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inkylabyrinth's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Catherine House follows Ines as she gives up everything for three years to attend a prestigious and secretive school, deep in the woods of Pennsylvania. Set in the 90’s, the students of Catherine House are completely cut off from the outside world, and some of them start to think the school may be asking for more of them than they realize.
Full of weird, dreamy prose, I almost gave up on this book but perhaps like the school itself, it grew on me slowly and then suddenly I couldn’t put it down. I can see why this has low ratings, because it doesn’t fit into any genre, but I adored this slow burn gothic gem.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Suicide and Medical content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
styleofdress's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death
mads_17's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
f18's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It took me forever to read this but I wonder if it was actually more of a 5 stars... for weeks afterward everything I read I kept comparing to it negatively. Nothing was hitting because nothing was Catherine House, lol... a book hangover, if you will.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Suicide, Vomit, and Grief
Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Car accident, and Alcohol
mention student/teacher relationshiptherainbowshelf's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
If you’re in the mood for a slow, unsettling atmospheric read with an interesting premise and maybe aromantic main character, check this out! I didn’t end up liking it, though. It needed some serious trimming. There’s a ton of fluff in here that seemed so unnecessary that it took away from the story. Everything that did matter took way too long to pay off, and was hard to care about because of Ines’s detached haze. The college cult itself also just feels like what a high schooler things college might be like.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Suicide, and Grief
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Sexual content, and Gaslighting
Forced nudity, implied drugging, animal experimentationmeemawreads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Suicide
Minor: Confinement
genny's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
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 😆
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.
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 😆
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, and Grief
vigil's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
this book really worked for me because despite its marketing, because it, to my understanding, functions really well as a deconstruction of academia as a whole. this is probably why you see so many low scores from dark academia fans, who expected more exploration of that portion, namely the plasma mystery, and cultish behavior. however, the book is not, and has never been about that. it was about our main character, ines, and her journey. it is best understood as a character study on escapism, loss, and self acceptance, as you weave through an environment actively detrimental to you.
i think in another kind of book, it would have put the mystery first, exposing catherine, understanding the full scope of plasm, shutting down the schools, and then have the protagonist reckon with their own internal emptiness afterwards, remarking on how solving the mystery didn't solve them. catherine house, does not share this typical format, having its protagonist get out. no school or mystery, creepy plasm cult or not, can nor should be your whole life.
what is plasm? i have no idea. it was explained to me and i still don't understand, so i wasn't bothered when that wasn't explored because i didn't care anyways.
i loved the way the author got the atmosphere across so clearly with very detailed, but uncomplicated prose. ines existed in this "sideways" and detached existence, with the author writing in the hazy aura ines clearly felt, until the end, when she starts getting (almost jarringly) clear.
i will say, i think this book wasted a lot of time, but also didn't use enough. i don't like dark academia aesthetic so i'm biased, but the multiple descriptions of food, parties, buildings, and landscapes did bore me. there are multiple scenes in the book that i think are genuinely unnecessary and other technically not needed. however, i would describe this book as drifting along a stream, not building up to something bigger, so the extra scenes didn't bother me too badly. that being said, you can only half pay attention to this book and still get the gist, which i did myself in some places when listening to the audiobook. (which is fantastic btw.)
and i tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but i knew theo's ass was trash.
i think in another kind of book, it would have put the mystery first, exposing catherine, understanding the full scope of plasm, shutting down the schools, and then have the protagonist reckon with their own internal emptiness afterwards, remarking on how solving the mystery didn't solve them. catherine house, does not share this typical format, having its protagonist get out. no school or mystery, creepy plasm cult or not, can nor should be your whole life.
what is plasm? i have no idea. it was explained to me and i still don't understand, so i wasn't bothered when that wasn't explored because i didn't care anyways.
i loved the way the author got the atmosphere across so clearly with very detailed, but uncomplicated prose. ines existed in this "sideways" and detached existence, with the author writing in the hazy aura ines clearly felt, until the end, when she starts getting (almost jarringly) clear.
i will say, i think this book wasted a lot of time, but also didn't use enough. i don't like dark academia aesthetic so i'm biased, but the multiple descriptions of food, parties, buildings, and landscapes did bore me. there are multiple scenes in the book that i think are genuinely unnecessary and other technically not needed. however, i would describe this book as drifting along a stream, not building up to something bigger, so the extra scenes didn't bother me too badly. that being said, you can only half pay attention to this book and still get the gist, which i did myself in some places when listening to the audiobook. (which is fantastic btw.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
eloiserh's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
criticalbooks's review against another edition
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism