Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Madam by Phoebe Wynne

30 reviews

hmurff's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, Rape, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Racism

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

laurenleigh's review

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

The premise of this is right up my alley. It’s got a creepy old boarding school for girls, a setting on the moody cliffs of Scotland, and lots of dark academia content focused on Ancient Greek and Roman mythology. The narrator was also quite skilled, navigating through lots of European accents. The plot was pretty well executed, but the characters fell quite flat, especially our main character. Her backstory was confusing, her relationship with her mother baffling, and her motivations mysterious. I couldn’t connect with her at all. I finally felt some connection to some of the students at the very end, but not enough. I just wish this novel got a bit more workshopping, a bit more editing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion

caties_books's review

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

patricia0227's review

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

bellasbookmark's review

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Child death, Abortion, and Suicide

smahlcat's review

dark emotional informative sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abortion

teacher/student relationship

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

frecca95's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

ashlee_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abortion, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness