I honestly have no idea what I read for 10 days. I have a very hard time DNFing books, but this one got dangerously close. I never get like the story ever let kept momentum. At points I was like, okay, and then nothing. It was not my kind of story. It didn’t feel gothic, it felt like someone was trying too hard. I wish the author would have explained at least one part clearly! Such a bummer!

ARC provided by Net Galley and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.

I really struggled with reading this book. There was nothing about the characters that I could connect to and the plot moved incredibly slowly. Something finally happened at about 90% but it was too little too late for me.

This book had such potential. The idea of it grabbed me, and I was so excited. Unfortunately, the premise of this book fell flat for me. I found myself confused and wondering what type of book I was reading. The whole plot line didn't make much sense to me, and it felt as if I was reading more of a general fiction book instead of a suspenseful horror-type read that I assumed was what the book was trying to go for. This is a tough book to rate and review for me because I didn't hate it. I liked the book in general, but it didn't seem to fulfill the expectations the summary gave for it.

This was a very moody, dark, edgy read for me. It felt part “Logan’s Run,” part mind control -plotted, part gothic prep school-fantasy. At moments I was sort of overcome by the descriptions of the food, the smells, the dream-cloaked wanton sex, and the chronic drunkenness at Catherine House. It felt dark and grungy and sordid. Who were these teachers and facilitators? Were they scholars or robots? Were they there willingly, or had they been altered in some way? While I didn’t always like this story, I also found that I couldn’t put it down. It was creepy, and I wanted to know what the hell was going on! So it was a yes, for me. “Catherine House” was a freaky, cool ride.

Going into this book I had such excitement. I had recently finished Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo and loved it. It invoked memories of The Rook by Daniel O'Malley and I had hoped this book would be somewhat an amalgamation of my favorite parts of each. Maybe a bit less fantasy but still equally as mysterious and suspicious. I do not relish in writing this review, but I felt the book was remiss. It needed more. More of everything really.

One big thing for me was the pace and the length. It took far too long to actually get to anything mysterious. Which made me continuously find myself losing interest and putting the book down. I should never have to WANT to take a break from reading because of the book itself. Tired eyes, potty break, need some sleep, need to eat or take the dog out: yes. But because I am frustrated the book is taking too long to actually have anything happen? No. Absolutely not.

To be quite honest, I only finished the book because I simply HAD TO KNOW what the big mystery was surrounding Catherine House. Once it was over I found myself saying aloud, "Wait, that was it? Really?"

This book takes patience, and I wish I could say the reader will be rewarded in the end. For me, I did not feel rewarded. It wasn't completely terrible, but it also wasn't good either. It just missed the mark.

This line.. in the early pages:
"A small brown face peeked in." Sorry as the owner of a small brown face, I was really frustrated by this... Why doesn't the face have a name? The narrator already knew the face belonged to her roommate... My roommate TKTK peeked in. She was short... tired... fancy... anything more than a small brown face.

I have given this book this rating because, despite the fact that I decided to stop reading it, I admire the writing. Whilst understanding that this was not a match for me, I can appreciate how it is a great novel for so many others. I will be getting my hands on the physical edition to gift to my friends who I know will love it.

Thomas is a very descriptive writer, especially when it comes to visualisation. I'm not a very visual thinker so the reading experience didn't impact me in the way that I'm sure it will many others. For me, this style strained my energy. I say all this just to explain my subjective experience of what I can understand is an incredible book.

I managed to reach the half-way point of this book before putting it down. The main thing that kept me reading was the tone. Thomas establishes discomfort in the reader in a very smart way. I also loved the setting and how the house was characterised. I am interested to hear my friend's thoughts on this quirky and original debut.

I have mixed feelings about this book. At times I had a hard time getting through this book. It maybe, because it seemed to lean more towards science fiction. I'm usually not a fan of science fiction. I did get pulled in at the very end, wanting to know the outcome. For sci-fi fans, I can see the book being more enjoyable than it was for me.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

This one was, well, weird. And I'm still not sure if I mean that in a good way...

I was highly intrigued by the concept and loved the cover. The beginning drew me in straightaway and I was confident this was going to be a great fit for me. Then about half-way through I found the story drifting away from me and nearly left it altogether. It devolved from a quirky, off-kilter, vaguely menacing tale about something I couldn't quite figure out into a disconcerting melange of ennui and bizarre inexplicables that left me wanting to shake every single character to see what fell out. I started skimming a bit at that point, until things started coming to a head about 3/4 of the way through. (I'd like to point out that I had absolutely zero trouble staying with the story doing this, suggesting to me that my irritation at the repetitive nature of the characters' whining and slogging through every day was, in fact, due to its repetition and not just to my losing interest.) From there I read every word, not so much because I was enraptured with where things were going, but because I couldn't quite wrap my mind around it and felt that the "something" I sensed in the beginning was slipping away without the kind of "AHA!" resolution I was hoping for... I read every word to make sure it wasn't me missing something, but the story not delivering it.

And then it ended.

For me, the end came with a whimper not a bang, and I was surprisingly disappointed by that, despite the distancing that I'd been feeling from the story for some time at that point. I really liked the way it was set up initially and felt let down that it didn't wrap up for me with that same sense of dramatic energy. It's possible this one just wasn't a good fit for me; I got bored quickly with the tales of promiscuity and free-range drinking and the repetitive and monotonal nature of the interactions between characters (both students and teachers). It felt like I was supposed to be shocked but mostly I was just numbed by it all.

And the characters never really felt like three-dimensional human beings to me; they too felt repetitive and monotonal, and the "quirks" that were supposed to identify the characters as distinctive (YaYa's clothes, Baby's obsessions, Ines' defiance) felt less like colorful individual personality traits and more like adjectives written on a page in black and white with very little fleshing them out. It made it hard to connect to them in a meaningful way, which made the slower bits of the story that much more difficult to work through. At one point, I'd skim a couple of paragraphs (or pages) and it seemed like when I rejoined the "action", the characters were basically doing the exact same thing on a different day.

There was a very cool idea here, full of dark menace and possibility. For me, those things never felt fully developed. From the reviews I've seen, people either connect with this one and love it, or they (like me) never did and don't. The opening is very strong; if you're willing to give it a try, it's worth it for that alone. You can always walk away - or maybe you can't/won't. Maybe you'll find yourself like me (and Ines), unable to walk away until you know what *really* happens at Catherine House. And maybe that's how (and what) the book ultimately does deliver - that realization that sometimes, even when we don't want to, we HAVE to see things through to the bitter end...

I'm giving Catherine House 4 stars because I really enjoyed the build-up in the beginning of the book and the description of Catherine House, a school for superior kids, who don't quite seem to come from rich, wealthy families. Some of these kids are on the lam, such as the main character. But Catherine House seems to be another sort of prison as well. Each student picked doesn't have to pay for education, room and board, but there are rules to Catherine House that make it feel like a prison, such as they are to leave everything in their previous lives behind and follow a set of rules. They are all given uniforms, eat the same thing, have tea time, but cannot leave the grounds for 3 years. They also run on a point system for privileges, one privilege is to call their parents. Also, I wouldn't label this book a thriller, there are some parts that are suspenseful but not in a thriller type way.

I loved the beginning, the middle you hit a kind of standstill, but I have to say I do like a book with a bit of mystery to it. I adored the character Baby, who was quirky and the headmaster Viktoria was a little creepy. I enjoyed it, did I say that again? I give it 4 stars and am looking forward to more from this author! I never give spoilers because there's just no fun in that. I enjoyed it, it's not for everyone but it did give me a welcome relief from psychological thrillers!

A special thanks to Harper Collins Publishers, Custom House and NetGalley for this ARC.

what a great gothic novel, the atmosphere was great and I enjoyed the characters in the story. It was amazing for a debut novel and I really enjoyed reading this.

Have you ever read a book so strange that you can barely process it? That's what I felt like during and now after reading Catherine House. And there's something to be said about how Elisabeth Thomas gets you enthralled in the creepy rituals and experiments taking place at Catherine House and then in an instance takes you back to regular college life as if nothing has happened. Yet, despite having unanswered questions I'm satisfied with the ending.

Catherine House is a unique story about a troubled girl and her ties to a house that gives her temporary solace. She is able to leave her past life behind and become fully absorbed into this new life surrounded by kid's just as messed up as her.

We often look at back at college as a golden time in our lives once it's long gone but forget all the stress we endured and the things that were happening around us at the time. This book really explores that feeling in a unique way.

Read full review on my blog
https://womenofcolorreadtoo.blogspot.com/2020/04/catherine-house-by-elisabeth-thomas.html

Ines Murillo is a first-year at Catherine House, a prestigious but unusual college tucked deep in the woods of Pennsylvania. The admissions process is extremely selective, and both rigorous and demanding. It's entirely unclear what they're looking for, beyond intelligence, but fortunately for Ines, she has whatever it is, since the world outside suddenly seems like something from which she has to escape. Once she gets there, though, she seems intent on continuing with the debauchery that got her into trouble in the first place. She sleeps around, drinks too much (to be fair, wine seems to flow freely at all times), and skips class. Can anything convince her to turn things around? And what's really going on at Catherine anyway?

Reading the blurb for this book, which describes a secretive school that graduates powerful people, immediately made me think of that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the fraternity whose members got their power from a demon in their basement to whom they had to offer human sacrifices. So, here's a spoiler: there's no demon in the basement of Catherine House. What there is, isn't quite clear. It has something to do with a "new material" called "plasm" which, if I understood correctly somehow allows all things to be connected. The science behind it wasn't all that important to me.

Rather than the specifics of what's going on in the lab, this book is anchored by the atmosphere of the school. Full of lush descriptions of damp rooms with peeling wallpaper and mismatched furniture and meals made of strange combinations of food, the sense of something a step beyond shabby gentility emerges. Add to that some students who are, shall we say, very focused on plasm, and one gets a decidedly gothic feel.

For readers who enjoy a sense of nervous dread about what happens on the next page, this book will pull you to the end, while you nervously look over your shoulder.

Any books that is seductive, gothic, and academic is automatically going to be put in comparison to The Secret History, and it's going to be a tough row to hoe, because it's one of my all time favorite books. Still, I'm always eager to read books aiming for that vibe.

When I started reading this, though, it didn't seem like it was going for a Secret History vibe after all, and I was more in mind of Get Out, where there's a kind of B-movie, mad scientist angle to the gothic, with a heaping dose of social commentary. And again, I adore that movie so I'm eager to see where this is going.

And the result was, to me, not that successful for a couple of reasons. One, if I'm supposed to be seduced by this secretive elite school, it's tough when the POV main character is so aloof and too-cool-for-school. Aloof was the word that came to mind the whole time I was reading this, when what I wanted was seduction.

The way that the students at this school are meant to shed their pasts and never speak of them means that it's very difficult to get to know them as characters, and it's hard to understand how they were seduced by this school.

I think this book is trying to do something allegorical, and the best I can come up with is, like, something something STEM fields, something something marginalized students, something something brutal cloistered ivory towers. Maybe it was too subtle for me?

All that said, I still enjoyed reading this book. It's brisk, the prose was engaging, I was along for the ride.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing and ARC in exchange for my honest review.***

This book wasn't for me. Any book that takes an entire paragraph to describe a sandwich isn't going to my book of choice.

Believe me when I tell you that I tried to like this. I really, really did but I'm at 60% and I just can not force myself to keep reading this. For whatever reason my brain is struggling to understand what any of this is about. There is a lot of eating, drinking, nudity, and casual sex. I normally don't rate a DNF but I read over half of this son of a b and I feel that was enough to qualify a rating.

