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ajay913's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Stalking
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Chronic illness, Vomit, Trafficking, Abortion, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
gondorgirl's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Classism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Confinement, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Stalking, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
aliyachaudhry's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Classism
Moderate: Body shaming and Abortion
voxelbee's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Medical content, and Abortion
hmurff's review against another edition
2.5
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting
Minor: Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Rape, Suicide, and Pregnancy
caties_books's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Abortion
fuzzythealmighty's review against another edition
- 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
- 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.
- 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. - The book has a very narrow conceptualization of dark academia.
- 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.
- 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.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Abortion, and Gaslighting
ashlee_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Abortion, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation
jamieleepilk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Welcome to Caldonbrae Hall, an isolated school for girls where the girls "value" is placed higher than all else. This book wasn't what I was expecting. To be honest I was steering clear from reading to much about it because it felt like a book with lots of mystery. I was surprised by the time of the book set in the 1990s, for some reason I was expecting it to be a lot earlier and with the creepiness of the novel it feels like an old victorian gothic!
Everything is told from the point of view Rose, the newly recruited classics teacher who is at least half the age of the other teachers in the school. Rose is the first new teacher in quite some time. For most of the first half of the novel she is kept in the dark and as the reader you are kept from information about how the school is run and what happened Jane the old classics tutor. I personally loved Rose as an antagonist, she felt very real and reacted how some-one in her situation should react. Her relationships with the girls are varied and I loved the lighter sides of the novel with Rose teaching Nessa, Freddie and Daisy and her relationship towards those three girls.
The addition of the Greek classic plays was brilliant and was done in a way that even if you're aren't aware of these plays before hand you won't miss out. The Heroines stories being interweaved with the lives of Rose and the girls was a great element.
Parts of this book hard to read, especially towards the end. And some parts of this book did want me to scream and chuck the book across the room similar feelings I had with reading books like The Handmaid's Tale and Vox.
Overall I really enjoyed it and I did find it hard to put it down, the writing is extremely smooth so you do read pretty quickly. Some sections and interactions started to feel a bit repetitive after the half way point, if not for that it would have easily been five stars.
📖 If you liked/For Fans of 📖
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Abortion
Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
unfiltered_fiction's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I really struggled to get through this book. There were definitely elements with strong potential within it, but I don't feel that those elements were ever realised. Please note that this is a book which comes with heavy content warnings; I highly advise checking content warnings before you pick this book up if you are a sensitive reader.
My greatest issue with Madam is that it felt centred around some highly tokenistic and hypocritical versions of feminism and anti-racism. In the attempt to liberate its women and girls, this book often falls short with a less visible, more subversive form of oppression. For a story that tries to tackle a hyperbolised form of institutionalised sexism, I was disappointed by how regressive and oversimplified some of the content was. For example, the main character - who is supposedly meant to save the girls of Caldonbrae from their gender-based oppression - says that she wears lipstick every day to defy her feminist mother.
The intersection of racism with sexism is also inherently problematic, as for a substantial portion of the book, the main character - supposedly outraged at the exclusion of BAME students at the school - simply refers to every non-white student at Caldonbrae Hall as "the Asian girls", making no effort to directly interact with them until she is assigned a brief period of looking after them. They are present as a secondary theme rather than as characters in their own right. A scene in the second half of the book also shows a problematic and appropriative attitude towards geisha culture.
The Gothic elements of the storytelling lack lustre. The prose is not particularly atmospheric - though sections of the book are strong; it feels that the author hits her stride particularly well between 50% and 80% of the digital version - and it is very obvious where each plot device is leading. The structure of the story is very obviously formulaic, and it relies heavily on Gothic tropes which are mediocre in their execution -
I took real umbrage to the ending.
I enjoyed the Classical inferences, but felt that they could have been much better embedded in the story itself, rather than presenting each portrait of a Classical woman as an "interlude". The conversations that Rose, the main character, has with her three favourites - Freddie, Nessa, and Daisy - were by far the best element of the book. I really loved the characters of Freddie, Nessa, and Daisy, and felt that this story would have been better told through their eyes. Most other characters felt quite fragmentary and two dimensional. These three girls, however, were handled well, with a good blend of sympathy and honesty towards their characters.
I have to admit that I'm disappointed that this is one of Quercus' hero/flagship publications for 2021. It feels significantly behind the times, and erroneously lacking in nuance, especially considering the very difficult central theme of child grooming and abuse. I may have been slightly more receptive to the book if it hadn't been lauded so much.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Medical trauma