This is one of the worst books I’ve read in recent memory. The pacing is strange, I kept forgetting it was the 90s and had very little sense of the passage of time. The characters aren’t supposed to talk about the past so it’s hard to feel connected to them. The main character’s motivations make little sense to me, the plot is shaky, the dialogue veered into the unbelievable. What the author chose to go into detail about confused me, and I couldn’t ever imagine the house itself. I couldn’t get grounded in the people, place or time… so why did I finish? No idea. I just wanted something spooky. 

this book was perfectly fine but nothing spectacular.  while I like descriptive language, I thought Elisabeth Thomas overused it here.  I do not care what these kids ate for every single meal, I'm sorry.  I also thought the eeriness could have been ramped up a notch.  this book is not scary, not very creepy, and not at all suspenseful (in my opinion).  Storygraph calls this a "thriller," which is weird seeing as there is nothing thrilling about this book.  Ines just kind of goes about her life at this secluded, insular small college, goes to class, sleeps around, is depressed, and gets drunk.  she is very much a passive protagonist, which I don't mind that much but I can see where that gets very frustrating.  she just kind of lets things happen to her in the way that a lot of numb 18 year olds do.

in many ways, Catherine House reminded me of The Idiot, one of my favorite reads of this year.  no plot, just vibes.  passive main character.  the plot: mentally ill (and slightly delusional) mc goes to elite college.  both set in the mid 1990s, although that was more apparent to me in ~vibe~ in The Idiot than in Catherine House.  however, I LOVED The Idiot and thought this was just okay, and I think part of that is that the satire and humor in Batuman's writing was sorely missing here.  Thomas failed to really make any sort of critique of academia and I couldn't really find the point in the book.  you could say that The Idiot is the light academia version of this supposedly dark academia book.

anywho, I didn't care about the "mystery" and was not impressed by the reveals, which could have been much creepier.  I don't really see anything majorly wrong with the book per se, but I certainly didn't love it.

Okay, I can see how many people wouldn't like this book...but it worked for me! It reminded me a LOT of Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko. I never thought I'd come across anything that resembled that book. In both novels, the school doesn't serve as aesthetically pleasing "dark academia" fodder - it's a hellish trap that sucks the life out of its students and attempts to transform them into something otherworldly. We follow a passive student as she progresses in her (barely comprehensible) studies, unraveling the school's secrets and trying not to lose herself along the way.

The story is slow-paced and the characters' daily lives feel almost "empty"; all the creepy stuff happens in the background while the protagonist mostly floats on by...until things get too hard to ignore. There is a heavy gothic atmosphere and while we do get dreamy days wandering the school grounds, the students here are desperate, all trying to escape their own lives within Catherine's walls. I'm torn on whether all the snippets of Ines and her friends were necessary. I loved Yaya, though.

The ending is vague so I'll just headcanon that Ines truly shakes free of Catherine and finds happiness in the outside world. She reunites with Yaya in New York, I just know it!!!

Catherine House is a haunting look at how people can hold immense loyalty for an institution that may not deserve such devotion. And yet, somehow it's also a love letter to one's university days, an understanding of the nostalgia. Give it a chance if "slow and depressing" doesn't put you off 😆

I wanted to like this and I was so excited to read a good dark academia thriller but omg honestly....this is NOT dark academia. It takes places in a school where weird (and sometimes bad?? but only sometimes, like maybe twice) things happen, but there is no atmosphere, no *vibes* that make it dark academia ok. Dark academia is all about the VIBES. So many actions by the characters that make no sense, so much dead space where the characters are doing literally nothing (except I guess drinking and ??? that's about it??). This book really dragged, and there was no fun atmosphere or spooky vibes to even make up for it. I ended up skimming most of the middle section, and by the time I got to the end, the "reveal" didn't do much for me, and the ending was too quick and neat. The whole social message about education fell flat as well - I GET what the author was trying to do but the execution was just too boring and messy and underwhelming. 

why did they let Yaya visit Ines in the Tower?? does this mean Ines could have visited Baby at any point during her stay there?? what was honestly the real danger/threat to the characters, someone pls tell me

 

This book was amazing. It hooked me at the beginning with its description of Ines' mental health issues and her academic troubles, that was like getting punched by a reflection. The descriptions are amazing, the vibe is immaculate and the suspense was great. At a few points I wasn't really sure she was going to make it, still don't know if she did at the end, but I choose to think she won. 

• love tiny details (like when someone needs to pee or have their period) 
• mental health awareness (ish) and queer representation 
- writing style was good just not my favourite 
° it was not really horror (although definitely gothic)