Catherine House
Summary:
You are in the house and the house is in the woods.
You are in the house and the house is in you…
Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment, has produced some of the world’s best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years—summers included—completely removed from the outside world. Family, friends, television, music, even their clothing must be left behind. In return, the school promises its graduates a future of sublime power and prestige, and that they can become anything or anyone they desire.
Among this year’s incoming class is Ines, who expects to trade blurry nights of parties, pills, cruel friends, and dangerous men for rigorous intellectual discipline—only to discover an environment of sanctioned revelry. The school’s enigmatic director, Viktória, encourages the students to explore, to expand their minds, to find themselves and their place within the formidable black iron gates of Catherine.
For Ines, Catherine is the closest thing to a home she’s ever had, and her serious, timid roommate, Baby, soon becomes an unlikely friend. Yet the House’s strange protocols make this refuge, with its worn velvet and weathered leather, feel increasingly like a gilded prison. And when Baby’s obsessive desire for acceptance ends in tragedy, Ines begins to suspect that the school—in all its shabby splendor, hallowed history, advanced theories, and controlled decadence—might be hiding a dangerous agenda that is connected to a secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.
Combining the haunting sophistication and dusky, atmospheric style of Sarah Waters with the unsettling isolation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Catherine House is a devious, deliciously steamy, and suspenseful page-turner with shocking twists and sharp edges that is sure to leave readers breathless. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Review:
This book is very focused on the feel of the situation and you just have to go with the flow to see what happens rather than being plot-driven. It was more engaging to me than “Ninth House” which seems to have a lot of comparisons so I did finish it, but at the end I definitely had a “that was it?” reaction. The world-building was great and definitely had me wondering what exactly was going to happen next, but I never felt like the book delivered.
Perhaps this will work better for others who enjoy a lingering ending, but even then, I’m not sure the payoff was sufficient for suspense fans. To me, I think the book feels a bit like the author was trying to capture too many ideas in a single story and never fully developed it completely. The dream-like writing worked, and I’d definitely consider another book by this author, but overall it was a little over-hyped for me.
Warning: Contains repeated violence and sexual content.
Rating: 3 stars!
Who should read it? Fans of suspense and ambiguous endings.