I loved the storyline of this book and also the writing. However the ending was rather disappointing and left me wanting more.

I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book, so much so that I read it one sitting. Having said that, I really struggled with the ending which took the overall rating down a bit for me, unfortunately.

...turns out I actually love this now...?!

The first time I read this I was not impressed but this second time around…well, I loved it. It isn’t an easy book and I can sort of see why it could come across as frustrating…but if you are in the mood for a dreamy and ambiguous Gothic-y read you should consider giving <i>Catherine House</i> a go. If you are a fan of authors such as Shirley Jackson and Helen Oyeyemi, you will probably ‘vibe’ with this book. Speaking of vibes, I saw someone describe this as a book all about vibes and I have to agree. There is a strong focus on the atmosphere of Catherine House and Thomas pays particular attention to the smells and flavours Ines encounters in its walls. Throughout the narrative Thomas juxtaposes beauty with decay, and there were plenty of lush descriptions contrasting the two. Nature too has a role in this story and I loved how Ines describes the seasons.
I loved Ines and her ‘sideways’ perspective. Thomas beautifully articulates Ines' conflicting feelings about Catherine House and I truly felt for her. I also loved her friendship group, often their scenes together eased some of the tension from the narrative.
Basically, this second time I loved everything about this novel: the eerie setting, the ominous nature of plasm, Ines, her friends, the beautiful writing, the dreamlike atmosphere...
I can’t wait to read this again (and maybe write a more cohesive review).

I love the premise of this book - a mysterious school which shuts their students inside for three years, but instead their graduates achieve prestige and wealth. But sadly, the plot was so slow and somehow repetitive, and ending, was somehow predictable and at the same time, did not resolve/achieve much, that I lost my interest in it. What I liked about this book was the language, which managed to convey the weirdness and chilling atmosphere of the place, its disturbing exclusivity and feeling that something was not right here. So, I will be definitely cheking what Elizabeth Thomas writes next.

Sinister Secrets....
Claustrophobic, atmospheric gothic suspense. A unique University draws Ines into its’ spell but what mysterious and sinister secrets are hiding there? An intriguing premise which draws the reader in but soon becomes rather confused and slow moving with a denouement that didn’t quite deliver.

Firstly, this cover is GORGEOUS! The premise drew me in and really was expecting to love this book, however it did not live up to the potential at all. I found the characters to be quite meh, and lack personality, but the writing is what let it down massively. The writing was repetitive and frankly, quite boring. The plot did not seem to have any direction, and although sometimes I do not mind that, I was disappointed in how it was executed. It was confusing and the whole thing didn't make much sense. Catherine house was the most interesting aspect of the book, but again, it has not been explored to the full potential.

This was such a weird and surreal book that utterly baffled me throughout, but I loved every minute of it! It tells the story of Ines, a young woman with a troubled past accepted to the prestigious Catherine House to complete her degree. Catherine promises its graduates lives full of wonder and success, but during the three year degree, you must devote yourself to the house completely with no access to the outside world. What follows is a decadent and Gothic horror where you never quite know what is going on but you just strap yourself in and go along for the ride. I thought Elisabeth Thomas did a great job with atmosphere in this book. Catherine is eerie and sinister, and yet it is warm and all encompassing at the same time, protecting its students. Our protagonist is tricky to parse out, with a coldness and lack of emotion that suggests psychopathic tendencies and indeed, Ines often behaves in ways that make her extremely unlikeable. However, given that she is our point of view character, Thomas successfully ensures that we want her to discover what is going on, because in her discovery will be our own. There is a lot of ambiguity in this novel and those readers who like things to be neatly explained will find this book incredibly frustrating, particularly the ending, which is very abrupt - almost mid-sentence. For me though, this dreamlike and surreal book was served wonderfully by the ambiguity and I don't think a more concrete conclusion would have satisfied either. Overall, I would say that this book will definitely be polarising and won't be for everyone, but I really enjoyed the weirdness.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Set in an exclusive and mysterious college in the 1990s, a girl with a chequered past turns up to make a fresh start and learn the secrets of the college’s great reputation and enduring appeal. The writing is fresh and accomplished and creates a real sense of place and atmosphere. The plot moves slowly and can be maddeningly sluggish and vague & perhaps some may find it unsatisfying as questions are perhaps unanswered. I found much to enjoy in this languid, quite original story.

