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There are currently 22 member reviews
for Catherine House
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Rose N. (Saginaw, MI)
Catherine House
Hidden in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, Catherine House is home to a small selective college with strange rules and a mysterious aura. Students are chosen not just for their intelligence but also because they don't fit well in their environments. Everything is provided for them, free of charge, at Catherine House. They are allowed to indulge in partying, sex, alcohol as long as they are in good standing academically. They must remain for three years and have no contact with the outside world. The narrator and main character, Inez, slowly acclimates to life at Catherine House but she becomes aware of what she suspects is a dangerous and secret experiment happening in the always-locked lab.
Elisabeth Thomas has written a novel that keeps the reader in suspense from beginning to end.
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Windsong
Not what I expected
Jessica Williams, Executive Editor of Harper Collins, writes that Catherine House blends the gothic elements of beloved Rebecca, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights. The Catherine House is not Rebecca's Manderly or Jane Eyre's Lowood; nor is Viktoria, although callous and maybe even brainwashed Mrs. Danvers. Jane Eyre's Red Room might have been the inspiration for The Catherine House Restoration Center. Beyond that there is little comparison to those books. They are three of my adolescent reading favorites, but Catherine House did not give me that sense of gothic fear that they did. The first two-thirds of the book presents some tedious reading with little description and unremarkable characters. Catherine House labels itself a liberal arts post high school college with very selective admission standards: those being a student has to be intelligent, show promise, and enter with a lot of baggage and nowhere else to go. Inez Murillo, the narrator, fits that profile. A teacher recommends that she apply to Catherine House. His relationship to Catherine House is never revealed In fact, none of the other characters have a background story. The professors are addressed with only an initial and a last name such as Inez's mentor M. Owens. The book begins as Inez awakens with a hangover and a foggy memory of a party in one of the other houses on the campus. Inez's first year is spent in drinking binges, sleeping through classes and having a lot of sex. The author provides hints that some students are dismissed because of failing grades or pregnancy, but other rules do not seem to exist. Inez is bored and interested in nothing; consequently, the plot becomes boring and uninteresting. Some of the Inez's friends believe in the program that the school projects because graduates have become famous politicians and doctors. Inez notices that no graduate says anything about their three years there except that they graduated. There will be readers who really enjoy this book. I noticed on the back cover that it is currently in development for television. Personally I think special effects and eerie music will help keep some viewer's interest. Unless the plot and characters are rewritten, I think most will change the channel.
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M K. (Minneapolis, MN)
Catherine House
For a first novel it was engaging and readable but the story was not well developed and ultimately disappointing. There were too many loose ends and the star of the book, plasm, was never adequately flushed out, part mind control and part fantasy, to know exactly what the secret was.
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Marilyn G. (Phoenixville, PA)
The Darkest of Places
The starkly dark tone and theme of the book mirrored the description of Catherine House and continued in the development of the characters, Ines and Baby. Lost, disenfranchised, and lonely adolescents were promised a life of success if they agreed to the bizarre contract required by the school.
The lack of action and endless dreary narrative made reading the book a chore. I forced myself to finish because I wanted to see if there were a point to the misery in the book. Even the attempt at intrigue with "plasm" was not carried out well. My conclusion is Catherine House is an attempt at a gothic mystery surrounding the "plasm" project, and the very sad coming of age story of the protagonist, Ines.The book left me feeling sad for Ines. Not my kind of story.
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Gerrie B. (Carmel, IN)
Disappointment
As a fan of gothic mysteries I was excited to receive a copy of Catharine House. Unfortunately, a nominal plot is surrounded by sparse character development, silly dialogue, and repetitive descriptions. The main character although more fully developed than the others was unlikable. The use of stereotypical characteristics to make her appear as edgy as possible was overdone. Her behavior in several instances did not align with someone who was portrayed as being a somewhat savvy survivor. While the back story of any resident of Catherine House was forbidden, the inability to know the characters was a liability to the reader. The lack of character development prevented me from having any connection to them, and therefore, I had little interest in what happened to them. Thomas spent an inordinate amount of words describing the dusty chandeliers, creaky doors, broken windows, flocked wallpaper and the worn velvet on the chairs. While this aided in creating the gothic setting it is a shame she didn't provide her characters with such detailed treatment.
As I read I felt I was trudging through a sludge of sex, alcohol and stupidity with a group of teens and twenty somethings who were so vacuous I could barely tolerate reading about them. Perhaps I am not the target audience for this book as I am an adult with a college degree and a college student of my own, however, my college senior read it also and decided not to finish it.
The gratuitous revelations of various and constant sexual liaisons, as well as scenes that seemed meant to shock the reader were boring and silly. If you removed all the repetitive references to drinking, having sex, sleeping and the constant refrain of "smelled of sweat" , this 309 page book would be reduced less than 200 pages. Removing all the superfluous descriptions of the house and grounds and you're left with a 100 page predictable, low interest mystery. I wasn't thrilled, engrossed or frightened , but I was bored beyond belief.
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Barbara E. (Rockville, MD)
Dull and dreary house
I really disliked this book so much so that I couldn't even finish it to find out what the secret of Catherine House was. I disliked the protagonist, Ines, and found no other characters who were interesting or even likable. I would not recommend this book at all.
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Regiene P. (Crestview, FL)
Nonsensical Story, Waste of Paper
I really tried to read the book until the end. At first, it was fine. The author is just narrating the Catherine House and Ines' time with it. There is something going on inside the House and the author made it clear and dragged me all down to the end. I thought there's going to be a strong revelation but it fell flat. It is so stupid. The main character didn't have any development at all. Sorry, this is not a book I would recommend.
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