There was not one single likeable character in this book. The Catherine House was a creepy place that I would normally enjoy reading about, if I could take the journey with at least one interesting character.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the The Book Club Girls & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

A secluded, mysterious school lures the best, brightest & most damaged students with the promise of free tuition, a life changing education, & the keys to the world upon graduation ... but Catherine House is more than it seems. Ines is running from her mysterious past right into the arms of Catherine House but the strange atmosphere & questionable practices make her question her place in the school. When tragedy strikes Ines begins to put together the oddities & clues to uncover the mystery of Catherine House. Solving this mystery will come at a price.

I love Gothic mystery & suspense as a genre & boy, did this book deliver. The world building in this novel is on a whole other level. She skillfully captured the feeling of foreboding & oppression that was key to the story. Her descriptive prose was so perfect you could smell the residence halls & feel the summer heat as you read.
With its decaying opulence, enigmatic professors, & air of mystery Catherine House itself was probably the best written character in the entire book.

Where the book came up short for me was in the human characters. Ines is difficult to the point of almost being impossible to like. The decision to withhold her past, save for a few tantalizing details, was inspired but her personality came off as more petulant than damaged. More insufferable than savable. I had a lot of trouble being invested in her journey because I disliked her so completely. Every time she wasted a chance someone was there to offer her another one ... until the end I never really felt that she was in any kind of peril because she had been treated as such a golden girl the entire time. She'd have to really mess up to be in trouble right? Well, she messed up & it was big, but I never really followed why it was such a big deal. It made the climax of the story kind of a let down for me.

I did however love the characters of Yaya & Viktoria - I desperately wanted to know more about them & it never happened. Yaya is a friend of Ines', fun-loving & passionate she is a force to be reckoned with & doesn't feel at home at Catherine House. She finds ways to retain her sense of normality in the topsy-turvy world of Catherine while she dreams & plans her life outside of the school. Viktoria is the school's director, a former Catherine student, & a complete mystery. What was she outside of Catherine? How old is she? What is her final agenda? What is her connection to Ines? You never get any answers. Sometimes leaving your audience questioning is good, but when you leave them with nothing but questions it can be frustrating ... and I was very frustrated.

Overall a solid book with some problematic areas but I enjoyed it as a whole. I know my rating says a 3 but it's really more a 3.5 if I'm honest. This is the authors first novel & it's exceptionally strong, I really look forward to more from this author & think she is one to keep your eye on.

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins for this ARC. This book was not something I would normally read but I was looking forward to something different. This was an interesting story about an exclusive school with a dark secret. I expected more of a suspenseful thriller. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it suspenseful and just an ok book. It also read much like a YA novel.

I love novels about enclosed environments, so I was extremely excited for Elisabeth Thomas's debut when I read it was inspired by stylings of Sarah Waters and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Though I can see those influences at work here, the novel more strongly resembles the work of Daphne du Maurier and, perhaps most strongly for me, Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA. Catherine House is a prestigious, out-of-the-way school where its students must forego parental or any outside contact for the duration of their attendance. (And there are no holidays or breaks.) Creepy, Scientology-esque experimentation involving "pinning" electrodes to their bodies and indoctrination through group chant brainwashing is also openly practiced. Meanwhile, something even more sinister is simultaneously occurring that includes extreme isolation for students noncompliant with the run-of-the-mill programming. Most of the students are damaged in some way, trying to avoid painful pasts, and the school represents salvation, a safe haven, which means they have little recourse to fight back—and little incentive to choose to see what's actually happening to them, right in front of their eyes.

A+ to this book for mood and setting and intrigue. I was definitely invested to read to the end to find out what was going on. I also enjoyed a heroine who isn't the typical passive "recorder" for the novel's plot, but is messy and human in her own way, who sleeps with whomever she chooses and makes mistakes and isn't the perfect, idealized student.

My thanks to HarperCollins for an early copy of this book for review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I’m a total sucker for a creepy, private school novel and Catherine House did not disappoint. With gothic elements and a touch of sci fi, this one really sucked me in.

Catherine is an extremely elite and mysterious school for kids to attend after high school. The school is free and provides all room and board, but the students are locked within its gates with no outside contact for three years. The studies are immensely challenging and some fields are even groundbreaking. As rigorous as Catherine House is with education and workloads, it’s equally intense with its opportunities for partying, alcohol abuse, and sexual promiscuity.

Ines is running. From her life, from her monsters and from the law. Unexpectedly, she’s admitted to the Catherine School and escaping her life and reality for three years is her perfect solution. But Ines can’t run from her inner demons and quickly falls behind at Catherine.

