By Kelly Keene

Title: Madame

Author: Phoebe Wynne

Star Rating: 2.5/5

Synopsis: A young new classics teacher starts work at an all-girls boarding school in Scotland that is predictably problematic and weird. She, as a professional educator, is treated terribly, and it’s not just the staff and students that start to give off the weirdest of vibes. Some of the themes and revelations in the story are meant to be shocking, but also reminiscent and reflective of the systematic molding of youth generations have seen happen especially with the privileged and powerful. Violence, suppression, and shame are cyclical and generational. Intermittently we read stories from classic texts of heroines who were also violated, died or burned because of gender disparities in their times, and Wynne connects these stories to the young students as a way of drawing parallels between 

Memorable Quote: “We must use the errors of our past to reflect on our future.”

My Take: I am not usually a horror fan. I don’t really like any book that is marketed as “scary” or “disturbing” in any way, but my book club chose this one, so here we go. I did finish it. I got all the way to the end, and ultimately just felt annoyed and frustrated. What?! A private school perpetuates a system of misogyny? Surprise, surprise. The moments of shocking reveal where we are supposed to be stunned that the school is actually an arranged marriage service for old, gross, rich men is not very shocking. The most intriguing reveal is when her colleague reveals that she is in fact a lesbian and wants to “scare” the main character into staying at the school. Still, I didn’t find it convincing. I also have a hard time reading books about teachers and schools though, because, as a real life teacher, it is hard to stomach a perceived rendition of the workload teachers have and the methodologies behind the work that we do. The main character is not a good teacher. Most portrayals of teachers tend to be either the bad, lazy or criminal ones, or the ones that are champion, self-sacrificing heroes. Neither is realistic or a practical model for real professional educators. My bias made it hard to get past that element of this narrative.