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homebodywitch's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, Alcohol, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Confinement, Death, and Grief
ashley_turch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Confinement and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, and Suicide
genny's review
- 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
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 😆
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment
Moderate: Death, Grief, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Vomit
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Catherine House is a gothic fever-dream set in an isolated school with dark secrets. Not my typical read but I picked it up due to one of my reading challenges. I struggled to connect with the story. My interest was piqued for a while and then tapered off, partly because I seem to have little tolerance for characters who self-sabotage and drift or escape in a sea of booze and sex. A little too much happened off page or wasn’t explained fully, leaving me slightly frustrated - I still want to know what happened to Ines before she arrived at Catherine House.
So not a bad book but not the book for me. But the dark atmosphere was spot on and if gothic is your thing then give this book a go.
Graphic: Confinement and Forced institutionalization
lighterthaneyre's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Honestly this is the sort of book that you need to read and then talk about for a while. Or think about for just a really long time.
Or how the gothic theme of the house Decaying gets dropped after the first real batch of brain washing and is replaced with the sense of the house not decaying after death but Watching and Trapping students like a living thing.
Or how Yaya rules.
Or how clearly the school is filtering for people who would be vulnerable to high control groups but still manages to have such a prestigious reputation.
Or why the repairing magic isn't used to fix the house.
Or how timeless this feels even though this is set in 96-99, and feels very fluid in the timeline as we go. Dreamy, disassociated.
Or how we never see Theo's interior motivations- when did his love turn to something that wanted to kill/freeze his beloved? When did he Turn?
Or how the main character's feelings and motivations change so drastically from semester to semester without alarm from the narrator- her attitude towards attending sessions, towards class work, towards connecting emotionally with other students. It clearly coincidences with the stint in the Tower and the brain washing, but it's like even with clearer hindsight the magnitude doesn't hit. Like the narration is disassociating from the story.
Or how Ines's strongest defense was her disassociation and when she lost that (clearly damaging, bad) habit, she was left vulnerable to being taken over by the House.
Or what made Ines such a good candidate- her thesis was apparently "incomprehensible" and she thought "sideways"- I don't quite get what that means.
Or how intimate it is to refer to the place, the mentality, the Whole simply as Catherine. And how other colleges/orgs have similar intimacy.
There's more but yeah- it's the sort of book you need to mull over
I would honestly read analysis essays about this just because the story feels like a hazy surface over depths that we can just barely reach.
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol
alessiareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The book is about a problematic girl who ends up being accepted in a ghost-like school (more selective than any Ivy League school) with very strict rules and with very low chances that students can contact their friends of family for three years during their stay. She feels trapped but knowing she has nowhere to go and nothing to lose she accepts looking into the secrets of the school. The place has one priority and that is plasma, what it is and why it’s important is very little explained and that’s where I want to add a warning, you won’t get much closure from this book since it’s very mysterious and doesn’t give much details. It’s entertaining and fun but there aren’t any details presented almost at all. The ending is very dissapointing since it seems forced, overall I enjoyed it and highly recommend it! It could’ve had more pages though, 200 more pages maybe where the action went a bit further could’ve made the book better!
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Alcohol
libraryghost's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death and Confinement
Moderate: Death, Confinement, Grief, Forced institutionalization, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Adult/minor relationship
thefatpaperback's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty
purplatypus's review against another edition
- 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
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 against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Adult/minor relationship