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A review by samarakroeger
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
this book was perfectly fine but nothing spectacular. while I like descriptive language, I thought Elisabeth Thomas overused it here. I do not care what these kids ate for every single meal, I'm sorry. I also thought the eeriness could have been ramped up a notch. this book is not scary, not very creepy, and not at all suspenseful (in my opinion). Storygraph calls this a "thriller," which is weird seeing as there is nothing thrilling about this book. Ines just kind of goes about her life at this secluded, insular small college, goes to class, sleeps around, is depressed, and gets drunk. she is very much a passive protagonist, which I don't mind that much but I can see where that gets very frustrating. she just kind of lets things happen to her in the way that a lot of numb 18 year olds do.
in many ways, Catherine House reminded me of The Idiot, one of my favorite reads of this year. no plot, just vibes. passive main character. the plot: mentally ill (and slightly delusional) mc goes to elite college. both set in the mid 1990s, although that was more apparent to me in ~vibe~ in The Idiot than in Catherine House. however, I LOVED The Idiot and thought this was just okay, and I think part of that is that the satire and humor in Batuman's writing was sorely missing here. Thomas failed to really make any sort of critique of academia and I couldn't really find the point in the book. you could say that The Idiot is the light academia version of this supposedly dark academia book.
anywho, I didn't care about the "mystery" and was not impressed by the reveals, which could have been much creepier. I don't really see anything majorly wrong with the book per se, but I certainly didn't love it.
in many ways, Catherine House reminded me of The Idiot, one of my favorite reads of this year. no plot, just vibes. passive main character. the plot: mentally ill (and slightly delusional) mc goes to elite college. both set in the mid 1990s, although that was more apparent to me in ~vibe~ in The Idiot than in Catherine House. however, I LOVED The Idiot and thought this was just okay, and I think part of that is that the satire and humor in Batuman's writing was sorely missing here. Thomas failed to really make any sort of critique of academia and I couldn't really find the point in the book. you could say that The Idiot is the light academia version of this supposedly dark academia book.
anywho, I didn't care about the "mystery" and was not impressed by the reveals, which could have been much creepier. I don't really see anything majorly wrong with the book per se, but I certainly didn't love it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting