- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Tinder Press (12 May 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1472262433
- ISBN-13: 978-1472262431
Synopsis
You will not leave the grounds during your time at the college.
If we believe you have wandered from the path of learning, you may be sent to the tower.
Each of our students has been selected as someone who belongs here at Catherine. You will give to Catherine, and Catherine will give to you. We will not let each other down.
Catherine House is a university like no other. Into its celebrated world steps Ines, a young woman who welcomes the school’s isolation rather than its illustrious past. As the gates close and Ines finds herself start to be inevitably seduced by its magnetic power, she also begins to realise the question isn’t why she chose to come to Catherine House; but why Catherine House chose her.
Review
Set in 1996, the eponymous Catherine House is an elite university, not part of the Ivy League but with the same prestige. The difference being that the chosen pupils go through a long interview process and if chosen must have no contact with the outside world for the three years; no holidays, no letters, no phone calls, no television and no newspapers. Students are expected to work hard and reap the rewards. Innes comes to Catherine House with nowhere else to go, a checkered past behind her she doesn’t know why she was chosen. She becomes seduced by everything it has to offer and draws the attention of Viktoria Varga, the face of Catherine House. This is an atmospheric read, with a feeling of unease running throughout. Just what is the truth about Catherine House, and what is it hiding.
The book is narrated by Innes, who is not as seduced by Catherine House as some of her fellow students. We know she has come from a troubled background and has gone off the rails slightly so for her Catherine House gives her a place to live, food and clothes for the next three years. However, she seems different from the typical student, some are there because their parents were there and others want the chance to excel and get the best opportunity for the future. Innes just seems to want to drink, go to parties which sees her miss classes, putting her time there in jeopardy; she seems intent on self destructing. Her roommate Barbara is the complete opposite, she has dreamt of studying at Catherine House and whilst Innes is out all night partying, she is up all night studying. They are a strange friendship but it’s one that works.
The university is best known for it’s famous scientific work on Plasm, a substance that is found in everything, and has wonderous powers, healing and fixing items that are damaged, like a tapestry with a tear. Many students come to Catherine House just to study it, like Barbara. There is a veil of secrecy about what it can actually do and the experiments taking place in the labs; the potential of this substance is immense. It has gained a mythological status after a previous professor went to the media with the potential of this substance and its healing properties. But it is kept under lock and key and no one talks about the experiments in the secret lab.
Elisabeth Thomas has a sense of unease running throughout this book; with the initiation ceremony, the tower where pupils are sent when not keeping to the rules, the secrecy around plasm. Even the head of the university Viktoria Varga has an other worldliness about her with her indeterminate age, polished looks and calm persona. As the book progresses and Innes starts to ask questions, a darker side of Catherine House is exposed. The tension builds gradually and as a reader I was drawn into this fascinating world, it’s beautiful architecture, libraries, an art gallery and the atmosphere it created.
Catherine House is a fascinating and unsettling read, that has a cult like quality about it. Seemingly perfect on the outside, offering a wonderful curriculum and perfect place for the students, but in reality there is a darkness at its heart. A flawed heroine in Innes and the sinister atmosphere make this a thrilling and compelling read.
