Madam

This month my reading challenge is all about Dark Academia. Following The Betrayals, my second read was Madam by Phoebe Wynne. Set in a remote Scottish boarding school for girls, new teacher Rose Christie is aggravated by the many secrets coworkers and students alike are keeping from her. And is it just her imagination, or might she be trapped in this strange and ancient academy?

Summary

It’s 1992, and Rose Christie has just left her job in Kent for a position at the elite Caldonbrae Hall, an all-girls boarding school on a peninsula in Scotland. She’ll be teaching Classics to her reluctant students. But while she’s there, Rose is increasingly concerned about what actually happened to her predecessor. Why do so many teachers and students seem to know so much that she doesn’t? Why will no one divulge these secrets? Over the course of one school year, Rose will uncover the truth about this old-fashioned academy, even if it kills her.

Review

I loved the concept of Madam: creepy boarding school, Gothic vibes, all set on remote Scottish cliffs? Sounds like a great setup for a mystery. The execution, though, was uneven, with slow pacing and a befuddling main character.

When Rose starts working at Caldonbrae Hall, she quickly learns that she’s being kept in the dark about a lot of things. It also seems that she’s being isolated from everyone who’s not in the boarding school. When she asks questions, her inexplicably hostile colleagues give her the runaround. It is so frustrating, for the readers and certainly for Rose too! Her students don’t respect her at all, either. Why does Rose even stay in such a toxic environment?

The book is intriguing at first, and I wanted to uncover the secrets of this weirdly archaic school. But it moves at a slow pace, and Rose isn’t that astute at picking up on clues herself. I was figuring it out faster than she was. Rose also doesn’t have much common sense, particularly in her interactions with others.

Even with those shortcomings, Madam does have its good parts. I liked how several chapters begin with a two-page classic story. This fits nicely with Rose’s job as a Classics teacher. It also has a strongly feminist leaning, even if a lot of it feels outdated… maybe because it’s set in the early 1990s? Sometimes Rose’s personal brand of feminism comes across too narrowly, but this could also just be a reaction to how thoroughly antiquated (and sexist) everyone around her seems.

The mystery and Gothic chill slowly but surely ramp up to some shocking reveals. There’s some gross stuff happening in this school, and it’s unimaginable how people this recent in time could possibly think this way. Be forewarned about themes of pedophilia, grooming, and abuse.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Madam is an interesting book, but certainly polarizing. It was slow and kind of weird, but it kept me interested enough to keep reading. I liked some things about it, but it had its issues, too. In any case, Madam is an intriguing debut, and I look forward to trying out Phoebe Wynne’s second novel, The Ruins.

Get the Book

You can buy Madam here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Madam by Phoebe Wynne
Audience	Adult
Genre	Mystery
Setting	Scotland
Number of Pages	338
Format I Read	Hardcover
Original Publication Date	May 18, 2021

Official Summary

Discover the secrets of Caldonbrae Hall in this riveting, modern gothic debut set at an all girls’ boarding school perched on a craggy Scottish peninsula.

For 150 years, high above rocky Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat untouched, a beacon of excellence in an old ancestral castle. A boarding school for girls, it promises that the young women lucky enough to be admitted will emerge “resilient and ready to serve society.”

Into its illustrious midst steps Rose Christie: a 26-year-old Classics teacher, Caldonbrae’s new head of the department, and the first hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose is overwhelmed to be invited into this institution, whose prestige is unrivaled. But she quickly discovers that behind the school’s elitist veneer lies an impenetrable, starkly traditional culture that she struggles to reconcile with her modernist beliefs–not to mention her commitment to educating “girls for the future.”

It also doesn’t take long for Rose to suspect that there’s more to the secret circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of her predecessor–a woman whose ghost lingers everywhere–than anyone is willing to let on. In her search for this mysterious former teacher, Rose instead uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, forcing her to confront the true extent of the school’s nefarious purpose, and her own role in perpetuating it.

A darkly feminist tale pitched against a haunting backdrop, and populated by an electrifying cast of heroines, Madam will keep readers engrossed until the breathtaking conclusion.

They want our silence…
They want our obedience…
Let them see our fire burn