Catherine by April Lindner

Wuthering Heights was the last book I read in English class my senior year of high school. I formed an attachment to the book. I wasn't a huge fan of Catherine and Heathcliff and that big old mess they made. Cathy and Hareton, though, were sweet. I liked those two crazy kids, even if they were cousins. I have since read Jane Austen, I know that was a thing back then.

So, Chelsea/Young Cathy was told that her mother Catherine/Catherine is dead. She snoops in her father's closet and finds a letter from her at a place in New York called the Underground/Wuthering Heights. Believing that her mother is still alive, Chelsea sets off to find her. It bothers me that she would leave the father who raised her to hunt down a mother who abandoned her. I know the guy lied, but he still loves her. She doesn't even contact him again until the end of the book, which is sucky to do.

Anyways, at the Underground, Chelsea meets a dark and glowery stranger named Hence/Heathcliff. I know, Hence isn't a name, just go with it. He believes that Catherine must be dead because they are soul mates, blah, blah. Chelsea is undeterred. Hence lets her stay in Catherine's bedroom, where she finds her mother's journal. It's the story of how Catherine meets Hence and immediately decides that he is different from the other hopeful musicians looking to get in the Underground. She gets him a job, they fall in love, his band starts to come together. Life is really good for a while, but it doesn't last. Catherine's scary racist brother gets in the way. She has always dreamed of going to Harvard, but Hence is in New York. Tragedy ensues, and the two don't see each other for years.

Catherine wasn't bad, but I miss a lot of the crazy melodrama of the original book. I did get some solace in that the ending was sufficiently bananas, so I'm glad I stuck with it. It seems as though the story was more grounded here, with a negative effect. Catherine and Hence are not so much epic lovers as just a couple of kids in love. The mystery of Catherine's disappearance kept me reading, but it wasn't enough to keep me up late to finish the story. It could have been better, but it also could have been worse.

I received my copy of Catherine from Edelweiss, courtesy of Poppy. It's available for purchase now.