Images from Goodreads

[57] Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
Fiction / Literary, read about in an article (pdf here)

Synopsis: Ines is in her first year at Catherine House, a secluded liberal arts school in Pennsylvania that pays for your entire three-year (summers included) room and board, but also requires you completely cut ties with everything outside of the school. After a tragedy occurs, Ines begins to suspect something is off about the school and starts to (half-assedly) investigate.

Review: I enjoyed reading this, because I like campus novels, but there was not much character development, so you don’t connect with Ines at all. And the book is a trippy slow burn – the school is constantly giving the kids alcohol, and paired with some other stuff going on, they aren’t lucid 100% of the time. I thought the story was headed toward a big reveal about the school’s sinister ways, but when I got to the end (the book covers all three of Ines’s years there), I thought “that was it?” Meh. The story doesn’t leave you hanging, but it leaves you wondering. I wanted more detail about what was going on at the school, and Ines’s past.

Recommend? No, I don’t think most people would enjoy this.

[58] Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, recommended on Sarah’s Bookshelves Live episode 41 Winter 2020 Book Preview

Synopsis: Rose Gold Watts was ill the first eighteen years of her life – she had dizzy spells, fainted often, and threw up so frequently she was severely malnourished. She wasn’t naturally ill though – her mother Patty was poisoning her food that entire time. Patty goes to prison for five years, four of which Rose Gold refuses to speak with her. When Patty is released though, Rose Gold is the one who picks her up and provides her a place to stay.

Review: This book is an engaging page-turner that has you saying “what the…?” on almost every page. The chapters alternate between Patty and Rose Gold and holy cow, they are both so effed up and manipulative. This subject matter is rough (it seems to be based on the true story of Gypsy Rose and her mother Dee Dee Blanchard), but somehow this was exactly the kind of book I was looking for – a fly through read.

Recommend: Yes, if you can handle the subject!

[59] Master Class by Christina Dalcher
Fiction / Dystopian, recommended on Sarah’s Bookshelves Live episode 53 Spring 2020 Book Preview

Synopsis: Everyone has a quotient (Q) that is measured by standardized testing if you’re in school, and continues to be measured by your career once you’ve graduated. Your Q determines what you have access to – good schools, food at the grocery store, quicker checkout lines, and so on. Your nuclear family’s Q affects yours – if your kid bombs a test, your Q goes down, and they might be placed in a lower tier school. When Elena Fairchild’s daugher does just that, and is sent to a state school hundreds of miles away, Elena is horrified and does everything she can to get her back.

Review: This is an incredibly interesting concept, but I didn’t care for this author’s style (although I did say I liked her book, Vox…). Something about the writing style and pacing didn’t jive with me. I was bored reading this, even though I shouldn’t have been, maybe because the book I read before was so engrossing? Also, the book would feel much more suspenseful (and also horrifying) to someone who has children. I tried to feel the grief and fear Elena felt when her daughter got sent away, but the writing was not doing it for me.

Recommend? Nah