📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: Catherine House
AUTHOR: Elisabeth Thomas
@thissielomas
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐
Published: May 12, 2020
Catherine House is Elizabeth Thomas’ debut novel. And I’m impressed.
You are never given a clear path or explanation of what the characters paths consist of, nor their future. It only exists in the House and what they are a part of. The main character, Ines, is running from a dark past and yet is still never comfortable in her new academic home. She is listless, skips classes, and spends much of her time in an alcohol induced haze. It is very similar to how you feel when you are reading the book.
In short, the writing is brilliant. Elizabeth is able to weave the feelings and current state of the character, layer upon layer, and impresses upon you the same feelings. Most of the time I had no idea what was really and truly happening, where the truth was, and what it was all about. But the journey and discoveries were so apparent.
Does it seem like I can’t really talk about this book clearly? I can’t. It’s definitely one you need to experience for yourself. It’s totally understandable if you don’t jive with this book though. I still am not sure how I fully feel about it. But if anything, you have spent some time exploring your place in this world.
I apologize for the other worldly, fluffiness of this review. You will understand if you read this book.
You can see my video review here:
Small Summary:
Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment, has produced some of the world’s best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years—summers included—completely removed from the outside world. Family, friends, television, music, even their clothing must be left behind. In return, the school promises its graduates a future of sublime power and prestige, and that they can become anything or anyone they desire.
Among this year’s incoming class is Ines, who expects to trade blurry nights of parties, pills, cruel friends, and dangerous men for rigorous intellectual discipline—only to discover an environment of sanctioned revelry. The school’s enigmatic director, Viktória, encourages the students to explore, to expand their minds, to find themselves and their place within the formidable black iron gates of Catherine.
For Ines, Catherine is the closest thing to a home she’s ever had, and her serious, timid roommate, Baby, soon becomes an unlikely friend. Yet the House’s strange protocols make this refuge, with its worn velvet and weathered leather, feel increasingly like a gilded prison. And when Baby’s obsessive desire for acceptance ends in tragedy, Ines begins to suspect that the school—in all its shabby splendor, hallowed history, advanced theories, and controlled decadence—might be hiding a dangerous agenda that is connected to a secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.
*****
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.