WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
Catherine by April Lindner is essentially a retelling of Wuthering Heights but for a modern era of teenagers. The premise is that it is told in dual storylines. We have the modern day story which follows this girl Chelsea as she runs away from home to go to this club in NYC called The Underground. There, she hopes to find out why her mother left her when she was a toddler. The other storyline follows a girl named Catherine who is growing up at The Underground which is owned by her father. Catherine makes friends with this guy Hence who works at the Underground but also happens to be a broody musician. Of course, Catherine is Chelsea’s mother. And well, that’s about as far as I got – Chelsea meeting Hence and Catherine having a shady experience at The Underground.
HOW LONG DID I LAST?
I got to page 96 of 320.
WHY DID I DNF?
So, I am at the point in my life where I feel like I have to like the characters that I am reading about. Honestly I could give a rat’s ass about any of these people. Like, Catherine is a boring studious person who just starts to embrace her wild side. Hence is terrible on the whole. Chelsea is a person I can’t get a good read on. Like, she has one friend and she’s making bad life choices. Catherine ABANDONED HER TODDLER to fix some wrongs? What the actual hell.
Okay, so maybe I am just a little sensitive to that as a toddler mom and maybe if I read this when it actually came out my feelings would be 100% different. Oh and also, I had previously read a YA contemporary book just before this where the dialogue crackled off the page and I was loving every minute rather than slowly dreading my time with the book (like this one).
IS THERE ANYONE CATHERINE WOULD APPEAL TO?
I think that people who are obsessed with retellings of classic stories would like this book. Also, people who haven’t been spoiled by YA contemporary books with amazing friend groups and all kinds of dialogue. Like, if you don’t need books with solid friend groups, hats off to you, you’re going to love this one. For me though, it just did not work. I guess it was just read at the wrong place in my life.
OTHER REVIEWS OF CATHERINE BY APRIL LINDNER:
- Chapter By Chapter – “I’m very surprised by how much I loved Catherine”
- The Bookish Babe – “cleverly and beautifully told“
- City Of Books – “it is absolutely breathtaking“
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