Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

16 reviews

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

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

leighwilliams'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 death, Animal cruelty, Death, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Mental illness

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

magpie_'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

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, 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: Death, Confinement, 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, Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Blood, and Torture

cinnamon_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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

3.75

• love tiny details (like when someone needs to pee or have their period) 
• mental health awareness (ish) and queer representation 
- writing style was good just not my favourite 
° it was not really horror (although definitely gothic)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Mental illness

Minor: Death

thefatpaperback's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

This book is a fever dream. I still think back on it and wonder if this was an actual book I read. It’s bizarre, but the writing is incredible. Big moments and shocking events are delivered like ripping off a band-aid: blunt and disorienting. The characters are great too. A friend and I were chatting about the book and he said he liked how it’s diverse without trying to be diverse and I agree. I 10000% recommend. I read this at the end of October and it was haunting for sure (but not scary…I don’t do horror novels!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty

characters in this book attend a private collegiate college that performs, sometimes unbeknownst to students, experiments on their bodies and minds. I’m very sensitive to gore and horror—that’s not in this book. But it is a spooky, creepy read, so I wanted to be thorough in my content warnings.

tina94's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Adult/minor relationship