“[A] delicious literary Gothic debut.” –THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, EDITORS’ CHOICE
“Moody and evocative as a fever dream, Catherine House is the sort of book that wraps itself around your brain, drawing you closer with each hypnotic step.” – THE WASHINGTON POST
A Most Anticipated Novel by Entertainment Weekly • New York magazine • Cosmopolitan • The Atlantic • Forbes • Good Housekeeping • … by Entertainment Weekly • New York magazine • Cosmopolitan • The Atlantic • Forbes • Good Housekeeping • Parade • Better Homes and Gardens • HuffPost • Buzzfeed • Newsweek • Harper’s Bazaar • Ms. Magazine • Woman’s Day • PopSugar • and more!
A gothic-infused debut of literary suspense, set within a secluded, elite university and following a dangerously curious, rebellious undergraduate who uncovers a shocking secret about an exclusive circle of students . . . and the dark truth beneath her school’s promise of prestige.
Trust us, you belong here.
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 a future of sublime power and prestige, and that its graduates can become anything or anyone they desire.
Among this year’s incoming class is Ines Murillo, who expects to trade blurry nights of parties, cruel friends, and dangerous men for rigorous intellectual discipline—only to discover an environment of sanctioned revelry. Even the school’s enigmatic director, Viktória, encourages the students to explore, to expand their minds, to find themselves within the formidable iron gates of Catherine. For Ines, it is the closest thing to a home she’s ever had. But the House’s strange protocols soon make this refuge, with its worn velvet and weathered leather, feel increasingly like a gilded prison. And when tragedy strikes, 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 within the secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.
Combining the haunting sophistication and dusky, atmospheric style of Sarah Waters with the unsettling isolation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Catherine House is a devious, deliciously steamy, and suspenseful page-turner with shocking twists and sharp edges that is sure to leave readers breathless.
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CATHERINE HOUSE
By Elisabeth Thomas
A very unusual novel that sets itself apart than the everyday boarding school story in used to reading. This book is more set on a specific select group of students, all seemingly running from their past or having no past, where no one would really miss them if they were gone.
These students get to attend a highly prestigious but controversial school that has a past and secrets of its own. Who knows which may be rumors and which ones are factual?
In exchange for giving up 3 entire years of their existing and past lives; students receive a gifted all expense paid, powerful education that will allow them to graduate and be whatever it is they choose to be. This includes giving up their summers, any belongings, contact with friends or family or contact with the outside world. The school has produced only the finest most brilliant minds. Some of those being award winning scientists, Supreme Court Justices, Presidents, Inventors, etc..
Told from the viewpoint of the main character, Ines who comes from a troubled past. The story building goes on very vividly describing in excellent details the grounds, the halls and campus that makes up Catherine House. This is very lengthy and I would have loved a little more story or action. You meet a lot of characters but there is a specific group in which Ines becomes close with and you see their friendships and romances flourish. Eventually things pick up.
There are odd happenings going on at the Catherine House but it’s unusual that no one calls out or questions them earlier than is done in the story. And when Ines finds a friend fall victim and another a participant in a deadly experiment, she comes to question who she can talk to.
When it gets out that someone knows that life at Catherine a House isn’t all what it seems, it’s time to run for your life.
I think this debut Author did a tremendous job and I really enjoyed her work. Just maybe a little more speed in the beginning of your next one.
3 1/2 stars
This is a dark, ominous Gothic suspense that at times verges on horror. It held no real surprises, other than the premise of an institution of higher learning that students cannot leave for three years. They get no summer vacation, no winter break, no family visits, and they can have no connection with the outside world, no cell phones, no music, no movies, no thinking about their lives before they came to Catherine.. They are completely isolated, never allowed off the premises during those three years.. While I thought it unusual that families would allow their kids to go to such a school, I did understand that the school was highly regarded. Catherine house is a college that offers its supremely vetted students free everything (tuition, board, clothing, wine, food) while they engage in completing their degrees. They can study a variety of subjects, but the plum school is beyond all but a few. Many of the students who attended seemed to be castoffs and fragile beings.
