Information
Goodreads: Starling House
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Source: Purchased
Published: 2023
Official Summary
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.
Review
Starling House is a beautifully atmospheric book that contrasts the setting of Eden, Kentucky, a dreary, insular town with a single industry (the power plant) with Starling House itself, a seemingly haunted place half-shrounded in myth. If place can be a character, that's certainly true here, and I was rooting as much for the town and the House as I was for protagonist Opal herself.
The mystery of Starling House will draw readers in, as Opal takes a temporary job there and begins to unravel its secrets. They come a bit slowly, as the book is also about stories--who tells what tales about the House and how the details change in the telling. The journey is entrancing, however, and I couldn't stop turning the pages to find out what would be revealed next.
This book feels as if it would have a lot of crossover appeal for YA readers. Opal is twenty-six, but she has something of a "coming of age" moment, as I've recently seen readers ask for in adult characters. As Starling House calls to her, she has to decide how she will answer and how her plans for her younger brother's future will factor into her decisions about her own future. She's been independent for years, but she's at a turning point where she can continue to simply survive or to do something more.
The ending was a little disappointing, but that's always true for me in books like this. Things always seem Bigger somehow when you have to imagine what they are. Once you get all the details and explanations, it can feel like a letdown. Nonetheless, Harrow's vision for how Starling House became what it is, is certainly interesting, and I was satisfied with how everything wrapped up.
An excellent book. I can see why it won a 2023 Goodreads Choice Award.
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