greek myths both in the teaching and within the story was very well done and they looked at myths that can be explored in a feminist way which i thought was a great addition to the book. The book explores topics of arranged marriage amongst the elite as well as indoctrination and how women are viewed by misogynistic men. Its well written, although the Scottish dialect is not done particularly well, and engaging and had me wanting to know what was going to happen! Some of the "plot twists" were very obvious but overall it was a great read! I look forward to reading more by this author.

A somewhat lightweight, slightly 'Gothic' story set at a girl's school. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped after reading the blurb. It is fine for a quick read but, for me, the story lacked something to make it memorable and also reminded me of a couple of other books I have read previously.. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I am sure it will find an audience and be enjoyed but many readers.

Madam is a strange book. It's quite dark and atmospheric but it was just too much of a slow burner for my taste and I felt it was also too long. I'm sure many people will love it but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

A dark gothic feminist tale of a young women who ends up teaching at an elite boarding school for girls, that hides a dark secret.

I loved this book, the dark atmospheric setting, the secrecy surrounding the schools real motivation. The story read like a mix between Margaret Atwood and Du Maurier, with a dash of classical literature as well.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who loves gothic fiction and mythology.

This seems to be a 'love it or hate it' book and I'm firmly in the love-it camp.

The plot is set in Caldonbrae - an old, gloomy and isolated castle set on a Scottish peninsular in 1993. One hundred and fifty years ago, the eccentric owner (and father of 6 girls) converted the castle to a private school for girls of well-to-do families. The 150 year old principles of education have not changed much in the intervening years, as Rose Christie, newly appointed Classics teacher, soon discovers. She finds haughty and superior students, odd rules with severe punishments, secrets being withheld and mysterious traditions everywhere, with hints of dark and powerful forces which extend well beyond the school's gothic confines.

The book is interspersed with snippets on Greek, Roman and mythological heroines which Rose uses to inspire her students, as role models, examples of female oppression and what happens when strong women defy the status quo and the rules of men.

The story is a bit of a slow-burner but well worth the wait. It has a growing sense of menace and quite a few shocks in store for Rose, and a grand finale worthy of (and inspired by) one of her mythological characters. 'Madam' is set in the 1990s of necessity - 30 years later and she would have used her mobile phone to make contact with the outside world, the internet for research and her phone's camera or voice recorder for obtaining evidence.

A great read and thoroughly recommended. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an early preview in exchange for an unbiased review.

One thing lockdown did for my reading habits was cement a love of Gothic fiction. So imagine my delight to read Madam by Phoebe Wynne. It’s a contemporary Gothic novel (well, set in the 1990s, rather than the 1890s) that expertly weaves in elements from the past. Often times it feels like you’re not sure which era this book is set in. And that’s one of the reasons it’s so enticing.

Lead character Rose Christie teaches Classical Civilisation, and is the newest teacher that Caldonbrae Hall girls’ boarding school had had in many years. Her predecessor was sacked in mysterious circumstances, just one of the secrets that Rose goes on to get to the bottom of.

Caldonbrae Hall (also known, ironically it turns out, as Hope after the surname of its founder) is an imposing and impressive school on the remote Scottish coast. Very much a place of tradition and where patriarchy rules the roost, it is referred to as a monster several times in the book, for multiple reasons.

The school (or rather, the people that run it) also has a sinister sixth sense when it come to Rose and her personal affairs. All staff live on the ground, so it’s very much a contained situation. Once you arrive, it’s very hard to leave… Rose feels uncomfortable and soon discovers that something a lot more sinister is happening when you scratch the surface.

I loved how Phoebe Wynne wove the classic Greek stories throughout. Giving us tales of mythical women, sometimes tragic, all inspiring and all enriching Rose’s story of rebellion and feminism. I really enjoyed how this storyline played out in Madam.

The joy of reading Gothic stories is you know how they will play out – they essentially follow a set of rules – but the way they do this is what makes them unique. I did not expect the ending of Madam – on several points and in a page-turningly thrilling way.

From the classical text references to the high-adrenaline climax, Madame is definitely Gothic fiction with a difference – highly recommend you give it a whirl.

In an intriguing mixture of dark academia and Du Maurier’s Rebecca, Wynne’s debut novel follows a young working class teacher who is thrust into the secretive world of an elite boarding school.

The protagonist’s love of Classical Civilisation, which she teaches, is an interesting theme that runs through the novel, intertwining the action of the book with those of ancient women.

Madam is richly atmospheric with a current of Feminist thought running through its core. An unusual and engaging read I’d recommend widely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

With echoes of "Rebecca" and "never let me go", this fascinating novel kept me gripped from the start. Jane is recommended for the position of Classics teacher at the prestigious girls boarding school, Caldonbrae Hall in Scotland. Upon arrival she finds things are run very differently from her previous school with emphasis on the girls themselves rather than academic success.
The reader is drawn into the shadowy regime alongside Jane, and as her free will is harnessed, she struggles to recognise friend or foe.
Loved it