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A review by honnari_hannya
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
4.0
3.5 Stars
An odd book, not quite what I expected. I think that pitching this as "dark academia" isn't necessarily the right way to find the audience for this book, as it is decidedly stranger than that.
On its surface, CATHERINE HOUSE has all the hallmarks of a dark academia book a la The Secret History. There is a mysterious, claustrophobic boarding school that takes in gifted (if pretentious) students as part of a mysterious curriculum supposed to help them achieve their fullest potential. Students are given a full ride—free tuition, room, board, food, and expenses—on the condition that they stay completely ensconced in Catherine for three years, engaging in no contact with the outside world. It is the perfect place to disappear, and that's exactly what Ines is looking to do. However, as she delves deeper into the eccentricities of Catherine House life, she begins to have more questions about the strange subject at the heart of the school's project—a substance called Plasm.
There is a Kafka-esque quality to this novel, in that it wallows (again, if pretentiously so) in its own ennui. The book moves slowly through the three years of Ines' time at the school, with little to no differentiation between the years save for the periodic exams and festivals and testing periods that cycle through each semester. The reader, like the students at Catherine House, never really gets clarity into the inner workings of the school—not its subjects, its purpose, or its teachers. This is a book that leaves you with more questions than answers, with a very open ending that could either point to hope or despair.
I enjoyed it for the most part. A lot of it worked for me, but some of it didn't—particularly the way we really didn't spend much time figuring out what they were learning. Because we see the story through Ines' eyes, we only get fleeting glimpses of her studies as she mindlessly attends classes and regurgitates lessons to pass exams, and more focus on the parties and conversations she has with her friends. I think a little more of the former could have been a really interesting contrast to the latter, so we can see exactly how the school attempts to "reframe" the minds of these students—and why, exactly, it isn't working for Inez (or is working too well). I know some had an issue with the opaqueness of what Plasm and the "New Materials" study really is, but I didn't necessarily mind that.
Fans of Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos or Murakami's weirder novels, like 1Q84 or Kafka on the Shore, would probably enjoy this and find a lot of things to mull over.
An odd book, not quite what I expected. I think that pitching this as "dark academia" isn't necessarily the right way to find the audience for this book, as it is decidedly stranger than that.
On its surface, CATHERINE HOUSE has all the hallmarks of a dark academia book a la The Secret History. There is a mysterious, claustrophobic boarding school that takes in gifted (if pretentious) students as part of a mysterious curriculum supposed to help them achieve their fullest potential. Students are given a full ride—free tuition, room, board, food, and expenses—on the condition that they stay completely ensconced in Catherine for three years, engaging in no contact with the outside world. It is the perfect place to disappear, and that's exactly what Ines is looking to do. However, as she delves deeper into the eccentricities of Catherine House life, she begins to have more questions about the strange subject at the heart of the school's project—a substance called Plasm.
There is a Kafka-esque quality to this novel, in that it wallows (again, if pretentiously so) in its own ennui. The book moves slowly through the three years of Ines' time at the school, with little to no differentiation between the years save for the periodic exams and festivals and testing periods that cycle through each semester. The reader, like the students at Catherine House, never really gets clarity into the inner workings of the school—not its subjects, its purpose, or its teachers. This is a book that leaves you with more questions than answers, with a very open ending that could either point to hope or despair.
I enjoyed it for the most part. A lot of it worked for me, but some of it didn't—particularly the way we really didn't spend much time figuring out what they were learning. Because we see the story through Ines' eyes, we only get fleeting glimpses of her studies as she mindlessly attends classes and regurgitates lessons to pass exams, and more focus on the parties and conversations she has with her friends. I think a little more of the former could have been a really interesting contrast to the latter, so we can see exactly how the school attempts to "reframe" the minds of these students—and why, exactly, it isn't working for Inez (or is working too well). I know some had an issue with the opaqueness of what Plasm and the "New Materials" study really is, but I didn't necessarily mind that.
Fans of Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos or Murakami's weirder novels, like 1Q84 or Kafka on the Shore, would probably enjoy this and find a lot of things to mull over.