A review by fuzzythealmighty
Madam by Phoebe Wynne

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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