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The Crazy School (Madeline Dare #2)

by Cornelia Read (Goodreads Author)

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · rating details · 1,007 ratings · 197 reviews

"Madeline Dare is like that wild smart-mouthed friend who blows into town, sweeps you off into a knife-edge adventure you never saw coming, and makes you laugh out loud even at the darkest, most intense moments. I can't wait to meet her again."
--Tana French, New York Times bestselling author of In the Woods

Recently settled in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, Made...more

Paperback, 352 pages

Published February 12th 2010 by Grand Central Publishing (first published January 1st 2008)

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Jan 15, 2011 Darrell rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

"The Porsche shifted hard and steered harder, suspension so tight that running over a fingernail pairing at eighty could have you pissing blood for a week."

The first half of this book is about a foul-mouthed teacher trying to help some troubled students. It was somewhat engaging, however about half way through it turns into a standard whodunit. This is apparently a sequel since there are vague references to previous events that leave the reader more confused than tantalized. The Crazy School is...more

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Jan 03, 2011 Brenan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There were parts of this book I really loved, but the parts I loved did not outweigh the parts I completely despised, which included:
1. The depiction of Madeline as this life changing teacher in this school where all the kids really need are more people like her. In reality, I think if kids like the kids in that book (who seemed to have been written by someone who has never, in my opinion, had a conversation with a teenager) had as their only adult role model Madeline Dare, they would be worse...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Ellz Readz rated it 3 of 5 stars

My thoughts...For me, reading The Crazy School was a bit like riding a roller coaster. It has its ups and its downs. Let me start with what I liked about the book. The plot of this story contains a huge mystery to be solved. This mystery is written in a way that you have no idea who can be trusted, who is lying, or manipulating everyone in the story. I second-guessed everyone. The characters were interesting. It is my understanding that the school portrayed is based on an actual institution. In...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Nenia Campbell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-2008s

Lately, I've been fascinated by bilateral gynandromorphs: creatures that are literally half-male and half-female. NOT hermaphrodites (which is a common misconception): half of the creature's anatomy is male and half is female, including the brain. It is a very rare mutation that only affects insects, fish, crustaceans, and some birds. I don't know of any mammals with this mutation: it's so invasive, I suspect that any fetuses that DO have this mutation are rejected in vitro. Anyway, I'm weird. B...more Lately, I've been fascinated by bilateral gynandromorphs: creatures that are literally half-male and half-female. NOT hermaphrodites (which is a common misconception): half of the creature's anatomy is male and half is female, including the brain. It is a very rare mutation that only affects insects, fish, crustaceans, and some birds. I don't know of any mammals with this mutation: it's so invasive, I suspect that any fetuses that DO have this mutation are rejected in vitro. Anyway, I'm weird. But when I saw that this pretty cover featured a bilateral gynandromorphic butterfly that looked EXACTLY like the one I'd been studying on Wikipedia, I took it as a sign that this book and I were meant to be.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why there is a mutated butterfly on the cover as this book had nothing to do with mutants or butterflies, or any other insect, really. It is about an evil school for emotionally disturbed teenagers with a dark, sketchy history. Pretty interesting, I grant you. The hook was what made me part money for the book. Unfortunately, the plot does not live up to the seductive promises of the book cover's summary. It is very cheesy. David Santangelo kind of reminds me of the Shevvingtons from Caroline B. Cooney's Losing Christina series. The rest of the cast is about as disturbing and unlikable as your average cast in a V.C. Andrews novel. Sadistic teachers? Check. Enabling parents? Check. Sexually precocious children? Check.

But I'm being mean. The plot was interesting and I finished the book to the end (which I would not have done if it was completely horrible). I was just really disappointed by the poor execution -- and several other things that also irritated me quite a bit.

