Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

21 reviews

celery's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Body horror, Kidnapping, Blood, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Infidelity, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

gondorgirl's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

For being an incredibly messed up dark academia this book was surprisingly cozy? Like reading a fever dream. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Death, Medical content, and Mental illness

Minor: Animal death

ceilidhwilliams's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Mental illness

Minor: Medical content, Sexual content, Blood, Suicide, Grief, and Car accident

inkylabyrinth's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Suicide and Medical content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

yaizacanopoli's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Grief, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Mental illness

gravesandyearning's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Death, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol

jjames_mal's review

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

3.0

Yet another dark academia that I chose to pick up. This book follows Ines, who is accepted to a prestigious, secretive school, Catherine House, where students go to study completely cut off from the entire world for three years.
I was really into this book for maybe the first half. Everything was super tense and mysterious, and I found it very interesting to learn about this creepy school. But the book just kept going. And going. I legit didn't think the author was going to spend most of the book describing several YEARS of students taking classes, with only a handful of sentences in every other chapter that moved the plot forward, but that's exactly what happened. (Maybe this is just a facet of dark academia as a genre, but I am not a fan).
I especially found this annoying because I actually really liked the plot. I liked the mystery and the discovery. The characters were interesting, and I liked how they developed. The writing style was pretty good, and I think Elisabeth Thomas really nailed the atmosphere. But ultimately that wasn't enough for me to be able to keep my attention on this book. It honestly took me months to finish. And even though I liked it overall, with just the amount of tedium I went through, it became a sometimes interesting but mostly mediocre read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Confinement, Death, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual content and Drug use

thefatpaperback's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is a fever dream. I still think back on it and wonder if this was an actual book I read. It’s bizarre, but the writing is incredible. Big moments and shocking events are delivered like ripping off a band-aid: blunt and disorienting. The characters are great too. A friend and I were chatting about the book and he said he liked how it’s diverse without trying to be diverse and I agree. I 10000% recommend. I read this at the end of October and it was haunting for sure (but not scary…I don’t do horror novels!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty

characters in this book attend a private collegiate college that performs, sometimes unbeknownst to students, experiments on their bodies and minds. I’m very sensitive to gore and horror—that’s not in this book. But it is a spooky, creepy read, so I wanted to be thorough in my content warnings.

purplatypus's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Car accident

tina94's review

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Adult/minor relationship