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Writer's pictureSelena | Beauty's Library

Catherine House Review

Updated: Oct 13, 2021

You are in the house and the house is in the woods.

You are in the house and the house is in you . . .


Rating: 2/5

A story about a dangerously curious young undergraduate whose rebelliousness leads her to discover a shocking secret involving an exclusive circle of students . . . and the dark truth beneath her school’s promise of prestige.


You are in the house and the house is in the woods.

You are in the house and the house is in you . . .

 

All I can really say is I’m severely disappointed in this book. Yet, at the same time, I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. The average rating for this was just slightly over 3.00/5 ~ on Goodreads. Reading some other reviews, most people said they didn’t like it. But the summary sounded so good! And I’ve also enjoyed other books that I read the majority didn’t like that much. So I had hoped I would enjoy this one.


My friend, Torrie @torsbooknook, who buddy read this with me was also in the same boat as me. We were both so excited to try this one. She had seen a review on Instagram that rated this as a 5 star read, saying they had just fully loved this book. I’m skeptical we even read the same book.


Immediately after I started this, I got Ninth House vibes. Which I read about this time of year, last year. Ninth House is one of my favorites. When it came to similarities, it was mainly the main character and her personality. But I found the main character in Catherine House, Ines so infuriating compared to Alex, the main character of Ninth House. In both books, the girls had a major secret that they were running from. I was shocked by the secret when it finally surfaced in Ninth House. I didn’t expect it and it made me go “Woah!” Now in Catherine House, the secret came up much sooner in the book and I was prepared for something just absolutely terrible, hoping for something similar to the secret that was in Ninth House. When I realized what this “big secret” was, I was like “That’s it? That’s the big secret?” This “big secret” was not at all shocking, it was in fact very disappointing.


This “big secret” was not at all shocking, it was in fact very disappointing.

There were however a few other similarities between these two books. The other main comparison I noticed was the secrecy, like with Ninth House there were these secret societies and Catherine House had this idea of this plasm that was an area of study for the school. However, Ninth House wasn’t nearly as confusing, this idea of plasm is basically never really explained. Yet, it’s almost the focus throughout the entirety of the book. So almost the entire time I was reading, I was just confused. This was very infuriating.


...this idea of plasm is basically never really explained. Yet, it’s almost the focus throughout the entirety of the book. So almost the entire time I was reading, I was just confused. This was very infuriating.

When Torrie and I discussed the book while we were reading, we were initially on the same page throughout when it came to how we felt, feeling confused, and not fully enjoying the book. But after we finished, Torrie ended up liking it slightly more than I did. She felt it deserved a solid 3 stars. Saying the ending made up for some of the events in the book for her. For me, honestly, I didn’t care for the ending and I also imagined the worst as it was kind of left on an open ending. With Ines’ personality and actions, it just made me care very little for her, so the ending had no effect on me.


Overall, I was disappointed in this read. I did have high hopes. I think I’ve now learned that if I don’t like the main character, I’m probably not going to like the book. I’m starting to see a trend there. That being said, I did see others that had enjoyed this book, as I mentioned Torried was drawn to this book by someone’s 5-star review. So I suggest you this up and see for yourself if you enjoy this one. Especially if you enjoy dark academia or enjoyed Ninth House.


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