1. The main character was completely unlikable. She smoked and drank around kids that were in there for drug abuse, she swore -- a lot. And since the book is written in first person, the reader is treated to first-hand exposure of this gratuitously explicit language. Now, I'm not a prude. I believe swearing in novels is perfectly acceptable if the situation and the character calls for it, but Madelaine Dare (ew -- that name just screams jaded gumshoe) reminded me of a fourteen year-old who has just discovered that sprinkling swears in your sentences like sprinkles on a cupcake just makes you sound that much more cool. Personally, I think it comes across as uneducated and clogs up the flow of dialog and narration. It's a habit I'm trying to drop, myself.

2. The scenario just seemed completely unrealistic. I am a psychology major. I know people who work in institutions like these. Behavior like that displayed in this novel would NOT be acceptable. First off, all of the counselors and staff are clearly unfit for their jobs. They are immature, they swear around the kids, flirt with the kids, and just totally eradicate the barrier that is supposed to stand between counselor and patient. Obviously kids like these need to be nutured but given their troubled histories, they also need to learn boundaries as well. It makes me so angry when my major and occupations pertaining to it are so grossly misrepresented in media. No wonder everyone thinks psychologists are quacks, if people take stuff like this at face-value. But then again, I supposed any book entitled "The Crazy School" can't be expected to be PC or sympathetic.

3. The motive behind the killing was -- eh. I'm not annoyed by it as other reviewers were (I peeked at other disgruntled reviews, and I can see why people were like WTF. It IS random. Even if you think you're pretty good at unraveling mysteries, this motive is like a grand piano falling from the sky). I felt like the killer's behavior was erratic. Too erratic. Like, at the beginning (s)he seemed totally sane. But by the end of the novel (s)he was like MUAHAHAHA. I AM CRAZY. AND I HAS A GUN. MUAHAHA. DO AS I SAY!!!! OK, now people are generally not that good at hiding their illnesses like that. It's pretty obvious when somebody is falling apart, especially if you work with them on a daily basis. I was extremely confused by the reasoning behind the motive, too, and not just because the killer was completely crazy. So much was left unexplained.

P.S. this is just me being weird again, but when Fay was supposed to receive her cake, did anyone else think, "The cake is a lie"?(less)

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Apr 24, 2010 Deborah Sloan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Crazy School
The Madeline Dare saga continues in The Crazy School by Cornelia Read where Madeline is now a teacher in a school for troubled teens. Not your ordinary run of the mill troubled teens here but many with psychological problems. The Crazy School is in fact the Santangelo Academy in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. There is more that goes on here than Madeline first realizes. The troubling ways in which the director requires discipline to be administered to the teens is just...more

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Jan 28, 2008 Bette Ammon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The Crazy School" is Cornelia Read's second book. It too features the fearless and frank Madeline Dare ("A Field of Darkness"). Here Madeline is teaching in a boarding school for wayward teens. Her feelings of outrage and unrest turn out to be justified when two students are murdered and Madeline herself becomes a suspect. The dialogue is snappy and the language is realistically graphic.

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Feb 15, 2008 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Older teens who like suspence novels

Recommended to Diane by: Read a good review

Shelves: high-school, mystery

Santangelo Academy is a boarding school for disturbed teens who have run out of conventional schooling options. But, as new teacher Madeline Dare discovers, some of the "therapeutic" treatments prescribed are downright sadistic. And when two kids are found dead, with Madeline framed as the killer, she finds out that something very wrong has been smoldering within the Crazy School.

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Mar 29, 2012 Star (The Bibliophilic Book Blog) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

Madeline Dare is a history teacher at the Santangelo Academy , a private school for troubled kids. She wonders how she’s going to survive the madness, but the students give her some relief from the freaky teachers and even weirder headmaster. But when two students die in a mysterious manner and she is a suspect, she follows the secrets she held for them back to the source. Doing so, she hopes to find out why they really died and who is setting her up to take the ultimate fall.

Ms. Read’s characte...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Ashleigh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. The main character, Madeline, is a refreshingly cool person, and totally easy to relate to, or picture hanging out with. I would say that Madeline alone made me really really like this story.

I get very tired of female leads in books over stepping the lines of normality. Like every internal thought is a raging debate about life, the universe, and everything lol. Madeline doesn't do that. She's clear about who she is, and she has a way of saying things (the story is to...more I really enjoyed this book. The main character, Madeline, is a refreshingly cool person, and totally easy to relate to, or picture hanging out with. I would say that Madeline alone made me really really like this story.