"You are in the house and the house is in the woods. The woods are in the house. The stairs are in the house. Down the stairs is the hallway, and at the end of the hallway is the ballroom. The ballroom is in the house. You are in the house and the house is in you." = um, whaaat? 🤨

"You are in the house and the house is in today. Today is not a moment. Today is not a point. Today is an infinite area. Today is forever. Everything that has happened and that will ever happen is now. Everything that has been and will be is here. And everything is good. Everything is fine. You are not sad. You are not afraid. You are not hateful. Because you are here. You are here. You are inside. And you are ready." = Ready to throw my kindle at the wall. 😒

"Your hands are on the table. The table is in the hall, across the yard, in the house. The house is in the woods. In the woods, across the yard, in your hands, is the cup. The cup is in your hands. Your hands are in the house." = My brain hurts 😵

Anyhoo I tried. Maybe I will save others some valuable reading time. Also, according to other reviewers the end brings no resolution so, yeah.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love me a spooky tale. I'll definitely have to re-read this one in October when the leaves change. It will go well with that Salem ambiance!

I would like to thank NetGalley, HarperCollins Publishers, and author Elisabeth Thomas for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

Catherine House is… An experience. It’s unsettling, but I think that’s the whole point. It’s dark, strange, and definitely not everybody’s cup of tea. This is a very slow-paced novel; like you’re descending down into a dark, creepy basement, afraid of what’s going to jump out at you. But with every step you take, things just get weirder. The characters aren’t likable, and sometimes you just end up confused. If you enjoy feeling like you’re suffering from sleep paralysis as your worst nightmare comes at you in slow motion, grab this book on May 12. And good luck sleeping afterward.

Thank you to those named above for the chance to read and review this ARC!

So this book. I read it all in a single sitting, and I’m really still trying to gather my thoughts and opinions about it. As soon as I finished, I thought “5 stars”, no doubt. As you can see, I’ve lowered that to 3.5 stars, albeit reluctantly.

This is a story about a girl in a house. She and her peers cannot leave; they can have no connection to the outside world. They have chosen, and been chosen by, Catherine House for one reason or another. They are there to learn, and work hard, and excel in a rigorous interdisplinary education. This is dark academia at its most oblique; it is moody and mean and introspective.

I will warn that this book put me in a funk. The main character is pretty severely depressed. Her environment is completely toxic and her thoughts tend to pull her deeper into her surreal and nightmarelike state of mind. It felt extremely real, which was both the highest achievement of the novel and the biggest trigger warning. It felt especially relevant in this strange time in the world right now, where the days are bleeding together and the passage of time is marked only by when our bodies need to eat.

I’d like to talk more about the introspective tone I mentioned in the previous paragraph. In the book, one of the characters describes the main protagonist, Ines, as having a “sideways” perspective of the world, although she wasn’t particularly academically intelligent. I think that applies to the book itself, in a strange way. Ines takes us through the story in a haze of depression and drunken glee; she overlooks important things and focuses intently on insignificant details. We learn about the setting, the all-powerful Catherine House, in small bits and pieces as Ines pores over details about wallpaper or bouncy houses. No writing in this book is what you will expect it to be. There is nothing typical about the dialogue or the tone or the plot or the characters. It is strange because it seems like everything we learned felt so trivial, but when added together, the details form a more complete whole than most other books can hope to achieve. We know the characters by their quirks and mannerisms instead of the color of their eyes or where they are from.

This book feels like the strange nostalgia of dusk near the end of summer, or the unsettling emptiness of an airport early in the morning. It’s driving down a deserted road in the night or returning to a temporary home when traveling abroad. It’s not that the book described these feelings, exactly, but the emotions it made me feel were similar. It was rich and all-encompassing, a beautiful sort of sadness.

Where the book is, I’d say, nearly flawless in terms of atmosphere, it falls a bit short when it comes to the plot itself. It is a bit mysterious and strange, but quite predictable, even as someone who doesn’t read a lot of thriller-type novels. This is why the star-rating has been reduced. Honestly, I don’t mind books that are all moodiness and little plot (see also: my complete devotion to Murakami), but for the sake of this being advertised around a “dark truth”, I think it won’t quite meet some readers’ expectations.

This review ended up being several paragraphs longer than I intended, so if you made it all the way here, thank you for sticking with me. This book made me feel icky and sad, and I really loved it for that. It’s been a while since a book has made me feel so deeply, and as a reader, I don’t care how dark those feelings are.

I would highly recommend this to fans of Murakami. A few other points of comparison I can offer are The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin and (strangely enough) Fallen by Lauren Kate, with a dash of Roshani Chokshi’s beautiful prose.