Catherine by April Lindner breathes new life into Bronte's Wuthering Heights. As someone who had to read Wuthering Heights for school I hated it the first time I read it. However I didn't let that stop me from reading Catherine and oh I am so glad I did! Lindner truly understood the assignment and has made a new modern masterpiece! Catherine is so much more than Bronte made us believe and I'm so glad I gave this a chance!

I enjoyed how this book interweaves the story of a mother and a daughter, and I enjoyed how Coop supports Chelsea during her search for her mother. What made this difficult to read is that, based on Chelsea's POV, we can expect (at least some crucial parts of) Catherine's story to end in tragedy.

Going in, I didn't know that this was a <i>Wuthering Heights</i> retelling. I saw from other reviews that this book stays pretty true to the original, except that the original tells the story in two parts (instead of alternating perspectives, like this book does). I didn't like <i>Wuthering Heights</i>, and what I didn't like about <i>Wuthering Heights</i>, I didn't enjoy in this book either. Readers who enjoyed <i>Wuthering Heights</i> may enjoy this modern retelling.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
Catherine by April Lindner is essentially a retelling of Wuthering Heights but for a modern era of teenagers. The premise is that it is told in dual storylines. We have the modern day story which follows this girl Chelsea as she runs away from home to go to this club in NYC called The Underground. There, she hopes to find out why her mother left her when she was a toddler. The other storyline follows a girl named Catherine who is growing up at The Underground which is owned by her father. Catherine makes friends with this guy Hence who works at the Underground but also happens to be a broody musician. Of course, Catherine is Chelsea’s mother. And well, that’s about as far as I got – Chelsea meeting Hence and Catherine having a shady experience at The Underground.

HOW LONG DID I LAST?
I got to page 96 of 320.

WHY DID I DNF?
So, I am at the point in my life where I feel like I have to like the characters that I am reading about. Honestly I could give a rat’s ass about any of these people. Like, Catherine is a boring studious person who just starts to embrace her wild side. Hence is terrible on the whole. Chelsea is a person I can’t get a good read on. Like, she has one friend and she’s making bad life choices. Catherine ABANDONED HER TODDLER to fix some wrongs? What the actual hell.

Okay, so maybe I am just a little sensitive to that as a toddler mom and maybe if I read this when it actually came out my feelings would be 100% different. Oh and also, I had previously read a YA contemporary book just before this where the dialogue crackled off the page and I was loving every minute rather than slowly dreading my time with the book (like this one).

IS THERE ANYONE CATHERINE WOULD APPEAL TO?
I think that people who are obsessed with retellings of classic stories would like this book. Also, people who haven’t been spoiled by YA contemporary books with amazing friend groups and all kinds of dialogue. Like, if you don’t need books with solid friend groups, hats off to you, you’re going to love this one. For me though, it just did not work. I guess it was just read at the wrong place in my life.

I'm so sad that I didn't like this one. I just didn't enjoy Hence & Catherine's romance. I didn't find it to be epic at all. It was a case of first love then two people starting to grow and go their seperate ways. But then there is this huge misunderstanding that sets everything else in motion. It's hard to believe everything just comes to a crashing halt from one incident. Although it's a doozy of an incident!

I found most of the characters unlikable (Hence & Catherine were both selfish IMO - Catherine....you'll leave your daughter to find your one true love and "hope" to get her back??? ) or kind of bland (Chelsea & Coop).

One thing I did love about the story though was the authors obvious love of music and how it is integrated in to the story.

Catherine is basically a mystery and to be fair that's not a genre I enjoy so it could be more a matter of my reading tastes than the writing. I loved the authors previous novel, a retelling of Jane.

This book didn't work for me but it's got a lot of great reviews so I would definitely tell you to give it a try and see for yourself.

I have not read Wuthering Heights so as to how it compares as a retelling I can't say.