“‘You must choose Catherine,’ he said. ‘Not just once, but every day. Choose to be here. Choose to study. To make friends. To succeed. To wake up every day and be alive, and go to work. It’s not an easy thing to do. It can be very hard. But you can do it. I know you can.’ He leaned forward, eyes unblinking. ‘The question is, do you want to? Or do you want to spend the next three years stupid and drunk?’”

Deciding to “drink the Kool-Aid,” Ines immerses herself in Catherine House, it’s history, and its secrets and takes the reader on a dark and twisty journey in the process.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely love the cover of Catherine House. One topic I love to read about is a creepy boarding house. However, this book just didn't pull me in. I wanted to love it, but in the end I just felt "meh." I am giving it 3 stars because I think there will be many people who enjoy it much more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Elisbeth Thomas in exchange for my honest review.

Catherine House is a mysterious, elite school tucked away in the woods of rural Pennsylvania. Students live and study at the school for three years and must leave all of their possessions, photos, and clothing behind when they entire its gates. They won’t be able to watch TV or listen to music. They have to wear school-issued clothes. They can’t talk to or see their loved ones while they’re at the school; they can’t even leave its grounds. For three years, they must give themselves over to the secrecy of Catherine House entirely. But if they do, they are promised success and an unrivaled education. (Catherine House graduates include famous artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents, and more!)
We meet our main character, Ines, when she is starting her first year at the school. Like many first-year students, Ines is struggling to adjust to life after high school. But in addition to a rigorous schedule and new friends, at Catherine House, Ines also has to learn to deal with the rigid environment, strange happenings, and oh so many secrets.
This is one of those books that is tough to talk about without giving anything away, but lets just say, I loved it! It was impossible to put down—especially after you got about halfway through—and combines so many of my favorite literary things: secret societies, campus hijinks, suspense, thrills, and maybe even a little sci-fi. It’s a great read, and I really hope it becomes a movie. It would make such an incredible film!

I was drawn to this book by its cover and description. It was creepy and while I finished the book several days ago I still have questions floating in my mind regarding the characters and the plot of the book.

This book started off as my dream read! Shady private school, mysterious back stories, bratty teenagers and strange things happening all around. I was so intrigued by the Catherine House and it's back story and what was happening in secret behind it's closed doors.

So the premise hooked me. I devoured the first half. By 3/4 in I was starting to get really restless and confused. It just didn't feel like it was going anywhere... or maybe just not in the direction I had hoped.

By the end - I felt like I had wasted my time. I was so disappointed in where the story went when it had such a strong start! There was a big element of the school that I was so fascinated and curious about... without giving away spoilers - I'll just say that no questions were answered and the main character even admits she doesn't understand it either!

There was zero to none as far as character development or where anyone came from (or went!) so it was hard to connect to anyone or anything. I was hoping for so much more!

Great start - promising direction. No follow through. Bummed. I had really high hopes.

I was very intrigued by the description of this book. It had me wanting to read Catherine House. But I struggled through the entire book. I am not sure if it was the subject manner, the current COVID 19 situation, or what. I struggled to finish this book.
Catherine House is an elite school that only accepts certain students into its 3 year program. For some,this is the only way to get an education-its all paid for. The book itself it divided up by the years and then a few others. The First Year chapter, I liked and was enjoying learning about the way of the school and kids. But after that, it sucked the life out of me. To be honest, I didn't connect with any of the characters at all.
I usually finish a book in a few days, this book took me 2.5 weeks to finish. I wanted to put it down so many times. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
#CatherineHouse #NetGalley

This book was intriguing in its premise of a mysterious school in which everyone who graduates is successful. The main character is not very likable. It is hard to connect with someone who is so disconnected. The story was interesting enough that I read the entire book, but feel unsatisfied. As a character says near the end, “It was all for nothing?”

Catherine House has a young adult, slightly mystical gothic vibe. The main character Ines is a student at Catherine House, an elite full immersion 3 year post high school program. Right away there are a lot of contradictions. The buildings are old and run down, even though the alumni are rich and powerful. The place is elite and competitive, but Ines is unmotivated and to do the work and seems an unlikely candidate for that type of environment. The students are isolated from the outside world, so they bond quickly together which immerses the reader in the character development. Some of the relationships take predicatable turns, but I was interested in the characters and the progression of the plot. The school has an area that focuses on the study of some mystical plasm (kind of reminscent of The Golden Compass and dust) and they use plasm pins on the students to alter their attitudes and work ethics. I was not wowed by the scientific/mystical plasm or the way it was woven into the story. I wanted to love the ending but I was left wanting more from Ines and how she handled the final plot twists (as well as how her friends handle things). Overall, I was entertained and interested throughout most of the book but I wanted more suspense and a stronger ending for the character.