Ines is the focus of the story. While those accepted into Catherine House are supposed to be very smart and accomplished, Ines never struck me as either of those. She was one of the damaged students, on her own with nowhere else to go. I could never quite understand her. It might have helped if the book clarified what, exactly, had happened to Ines before she arrived at Catherine House. The event is hinted at several times, but we never find out the specifics, and I think it would have been helpful. Also, we never learn about her family, or what happened to them.
The book is well written, but at a languid pace that didn’t seem to suit what was happening in the story. Honestly, the three years Ines spent at the school seemed like ten to me. I know kids on campuses drink and party, but at Catherine, that aspect seemed over the top. While it was an okay read, I likely won’t recommend it to my friends.
I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from Netgalley. I thank them, the publisher, and the author for sharing the book with me. All opinions in this review express my true and honest reactions to reading this book.
I read the blurb when I requested this from HarperCollins, but I didn’t re-read it a month later when I started this. I also didn’t want to read the reviews before I read this because I wanted to go into reading this as blindly as possible.
Thomas set up a great mystery of what the heck is going on at Catherine House? There’s a wonderful, dark atmosphere, with an air of mystery and the seductive allure of the unknown. I needed to know what was so special about this school. As I watched person after person in Ines’ life at the house disappear, succumb to the house, I was faced with needing to know what was happening and so I found myself unable to put the book down. From the beginning with the plasm, when they’re being attached to Ines and the other students, I knew we were going on a wild ride.
But then, I was left a little dissatisfied with it. It got repetitive in the day to day in the middle, filler that didn’t move the story along and didn’t help with the unfolding of what was happening. Plasm isn’t all that explained, and what was happening to people, the reason they’re all there, it isn’t as grand a reveal as I hoped. But the thing is, I couldn’t put this down because Thomas has created this perfect storyline in which you needed to know what would happen to Ines, and in that, it’s oddly addicting. I think this will be a hit or miss for readers. Either they will be drawn in and will have that feeling for the entire book, or they will be drawn in and feel let down as I was. 3.5 stars.
Catherine House seems too good to be true! A slow build up, but it soon became twisty & intense. Ines and her friends discover secrets and the purpose of the house. Wonderful debut from the author! Thank you to the Book Club Girl, Custom House, and NetGalley for this ARC. This is my honest review.
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas is an interesting book that seems to be in a class of its own. Part general fiction part suspense part mystery part psychological thriller is all I can use to describe it because it encompasses all of those things.
A quick read which is actually the opposite of the plot, a slow unraveling (yet complicating) of stories and secrets that Ines finds as she attends Catherine House college. Some of the snippets that the author throws our way almost have a science fiction aspect to them. A few small twists and turns are added to keep the reader guessing. I actually enjoyed some of the more open-ended story-lines that we are left with in the end. Sometimes allowing the reader the liberty to imagine their own conclusions and endings makes for a more interesting novel.
The literary aspect of the prose and the descriptions of the gothic locations were the real gems of this book.
A solid start to a very promising career for Ms Thomas.
4/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am just not sure how I am feeling about Catherine House. On one hand it was twisty and unique, but on the other I felt that it lacked plot movement. The cast of characters was interesting. I am just not sure what really happened in the story. I still have so many questions that went unanswered.
Title: Catherine House
Author: Elisabeth Thomas
Genre: Gothic fiction / Suspense
My Rating: 3.5 ++
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I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. Catherine House ended up being something that started out delightfully engaging, then withered as time moved on. I commend the author for her vivid imagination. The plot wasn’t bad, the characters were great; merely lacking with some developmental issues. I loved how descriptive Thomas’ writing was; very detailed. And there was even a part in the book I got excited. Unfortunately, nothing happened after that and I was a bit disappointed. Still this book is a decent read and why my rating it at 3 and ½ stars.
*I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*