Brutal fantasies I catch as catch can: CATHERINE HOUSE.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars


Ines comes to Catherine House to leave her past behind. It's a dark past, with secrets and memories she'd rather forget. And that's good, because Catherine House is an institution that requires its students to give it three total years of their lives--leaving behind their families, television, music, and more. In return, they get a completely free education and the promise of a liberal arts background that has formed the minds of some very famous people: authors, inventors, presidents, and more. Ines comes to Catherine House with few expectations and for the most part, fits in, forming a strange friendship with her uptight and studious roommate, Baby, and the other students in her freshman year. But when tragedy befalls Baby, Ines begins to wonder about the House and its strange rituals, many of them tied to its most famous concentration of study, plasma.


"That was the Catherine experience: give the house three years--three profound, total years--then become anything or anyone you want to be. Watch all your dreams come true."


This book totally stressed me out. I usually love a good boarding school novel (though technically these students are in their college years), but this was mostly just a bunch of kids drinking and occasionally attending weird classes. Why are there never normal people at these schools who just do their work and don't drink?

Anyway, besides that pet peeve, this book was incredibly slow and nothing ever happened. This was mostly a story about a lot of frivolous kids at school with some weird scientific plasma stuff thrown in. It was incredibly difficult to care about Ines for most of the book--or any of the other characters--and truly, most of the plot. I thought about abandoning the book, but wanted to see if anything interesting ever happened with the scientific aspect. (No, not really.) The book sells itself as a mysterious ride, but it's more a character-driven novel. About lackluster, annoying characters.

Now the last third was fairly enjoyable and somehow an irritating book with eh characters had a satisfying ending, but getting there was just painful. Thomas is a good writer and this is no doubt one of those smart books where not much happens that book critics will worship, but it didn't really work for me. 2.5 stars.

Thank you to LibraryThing and Custom House for my copy. This book is on sale 5/12/2020.

Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ PaperBackSwap ~ Smashbomb




View all my reviews