I was intrigued by this literary thriller, like a modern day Secret History - an elite, exclusive private school, quirky students and remote, enigmatic teaching staff.

The novel is very very slow but once you get over that and enjoy the lush, elegiac prose, it's actually very enjoyable and faintly trippy! It makes the shocks when they come, even more impactful as you've been lulled into a woozy sort of disbelief. It's not a novel for everyone and it leaves much unanswered but the dream-like writing and lush excesses described were exactly what I needed during a lockdown.

This book is a slow burner, but it really hooked me once the plot got going. I will definitely be recommending this. Thank you for the review copy.

Ines arrives at Catherine House trying to escape from a disturbing past. Catherine House is an elite college isolated from the rest of the country, one which produces some of the finest minds but which demands a lot - over three years students have no contact with the outside world at all. As Ines struggles against conformity she begins to be seduced by Catherine House and all its secrets.
I found this book incredibly odd at times, as if it doesn't know what it wants to be. I loved the premise of the isolated community, very intense and claustrophobic. I really got lost with the whole idea of plasm - far too far down the line of sci-fi for me. In the end I felt this book was neither fish nor fowl, the plot more YA but the language more adult. The whole was less than I hoped.

The Catherine House is a boarding school quite unlike any other. Once pupils enter the grounds they are unable to leave or contact any outsiders for the next three years. Once they do leave, however, they are part of an alumni that reaches to the highest corridors of power and the most prestigious positions. After a protracted interview process, Ines is surprised to find herself admitted to the Catherine House. Eager to escape her past after an ugly and unspecified incident, Ines soon loses herself in the school’s debauched party scene but slowly starts to realise that the school requires more from its pupils than their intellect.

The writing mirrors the claustrophobic nature of the school. Ines spends her first few terms in a drunken and dreamy haze and it takes awhile before she gradually awakes to the school’s real nature. This is a slow burner of a book but cleverly draws the reader in. It’s a novel premise and the writer isn’t afraid to push the boundaries of the mystery genre. Ines is an interesting character with just enough ambiguity left around her and her past to make her really interesting. I really enjoyed this book. It’s original and atmospheric and certainly a new twist on the boarding school genre. Definitely recommended.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

Ines is very bright so is encouraged to apply to an exclusive college, Catherine House. Unfortunately Ines is also running from her past which seems to haunt everything she she does. What is Catherine House really about?
We have the haunted Ines who is running from her past where she made big mistakes. At Catherine House she meets up with others who are misfits - running from their pasts, geeks who struggle to fit in, the socially awkward. These are the extra bright pupils who are offered great futures by graduating from Catherine House. However there is an undercurrent. In the past Catherine House has done research which has been controversial. Is it still going on?
This book started really well. I found, however, that the book deteriorated from about a third of the way in and never recovered. Most of the middle section of the book seems to centre around Ines' angst, sex and alcohol. I was quite surprised that anyone managed any work in this strange uncontrolled environment. I got bored. The story didn't really progress and there are only so many discussions of hangovers or who is having sex with who that I can be remotely interested in. The characters are not particularly nice. Ines is vile to her friends and they aren't much better.
I also really struggled with the books ending. The secret work in Catherine House wasn't particularly special - though I suspect that it was badly presented within the story. There was a lack of suspense, intrigue or detail. To be honest it got lost in the middle of a lot of rambling. I was left with a "so what" sort of feeling. Then we are left with Ines who is more screwed up than when she started and very unpleasant. I found that I wasn't particularly interested in what happened to her so the ending was rather limp.
In all this could have been a great book. However so much focus was put on Ines' angst & the debauched lifestyle of Catherine House that the actual plot got lost in the middle.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

Catherine House is a school that produces many powerful alumni. Nobody talks about it, and nobody knows what happens there.
When Ines, our narrator, is granted a place there she feels she has a chance to fit in. Like many of her peers Ines is escaping things she doesn’t like about her life. We don’t ever get all the details, but there’s a clear sense that the director of Catherine House might well be looking out for clever students who are alienated for some reason.
We follow Ines through her time studying. She does not settle well to life at this school, but she forms tentative friendships and we can see she wants something to fill a hole in her life. I never felt we really got to know Ines - she is reserved and hides from herself, which means we are somewhat detached from her.
While I found it frustrating to never really do more than skate the surface of what is happening at Catherine House, we do learn enough to see that there are some unpleasant things going on. There’s murky hints, but we don’t find much out. Ines watches her roommate slowly fade away - and yet she knows, on some level, that things aren’t quite what she’s being led to believe. After her own investigations, things shift up a gear and Ines is soon forced to make a difficult decision.
I’m grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication, and I’m keen to see what others make of this.

