Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

19 reviews

highkingmargo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

dreamy and meandering. very gothic slow build of dread and tension. tense without being urgent. reading it felt almost nostalgic somehow?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Actually love laugh love Yaya my absolute queen

Despite how long this took me to finish i did actually rly enjoy it lol
The pacing was good and the characters were good i just have liked a little more tension throughout and more info about the backstory

‘Nothing ever happened at Catherine’

‘I stared into the mirror. Days. I could see them all, all the days, reflecting into each other forever. Mirrors repeating against mirrors.’

‘You see the world sideways, like a stranger.’

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

celery's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

cantfindmybookmark's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Gaslighting

heytherekaity's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Car accident

encryptedorchardpest's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Grief

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

If you’re in the mood for a slow, unsettling atmospheric read with an interesting premise and maybe aromantic main character, check this out! I didn’t end up liking it, though. It needed some serious trimming. There’s a ton of fluff in here that seemed so unnecessary that it took away from the story. Everything that did matter took way too long to pay off, and was hard to care about because of Ines’s detached haze. The college cult itself also just feels like what a high schooler things college might be like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Forced nudity, implied drugging, animal experimentation

samarakroeger's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

this book was perfectly fine but nothing spectacular.  while I like descriptive language, I thought Elisabeth Thomas overused it here.  I do not care what these kids ate for every single meal, I'm sorry.  I also thought the eeriness could have been ramped up a notch.  this book is not scary, not very creepy, and not at all suspenseful (in my opinion).  Storygraph calls this a "thriller," which is weird seeing as there is nothing thrilling about this book.  Ines just kind of goes about her life at this secluded, insular small college, goes to class, sleeps around, is depressed, and gets drunk.  she is very much a passive protagonist, which I don't mind that much but I can see where that gets very frustrating.  she just kind of lets things happen to her in the way that a lot of numb 18 year olds do.

in many ways, Catherine House reminded me of The Idiot, one of my favorite reads of this year.  no plot, just vibes.  passive main character.  the plot: mentally ill (and slightly delusional) mc goes to elite college.  both set in the mid 1990s, although that was more apparent to me in ~vibe~ in The Idiot than in Catherine House.  however, I LOVED The Idiot and thought this was just okay, and I think part of that is that the satire and humor in Batuman's writing was sorely missing here.  Thomas failed to really make any sort of critique of academia and I couldn't really find the point in the book.  you could say that The Idiot is the light academia version of this supposedly dark academia book.

anywho, I didn't care about the "mystery" and was not impressed by the reveals, which could have been much creepier.  I don't really see anything majorly wrong with the book per se, but I certainly didn't love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting

criticalbooks's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism