Book Review: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

Book Review: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

I won this book as an ARC in a Goodreads giveaway, and this is my honest review.

I had heard a lot about this book before I won it on Goodreads, so I was looking forward to reading it. A few of my bookish friends touted it as a profound book for 2021 readers.

Vivian Morris, after getting kicked out of Vassar College, flees her family's judgment and condescension by moving to live with her aunt in New York City, where she becomes part of a middling theater group as the seamstress and costumer. She discovers herself as a voracious sexual being--shocking even in 1940s New York City. She also discovers that her pursuit of sexual conquests has damning personal and professional consequences when she allows her promiscuity to lead her to make bad judgments that irreparably damage the life she has built for herself in her theater community.

But the story is deeper than Vivian's promiscuity.

And, though I was tempted to not finish the book at several points (mostly the extremely vivid descriptions of Vivian's sexual encounters--just not my flavor), I heard my friends' rave reviews in the back of my head, propelling me to continue reading. I'm glad I listened to those voices.

Vivian's story of unapologetically unconventional and alternative lifestyle choices ultimately creates an incredibly endearing story of friendships and missteps, forgiveness and new beginnings, authenticity and hiding. Vivian's sense of agency at a time that discouraged women from exercising such agency is empowering and despite my disapproval of Vivian's choices, she doesn't need or seek my approval. Nor does my disapproval cloud my ability to genuinely like her. She's spunky, full of life and love, and forges lasting and meaningful relationships with the other characters. Vivian is someone I would like to know.

The prose is compelling, beautiful, poetic, and the historical background creates an immersive story showing a different type of life experience for those making sense of life in the 1940s.

I initially rated City of Girls 3/5 stars, but after I marinated in its afterglow, it deserves 4/5 stars.

Book Rewview: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Book Review: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

I received an ARC of this book, and this is my honest review.


I was excited about the opportunity to read Catherine House. There seemed to be a lot of hype surrounding this debut novel by Elisabeth Thomas, and I love a Gothic story.

Catherine House details the college career of Ines, a troubled teen accepted into the elite and renowned Catherine House for an accelerated three-year degree path, strictly isolated from the rest of the world but also completely free of charge. Ines and her cohort of friends indulge in school-sanctioned parties replete with frat-style binge drinking and indiscriminate sexual liaisons while negotiating ultra-challenging academic work and aspiring to the New Materials concentration, a coveted discipline studying plasm, the nebulous substance interconnecting all things. All of this is fascinating given the overall theme of isolation.

There are elements of Catherine House that I really enjoyed: the characters are interesting, flawed and broken. The house itself becomes a character, which is a device I have a particular affinity for. I was genuinely surprised by the ending. And, the novel reminds me a lot of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, a novel that has haunted me since I read it about 11 years ago.

However, on balance the book fell flat for me. Ines's mysterious past has a lot of holes. I felt I needed more of them filled so that I could understand her more fully. I simply could not relate to her incredibly sad antipathy and, because of that, I wasn't sure how much I cared about her. And, I really wanted to care for her because it seemed that so few people in her life did.

The mom part of me was angry at the lack of rules and boundaries for the students' social lives, and while I appreciated part of Catherine House's ethos is the mind-freeing nature of not having imposed rules and boundaries, the resultant free-for-all of behavior was concerning to me. Real colleges and universities have rules and boundaries for interpersonal behavior and resources for handling the ups and downs. Further, the cultish school culture is very concerning in large part because there appears to be very little outsider concern about the students at Catherine House.

I can definitely see the draw the book might have for other readers; it just didn't wow me. I appreciate the underlying themes: isolation, withdrawal, brokenness, scientific advancement (at what cost) are important and relevant discussions. But, I needed more.

Overall, I rate Catherine House 3/5 stars.