I get very tired of female leads in books over stepping the lines of normality. Like every internal thought is a raging debate about life, the universe, and everything lol. Madeline doesn't do that. She's clear about who she is, and she has a way of saying things (the story is told by her) that gives you an understanding what her sense of humor is. Maybe I like her so much because I also have that same dark, witty sense of humor.

When I first read the cover I was a bit hesitant because, as I mentioned, I generally dislike female leads. I love stories about psychotic confinement though, so one outweighed the other. It is actually about Madeline coming from wherever to teach at Santangelo's, and she does indeed stumble across an event that upsets her; however, the cover makes it sound like she needs to escape, and take teenagers with her, and there's some kind of chase scene to be expected. No. It's so much better than that. Madeline works at the school but lives off campus- she can leave anytime she wants. She was going to help two kids leave- who were both over 18- not exactly the chase I'd imagined. There's a suicide on campus, and Mad thinks it's a murder, but then she gets caught up in the investigation. Can't say more bc of spoilers :), but I can say it's not a simple case of Mad thinking she's Sherlock Holmes and questioning people- she's a refreshingly normal, smart girl, who takes advice from her lawyer. I love her.

The actual suicide/murder doesn't take place until about 100-120 pages in. It's worth the wait, and honestly it flew by. There was one review that mentioned the swearing in the book. I'm not sure if it's just me, it probably is, but I didn't grow up at Disney, so I certainly don't expect adults to refrain from swearing. Take for example this: if you discovered a mutilated body while you were alone in the woods only to realize the killer is right behind you (which isn't something that happens in the book- this is pure example) I don't know that your first thought would be "gosh golly gee, I sure wish I'd stayed home today". It would probably be of the four letter variety. I understand the bit of shock that comes with her swearing in front of students, up to the point that they aren't in 4th or 5th grade- these are students who set people on fire... for fun... so chances are it wont really rattle them, and it's also a great way to make me (as the reader) feel more comfortable with Mad because she's a whole person. I also really liked that she actually cared about the teens there, but not to her own detriment. She wasn't trying to crawl through broken glass and hot coals to save their poor innocent lives, but she always recognized when they deserved better, and had a fair hand and level head when judging other's actions against them.

All in all I liked this book very very much. I wouldn't go into it hoping for something along the style of a Flavia DeLuce novel (a non-sleuth solving murders), I would liken it to Stieg Larsson ONLY in the fact that so much character development happened so quickly and brilliantly that you cared about Mad and you were her friend to the very last sentence. (less)

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Mar 28, 2010 Zona rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 60-in-2010

I was totally enthralled by this story! I found so many parallels between Madeline and myself. Cornelia Read gave Madeline such a fantastic voice and I found myself giggling at every chapter until the end when I was just awestruck by the story. Even then I was cracking a smile while on the edge of my seat.
Although I'm not of Madeline's generation, I felt a kinship with her as I read along. I loved her husband Dean and her good friend Lulu. I also adored the students, especially Weisner and Sitzm...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the second book featuring Madeline Dare. Madeline and her husband Dean have left Syracuse for a town in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. When the job that Dean came to do was delayed, Madeline took a job at a school for troubled youth. The rules surrounding both faculty and students at the school are bizarre, and Madeline finds the staff more troubling than the students. When Madeline tries to help the students in ways that are not necessarily those of the school, she finds hers...more

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Jan 06, 2010 Laren rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries

Madeline Dare is a teacher at the Santangelo Academy, nicknamed "The Crazy School" because the students have mental health issues and the teachers are expected to participate in their own therapies too. These methods have been created by the head of the school, Dr. Santangelo, presumably as a comprehensive program to further aid the students. But when two students are found dead, Madeline doesn't believe it was a murder-suicide, yet she has trouble finding others to believe her.

The book summarie...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Brandi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, 2011, books-for-grown-ups, hardcover-feedback

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 16, 2012 Lynne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Madeline Dare finds herself teaching at Santangelo, a school for deliquent children. The principal and creator of the school, David Santangelo, is a man of extremes--and transparent hypocrisy. If it weren't for LuLu, a coworker, Madeline wouldn't be able to stay sane at this crazy school.

But she loves the kids, and wants to help them. When one young couple takes her into their confidence, however, she could never imagine what is about to be unleashed.

My biggest issue with this book is that most...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Kristin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, reviewed, mystery, read-in-2011

I think I would give this a 2.5, so I'll be nice and round up. I really liked the characters (although I think it would have helped me to read the other book about Madeline Dare first). I found myself really getting into the life of the school and caring about the people. When the big bad event happens, I was very interested in getting to the bottom of the matter. The ending, however, really threw me. I suppose the whodunit made sense, but it came out of left field. Some of the characters sort o...more

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Mar 01, 2011 Jennie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, trashed-it

Oh, Ms. Read, Ms. Read, how I want to like this series, but you're losing me!

Madeline Dare is an interesting character. I want to like her, too, I really do. But she keeps getting put in completely ridiculous situations that make absolutely no sense! What's she doing teaching in a school for emotionally unstable children? Granted, it's a rather dodgy school, but nothing in her background (so carefully detailed in the first book) gives us any clue that she is either: a)a qualified teacher; b)trai...more

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Feb 17, 2008 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 Despite a slow first half, the book develops into a good mystery. The narrator is acerbic and funny, and the kids she teaches are highly entertaining. I missed some of the allusions to counter-culture literature and music, but I enjoyed reading the book overall.

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May 08, 2010 Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

Another excellent book in Cornelia Read's Madeline Dare series.

Madeline has escaped Syracuse for somewhere that's not a lot better - a private school for troubled teens in the Berkshires. She's teaching English and disturbed by the cultlike way the school is run - think EST with teenagers and you'll have a sense of the place. When two of her favorite students turn up dead, Madeline knows something bad is happening.

Read expands on Madeline's life with her husband, Dean, and on her life in this se...more

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Jul 02, 2010 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 07, 2013 Celeste rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wasn't a fan of Cornelia Read's style of writing, but I did enjoy reading about the therapies of the 1960's and 1970's that we now know were not empirically valid and sound so useless in hindsight. She had very vivid descriptions of random situations, such as the way she drove her car (that I found boring) and the sensations associated with the flu (which I could relate to, since I recently had the flu-- and her description was spot on). The plot was interesting, if unlikely. I knew one charac...more

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Feb 22, 2008 Gwen the Librarian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booksforgrown-ups, mystery

This is a worthy follow-up to the phenominal debut A Field of Darkness. The action is more fast-paced and this is a quicker read, but the characters are just as well-drawn and the plot is suspenseful.

Recommended.

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Jun 17, 2012 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, february

I loved Read's debut novel, "A field of darkness," and found Madeline Dare a wry and refreshing character. Madeline just doesn't cut it in this second novel -- the acceptance of much of the plot is just too preposterous in relation to the gritty theme. Just why is Madeline teaching instead of writing? And why at such a wacky school, with rules few teachers would ever put up with? Why do her students like her, instead of run all over her? Why is her wealthy uncle willing to help her out so? Etc,...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Christen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was excellent. Although is is part of a 3 book series (hopefully more coming!) it was able to be read as a stand alone book without being confused. Of course I has read the third book first, the second book second, and about to read the first book last and even though I think the other books may have given parts of the first book away, I still can't wait to read it. Cornelia Read's writing is edgy and quite frankly pretty much just like the way most people talk. I like that this book d...more

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Mar 12, 2010 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked out this book on a whim and boy was that a good whim!

One of my few issues with it was that I didn't get to learn quite as much about Madeline Dare's background (which was often hinted at, though never fully-disclosed) as I would have liked, but upon reading reviews (didn't even look at goodreads until after I finished!), it appears that this is the SECOND book about Madeline. Since I really did enjoy this one, I will definitely be checking out the first.