I thought Catherine House might have similarities to Leigh Verdugo's Ninth House, which I really enjoyed, but I don't think this book could really figure out what it wanted to be. It seems to include elements of science fiction, Gothic mystery, and the blitheness of youth when left to their own devices but the things never seem to gel into a cohesive story. The story is told from the perspective of Ines, whose past is never fully fleshed out, who ends up at elitist Catherine House where students are isolated from the world and weird experiments take place. The experiments seem out of place for most of the book, which mainly revolves around young adults drinking, partying, goofing off, having sex and occasionally (just occasionally mind you) studying things incredibly esoteric and off the wall that the average person has never heard of that they can make a career out of when they decide they want to be adults. I wanted to like this but the story line never gelled for me and the characters weren't likable.

I really wanted to love this book. They said gothic, suspenseful, haunting, and shocking twists. I did not get it. The writing is great. They said atmospheric, yes. They said seductive, maybe, but decadent, yes. There are endless loops of days for our main character, Ines. She’s promiscuous, bi-sexual, smart, yet lazy when it comes to the reason she’s at Catherine House. It’s a prestigious school and yet, she mostly doesn’t even try and they don’t care. Yes, it’s a bit Hotel California and something sinister is going on, but it never really gives you the satisfaction that the glacially slow burn is building up to. It gave me enough to hope that it would payoff without ever getting there and yet I made it to the end.

I am normally not drawn to such dark books, but this was sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try. And I was glad that I did! From the start, the reader is drawn into Catherine House, the school in the story. Everything is "perfect", but dark. Catherine House is a boarding school/university. Upon admission, the students are required to let go of their past lives. They are not allowed to maintain relationships outside of Catherine House nor are they allowed to retain possessions from their past lives. Catherine House is an old house which adds to the mystery of the story. As I was reading the story, I could picture this as a movie because Ms. Thomas paints such a vivid picture of Catherine House and its residents.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel anything for the main character, Ines. I'm not sure if it was because her back story wasn't very developed or I just couldn't figure out who she was. I would have liked to known more about Ines and her background.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Catherine House is a set at an exclusive school of higher learning. All expenses are free to accepted students, but acceptance definitely comes at a price. It’s a price that most students are willing to pay, because the school turns out multiple distinguished leaders of society. Ines, a troubled young adult with no family and few friends, is accepted to Catherine House, and it soon becomes clear that there are odd experiments going on.

Although well written, I wasn’t able to connect with and enjoy Catherine House. It began with a plausible plot, and then dissolved into something which I found myself wondering where it was going. The characters move in and out of the story without any real development, and it ultimately becomes a confusing jumble of who is doing what and why. I did end up finishing, only because I thought I must be missing something and that the loose ends would be tied together, but I was ultimately left disappointed.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishers for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I didn’t really like this book. At first I thought it was interesting and I wanted to figure it out. As it went on, I got so I really didn’t like the writing style - I thought it was too pretentious. At the end, I hoped it would all tie together but it didn’t - I felt like it just ended.

This is a good book for YA readers. That is all. I don't read YA.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

3 for neutral. I tried to read it on many occasions, but honestly didn’t really get it or enjoy it. Very slow paced, but I’m also a moody reader and will update if able to enjoy at a later date.

The giveaway for this book had me at the word Gothic. Who doesn’t like a good dark Gothic mystery? This isn’t quite what this book is. The setting is Gothic but I never got the sense of the story being Gothic, maybe because it seemed so YA.

I did enjoy the read but I wanted more character development, other than references to dark or unhappy pasts. Relating someone’s history isn’t the same as revealing their character. I guess I was looking for more depth in the characters because, at times, the story was almost too simple and too repetitive.

The descriptions of the house are well done but not of the characters. The house definitely is responsible for the Gothic feel but not the storyline itself. There is a mystery and it’s really not hard to figure out if you pay attention as you read. I think I got it before the main protagonist, Ines, got it.

I wasn’t exactly disappointed in the book but I just felt maybe the description of the book was better than the actual book itself. I kept wondering if this had started out as a short story and then been stretched to novel length because many of the scenes seemed more like filler than actually contributing to moving the story along.

I won this ebook ARC in a First Reads giveaway. Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers and the author, Elisabeth Thomas.