Catherine: The Novel was released on May 20, 2011 and is the first of two official novels released exclusively in Japan, the other being Catherine: The Mysterious Tale of Rapunzel. The novel was also later released as an eBook on January 13, 2015.
The novel is a retelling of the main plot in the game itself though there are some scenes from the game which are not present in the novel along with new scenes found only in the novel. The most notable of these novel exclusive scenes are the inclusion of chapters told from the perspective of characters besides Vincent (Orlando, Jonny, Steve) and the novel's own unique ending.
The full English fan translation of the novel is available to see here.
Plot[]
Prologue[]
The novel begins at the climax of the confrontation between Catherine and Katherine in Vincent's room. An enraged Catherine reveals that she has the kitchen knife exclaiming that if Katherine could just leave, Vincent would be happy and no longer confused; Catherine begins to charge at Katherine attempting to kill her. Vincent is able to shield Katherine from the knife at the expense of getting slashed by the blade himself and falling injured to the floor. Catherine continues her pursuit grabbing Katherine by her hair and pulling her to the ground. The prologue ends with Catherine appearing to have stabbed Katherine.
Vincent[]
One week earlier, Vincent is at the cafe with his long-term girlfriend, Katherine who brings up the idea of moving forward with their relationship. Vincent attempts to give his opinion that he prefers to keep things simple and how they are in the least offensive manner possible though Katherine appears to remain unsatisfied. That night Vincent visits The Stray Sheep, the bar he frequents with his friends Jonathan "Jonny" Ariga and Tobias "Toby" Nebbins. Vincent hears about the ongoing mysterious deaths of young men and confirms his suspicion with Jonny that Katherine wants marriage. After reiterating that he likes things how they are and watching his friends leave the bar, Vincent meets a mysterious woman named Catherine who introduces herself and sits at his booth.
Catherine in Vincent's bed (image from game).
Waking up in the morning, Vincent who vaguely recalls being in a “cold, creepy place” is surprised to find Catherine lying next to him in his bed. Vincent suddenly has memories of the night before flash before him including his discussion with Catherine at the bar where she seemed to share his ideas of freedom and being against marriage and then their drunken walk from the bar to his apartment. Not long after Catherine wakes up and briefly talks to Vincent, she suddenly screams and makes her way to leave realising she forgot about a dentist appointment. Vincent begins to explain that he has girlfriend but hesitates wondering if he wants to see her again as Catherine leaves his apartment.
Vincent once again visits The Stray Sheep bar at night with Jonny and another friend and work colleague Orlando Haddick where he explains to them what happened last night. The waitress of the Stray Sheep and also friend of Vincent, Erica comes over and tells them the rumor that "if you fall and hit the ground in a dream, you die in real life" is apparently a woman’s curse on cheating men.
Orlando[]
Catherine appearing as Orlando's ideal woman.
Later, Orlando suddenly found himself in a cylindrical world full of blocks to climb and talking human-size sheep. Quickly realising this to be a dream, Orlando begins to make his way up the large set of blocks, encountering a giant tuna monster along the way. Figuring this to be the “cursed nightmare” which Erica mentioned before, Orlando’s memories of how he ended up here come rushing back to him.
Orlando attended a women’s wrestling event where he met a “gorgeous” Latin woman. After they chatted and the event finished, the woman invited Orlando into her expensive car then her own room at a fancy hotel where after drinking significant levels of alcohol, Orlando had only hazy memories at best as to what happened next. After finally scaling the large set of blocks, Orlando found himself in a plaza filled with other sheep where he learns that if you die in the dream, you die in real life. He also learned that each person/sheep had their own version of a monster they face in the nightmare. Noticing a messy-haired sheep tell his familiar sounding story of cheating, Orlando soon figuring it out to be Vincent, goes over to a sheep wearing a tie appearing to be one of the leaders of the group, asking him to look out for Vincent. The sheep with a tie tells Orlando that he’ll consider it.
Vincent[]
Vincent wakes up in bed after another bad dream, noticing someone else in there he instinctively calls out “Katherine?” only to find the mysterious woman from last night there instead. This is where Vincent learns that the mysterious womans name is in fact Catherine. He expresses envy over Catherine’s free lifestyle and again attempts to explain his situation with Katherine before he is interrupted once more by Catherine kissing him.
