Alix E. Harrow is interested in the business of stories - the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we accept as truth, the stories we refuse to believe. Opal has heard stories about Starling House for years - and has been dreaming about it for nearly as long. When she's invited in by its current "warden," she begins to rewrite her own story.

A nicely creepy haunted house story for spooky season, with a touch (just a touch) of romance.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

Thank you @macmillan.audio & @torbooks for the review copy, I’ve loved all of Harrow’s books, and was SO excited when I got an early review ALC for this one!

This book was the *perfect* level of spooky for the start of my spooky reading season. Which is to say that it had a few creepy elements but I wasn’t actually scared.

Opal lives in a small town in Kentucky that is home to an eccentric family known as the Starlings. Decades ago, Eleanor Starling wrote a children’s book that became something of a cult sensation. I love when children’s books are part of the lore in a story. If you ever wished there was a creepier children’s book than Through the Looking Glass, this vibe is for you!

Starling House is this fantastic mix of fairytale and gothic mystery and romance and I just loved it so much. Pick it up if you like:
✨ Somewhat sentient, somewhat haunted houses
✨ Brooding, cursed male leads
✨ a dash of reckoning with corporate greed, slavery, patriarchy…

🎧 Narrator Natalie Naudus perfectly captures the tone of the book and the character’s voices. Starling House is fantastic on audio!

I wanted to love this way more than I actually did!! I have been a HUGE Alix E Harrow fan in the past and I had BIG expectations for their latest release. Unfortunately it was just an okay read for me. If you enjoy complex stories with messy family drama, haunted houses and fantastic narrators you don't want to miss this one. I am a BIG fan of Natalie Naudus but not even her narration could save this one for me. I'm not sure what exactly didn't work for me but I definitely found myself forcing to finish. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early audio and digital copies in exchange for my honest review!!

Is there a more perfect book to read as we creep our way into autumn? I'm not sure! Alix Harrow's STARLING HOUSE is firing on all cylinders, blurring Southern Gothic with a light horror/dark fantasy vibe and protagonists who had me shrieking and crying and clutching my heart for hundreds of pages. Opal is a dreamboat of a heroine, all hard edges and poor decisions and soft heart, and sadsack Arthur is exactly the sort of noble idiot you can't help but to love. There's simply so much to love in this book, as it delivers a pitch-perfect hardscrabble-girl-makes-good plot, a puzzle box of a haunted house that somehow grows more haunted and more charming as the book goes on, and a sinister overarching threat of corporate baddies, regular baddies, paranormal baddies, and the overall baddie-ness of heteropatriarchal capitalism. The plot is just SO GOOD, and then Harrow manages to weave in a love story that threw me directly back to my Everlark days (IFKYK). ughhhhh, 10/10, 20/10, will read again and again and again.

Starling House
Alix E. Harrow


Harrow’s latest light horror/fantasy is Fantastic, a Southern gothic fable like story filled with ghosts, goblins, evil doers, heroes, flawed characters and one heck of a haunted house. Opal, the star of the show is about as flawed as you get, yet she will pull at the audience’s heart strings because under the hard-nosed exterior is a vulnerable little girl who just wants to be loved and a champion for those she loves. Arthur is a close second to Opal and his fierceness to be the last warden of Starling House is heroic. There are other unforgettable characters in the book both good and bad, including the house itself. The narrative has an easy flow and a steady pace, the settings are creeptastic and the whole shebang will hook readers from page one until the riveting end.

Opal McCoy and her little brother Jasper live in Eden Kentucky, known for having extremely bad luck (which they have had personal experience with) and the haunted decrepit mansion known as Starling House. A house for which there are many stories about involving unexplained deaths, strange beasts roaming the grounds and its strange original owner, children’s author Eleanor Starling. Opal’s main objective in life is to make sure that her brother gets out of Eden, and she’ll steal, cheat, lie and use any means at her disposal to make sure that happens. She’s even enrolled him in a fancy private academy, now she just has to find a way to pay for it. Which brings her to the gates of Starling House, a house that for some unknown reason she’s dreamed of all her life, now however she’s just hoping to find work there. What she finds is, Arthur Starling, a recluse and present warden of Starling House, a lonely boy/man who offers her a job, demands that she not talk to anyone about the house or him and pays her way too much for the work she’s doing.

But lately there are even more strange forces at work putting Eden and its residents at more risk, making the house restless and leaving Opal with some important decisions to make.