Catherine House is a hard to rate book. This gothic literary novel is very slow moving, beautifully written with very little plot development.

I went in to this one wanting a gothic thriller which this book isn't. That's not the fault of the book, that's my own problem but I have seen some people shelving it as a thriller so if that's what you're after don't bother with this one.

This is however a beautiful novel. The writing style is truly stunning, and the author does an incredible job of building a dark and atmospheric setting. I also think the author did an amazing job with the character cast here. Ines - our protagonist - is a popular girl and a very enigmatic character, I found myself highly intrigued by her despite her being rather unlikable.

The problem with this book for me was that I kept feeling as though something were about to happen, and yet it never comes to fruition. It felt like it just needed another push and I could've really fallen for this novel.

This won't be for everyone but it does make for a stunning, atmospheric debut.

When I heard mention of this dark literary treat set in an exclusive academy-type institution on Headline Publishing’s Instagram, I knew I had to have a copy. Then I was lucky enough to be accepted for it on NetGalley and I dived in straightaway.

Secreted in the woods of Pennsylvania, Catherine House is a school like no other. It’s extremely selective, wildly experimental and has a long list of highly successful alumni. Students are required to give up three years of their lives, completely cut off from the outside world, entirely consumed by their chosen area of study. Ines is a runaway who somehow finds herself amongst the ranks of Catherine House and she is convinced that there is an evil lurking somewhere within its walls…

Ines is harboring a dark secret of her own. She keeps having flashbacks of what happened to her just before she came to Catherine and she is holding on to a lot of guilt and shame. However, Catherine House rules dictate that no one can talk about or dwell in their past and must focus on the present, so she never really gets the space to explore how her past has affected and damaged her. I couldn’t really work out how she had managed to get a place at such a highly-selective school, having no solid work ethic or lofty connections but she does mention a much-loved teacher who believed in her. Although we never really found out his true involvement with Catherine, I’m assuming he must have somehow persuaded the admissions board to let her in, knowing she’d be safe there.

There is a lot of casual sex, drug-taking and partying, as you might expect from university students. There aren’t any graphic depictions, just implications, so don’t be put off, if that kind of content makes you uncomfortable. Ines makes a lot of misfit friends, who are all mostly loveable in their own ways. There’s sassy fashion girl Yaya, flamboyant Diego, regular party girl Anna, best friends Nick and Theo and the nerdy teacher’s pet figure and tragic case, Baby. Some of these characters will make you sob, some of them will make you laugh and some of them will strongly resemble people you know. Elisabeth Thomas has done a great job of making the reader genuinely care about her characters, which is obviously always a marker of a talented voice.

As time goes on and she realises that the world outside Catherine House is bleak for someone like her, Ines learns how to be happy in her small, restricted life. Her friends keep her going and she even starts to come round to the idea that she is capable of love and being loved. I have a hard time connecting to cold, unfeeling characters, which is how Ines appears until the end of her first year. A tragic event seems to melt the ice doors that guard her heart and she begins to embrace life at Catherine fully. However, there is always an ominous presence, common in Gothic novels, and I had a feeling that this wasn’t how things would end.

The truth of what is happening at Catherine lies within its highly-selective new materials course. These students are essentially researching and developing uses for a substance called plasm, which is said to be and contain everything. Previously published work on plasm has been highly controversial and the methods used to explore it appear to be pretty intrusive and dark. Baby is a dedicated plasm scholar and later on, Theo becomes one too. It’s this that leads Ines to delve into what’s really going on in the labs and find out what her friends are really getting involved in. My heart sank with Ines’ when the truth eventually came out and the horrors of what has been happening under everyone’s noses are revealed.

