Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Everyone here was here desperately. All of us, for one reason or another, had nowhere else to go.”
Ines, a girl running from her past with nowhere to go, has been accepted to Catherine House, an exclusive and mysterious tertiary school. This is her chance to disappear and make something of herself. Over her three years, in which none of the students are allowed contact with the outside world, she makes friends, finds her passion, and believes that maybe she has a place here. But the school is more than it seems, and Ines must weigh her curiosity against her desire to fit in.
This book sounded amazing to me. So much so that I preordered it. It sounded dark and mysterious. I was looking forward to the atmosphere and anticipated a supernatural aspect. While some of that was definitely present, I was ultimately disappointed, both with some of the featured points in the book, and what wasn’t there.
The best thing about this book I found was the overall writing style. It was certainly an atmospheric read, and descriptions were vibrant and perfectly conjured the images of events in my mind (though could at times be a little overblown). I can think of one exception to this which, unfortunately, is a glaringly bizarre sentence.
“My hair slunk over my shoulders in slutty waves that were dark with grease…”
This honestly threw me for a loop. I had to put the book down, ask my husband if he had ever come across this description, and then turn to the internet when he couldn’t help me. I’m still not entirely sure what it actually means. I was also baffled by the amount of emphasis placed on food description. I was expecting something sinister with that focus and mentions of poor digestion, losing weight and all, but nothing ever came of it.
While I was expecting a supernatural element to this book, instead it was mildly and vaguely sci fi. I do enjoy science fiction here and there, but it was so poorly explained here that it was not satisfying and felt very out of place.
I found myself interested in some of the characters, but as it was written in first person from Ines’ perspective, I didn’t get as much time to get to know them as I would have liked. And as much as I found myself warming to Ines, I feel she wasn’t the most interesting character.
The thing that frustrated me most about Catherine House was that there was no real pay off. I could deal with the predictable plot points and disjointed narrative. What irked me was that there was no true conclusion, for Ines or the overall story, which left me feeling dissatisfied. The journey was not worth the destination.
Now, why did I give Catherine House three stars if I had so many problems with it? That is a fair question. Well, it started off fairly strong, and it was a quick read for me. The main reason though, is that this is a debut novel. As such, I believe that the author has plenty of room to grow and I can certainly see her potential. I will gladly read her again in the future.
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