Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Catherine House

A student of Catherine House through their first, second, and third (final) year of the program. Just before admission they were involved in an incident where they witnessed a traumatic event, leaving them oscillating between catatonic mania and indifference.

Atmosphere 🫶: Claustrophobic, lost, ethereal with a sensory and emotional writing style.

Set at a secretive, elite academic institution in a remote area of rural Pennsylvania
Selective description of people, places, and things – lots of room for rich imaginings

Cred Rating 👌🧑‍🎓: Realistic and Magical Realism

Captures the angst and undertones of academia – jumping through hoops, uncomfortable limbo of being a "new adult", peers that are both moral support and a competitive threat, the whole maze of pretension, pressure, and potential
Secretive sci-fi feeling that seems purposefully underdeveloped, even magical. We don’t understand the science/magic exactly, how being a graduate allows for power and prestige, or how final the consequences of “failure” may be

Growls and Howls 🐺:

I get how this could be boring or too weird. Not much happens and yet a lot happens? It isn’t repetitive but also isn’t rooted in any specific plot.
The characters are strange…it isn’t that they aren’t well developed, but it’s that they seem like ghosts. They are likeable and I could identify with them sometimes, but they also seem slightly “off” somehow. I loved it, but if you aren’t in the mood or a fan of that type of read, then it could be disconnecting.
Dosing could make a big diff in the reading experience. I read it all one cold, rainy day. If I had to take extended breaks I can imagine being confused or forgetting where we left off.

Reading Journey 👌: Passenger on an overnight drive through a dark, unfamiliar place. Discussions, music, falling in and out of sleep, never quite being comfortable, lucid dreaming, wake up to the dawn feeling like somehow minutes and days have gone by.

Mood Read Match-Up:

Character-driven studies in isolated settings
Mash up of absurdist, magical realism, dark academia
Mad scientist sci-fi / witchy soft fantasy energy
Subjective commentary on academic institutions, education, and student experience
Speculative fiction filled with symbolism, similes, metaphors
No plot, only vibes

Vibes: 😶‍🌫️😵‍💫😎

Content Heads-Up: Symbolism around suicide, depression, and addiction

Format: Hardcover

😍 This was one of my Favourite Books of 2023

Content Warnings

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

The house is in the woods. You are in the house. Welcome to Catherine House, an elite school that is completely free to the lucky ones selected to attend. In exchange for three years of intense studies and a lifetime of alumni emulation, you must leave your past behind you and get ready to start afresh. Three years, no contact with the outside world. That sounds perfect for Ines, who is on the run and could use a place to be forgotten. She doesn't really pay attention to the studying part when she gets accepted, but she soon discovers that the more-elite-than-elite program that made the reputation of Catherine might, you guessed it, cast an uncomfortable shadow.

I kind of wish I'd written this book. It's right up my alley with its secrets, fierce protagonist and eerie atmosphere, all done in the quietest manner. This is not a loud book moved forward by stunning revelations and huge tensions. It's one that crawls its way under your skin without you even completely realizing it. I love that the eeriness never falls into trigerring territory and that it keeps you wondering all the way to the end. In an interview reproduced at the end of the book, the author describes it as a "Gothic literary suspense novel set at a cult-like college" and explains how she took inspiration from Bluebeard, which I hadn't realised but makes complete sense. I'll let a bit of time go by before I decide if this one is a new favourite, but I'm pretty sure it is.

Last note: this book could be described as a much, much less weird version of Vita Nostra.

Rep: black, bisexual, aromantic main character, various queer & diverse secondary characters.

Content Warnings

f18's review against another edition

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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.

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