Oh, Netgalley - I wanted to like this book. The synopsis sounded so good. But at 23%, I just couldn’t make myself go any farther. The prose seemed disjointed, and in places, pretty pointless.... “I went outside. I walked in circles around the brown yard. I picked up a stick and put it down again. The sun disappeared behind the trees. I went back inside.” I see from other reviewers that there were many who really enjoyed this book, and I have tried to find something positive to write about it... but to no avail.

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.

What can I say—the plasma never seemed to align in this one. I found this to be a read I couldn’t put down but I also feel like nothing actually ever coalesced in terms of character or plot development...

You are in the house and the house is in the woods.
You are in the house and the house is in you . . .

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.- Goodreads

I wasn't expecting what I got from this book. I enjoyed it but it lacked the creepiness and the mystery that I was expecting. There were points of it but as quickly as it came it was gone. For those that do not like slow builds, this book is not for you. It is a slow build; a very slow build and Ines does nothing to make it faster. She has the same mono tone from the beginning of the book to end.

What I loved about the book was the Catherine House itself. I would have loved to see more history more creepiness integrated earlier in the book. But I love what the house represented and I could read a book just on it if the author did it.

There were a lot of open ended situations and questions. For instance, the ending. Did not like it nor as a reader did I appreciate it considering the fact that I read through this slow monotone read.

Overall, not a bad read. I see it doing really well as a television series.

This novel had a lot of potential. A strange, elite college that requires complete isolation from the outside world, which can count its graduates as industry tycoons, supreme court justices and famous actors. Set in the middle of nowhere, it is the perfect escape for Ines, who is running from something. Ines is definitely no the ideal student as she comes from a much different background than the other students. When Ines' brilliantly smart roommate Baby dies, Ines' goal becomes to find out what is happening at Catherine House.

I think this book will be loved by people who enjoy YA novels and twisty secrets. I don't think the comparison to Ishiguaro works because it's not similar at all.

While I appreciated the plot line and the story telling of this author, I gave this book 3.5 stars. As mentioned, there was a concise underlying theme but there were points where I had a hard time understanding where the author was going with certain themes as well as what exactly she was trying to convey. The world is described in rich detail and the characters clear but at the same time, I found there to be characters that were mentioned and thought to be important until they weren't, I would be interested to read this author again .

I loved the world and the mysteriousness of this story and this world. This is reminicient of A Secret History, Ninth House, and The Interestings. I highly recommend this read!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC. I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Catherine House follows Ines, a girl with a troubled past, who is admitted to a mysterious college called Catherine House. All of the students must denounce the outside world and forgo all contact for the next three years as they study. There is a mysterious substance, plasm, which is a common area of study for the students.

The story can be a bit slow-paced at times, but I was intrigued by the concept and to find out more about the mysterious school. I did find the main schoolmistress Viktoria a bit flat as a character. The Tower where the students were sent for punishment was intriguing. I would say the friendship between her and Baby and the scenes of Baby and the snail were probably my favorite. I also felt the ending was very appropriate to the book and reminded me of the end of Ling Ma's Severance.

The book read to me as a bit of a gothic thriller with an element of magic realism. Good for you if you like slightly spooky settings, college/YA-themed writing, and slow burns.

Rating: 3.5/5 rounded up.

This book was not for me. I struggled staying motivated to keep reading, especially in the second half. The writing wasn’t bad, I just felt like none of the characters were likable or relatable.

I was excited to get back into the dark academia genre with this book. The overall writing was okay, but I really struggled to connect to the plot and the characters in the story which made for a less enjoyable reading experience overall.

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 posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy this novel. The summary gave me strong dark academia vibes. I love that genre. Sadly, it didn't. I never really connected with this book at any level. I didn't like the characters. I didn't enjoy the story. I found it hard to keep reading thinking something would hook me in. It never happened. This book may work for someone else, it just didn't for me.

Catherine House promised to be⁣
"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."⁣
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However, it was so boring. Sure, it's gothic and giving me culty vibes, but it reads like a Young Adult novel, which I'm not into and the main protagonist Ines is very "la dee da another day, new sex partner, failing classes, am bored" and she's not making me want to care about her.💁🏻‍♀️⁣
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I'm a little intrigued by the substance of secret scientific study at this Catherine House school...plasm. something that's in everything can be manipulated with special pins. Basically, plasm is the Dust like in the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, but somehow not as interesting?!⁣
⁣
Maybe it's just me, but I wanted some haunting dark shit and this isn't it. Catherine House has a blurb that harkens similarities to Never Let Me Go and I can see that, but it's nowhere near as mysterious... I thought about not finishing, but I pushed through and honestly, the ending was like the rest. A slight twist that I kinda knew already and then a disappointing finish. Nothing happens 🤷🏻‍♀️, not the book I wanted.

I was so excited to read this one and wanted to love it so badly. The author is wonderful at creating this unsettling and uncomfortable vibe with a beautiful atmospheric writing style. However, I do wish there was more description of what the study of plasma actually is. The buildup of the story is slow and results in a an unpredictable ending.

A real suspenseful gothic read that will keep you guessing and wanting more. You will be immediately sucked into the story and characters.

The atmosphere of this book is absolutely perfect and chilling and the author does an exceptional job of creating that Gothic and unsettling feeling. The story itself, however, is just sort of "meh" and I felt that there was a lot of build-up for a conclusion that felt rushed and a little lackluster. Additionally, I had a hard time feeling absolutely anything for any of the characters, which made getting through the story challenging at times. Ultimately, I think this is a book that will have a lot of readers divided and while I personally didn't hate it, I also didn't love it, and I really wanted to.

This book just was not for me. I was hoping to get a really atmospheric story. The atmosphere was there, the story was not. It was too messy for me and nothing happens at all. There was no plot and the ending was not really an ending. There was zero payoff for slogging through a really long, boring book.

Imagine this: Hogwarts is real, but magic isn't. That's often what reading Catherine House feels like; Ines loves the house itself, the indulgent days and liberal culture. Every now and then someone finds an abandoned corridor filled with treasures, and a mysterious tower lurks by the woods. Festivals are childish and debaucherous: drunken forays into bouncy castles. Reading the book sometimes feels like a fever dream about wandering through a gothic castle.

What is Catherine House, though? This question occupies first year Ines' mind through her time at the school: it's an ultra-elite university, known for its cutting edge experiments, its isolation, and its renowned graduates. When she's accepted, it seems like the only option. She's running from past trauma and doesn't know where else to go. But in Catherine House, she finds friends, an endless stream of lovers, incomprehensible classes - and a mystery, in the strange "plasm" that the most elite students experiment with.

It was the house itself that drew me into this book. I wanted to know its mysteries and explore its corridors. I didn't care at all about Ines - just like Ines doesn't care about Ines. Other characters describe her as bored and pretty, which is apt - that's really all she is. It's almost like she's meant to be a lens for the readers, but she's so aloof that she felt more incomprehensible than anything. I didn't pity her, I didn't particularly care about her story.

I tried so hard to get into this but I just couldn't. Ines doesn't even seem like a person she sorta floats around. The mystery of the house was intriguing at first but by the end I didn't care. The writing is very atmospheric.

I wanted to like this book so much but unfortunately it just fell flat for me. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly what going on. I never quite figured out what plasma, the secret experiment at Catherine House, really did to people. An attempt was made to explain it; I just didn't get it. The framework for something dark and creepy was laid out, but I never really felt passionate about the main character, Ines, to care about what happened to her.