Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Madam by Phoebe Wynne

29 reviews

abbiemreads's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Bullying, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, and Gaslighting

aliyachaudhry's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Stalking, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Classism, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Child death, Sexism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body shaming and Abortion

voxelbee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Suicide, Child abuse, Classism, Death, and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Medical content, and Mental illness

acoffeeandagoodbook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 Read for the Popsugar Reading Challenge prompt "a book with a palindromic title."

I love a good gothic story and dark academia, so Madam was right up my street. None of the 'twists' were especially surprising, but the atmosphere created by the book was oppressive and strange (perfect for this genre).

I found the main character, Rose, a little frustrating at times, but her relationship with her students was sweet, and I enjoyed the parts of the book set in her classroom to be my favourites. The girls she teaches are vibrant and fierce, and I was behind them every step of their way through their journey through this strange school.

None of the reveals were a surprise to me, but this didn't lessen my enjoyment. If anything, I found the opposite. Working out what was going on through the slowly revealed clues gave me a sick feeling of dread, so the payoff of having guessed right was very effective!

The only thing that didn't really work for me was the 90s setting. It felt like it had been set earlier, and then some 90s references to movies and Princess Diana were shoved in for no real reason. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Abortion, Suicide, Alcoholism, and Homophobia

Minor: Body shaming

caties_books's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Body shaming, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abortion

lynette_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Murder, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Death, Suicide, Sexual assault, Confinement, Child abuse, Child death, and Classism

patricia0227's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Mysteries drive me crazy, I'm just so desperate to know what's going on. Madam definitely keeps you on your toes. The atmosphere is tense and dark and upsetting. You can feel how trapped the main character is becoming. I like the time period setting of the 1990s, made for an interesting change since it's not contemporary and not super historical. Great criticisms of class, marriage, and British society within the text. The ending was not my favorite, but a wonderful brooding mysterious novel for those craving a little darkness with their boarding school books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Terminal illness, Death, and Child abuse

Minor: Abortion and Suicide

alyciamck's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, and Child death

kathiii's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

fuzzythealmighty's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Here are just a handful of the issues in this book:

1. It misrepresented itself in its synopsis. This book advertises itself as a "modern gothic" but it take place in the mid 90s which is now far from modern. It also is not as dark or atmospheric as it claims.
2. There are many many inconsistencies in the book. Most of these are inconsistencies in characterization, but there are some in the plot which makes it difficult to suspend disbelief. For example,
   The fact that the school new the details of Rose's father's death, which Rose and her mother tried to keep hidden, but not the fact that Rose's mother was an outspoken feminist.
3. The book has a very narrow conceptualization of dark academia.
4. Arguably, the worst bit of this book is it's fake feminism. This book was lauded as feminist literature, again a misrepresentation, when the feminism in it is very underdeveloped. It lacks intersectionality. The mentions of sexuality and race in this book are not explored in a meaningful way. The cast, and tone and ethos and etc., of this book was exceptionally white, cis, and straight. It didn't address these issues brought up in the book enough. Rose was raised by a prominent feminist but disliked feminism. I also felt she was exceptionally judgmental of other women. Many Greco-Roman stories were used in this text and the author did not discuss actual current feminist critiques of this text. The discussion around autonomy and choice was honestly disheartening. She basically describes women having no choices as a good thing that changed history. 
5. Finally, there were so many issues that this book could have touched on that it didn't including: colonialism, socioeconomic status, autonomy, cultural transfer, education, and the meaning of indoctrination. I know that this book technically discussed class, but it was done in such a way that it didn't explicitly critique how wealth is hoarded and maintained by taking from other people.

Anyways, don't read this. There are better dark academia books out there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Racism, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Homophobia, Confinement, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Chronic illness