Overall this was a moderately-pac...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Amblingbooks.com marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, dectective, women, audiobook

"Another bitterly amusing mystery from the author of A Field of Darkness (2006)�.Read borrows elements from different genres to craft a strange, compelling narrative, one that frequently approaches�but never quite descends to�the excesses of melodrama�.In her shadowed complexity and stubborn�but fragile�integrity, Madeline resembles many of the genre's most enduring protagonists. She's a great character, and her creator is a great storyteller�.Caustic, gripping and distinctive�intelligent entert...more

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Mar 04, 2008 Linda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know why I read this -- I don't really like mysteries but I kind of liked it until somebody died and I guess I was supposed to care who did it. But I don't.

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Feb 20, 2008 Rachel Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I gobbled this one up. Madeline Dare, the protagonist, has a great harsh/funny voice.

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May 21, 2010 Kristen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

All right... if you want a book to teach you how to drop the F bomb in any situation and have it make sense, this is the book for you. Among that and the other smattering of profanity, the story line was completely lost. It had the promise of an intriguing plot, but that was soon destroyed after the first chapter. If swearing has a reason or purpose, I can sort of look past it, but this book's profanity absolutely no direction. I wrote my paper for school on it and have never written so passiona...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, alphabetical-reading-challenge-2010, teaching, mystery

Madeline Dare is disturbed about the strange discipline at the school where she teaches, but not disturbed enough to do anything about it, until two students she cares about kill themselves.

Or do they?

Suspecting the deaths were really murder, Madeline finds herself accused of the crime and starts digging for the motives of a killer who won't stop killing.

This book is not a cozy mystery, but it's not anything darker. Read has a zingy sense of humor and a novel way of weaving in pop culture refere...more

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Feb 24, 2008 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: folks who've worked with ED kids or crazy administrators

This was good escapist reading.

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About Cornelia Read

I have circumnavigated the globe, throwing up in many of the world's airports as I hate to fly. I was born in Manhattan, and spent my childhood racketing around from New York to California to Oahu.

I know old-school WASP culture firsthand, having been born into the tenth (and last) generation of my mother's family to live on Oyster Bay's Centre Island. I was subsequently raised near Big Sur by divo...more I have circumnavigated the globe, throwing up in many of the world's airports as I hate to fly. I was born in Manhattan, and spent my childhood racketing around from New York to California to Oahu.

I know old-school WASP culture firsthand, having been born into the tenth (and last) generation of my mother's family to live on Oyster Bay's Centre Island. I was subsequently raised near Big Sur by divorced hippie-renegade parents. My childhood mentors included Sufis, surfers, single moms, Black Panthers, Ansel Adams, draft dodgers, striking farmworkers, and Henry Miller's toughest ping-pong rival.

I am now at home molding the characters (evil laugh here) of my twin daughters, the younger of whom has severe autism. I am the world's worst housewife, nicknamed by my intrepid spouse "a lighting rod for entropy in the universe."

I like to read a lot, being especially fond of the backs of cereal boxes and badly garbled assembly instructions written by persons for whom English is not the language of choice (although my all-time favorite bit of writing was contained in the song list on a bootleg Dylan tape in Hong Kong, which claimed "Bowling in the Wind" was the first cut on side A).

For the last several generations, my family's motto has been "Never a Dull Moment." None of us know how you would say this in Latin. I subscribe to my sister's gustatory philosophy, which is that "there are two kinds of food in the world: food that's good, and food that needs more salt."

My two favorite songs are Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" and that little bit of Bach Glenn Gould plays right when the Tralfamadorians are coming out of the stars to kidnap Billy Pilgrim and his old dog Spot in the movie version of Slaughterhouse Five. The Rolling Stones doing "King Bee" gets an honorable mention.

I have now published two novels, A Field of Darkness and The Crazy School. Field was nominated for seven awards, including the Edgar for best first novel. I am also the grateful recipient of a 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.

I would like to be Winston Churchill when I grow up.(less)

Books by Cornelia Read

Damn Near Dead 2: Live Noir or Die Trying

A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir

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The Crazy School (Madeline Dare #2)

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