I just finished reading Catherine House and I would love to share my thoughts here.
First and foremost, I would like to express my feelings and frustrations while reading Catherine House. Honestly, I am genuinely surprised. So far this book was going in a bloody monotonous pace with no plot progression whatsoever. Trust me when I say, the first 200 pages literally felt like a filler to the actual story and could've genuinely got summarized in 50 or less pages in my honest opinion, and this book had 300 ish pages. Like, nothing really happened and we didn’t even get to know our protagonist properly. She was with this "emo" and "I'm not like other girls and i can never be really happy, plus I'm depressed as f*ck and no one knows me and my past" attitude. That really pissed me off and everyone in the first 200 or so pages felt very 1 dimensional and nonexistent. Our protagonist constantly had sex with people all around her, boys, girls, you name it. I considered her Bi previously but I'm still unsure about her sexuality. Anyways, I don't get the point why she acted like this, she had sex with others 24/7 and kept sulking on her life. This sex thing felt very unnecessary and annoying. She claimed she doesn’t have any "emotion" and "heartless", which is later then proven false by her genuine concerns regarding others and everything. No plot progression whatsoever, pointless and boring repetitive descriptions of trees, nature, walls of the rooms and literally anything and everything with no significance whatsoever. This really killed my mood while trying to engage with the story. Now, the last 100 ish pages. Woah, as I previously mentioned, I'm quite surprised. Within the last 100 pages I could genuinely engage with the story and feel our protagonist after what felt like ages, I could understand her and feel what she was facing. Her terrors, her human mind and her humane soul blooming against the horrors of the situation. The dreary circumstances and her genuine bond with her friends and a complex relationship with her 'boyfriend' was greatly conveyed. Here I could see the complexity of the characters and a dive into their inner minds, genuinely though, the entire book should've went like this. Here, I could actually engage. And frankly, this was really a good ending. I was waiting for something way moderate and vague, glad I didn’t receive that version of the ending. I really liked the last part of the book, while it was definitely flawed and not perfect, I could say I somewhat clicked with it and am glad the book turned out to be like this from that horrible plotless and agonizing state.
Now, I would like to share my overall thoughts regarding this book. First, the writing is terrible and I had a really hard time engaging with the book. As I mentioned previously, the continuous pointless descriptions of everything felt so tiring and made me want to not continue most of the time. The book failed to deliver what it promised in my opinion, not at a single point in the entire book it felt "Thrilling" or "Dark and Haunted" or "Surreal and eerily Disturbing" as the blurb stated. It felt entirely different and much worse than expected. It's not the worst book I read but I won't recommend it to anyone personally. This book had so many opportunities and potential to be a great thriller and a psychologically grasping read. It could've been a really fun read. There were many areas which could've been explored in greater depth and with more insights. There are many unanswered questions which could've been answered. The central theme of the book had such a high potential to be a great gripping read and it could've been what the blurb really promised. There were many missed opportunities throughout the book and many crucial and significant themes and circumstances were executed poorly. All in all, I wouldn't say it’s really a good book nor I would say I really had an enjoyable fun time reading it. The only positive thing I can say is, I really liked the ending and yeah, that's about it.
I really feel bad as one of my very close friends gifted it to me on my Birthday, it really feels horrible as I genuinely couldn’t enjoy this book as we both expected I would. Still, thanks to her for letting me experience this book and thanks to her for this wonderful, heartfelt gesture. I really appreciate you, sis.
by manthan_zzzz