by Elisabeth Thomas: A Review
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas is what you call haunting, strange, and secretive. It draws you in and demands everything from you. But everything too good to be true comes with a price. I first picked this up after we got it in as a new arrival at my library. The cover was beautiful with its dark pink and blue hues twisting over the cover. Then I read the premise — a story about an elite college with a secretive past? A dangerous society of students? Sign me up. Catherine is a college unlike any other set in the tender rural landscape of Pennsylvania. The house will make your wildest dreams come true so long as you give it total devotion for three years — which means total isolation from the outside world. There is no contact with your old friends. There is no contact with your family. There is no past. There is only you and the house. Admission is highly competitive. For the few chosen ones Catherine covers all expenses. Catherine becomes your home and you become part of the house. But what sets those accepted apart from everyone else? The fact that, in one way or another, they’re broken.
For Ines, Catherine is the only place she has to go. Catherine is a means of escape from a worse fate. We first meet her drunk in a bathtub. Soon after we met Baby, Ines’s roommate and eventual close friend. Catherine House spans Ines’s three years, from orientation to graduation. The movement between seasons, semesters, and years is seamless. Ines grows from a careless student who only wants to hide within herself to a woman who takes her studies seriously as she finds her place in the house.
Ines is not a hero. She’s not the savior of the story or without terrible, dark flaws. She’s lost and as broken as people come. But she’s dynamic and thoughtful when everyone else thinks she isn’t worth much. She’s never regarded as anything more than something Catherine can use. I imagine that sort of dialogue eventually ate away at Ines. I understood her recklessness and disregard for life and rooted for her the entire story. I found myself wanting Ines to prove everyone — and herself — wrong. Ines held herself back and never seemed to see her own worth.
Without spoilers, I do want to say that Thomas writes grief in a harrowingly real way. Ines’s pain was harsh and introspective and appeared in little, ordinary moments as life went on. It was also quiet and persistent throughout the entire novel. Ines’s grief led her to some of the choices she made. Grief always changes a person and Ines was no different. I appreciated this realistic portrayal and the valuable way it intertwined with the plot. However, I do have one gripe with Catherine House as I wish Thomas would’ve dug into the history of Catherine more. While I enjoyed reading about the characters and their time at the house immensely, it felt as if we were missing a vital piece of the story. I was left with some unanswered questions at the end. It’s eventually revealed what makes Catherine so special, but how did that come to be? Catherine, as a setting and arguably as a character, could’ve added so much value to the narrative if it’d been explored more.
Catherine House is not going to every person’s taste. It’s a literary work, rather than genre, and much of it is introspective rather than reactive. It has elements of science-fiction. The narrative suggests that it is a commentary on the state of being. The plot is languid and secretive until the very last pages. But if you like dark academia, and you appreciate beautiful prose, then pick this up. I won’t forget it any time soon.
Kaitlin S.