I was attracted by the blurb and thought this was a story I was going to enjoy.
Unfortunately my expectations were not met.
I liked the style of writing and how the author build the suspense but there is no twist and turns and the story didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This was a fascinating and exciting read that was a mix between a mystery and a horror were the reader does not know where to place their trust. Ines was well rounded and she was a believable figure with an interesting voice. The cast of side characters were done well and I thought her group of friends were all fleshed out enough that they seemed realistic. I thought that there were a couple that needed developing a bit more but they were fine overall. I wish that Elisabeth Thomas had expanded what happened to make Ines want to go to Catherine House a bit more as there were many passages talking about why she wanted to leave but it was never written out in detail what happened clearly, it was all a bit too vague and unclear for my liking. The tone of this was beautiful and this helped set the mood of what was happening inside the story.

Catherine House is a college that produces greatness. Those who leave its hallowed halls do so with blazing glory in their future but are oddly tight-lipped about their past. The students there are cut off from the outside world for the entire three years of their stay and pay no price for the education and board they receive. Funding keeps the school alive, as do the mysteries surrounding it.

I thought this was going to be a dark academia story, following pretentious scholars and their dark deeds but I never imagined that the school itself would become the central source of intrigue. Protagonist Ines has her own tragic past she is running from, as does every other student to grace the college confines, but they pale in comparison to those of the school and its leaders. Exactly what these secrets are is revealed yet never truly explained, leading this to feel like a strange fever dream of a novel, where nothing can be trusted as truth and everything is experienced in a dream-like haze that disallows the reader to get close to the heart of the matter.

I have no words to adequately describe the unsettling experience of reading this novel. I think I enjoyed it and I certainly couldn't put it down. It held me at a distance but I believe this was a purposeful decision on the author's part. It was a sordid fairy tale, a dark academia insight, and a twisted Wonderland trip all in one. I grew to love and to fear the contents as Ines did and left the novel no more certain of what occurred but definitely invested in it, nonetheless.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of boarding-school and campus novels. I love fiction set in any kind of institution of education anyway, and these settings combine that with another of my favourite tropes, the set-piece where all the action is confined to one building or location. 2019 and early 2020 have seen a flurry of these kind of novels, but so far, I’ve found them all disappointing. Neither Rory Power’s Wilder Girls, Clare Beams’s The Illness Lesson nor Rachel Donohue’s The Temple House Vanishing worked for me. So, I was thrilled, as I ventured deeper into the world of Elisabeth Thomas’s debut, Catherine House, to realise that I’d finally found exactly what I’m looking for, while realising that the kind of resonances Thomas picks up on might not chime quite so perfectly with all readers.

Catherine House is set in the mid-1990s, in that convenient period for writers where a lot of the trappings still feel reasonably contemporary but you don’t have to deal with the problems introduced by widespread access to the internet and mobile devices. It has a intriguing premise: Catherine House is a rural Pennsylvanian institution of higher education that educates all its students for free, with free room and board, for all three years of their degree. The catch: during that time, you can’t leave Catherine House and its grounds, and only very limited contact with the outside world is allowed. Even in a time before the student debt crisis in America had hit its current peak, you can see why this might be a tempting offer, and, even better, Catherine graduates are known for forging illustrious careers. It’s certainly a godsend for our narrator, Ines, who is running from her previous life. At first, the rumours of the school’s mysterious scientific experiments with ‘plasm’ don’t really impinge on Ines’s life, but then she’s gradually drawn in…

The novel’s blurb pins it as a cross between Sarah Waters and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, but – while there’s a hint of Hailsham in the way that Catherine students relate to the institution – I thought what the book did most brilliantly was reinvent the kind of YA supernatural thrillers that I devoured in the 1990s and early 2000s. For example, Lois Duncan’s Down A Dark Hall and L.J. Smith’s Dark Visions trilogy also depict students at an exclusive institution that wants to explore and perhaps exploit their uncanny abilities. Thomas captures the tense, immersive atmosphere of these novels while using the greater space afforded by contemporary adult fiction to build her world. I loved the fact that she also inverts a number of familiar tropes from this kind of fiction. Most satisfyingly, Ines is not a reluctant outsider to the Catherine community, but, after some initial doubts, settles in with a close group of friends. This allows Thomas to say much more interesting things about our desire to belong and work communally than if she had made Ines the typical rebellious heroine.

Catherine House depicts a group of people who are isolated but still connected, wrapped up in a hallucinatory world of deep winter snows and hazy hot summers, with enough creepily oblique references to the plasm experiments (‘I read everything I could about Catherine… Even the mean [articles] – the ones after Shiner’) to keep the plot taut. In short, I found it a perfect read for right now, and I’m just sorry that it’s over!

This book had a great premise, but the execution fell a bit short. It was too much of a slow burn and characters weren't very realistic.
So, I enjoyed bits of it, but as a whole, it's a bit of a drag.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

A gothic mystery set in an exclusive school hiding a dark secret, Catherine House by Elizabeth Thomas drew me in with a very appealing cover and a synopsis that sounded like something I would really enjoy. Unfortunately for me it did not quite work out that way and though I did finish this book, it was not something that I enjoyed or would recommend. I don't mind a book being a slow burn, but this one just seemed to meander all over the place without any real plot development, and in the end no real resolution for the reader. On a positive note I will say that the author does a good job of creating a dark and tense atmosphere.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Did not finish.. at 60%

I am sorry but I’ve had to quit this book. I gave it a number of tries, and it started well, but at halfway through I am still not feeling it, so it is best to be honest. This is a shame as the blurb sounds really promising, and even the cover is beautiful too.

This book should be exactly what I’m into, it’s described as “suspenseful”, “gothic infused”, and “devious and deliciously steamy”. Unfortunately, I found it lacking, and I just feel like it falls flat. I feel this is a fair opinion for me to have, as I’ve made it 60% through. I wanted to like it, I’m really into all these dark college/academia books. I loved If We Were Villains, and I’ve recently read Ninth House too.

I just feel by halfway through, there should be at least some form of the plot taking place, some suspense, or characters to care about, or at least a character or two that stands out. There was one I was sort of interested in, but then they were removed from the story. The main character, Ines, hints at a past she is running away from. I still don’t know what it is, and I have read reviews of this book that say you never find out. It’s not enough for me to know Ines wants to stay hidden at the secretive and prestigious Catherine House, I want to know why she does, and what are the consequences if she doesn’t. It would help me connect with her more.

I had issues with the pacing too. I wasn’t sure if it was going forward or backwards in time, it wasn’t very clear. One minute it seemed finals were approaching, then they had passed, then they were coming up again. I didn’t mind this at first but after a while it made me wonder where the story was supposed to be going. Every time I thought something would get going, it changed to something else. Ines would go to a party, but it would be over. She would go to class, but she falls asleep. I felt like I was waiting for something, anything to happen.

I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Headline for this advanced reader's copy in return for my honest review. Interesting premise, it had beautiful potential but I found it somewhat lacking. I did read to the end, but only because I find it difficult to not finish a book. It's a slow burn. I think this book might have appealed to me more if I had nit ready read two books set in girls schools in the last month, those being Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue and MY Lies, Your Lies by Susan Lewis. Sadly this one, didn't compare.

This book is a beautiful slow-burn- I went in expecting something like The Secret History and found something with a far more sinister edge. The hedonistic hallmarks of the American college novel are all here- sex, drugs, alcohol, first times- but Catherine House has a sci-fi secret that I was desperate to uncover. The timeline is sometimes a bit fuzzy- three years go by in a blur- and there are few detailed descriptions of classes, which made the protagonist's chosen subjects a little hard to grasp. I would be interested in a sequel (or a prequel) that revealed more about the impact Catherine's graduates have in the world outside.

Elisabeth Thomas’ gothic debut novel piqued my interest when someone said it was Donna Tartt meets Jeff VanderMeer and they weren’t wrong.

We follow troubled Ines, just starting her 3 year stint in higher education at Catherine House. Catherine House is an American college with a difference. Only the most brilliant minds enter, and its graduates earn prestige, wealth and honour. As she learns more about the school, it’s tutors and her fellow students, her need to unlock the secrets of Catherine House increasingly intensifies.

I am in love with Thomas’ writing, it’s absolutely beautiful. This book is so atmospheric, essentially written as small vignettes to tell the story. The book isn’t hugely plot driven, it unfolds almost painfully slowly and still doesn’t reveal much. The book isn’t really driven by the characters either. They’re just so vague.

Everything about this book had the potential to be so good. The characters are interesting as is the mystery but neither are explored in depth. I understand the stylistic writing choice and really enjoyed the atmosphere it created, I just wish there had been a bit more substance overall. I will definitely read more by Thomas in future though! She has the potential to write a truly incredible novel.

Thanks Netgalley & HarperCollins for my copy to review.

Running from a life of parties, excess and tragedy, Ines begins a new life at Catherine. At the exclusive, secretive university, students relinquish all connection to the outside world for the entirety of their 3 year stay, in exchange for free room, board and education. But as the weeks and months pass, Ines discovers that Catherine houses darker and more dangerous secrets than she could ever have imagined.
I was completely captivated by this novel. In ‘Catherine House’ Elizabeth Thomas has created a dark masterpiece, that burns with a sense of creeping dread. Ines is a wonderfully flawed heroine, whose tragic history is mostly withheld from us except for the odd, upsetting glimpse. Her roommate Baby is the first real friend she has ever had, and their relationship is almost unbearably intense, adding to the deliciously claustrophobic tone of the book.
The truth of Catherine’s dark secret is a long time coming, and the reveal is wonderfully effective. I actually found things a little too dark for my taste beyond that point, although I still enjoyed reaching the conclusion.
‘Catherine House’ is a genuinely creepy, beautifully written debut. Thank you to Headline and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As story set in a girls College that I could not relate to.
Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book and felt the story and characters unrealistic.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

WHAT PIECE OF AMAZING WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL LITERATURE HAVE I JUST READ?

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been looking forward to Catherine House's release ever since finding out about it on Goodreads a few months ago and so I was over the moon when I managed to get an ARC through NetGalley. And I am so happy that I LOVED IT as I thought I would and am giving it 4 stars.

Catherine House is a prestigious higher learning boarding school with an exceedingly difficult screening process. Everything about Catherine House is romantic and mysterious and everyone who is anyone has become so through going to this school.

Ines, our narrator and main character, is broken and secretive and doesn't have a home before being accepted into Catherine. Ines struggles, as all Catherine students do, to keep up with the workload and to feel totally at ease in the House. However, as soon as Catherine starts to feel like home for Ines, she uncovers a secret about the House, its protocols and its most promising curriculum.

I must admit that for the first half of the book I was struggling with how slow it was. The lack of action and the consistency with which things were happening were difficult to wrap my head around, so I understand if this isn't the type of book for every reader - especially if you're looking for a fast paced, action packed story. However, I ended up loving it and the writing style even more. Catherine house is mysterious and gothic and beautifully written - so incredibly beautiful in fact that I found myself tearing up at the end of it.

What really makes this book wonderful is its magnificent, breath-taking writing style and the atmosphere it creates for the reader inside of Catherine House. All throughout reading it, my brain was so enveloped in the world of Catherine House that I couldn't think of anything else. My emotions were always on my sleeve, my heart just about to jump out of my chest, and my tears threatening to spill.

There were so many unanswered questions - at least for me - by the end of this book that I just kept wishing there would be a second one or at least a little novella to dig deeper into the new materials concentrators and the truth about Catherine House. Because just like Ines, I too am a broken and curious girl who is just looking for answers, happiness, and a home.

This is an incredible read and one I highly recommend if you are looking for something that will take over all of your senses completely and leave you breathless.

It took me just a few pages to work out that I wasn't going to like this book. It comes down to its main character - one whose personality traits have been written over hundreds of books, with people hoping to be the next Donna Tartt. These deep, thoughtful women who distance themselves from others, who feel intellectually superior to everyone and everything - they are so endlessly frustrating to read about, and I really didn't like having to read it again. I think this novel - along with many others in the sub-genre- will cater to a certain person and a certain audience. I am not in that category.

School for special teens, only selected few have a privileged to attend this mysterious college that is famous thanks to its successful alumnus and its controversial research. Ines is one of the lucky ones, she was selected to attend the school and she will spend there her next three years. She won't leave the premises, she will sleep there, eat, study, drink, fuck. All within the walls of Catherine House. And she doesn't need to pay for any of this, the only thing she needs to do to stay - commit to Catherine House.

It is an extremely interesting premise. Eerie setting, strange school with a secret. But I was disappointed in the execution. We experience it all from point of view of a depressed teenager, aloof and indifferent to everything that is happening around her. She is interested in schools secret research, but her interest is not paced well enough throughout the story. All her discoveries are disappointing, there are no shocking twists in the story. We are so clearly presented with the truth before MC gets to it. The mystery aspect of the story was just too confusing and clouded to actually be enjoyable. It was all there, but nothing was really explained. A lot was happening around Ines and in her head. She didn't take too many actions to make the story exciting for the reader.

I feel like I'm missing something in the story. It probably has a depth that I'm unable to reach. In the end, it comes down to my liking of the book, and I didn't enjoy it too much. The book didn't meet my expectations.

The synopsis of this book was promising and i was eager to read it but unfortunately i was very disappointed. I found it very boring and the writing was slow and uninspiring. I wasn't invested in any of the characters and had to force myself to continue which for me isn't a sign of a good book.

Ines doesn't understand why she has been admitted as a student to Catherine House. It is a very exclusive University, whose alumni include Presidents and captains of industry. Ines has arrived under a cloud of bad behaviour. Catherine House is so exclusive that you do not leave for the whole time you are there, and has a very eccentric set of programmes of study. If for some reason you are struggling, you get sent to the Tower for some enforced rehab. The whole story has a creepy, queasy vibe to it, particularly as you learn there are secret projects going on behind locked doors.
Ines is a poor student, and yet she does not get thrown out of school. There must be something about her that the sinister people in charge want. Ines cannot help screwing up, and she determines to find out what lies behind the locked doors. But what will it cost her to find out?

Getting into Catherine House isn't easy, they only want the brightest and best, the most promising, but for those that do manage it their future is made, Catherine House alumni are at the top of their professions, whether that's politics, film or business. Getting out however is equally hard, once admitted students have to agree to spend the three years of their degree cloistered inside Catherine House's walls. Everything is provided including a uniform of jeans and a tshirt, but points to call home or receive a letter have to be earned and somehow no one ever does seem to collect enough to contact the outside world.

Ines doesn't mind the rules. After going spectacularly off the trails her senior year she welcomes the opportunity to hide at Catherine House. But after a while she realises that although her fellow freshman are as clever and motivated as expected, they all, like her, are also damaged in some way. Her room mate Baby is fragile and disturbed, desperate to be accepted onto the secretive and prestigous plasm programme. Plasm is a subject discovered at Catherine House and studied nowhere else, a mixture of occult and science dismissed as quackery elsewhere. Struggling to fit in, Ines is taken to the mysterious Tower for a few days and returns emotionally stronger. But matters take a darker turn after Baby's stay in the Tower ends in tragedy and Ines starts to wonder just how many secrets Catherine House is hiding from its own students and what happens in the locked labs where only the best of the plasm students go...

A beautifully written, absorbing, almost languid coming of age story set in a mysterious college, this was a delightfully dark gothic read.

Ines wants to escape her life and manages to gain access to the exclusive college, Catherine House. It's said that whoever completes three years at Catherine goes on to lead a phenomenally successful life. The tuition is even free. However, when you enrol in Catherine, you quit contact with the outside world for three years. It's a daunting prospect for some, especially due to the controversy and rumours circulating into Catherine's research into plasm - a new material discovered at the housel. The escape from the world is perfect for Ines, who is running from past trauma of her own.

The concept for this story is brilliant but the execution of that concept is lacking. What should have been a claustrophobic read with a increasing sense of dark foreboding is just pages and pages of bland description with an incredibly slow pace.. Ines and her relationship to her classmates, to Catherine House, or to her past trauma all come across as superficial and lacking depth.
There is a quote towards the end of the novel " Two years later and nothing had changed" which I feel describes the book perfectly.

Catherine House is a lingeringly sinister novel about an American college cut off from the rest of the world. Students can only attend Catherine House, an elite college with conspicuously successful alumni and free tuition and board, if they agree to be cut off from the outside world. Catherine House is full of rules about meals and clothing, with the threat of the school's 'tower' if rules are broken, but is also a place full of wine and sex and discovery. Ines is a new student, on the run from her past and directionless in this place of intense academic study. She skips classes and lacks interest, but when her roommate Baby doesn't return from the tower, she becomes more intrigued by the school's mysterious new materials research.

Thomas has written a dreamlike, ambiguous novel with a writing style that seems to really reflect Ines' state of mind (and frequent intoxication). The book combines the low claustrophobia of exclusive environments with the kind of decadent detail often found in books set in universities, and this results in something that is quite a compulsive read even though not a huge amount happens in it. Ines is a messed up protagonist, and probably people will be put off by her unlikeable nature and the way she just drifts through everything, but her character added to the atmosphere, and it would've been a quite different novel with a more likeable main character.

People will probably either really get into the novel, or not get along with it at all, due to the detailed yet meandering writing style, strange protagonist, and lack of answers. In tone and details it has similarities to The Secret History, though the writing style and narrative are very different, and it makes for an eerie read if you're not looking for it to answer why things are happening, or why Catherine House has the rules it does. Maybe not one for lasting effect, but the reading experience was enjoyable.