CATHERINE HOUSE

Narrator Ines del Castillo sounds very much like the teenage heroine, Ines, who has been accepted to exclusive Catherine House, a college that boasts a host of successful graduates. After a rigorous application process, accepted students must agree to three years of absolute isolation, having no contact with their families or the outside world. In exchange, everything they need, including tuition, is provided. Del Castillo is spot-on delivering Ines's feelings of uncertainty and her reluctance to conform, both of which enhance Catherine House's ominous atmosphere. Students are subjected to mass hypnosis, plasm experimentation, and brainwashing. Surreal out-of-body experiences make this more science fiction than gothic horror, but del Castillo does her best to engage the listener in this overly long, overplotted, and ultimately unsatisfying debut novel. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2021]