Alix E. Harrow has been a force to be reckoned with ever since she published her first book and she is only getting better and better. By now, I feel confident in calling her one of my favorite SFF authors. Starling House just proves that she can do no wrong, that genre boundaries are of no consequence, and that I will continue to auto-buy and read all of her works. This was the last book I finished in 2023 and it was the perfect way to end my reading year.
STARLING HOUSE
by Alix E. Harrow
Published: Tor, 2023
Hardcover: 308 pages
Standalone
My rating: 9/10
Opening line: I dream sometimes about a house I've never seen.
A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.
Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it's best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.
Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she's never had: a home.
As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.
If Opal wants a home, she'll have to fight for it.
Opal lives in Eden, Kentucky, with her teenage brother Jasper who is the only family she has left. Ever since their mother died in a tragic accident, Opal has been looking after Jasper and working hard to provide him the opportunity to leave the shithole that is Eden. What she really wants is for him to get out, have a chance at a proper education at a private school, and not end up like her - working a job she hates, committing petty theft whenever possible, and only living for the things you need, never letting yourself want.
But there's a lot more to Eden than you'd expect from a small Southern town. Sure, you get the behind-the-back gossip, the hush hush way of pretending there is nothing wrong, the rich Gravely family across the river whose fortune was built on the Eden coal mines, but there's also Starling House. A house that nobody has really ever seen, but many people have Opinions about. Eleanor Starling, the woman who had it built, was a secretive person around whom there are as many myths as there are about the strange circumstances under which her husband and his elder brother died...
Opal has been drawn to Starling House since she was little and read a book by E. Starling about a young girl falling into Underland and having adventures among the Beasts there. But pragmatic as she is, when she meets the current occupant of Starling House and he offers her a job, she accepts. Cleaning the house seems like an unsurmountable task at first, but with the amount of money this pale and grumpy Arthur Starling is paying her, she's not going to complain. It will pay Jasper's tuition fees and finally get him out of Eden.
There is so much to love about this book and the haunted house trope is just one of many things Alix Harrow gets so, so right. First of all, the House is like a character and I am utterly, utterly in love with it. If a building could show joy or contempt, raise an eyebrow at your lies, or pat you on the back, Starling House is the best example.
But it's not your average haunted house. Figuring out what the hell is really going on in Eden, why Arthur (and the Stalrings before him) is such a recluse, and what the truth about the Gravelys and the Starlings is, may be the central plot of this book. Its heart, however, are the characters and especially the way Opal learns to see her home - hated and filled with painful memories as it is - in a different light.
I wish I could talk about all the great things Harrow does with this book. She juggles a dozen tropes, turns half of them upside down, dissects some others, and simply embraces some more, and what comes out at the end is a thing of pure beauty. I'll try and go into the non-spoilery bits as much as I can because there simply must be gushing!
Stories have a way of evolving, especially stories told over generations, handed down from one person to the next. In small towns especially, history can get a little out of hand when told enough times by enough people. Harrow uses this to great effect. When Opal asks around about Starling House, she hears vastly different accounts of essentially the same thing: the story of the Gravely brothers, of the young woman Eleanor who - depending on who you ask - either trapped them to get at their fortune or was used by them.
I cannot express how well Harrow sets up these stories, how she lets her readers figure out which parts are probably true and which are embellishment, how one person may paint the same character (or rather: historical figure) as a villain, when another thinks of them as a victim. And how none of them are completely right.
Opal herself is a highly interesting protagonist. She is not what you'd call likable, she steals and lies and isn't really the friendly sort. But she's also carrying emotional baggage the size of a mountain, so it's easy to forgive her abrasiveness. The accident that killed her mother and left her as her brother's caretaker did more than give her "classic PTSD" and working through that is only the first step Opal needs to take if she wants something resembling a home and a family. I should mention that the descriptions of Opal's nightmares, reliving the night her mother drowned, were absolutely terrifying. If you don't have a fear of deep water now, you may after reading this book.
But speaking of family. Although she and Jasper live in a motel room, they are not completely alone. There are people looking out for them and even though they may not be the classic family types, it was heartwarming to read about how much they care about each other. Color me surprised to find this lovely found family in a haunted house novel.
Another great part of Starling House was the romance. It's not front and center, mind you, but that only made the moments when our protagonists let themselves feel something for a change all the more impactful. Both Opal and Arthur are lost and lonely, both believe they are not allowed or deserving of love, of being taken care of. And both are reluctant to let the other one in, even as they show kindness to one another. It makes me weep just thinking about that wool coat...
[...] I think dizzily that I know exactly why Icarus flew so high: when you've spent too long in the dark, you'll melt your own wings just to feel the sun on your skin.
If you've ever read Alix E. Harrow, you'll already know her writing is stellar. She paints vivid pictures with her words and somehow always finds the right tone to hit you emotionally. Eden felt like a real place to me, its people and their actions all too believable, and the way they get over themselves just beautiful.
Her hands are fisted in the collar of his shirt and she is so vital, so furiously alive that Arthur understands for the first time why Hades stole Persephone, why a man who has spent his life in winter might do anything at all for a taste of spring.
I should also mention that this book features a hellcat named Baast, cleaning montages that are somehow not boring but really fun, side characters who are way cleverer than you might first give them credit for, and a resolution that left me very satisfied.
It is illustrated by the inimitable Rovina Cai, which obviously doesn't hurt. Her drawings are not just beautiful works of art, but they capture the atmosphere of the novel perfectly.
This book was just wonderful from beginning to end, bloody battles, magical Beasts, cursed towns, and struggling siblings included. It has won my heart and won't let go, so the least I can do is put it on my Hugo ballot this year. Fingers crossed that Harrow wins all the awards with it.
MY RATING: 9/10 - Damn near perfect!
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