Catherine House is thoroughly unsettling and not for the faint-hearted. The unease is so subtle and that’s what makes it creepier than a lot of horror novels. It’s strange, beautiful and quite darkly philosophical, which makes it very unique. It reminded me of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History in terms of character dynamics and constant suspenseful threat. Pick it up for a sexy, chilling ride!

The books protagonist, Ines, is a bit lazy, a bit lacking in oomph, but we discover she is running from events in her past that haunt her. So she finds herself at Catherine House- a school that promises if you follow the rules you will lead a happy successful life. No fees. Sounds great! However Ines determines to find out what is in it for the school- for the teachers. A gothic read, full of teenage angst, this had dark moments and a sinister undertone that made for an unsettling but interesting read.

Catherine House seemed like it would be a perfect read for me and there was lots to like, although a few things appealed less.

Starting with those I liked, the story was set in a school - a place somewhere between a high school and a college, tucked away from civilisation, in the depths of a Pennsylvanian forest. This was the perfect locale for adding atmosphere and eeriness. Catherine House, in its almost dilapidated condition, also contributed to the overarching sinister and gloomy aura of the setting.

Ines was an interesting character and I enjoyed the author's portrayal of her. Although she was lazy and unmotivated with several other flaws besides, I could still find some empathy for her as she was running away from events from her past.

I had the most difficulty with the science fiction aspect that I did not really get, or understand its purpose. I became disengaged from those pieces of the story and even though I was interested in all the characters’ movements to and fro, I really didn't care for the studying of 'plasm' and 'new materials' described in the tale.

Overall, a good début and if Gothic boarding school reads with a strong influence of science fiction and bucket loads of angst float your boat, then Catherine House is one for you.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Headline via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Catherine House is Thomas's chilling literary thriller debut and one of the most intense and claustrophobic stories I have encountered in all my years of reading. This deliciously disturbing gothic novel follows Ines who attends prestigious Catherine House boarding school in Pennsylvania where pupils are forbidden from all outside communication for the duration of their three years there and are unable to leave. And just like anything enigmatic, if people don't know the details they tend to make them up themselves and so the rumour mill regarding the school keeps turning rapidly. Pupils are promised a highly successful life if they stick to the rules and graduate when the time comes. It has produced some of the brightest minds in science, politics and business as well as many other fields. Running from her past, Ines gains a place at Catherine House and feels the isolation will help her forget the trauma she suffered years prior. There is no fee for entry so how exactly is the school benefiting from teaching pupils? Ines is determined to find out the sinister secrets hidden from view and bring them to the light but what must she sacrifice in order to do so?

This is an original, intriguing and atmospheric read and although it begins in quite a slow and steady manner I was pleased I allowed it time to develop. I feel strongly that this should be targeted and marketed towards the young adult genre as it has distinctive The Hunger Games vibes about it. In respect of the cast of characters, the most prominent is the school itself followed by protagonist, Ines. It explores the complexities of human nature, philosophical ideas and the age-old battle between good and evil, amongst others. Compelling, multidimensional and sizzling with a sense of foreboding from start to finish, this is an entertaining way to spend a few hours, however I feel it is a polarising novel you'll either love or hate. Those who require a likeable protagonist will likely not warm to this, but I felt Ines being a strange and rather unlikeable character added to the oppressive atmosphere impressively. One of the most appropriate ways to describe this tale is ambiguous and many aspects are left open-ended. Recommended. Many thanks to Tinder Press for an ARC.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this but it isn't something I could wholeheartedly recommend to any reader- it is slow, and filled with many details and scenes that make you wonder why you're reading it.

'Days passed. I did nothing, and nothing happened.' this quote does sum up a large portion of the novel. I think I was expecting a propulsive thriller and this isn't what I got. The narrator is very much a spectator in her own life, describing sleeping with people with the same level of detail and emotional response as brushing her teeth. Nothing seems to move her and she doesn't know why but she doesn't exactly dislike it.

I think perhaps this is a meditation on trauma to some degree, to the cycles we enter willingly or not, to the moments we think we've escaped, to the moments we think we're trapped. The last section was well done and I felt like we were getting some payoffs.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.