By Elisabeth Thomas
This book is about a very selective college whose alums go on to be ridiculously successful, rich and famous. It has a stringent application and interview process, with very few potential students being accepted. Once accepted, everything is paid for in exchange for your dedication of three entire years to the school with no outside contact or opportunities to go off campus. You know, a cult, with educational overtones.
The character we follow most closely as the reader is Ines, a bisexual dilletante with a past that includes glimpses of drugs, sex trafficking, and brushes with the law. Catherine House is supposed to be her refuge from constantly running, and give her opportunities to which she would otherwise never have access. For her first year, she seems to squander her time, rarely going to class but instead continuing her alcohol-fueled sexual conquests. Until the headmaster, Viktoria, begins her personal brainwashing and entry to the cult, I mean school…
So begins a gothic slow-burn, with, in my opinion, an unworthy payoff. There are some neat scifi aspects. Antisocial Ines finally starts to form some relationships which take the focus off her sullen daze all the time – refreshing for the reader. But I did not enjoy the lackluster ending after all the build up – it could have been great!! But it was mostly, eh…
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- The house itself, with its architecture, meandering hallways, and secret niches
- The gothic mood – we know something sinister is below the surface
- The scifi healing or “mending” aspect
Cons
- Ines – ugh! I don’t know if she is too emo, too lazy, or what it is that bothers me so much about her, but she is extra
- The whole cult, maybe sacrificing students thing
- Anticlimactic ending