Catherine House

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas is a mesmerizing work of dark academia that is sure haunt the reader long after turning the final page. Ines is admitted to prestigious and secretive Catherine House, a enigmatic post-secondary institution, and hopes to escape her troubled past and begin a new life. Yet what will she discover in the house, and will it ever let her go? With notes of gothic horror, art history, and strange science this new adult coming-of-age dark academia novel presents a story that will likely appeal to fans of Bardugo's Ninth House and Morgan and Paige's The Ravens. Yet Catherine House is uniquely crafted with an esoteric sense of mystery, relationship to time, and observation of the seemingly mundane that creates an almost dream-like quality throughout the book. The atmosphere of the story and way in which the prose and narrative are composed takes primacy over plot at times, yet there is no denying the haunting quality which permeates the book. In critique, I will say that a few aspects of the story strained my suspension of disbelief at times, the plot did meander a bit, and I was left with some unanswered questions. However, upon my second read through of this book I found these complaints bothered me less than on my initial listen to the audiobook. I was struck by how effectively Thomas captures the moment to moment experience of going to college, of how the parts that stand out in memory might not always be the “big moments” but sometimes the parts in-between. This is a book that hints at a lot of big ideas, but perhaps never exactly fully explains them. Initially I was put off by this, thinking that the book just didn't exactly gel, but now...I'm wondering if that might not be the point? The contrast between the world of the ivory tower and the world without, the creative ideal and the object reality of art, the dream of a better life and the grit and emotion that comes with living. The mysteries of Catherine House are, perhaps, just that. My initial rating for this book was ⭐️⭐️⭐️, but I'm am now revising that rating to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️