Your creepy house or mine?

Opal and Arthur are both living a nightmarish existence in the small depressed town of Eden, Kentucky: She in abject poverty, surviving on junk food in a rundown motel, and he in a more literal sense, fighting the local monstrous beasts whose point of origin is somewhere beneath Starling House, the crumbly mansion where he lives alone.

Harrow’s writing is exceptional, and she creates truly wonderful, complex characters. The bones of the story are those of a familiar gothic trope, but Harrow puts her own spin on the “there’s something wrong with the house” theme.

This wasn’t quite as creepy as I hoped it would be, but it’s still solidly atmospheric. And it’s just a really good story. Sweeter and more nuanced than I expected, and also enthralling and well paced.

I think I found my favorite book of the year.

Starling House was my most anticipated book of 2023. Which is saying something, as there were so many excellent books published this year. But Harrow’s debut, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, is my favorite standalone novel of all time, so my expectations were sky high. Those expectations could have set me up for failure. They didn’t. While the two novels couldn’t be more different, Starling House is just as powerful and beautiful as The Ten Thousand Doors of January. It just has much sharper teeth.

Opal will do anything to take care of her little brother, Jasper. Since their mom died eleven years ago, it’s been just the two of them against the world. More specifically, it’s been the two of them against their small, backwards hometown of Eden, Kentucky. Opal lied her own childhood away so that she could become Jasper’s legal guardian. The two call a ratty motel room home, and by day Opal is scraping together everything she can from her crappy job at Tractor Supply to buy Jasper a new life at a private boarding school, far from Eden and its judgmentality. By night, she dreams. She dreams of sharp claws and sharper teeth. She dreams of the childhood book that captured her imagination, Underland, and its dark fairytales. But always, she dreams of Starling House. Starling House, the big haunted mansion that rules the nightmares and imaginations of the bigoted, small-minded townspeople. Starling House, the birthplace of monsters and the last bastion of hope against them.

While not dark academia, I would immediately recommend Starling House to anyone who loves Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House and Hell Bent. If you love Alex Stern, you’re going to absolutely adore Opal. Both have bruised hearts that they protect with bleeding knuckles. Both are scrappy, fierce and braver than they believe. Both will lie while staring you right in the eye, a crooked smirk on their lips. Both will fight tooth and nail for what they need and for those they love. But Opal isn’t the only wonderful character in this book. Arthur Sterling grabbed me by the heart and didn’t let me go. His loneliness made me ache. He tried so hard to bury his kindness behind gruffness, but he never quite succeeded. Both Opal and Arthur are broken. Beautifully so. Their brokenness is what makes them so believably multifaceted, so compelling and sympathetic. Both are terrified of wanting, of chasing anything more than their most basic of needs. But oh, how they want.

And then there’s the house! When we first meet Starling House, it is run down and surly, almost like a feral cat. But when it begins to feel loved and treasured for the first time in too long, it slowly begins to shine. I love near-sentient places, and Starling House is one of the best. It has so much personality. And it dreams. I was reminded of Mike Flanagan’s reimagining of The Haunting of Hill House, if Hill House had an artsy, lovechild of a younger sister. The mythos surrounding the house is fascinating, as is that surrounding the Starlings in all their wild variety and stalwart service. If Starling House started sending me dreams, I would be hard pressed not to pick up the sword of the Wardens of Starling House.

This book is kind of difficult to pigeonhole into a genre. It’s Gothic in texture, if not in tone. It’s lightly horror, but the descriptions of even the horrific are so lovely that it pulls the sting from the bite. It’s a mystery, for sure, with a puzzle box of a house and more hiding outside and beneath it. There is a scene that is one of the hottest, most achingly romantic scenes I’ve ever read. It made my breath hitch on multiple levels. And yet, with as romantic as portions of this book are, I wouldn’t quite call it a romance, either. It’s weighty and entrancing and completely its own beast, and I love it for being exactly what it is.

Harrow infused this story with so much depth. It’s about being who you choose to be, no matter who others say you are. It’s about not being defined by a name. It’s about what makes a home, and how four walls can’t contain it. It’s about finding the line between a want and a need, and learning to jump that division with both eyes open. It’s about standing for what you love and what you don’t, even if the world never recognizes your sacrifice. It’s about finding the courage to face your dreams after a lifetime of turning your back on them.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Harrow’s writing. In The Ten Thousand Doors of January, her prose was achingly lovely. I called her a “Wordsmith, a sorceress wielding a pen in place of a wand.” I stand by that description, though it was expressed far differently in Starling House. The prose is still effortlessly literary without an ounce of pretension. However, Harrow’s writing in Starling House has more of an edge to it, a bite that feels more modern and hungry than her debut. In other words, she found a way to retain the magic of her prose while shifting her voice to perfectly suit the story she had to tell. Harrow is a brilliantly gifted weaver of words, and is quite possibly the most talented writer of a generation, in my opinion.

(Side note: I tandem read a digital galley while listening to the audiobook, and I have to say that the audio was stellar. Natalie Naudus did a brilliant job with the narration. She portrayed both Opal and Arthur and even the supporting cast with remarkable aplomb. Listening to this while reading along was a completely immersive experience that I would highly recommend.)

I adored Starling House with every fiber of my being. To me, it’s a perfect book. Full stop. No notes. I fell in love with Opal and Arthur, with the supporting cast and with the House itself. The mythos was just as captivating as the storytelling. I loved every sentence of this, and I’m already looking forward to rereading it. If ever a book deserves a place on my favorites shelf next to The Ten Thousand Doors of January, it’s this one.

I don't think Alix Harrow is an author for me. I've tried many times and I just never vibe with her writing. It's not her, it is me.
That being said I can see this being really popular and why other people love her so much.the footnotes kind of drove me insane though. I hate footnotes in fiction books.

Alix E. Harrow has done it again.

Opal has been dreaming of the Starling House for years, but it isn't until she bleeds all over the front gate and meets the mysterious Starling boy that she decides to do something about. In a town plagued with bad luck and stories built on the misfortunes of others, the Starling stands as the greatest mystery of all. When Opal goes chasing after hopes and dreams and an author long forgotten, she'll find out that the house is more than meets the eyes.

Harrow manages to bring horror, gothic vibes, fantasy, contemporary elements, and a little love story and family bonding into one glorious book. I loved the idea of the house that grew and wasn't haunted perse but was full of magic beyond anyone's comprehension. I found that little bit of romance perfect and do not get me started on I-can-handle-this and i'll-punch-anyone-in-the-face Opal. Liar, manipulator, knife of a smirk queen.

Read if you're into semi-sentient houses, books that are fantasy but also truth, government organization being a pain, and gothic magic.

Having read Alix E. Harrow's debut novel The 10,000 Doors of January, I went into this newest work with expectations of a beautifully written novel, with multiples layers and a dreamlike quality to it. Starling House hit all of those notes and while I felt the ending was a little confusing, overall the novel is excellent.

The book is set in a depressing coal town in Kentucky, run by the Gravely family, with all kinds of sinister unsolved mysteries and rumors about the Starling House and its various residents. Our two protagonists, Opal and Arthur, are each outcasts in the town, but circumstances and fate bring them into one another's lives. That is just one of the layers of the book though; there's also Starling House itself as a sentient character, stories within stories, myths and legends and references to mythology, and a children's book called The Underland written by a reclusive town resident which could tie everything together.

I really enjoyed the audio narration of this book and it allowed the beautiful prose to just flow the entire book. The book is a classic Southern Gothic horror story, but I think it leans more into the atmospheric magical realism vein rather than true horror. I enjoyed the Stranger Things vibe of the "Underland" and the reveals of what that place is (though to be fair, I'm not totally sure I understand it!)

Harrow's books have this distinct feeling of dreaming but also grounded in a very tangible reality, with fully fleshed out characters and plot points; Starling House is no exception. I loved the side characters of Jasper, and Bev and Charlotte and what was happening in their present lives, as well as all the history of the house over the years and interludes to previous residents.

Overall it's a very good book that is perfect for reading on a dark and stormy night!

This book had its hooks in me from page one. There's an ineffable magic that Alix E. Harrow weaves - whether it's the atmospheric style, intriguing characters, or the intricate setting - I found it impossible to resist.

Diving into the depths of a gothic tale that touches upon money, power, and the haunting legacy of environmental damage in middle America, the book is a disturbing yet hopeful odyssey. The living, breathing entity that is Starling House stands out; not just haunted, but alive with monsters and memories. Harrow renders it so vividly, it feels like a character in its own right - one I couldn’t help but empathize with.

Opal, with her bristling character and realistic burdens, is expertly portrayed. Her inadvertent entanglement with the ominous Starling house and its enigmatic owner was gripping. The dynamic between her and the house was beautifully illustrated.

Harrow's narrative also elicited an uncanny sense of déjà vu. It's as if I was reading a quintessential Mining Town Folk Tale – blending the chilling thrills of Stephen King with eerie charm of Sabrina's first season. The mingling of the real world with a more sinister, Wonderland-esque Underland lends the story a unique magical realism tint. Both the fantastical and the mysterious are masterfully entangled, creating an unforgettable tapestry.

In essence, Starling House is a triumph. A must-read, especially if you're in the mood for a spine-tingling tale this spooky season.

Starling House wrapped me up in its ugly, gritty arms and took me to Underland. I don't know if it was the stars aligning, the crisp chill in the air as we transition to fall, or maybe I'm just in my paranormal era, but this book fit neatly and satisfyingly into the bookish hole in my heart. A Southern gothic with a sentient house? A small town with ugly secrets come to haunt them? And the two most stubborn, snarly main characters forced into proximity? I absolutely adored every page spent with this book!

After finishing this one, I've bumped all of Harrow's previous work higher up on my TBR!

This book was everything I needed and more. Not only is the cover freakin beautiful but the story itself is as well! The writing was phenomenal and the development of the story was perfection.

I really enjoyed the gothic aspect of the story as well as the haunted house. I loved the characters so much. Opal would do anything for the people she loves no matter the cost. Poor Arthur was so dang sweet and I just freakin adored him. I’m so happy with how the story ended. If all of Alix E. Harrow’s books are as amazing as this one then I’m about ready to binge them!

This would be the perfect gothic read to add to your tbr for the spooky season! I highly recommend picking this beauty up on October 3rd!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor for the e-arc!

The second I saw this absolutely gorgeous cover I was immediately sold! I’m so glad I picked this up because Starling House was one of the most hauntingly beautiful books I have ever read 🖤

Starling House has everything I want in a grim & gothic story - mystery, a haunted house, sinister secrets, magic, mayhem, lore, small town history, found family, friendship, heartbreakingly beautiful romance that makes my heart ache and a horrifically heart pounding tale that sends me on a page turning emotional rollercoaster. I was captivated from page 1 and I literally think I need to start a reread ASAP!

*I don’t want to give any spoilers as I went in completely blind to the plot and was 100% blown away with the story & character development!

Thank you so much to Tor Books for the advanced copy!

WHOA what a perfect fall read. I'm not a big fantasy reader but I make an exception for Alix and she never disappoints. Love what she's exploring here.

Hear me out…you’ve heard of cozy fantasy but what about a mix of cozy fantasy AND cozy horror? That’s exactly what Starling House delivers. Starling House is my first book by Alix E. Harrow but certainly won’t be my last. I didn’t know that a sentient house was something I needed in a book but after this, I’m sold. Everything in this story felt so alive. The town, the history, the house, the characters. I was completely swept away in the first few chapters. The writing was beautifully lyrical and expansive. I was stunned by the way Alix built this world. The gothic vibes are everything. Starling House may be the PERFECT book for fall and as a fall girlie, that makes me very happy.

Opal is a complex character with clear motives and even though she doesn’t always make the best decisions, I was rooting for her. Found family is a major part of her journey, as she discovers what home means to her. Then there’s Arthur. I love an awkward, loner, mysterious MMC and he delivered. Watching them grow together was one of my favorite parts of this book.

Starling House is a breathtaking story of grief, family trauma, finding yourself, found family, and at its core…a beautiful love story. It is absolutely one of my favorites of this year and I urge everyone to read it.

I adored this book. I can't get over the prose, the romance, the atmosphere, the characters, the story. I am obsessed. I want to re-read it immediately. I want to read the audiobook. I want to annotate it. I want to inject it into my veins.

I need everyone to read this book so I can talk to as many people about it as possible.

I've read about 200 books this year, and this was one of my top five. I haven't stopped thinking about this book since I finished it.

"To every child who needs a way into Underland. Befriend the Beasts, children, and follow them down."

The implications of this quote after reading are WILD.

"What had begun as stone and mortar had become something more, with ribs for rafters and stone for skin. It has no heart, but it feels; it has no brain, but it dreams."

Surprises galore is how I would describe my feelings for Starling House. I didn't expect the book to have so much humor and unhinged behavior amongst the characters. I didn't expect what laid beyond the mines. I certainly didn't expect the truth about the Starling House—specifically Eleanor's truth. It made my reading experience feel as if I was constantly on my toes, never quite sure what would happen next or be revealed next.

"This is my story. No one listened to it before, and if they listened they did not believe it, and if they believed it they did not care."

Starling House is the sort of gothic, horror novel I'd recommend to people trying out this genre for the first time. It's not very horrific in my opinion, but it definitely made me uncomfortable a couple times. It reminded me a bit of the films from the 90's that center on witches/the occult in a small town setting. The modern vernacular and voice used for one of the POVs will either be loved or absolutely disliked by readers; I cannot see many running down the middle, but it worked for me.

"The only monsters here are the ones we make."

To start, Opal (insert a list of fake last names here) is our main protagonist and written in first person; whereas, Arthur Starling is our other POV told through third person. The two are not only extremely different in personality—quippy and cunning vs. broody and melancholic—but as the book goes on their similarities float to the surface—loyal to a fault and also dreamers. Those final two characteristics cause an immense amount of chaos for both of them, but I loved seeing them grow together. Weirdly enough, both characters are constantly described as "ugly" throughout the book, which was an interesting choice by the author. It is brought up quite a few times, and it did take me out once the 4+ mention happened. I understand that both of these characters are not conventionally attractive leads, but I already knew that as soon as she first described them. Maybe it was a way to reference their traumatic and bad living conditions—Opal's crooked teeth possibly being connected to her and her brother's poverty since wealth and its power are a central element to this story. Who knows why it was mentioned so much, but it felt a bit like hitting the nail on the head.

"But I swear there will be no more portraits on the wall, no more graves to tend. I swear I will end this, here and now. I will be the last Warden of Starling House."

My favorite part of Starling House was honestly the House itself. I've talked about it a bit on my Instagram posts and stories, but this particular sentient haunted house was totally unhinged in the best way possible (the leads being just as unhinged too haha). In multiple instances, the House essentially "trolls" the leads because it believes it knows what's best not only for itself but also the leads themselves—even going as far as to rearranging itself so Opal opens a door and finds Arthur near naked after a shower to try to get them together. The House was ultimately my favorite character, so I was rooting for it to thrive and survive. Now Arthur blames the House for the loss of his parents (previous Wardens of Starling House), so he's taken to neglecting every inch of it. Those two have a very difficult relationship, and it was a great to see the changes in the House's personality once Opal stepped through the gates. Besides the fact that Opal has dreamed of Starling House for as long as she can remember, the reason she is let onto the Starling property is to clean it after Arthur's years worth of grime and disrepair. Of course, the House would warm up to her because she is putting the time and effort to care for it. Again, this contrast between the two leads and their relationship to the House really added another level of detail and depth to the overarching story. I'll always think of one of the final scenes when Arthur curses the House for waking Opal up too early. Well, Arthur, it did that because the House knows you two are always better together rather than apart. That decision is probably the reason the two are successful in the climactic scene.

"Dead things don't dream, but the house did, and so it was no longer dead. It spent a hundred and fifty years drinking the water and dreaming whatever houses dream—fires in hearths, dishes in sinks, lights in windows—and when it found itself empty it called another hungry, homeless person to itself, and did its best to keep them safe. Until it couldn't."

Anyway, the trajectory of Starling House is interesting and a bit chaotic, much like the characters and layout of the House. What I mean by that is the book goes from being quite slow moving to extremely fast paced in almost a nanosecond. It takes till the first 30% for Opal to actually step onto the grounds and work for Arthur. Then, we have a bunch of scenes where Opal is merely cleaning the House and soon after forced to collect evidence for the sketchy corporation that wants details on Starling House and Arthur. While I did find these moments fun, it made for whiplash when the last 20% sped through reveal after reveal after reveal. I wish some of these reveals could have happened sooner to give more variety to the books' flow and pacing. Honestly, I think the Gravely heritage reveal for Opal could've even been something Opal found out before the story even began, and the big reveal later could've been her learning that the monsters target Gravely's specifically. I would have loved to see Opal do more research on her family sooner or even go to bat against those blood relatives sooner than the police station scenes. It felt like a missed opportunity.

"And I might be a liar and a thief and a cheat, but I'll walk barefoot through hell for what I need."

Now everything about the Eleanor reveal was absolutely astonishing yet perfectly done. I loved that Alix leads us astray in our own theories about what happened to her. I honestly loved that she used historical gossip and inaccuracies to tell us what the town believes, and then, completely turn the tables on us by revealing the very different truth of what actually happened. History gets a lot of details wrong, and I liked that many parts about Eleanor's life were completely wrong in modern day, sometimes even ignored during Eleanor's own time. Many people turn a blind eye to others' problems or cruelties because it doesn't directly affect them, but it's that very reason why the monsters are created in the first place...

"It's time to dream your own dreams."

The implications of Underland becoming a reality because Eleanor dreamed it into existence is truly any author or reader's dream for their favorite story. It's a powerful thought because stories are more than their fictitious roots, so seeing an author dream her story to reality was cool. But there's also the elephant in the room that her dreams were monsters that ultimately go on to try to destroy Eden and all of its people. People can turn their dreams into monsters to harm others, and that's an important note to take away from this book. Without the mines' water and her subsequent power from it, Eden could be flourishing town and people like Opal's mom would be alive. Eleanor used her dreams to destroy countless lives—beyond those who wronged her. It's like the famous Batman quote: "You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Well, I don't know if i'd even refer to Eleanor as a hero besides in saving herself from the cruelty of her uncles, but she certainly twists herself into a villain by the end. She no longer even has a connection or love for the House because her monsters and Underland are her true home.

"...not every Beast comes crawling out of Underland. That some of them live up here, and walk around in expensive suits and pencil skirts."

Also, the wit and humor in this book are fantastic, so I just wanted to share a couple of my favorite moments with y'all:
1. '"Is there something," Arthur asks the floor, "I can do for you?" "I'd say 'die in a ditch,' but it looks like you're halfway there."'
2. '"Anyway I thought it was really dumb, but like, you seemed happy and at least you weren't getting groped by Lance Wilson anymore." "Hey, how did you know—it was a mutual groping, for the record." "A good summary of every relationship you've ever had."'
3. '"It's pretty chilly out here." It's freezing, actually, one of those mean February days when the sun never quite rises and the wind has white teeth. "Then," he says, biting into each word, "you should have worn a coat."'

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for an e-arc of this book!

Well, well, well. Harrow does it again. Harrow's writing is so lovely, and this book absolutely oozes southern gothic horror. But it also touches on the dark side of the south as well, and I thought all of that was well incorporated into the book in a way that made sense.

I loved the history of the book, the magic...the atmosphere of the book. This book absolutely flowed -- and I was left never knowing what exactly would happen next. In some ways this had moments that reminded me of Sorcery of Thorns, and yet it was darker. But it also had T. Kingfisher vibes to it as well.

Opal's character was amazing, she was so well rounded and fleshed out. You couldn't help but like her, you even felt for her. This book was haunting, and it definitely had a bit of a bitter flavor to it, but it was one I enjoyed.

I loved the book, and felt that it was a spooky, horror filled journey, one that also had a bit of magic and love as well. I also enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book, and how it follows along with Opal's journey as she learns more about the house and the house's history.

This is certainly an excellent book for the spooky season!

I cant even begin to tell you how fun this was to read. As someone who loves any and all haunted stories, this brought me so much joy.

Starling House is a modern gothic fantasy with a dark twist, revealed secrets, and wardens who protect it all (unwillingly most of the time it seems)

The novel written by E. Starling that is published as fiction and foretells some of the events that occur in this book was my favorite part. I also loved how the FMC does her research on the house and compares what she finds with the actual truth.

I could not pull myself away from this story. The writing was incredible.

The only thing I did not like was Jasper. He got so angry at his sister for almost nothing and made her feel like she was worthless when all she was trying to do was build a better life for him. His attitude really bothered me honestly. Like he made me feel like he didn't deserve all the things she was trying to give him. And then when she's finally REALLY going through it he just says "whatever" ??? AND THEN when they finally come clean together, he's all "YOU WANT THE HAUNTED HOUSE ALL FOR YOURSELF HUH YOURE SELFISH" hello????? WHAT?! Even his little 'redemption' towards the end was bitter to me. He hid so much from someone who lived only for him. (It got way better when he left)

The ending is PERFECTION. The author leaves no loose ends and it is like breathing a sign of relief to have the full story finally. It leaves nothing to be desired. I loved it. Easy 5 stars no question.