Vincent meets Katherine once again at the cafe for lunch where Katherine reveals that she might be pregnant. Soon after hearing this news, Vincent receives a call from Catherine which he soon ends only to then moments later hear Catherine nearby in the same cafe. Vincent quickly ends his meeting with Katherine and leaves the cafe out of fear from being caught before receiving another call from an unknown number.
Vincent hesitantly answers the call which turns out to be from a man named Steve claiming to be Catherine’s boyfriend. Steve threatens Vincent that he’ll end his life if he doesn’t end it with Catherine, Vincent having just heard Katherine is pregnant and feeling like he has no other choice, agrees. Vincent confronts Catherine with this information but Catherine denies knowing any Steve, suggesting that Steve might be referring to someone Vincent knows with the same name. Faced with the possibility that Katherine might in fact be cheating on him and in that case not wanting to end his relationship with Catherine, Vincent quickly drops the subject.
Jonny[]
Jonny vehemently denies the chance that Katherine would cheat on Vincent after hearing Vincent’s suspicion of her with his friends at the bar. Jonny then recalls an incident which occurred about a week ago at an aquarium where he met a woman who looked identical to Katherine, had the same name but also claimed to have never met him before. In the confusion, Jonny explains that he is in love with Katherine. The woman asks Jonny if Katherine already has a boyfriend which catches Jonny further off-guard. The woman appears to express some level of sympathy for Jonny explaining that she was not needed in the first place as Jonny already has Katherine in her place and that he will probably still fall into the nightmare.
Jonny asking about Orlando's meeting with Catherine.
Realising that Vincent had also recently met someone who appeared as his ideal woman who was also named Catherine and hearing from Vincent that there was someone called Steve who met a Catherine too, Jonny deduces that these occurrences must somehow all be connected. Jonny proceeds to borrow Vincent’s phone in an attempt to call Catherine, under the false pretence of using Vincent’s phone to just call a client at work. However, when Jonny tries to find Catherine’s number, he is surprised to find no information on Catherine in Vincent’s phone at all. Jonny talks to Orlando and learns of Orlando’s meeting with the mysterious woman who appeared to be Orlando’s perfect woman at the wrestling match and hotel. Jonny visits the hotel Orlando stayed at only to find at reception no record in the past week of anyone visiting the room Orlando claimed to spend the night with Catherine in.
Vincent[]
Waking up from another nightmare with Catherine in his bed again, Vincent manages to narrowly avoid Katherine finding out about the affair. Later the same day, Vincent confronts Katherine about a potential affair with Steve but she denies knowledge of any Steve with the exception of a friend's child. Vincent calls Steve to find that the appearance of Steve’s Catherine does not match either of the women Vincent is seeing. Now convinced that Katherine is not cheating on him and with the knowledge that she is pregnant, Vincent reluctantly breaks up with Catherine alone at the Stray Sheep. Catherine insists that she would be fine with Vincent seeing other women as long as she can still be with him. Vincent rejects Catherine’s offer to which she reacts by violently beating him. Vincent’s friends later return to the bar to console him and help with his injuries.
Catherine dies (scene from the video game).
The next morning, Vincent wakes up without nightmares and without Catherine by his side, but she suddenly appears in his room when Katherine comes to visit. After a heated exchange of insults between the two women, Katherine, due to Vincent's betrayal and Catherine's constant insults of her worthlessness to Vincent and Catherine's superiority to Katherine, snaps with despair and moves over the kitchen sink searching for a kitchen knife while still facing Vincent and Catherine, but to no avail, for Catherine predicted this and has taken the knife in advance. Vincent attempts to calm down Katherine by telling her that he had already called off his affair with Catherine, thus causing Catherine herself to snap with rage and jealousy, blaming Katherine for Vincent's confusion and claim that if Katherine went away, Vincent could finally be free, and attempts to kill Katherine with the kitchen knife, barely cutting Vincent at his right lower rib cage, but ends up herself impaled in her stomach while seemingly having the upper-hand on Katherine while they are both on the ground. While Catherine lies bleeding and dying, Vincent shoos a terrified Katherine out, trying to protect her, but the two find themselves trapped in another puzzle maze. It is in this nightmare that Vincent runs into Steve.
Steve[]
Catherine in Steve's flashback.
Steve the dentist had treated Catherine’s teeth regularly but only once had sex with her during one of her first appointments. Ever since then, Catherine rejected any offer Steve had made during their appointments. This constant rejection led Steve to take more drastic measures as he became further obsessed with getting Catherine back. Steve would look at Catherine’s phone while she was lying unaware in the dentist chair. He would find many affectionate text messages sent by men to Catherine along with photos of herself she had sent to them. Steve eventually resorted to stalking Catherine one night where she visited and stayed at another man's apartment. The following morning, Steve confronted the man in his apartment after Catherine had left and proceeded to savagely beat him and wreck his room. Steve then made it his mission to track down, threaten and if necessary fight every man Catherine seemed to have a relationship with the hope that this would allow Catherine to finally be with him. However, this did not negatively affect the number of relationships Catherine had with men, which continued to increase. Steve confronts Catherine once more who reveals that she knew Steve was snooping on her phone and contacting the men’s numbers he found on there. Catherine inadvertently tells Steve about a man who is making her flaunt her body as she did but quickly ends the subject when Steve tries to follow up on it. Catherine tells Steve that they won’t be seeing each other anymore and leaves. Trying to find the identity of the man who was making Catherine seduce others, Steve visited other men whom she was associated with, including Jonny. Jonny is unable to give any further info on who could be making Catherine seduce people but he is able to inform Steve that it is Catherine who seduces men and sends them into the nightmare and that her appearance is different to each person who sees her. Steve tells all of this to Vincent who is still trying to escape the nightmare with Katherine before getting killed by lightning.
Vincent[]
Vincent wakes up from his nightmare in the company of Katherine who has no recollection of the events in the nightmare, and confronts Vincent on the infidelity she knows he has been hiding from her. She also admits that her pregnancy was a false alarm, and that Vincent's reactions did not increase her confidence in him. Politely but firmly, she breaks up with him. With Katherine no longer pregnant nor in a relationship with him, Vincent tries to call Catherine to try to get back together with her only to find no details of her contact info, previous messages or calls on his phone. Talking to Orlando, Vincent realises that that none of his friends have ever met or seen her which causes him to doubt his sanity. Vincent searches his entire apartment room for any evidence of Catherine’s presence but is unable to find any. He searches the cafe, asks employees and hassles other customers trying to find any information on Catherine before being thrown out by security.
Vincent confronts Boss with Erica.
Vincent finally is able to uncover the mystery after hearing of Steve’s death on the news at the Stray Sheep realising that the only person who interacted with Catherine besides those she seduced was the bartender, Thomas Mutton also known as Thomas Mutton. Mutton eventually admits to being the orchestrator of the nightmares and that Catherine is a succubus working with him, who takes the form of each man's fantasy woman, to tempt him into cheating. Vincent makes a deal with him to return voluntarily to the nightmare landscape and climb the final levels of the tower, in return for which Mutton will release all other captive men and grant Vincent his wish to see Catherine.
After defeating Thomas Mutton in the final nightmare, Vincent went straight to the Stray Sheep where he requested to see Catherine again, for her to be visible (in the form he sees her in) to everyone and to be a billionaire, Mutton eventually complied to all of the requests. Vincent confessed his love to Catherine and asked her to marry him. After getting over her surprise, Catherine admitted to feeling the same way and accepts Vincent’s proposal.
Catherine getting married to Vincent.
Vincent and Catherine end up getting married at the Stray Sheep bar in the company of all of Vincent’s friends before leaving to have their honeymoon in space. As Catherine and Vincent are waiting to leave at the spaceport, Catherine questions Vincent on if he’s really ready to live with her. Vincent replies that meeting Catherine has made him feel like he can make it through his future no longer being part of the crowd but truly free even if it means he will no longer be human. As they are about to board the plane, Vincent turns to Catherine and asks her to be with him once more. After some slight hesitation, Catherine accepts with a smile before Vincent gives her a soft kiss.
Gallery[]
