Catherine House will not be a book for everyone, but it will be THE book for some. This book is seductive, hypnotising and enchanting and yet the plot feels constantly out of reach.
Catherine House, Elisabeth Thomas
Themes: Fiction, Mystery, Dark Academia, Literary Fiction
Reading Format: Hardback
5 STARS // 9.0 CAWPILE
Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no extra cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
I’ve mentioned this won’t be a book for everyone, and I stand by that. I think a lot of people will DNF this book because the plot is quite strange, as is the way time passes on these pages. The writing so beautifully and cleverly mirrors the emotions and confusions of the characters in a way you have to read it to understand. It is linear, but it also feels like we jump about time and one minute we’re a month forward in the plot, the next a year. This clever writing also captures the isolation of the setting and the lure Catherine House offers its students.
Catherine House is a university for very few successful applicants. Those invited to study will be put through three rigorous years of education with very strict rules. There are still parties, sex and alcohol. But when it comes to studies, the rules are intense and anyone who doesn’t keep up, will be kicked out. In this book, we follow our main character Ines who isn’t sure if she belongs at Catherine or not. She sees weird things going on around her and doesn’t quite know how to react to it all.
This book is weird. And there is a lot I could say around that. It analyses our own morals, what we value enough to stand up for and what we accept as the norm. It looks at friendship and love, sex and passion and the pressure of study and reputation. You are following Ines on her journey across her three years at Catherine, but you will probably close this book and think, huh, what actually happened? But that is the beauty of the book, the plot is being fed to you word by word through the characters, the setting, the threats and you don’t even realise it. I’ve seen a lot of reviews say they didn’t understand what this book is about, but I really don’t want that to deter people. This book is more about the messages you take from it, the ways we push ourselves to be great, how we achieve our own version of excellence.
Elisabeth Thomas has become an auto-buy author for me after reading this book. I felt like I was in a dream reading it because of the beautiful way she put the words on the pages. I don’t want to spoil this book by writing more. But if you’re into dark academia and weird books and you enjoyed The Secret History, you’ll love this!
Buy Catherine House | Amazon | Waterstones | Audible | Hive
