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melnealgarcia's review
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Suicide, Child death, and Sexism
Moderate: Abortion, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, and Toxic relationship
anovelbeauty's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Suicide, Bullying, Body shaming, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Abortion, and Sexual content
Minor: Fatphobia and Homophobia
kaylasbookishlife's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Rose is a very annoying character. I found her emotional reactions mixed up. For some events when she probably should have spoke up or said something she was incredibly passive and at other times when it was obvious she should keep it to herself for a bit she was so aggressive and and careless. Like read the room girl!
There was an issue with one of the students and like she literally had no sympathy for the poor girl until they used one of the “punishments” on her. It was odd because Rose is supposed to be a feminist and a modern woman who cares about LBGT rights and mental health but she seemed very passive about it when it was happening until it was too late.
Okay so aside from the main character there were some major issues I had with this book. One is that the author kept using “the Asian girls” over and over again until finally about halfway we learn that they are actually Japanese. Like why not just say that from the start?
I found that the author made all of the characters who identified as LGBTQ evil or bad. It was very strange and did not sit well with me. Meanwhile the main character was sympathetic towards the straight male teacher who in my mind was not a victim at all and yet was portrayed as “a victim of the system”. I’m sorry what? No he is an adult and what he did was truly wrong.
There was unnecessary disturbing scenes with adults and the students. Please be warned about teacher/Student relationships and pedophilia.
It was all around a no for me.
Graphic: Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Cultural appropriation, Child death, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Abortion
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: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
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: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Racism, Torture, Suicide, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse