I understand why some people objectively don’t like this story. It’s slow, there’s not much of a plot, and the characters might feel distant and annoying to some. What I don’t understand is why this specific book is disliked so much and so widely when I feel like there are other books with similarities that have much higher ratings. My guess is that the dark academia aspects were stressed so much in the descriptions going around, and a lot of people set their expectations way too high because it’s ~ d a r k a c e d e m i a ~

I love a good gothic story, and I think that Elisabeth Thomas hit the nail on the head with the atmosphere she created with Catherine House. The resolution leaves a few questions unanswered, and while some might find that unsatisfying, I didn’t mind it. I actually thought the main character and her motivations (or lack thereof) were pretty interesting to read, and I liked the side characters too. I listened to the audiobook, so maybe that was why I wasn’t bogged down when it came to the slower pacing. Overall, I think this book receives a lot of unwarranted criticism because it doesn’t live up to the hype that was initially there for some when this book came out, but imo Thomas’s sinister and haunting story really speaks for itself