Really interesting concept. I loved the idea of the house being a central character. The beginning was strong, but I found the middle lagged and the ending seemed rushed. I really enjoyed the prologue.

3.5 ⭐️

I’ve been a fan of Alix E. Harrow ever since The Ten Thousand Doors of January and would absolutely consider her an auto-read/buy author. The plot of this book sounded perfect for autumn and I read it a bit early, trying to chase off the summer scaries with a cozy gothic fantasy. And it absolutely delivered on the vibes! There’s something so beautiful about magical realism, and I loved the house as a character almost more than our FMC Opal. But as has been a pattern lately in a lot of my reads, I feel the middle of the book didn’t fully hold up the weight of a strong beginning and ending. That is what ultimately made me lower my rating. I don’t think I’ll reread this one as I will with January. But it was an enjoyable experience and I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone wanting those vibes!

Fair warning: October is STACKED with titles you are definitely going to want to get your hands on and this will be one you won’t want to miss! I highly suggest preordering this book because it will fly off the shelves!

I read this one with my TCK buddy read group last week and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! The audio is on point and Natalie Naudus is the perfect narrator for this magical, spooky, and suspenseful read.

An enchanted house, a broody heir, and a homeless spitfire - bonded together by fate - battle the ghosts of their past, present, and future, all for different reasons. The house, built by famous author E. Starling, has its own personality and dark secrets. The broody heir is bound by blood to take care of the house and keep the small town of Eden, Kentucky safe from what’s inside. The homeless spitfire is only looking to provide her brother with a means of escaping small-town life and is drawn to the house by vivid dreams. Once they come together, secrets of their past come to light and they all must fight to save themselves and the town they begrudgingly call home.

Entirely consuming and wildly entertaining, 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 is one I’ll think about for a while! This is my first book by Alix E Harrow and definitely won’t be my last! I’m already planning to read 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙨 for spooky season this year!

If Starling House isn't already on your Fall 2023 TBR yet, then it absolutely should be. Brooding and tender, this novel surprised me with the depth of emotion I felt for these characters. Alix E. Harrow has a beautiful story on their hands, don't miss it.

Starling House is such a cozy gothic fairytale with monsters that bite. It's romantic and haunting and atmospheric and creepy. I've always loved Alix Harrow's writing and Natalie Naudus does a phenomenal job narrating.

Starling House is a gothic mansion that people in this small town know not to go near. Theres lore about the house that goes back to the towns founding and the most powerful family in the town getting what's coming to them for their crimes. There's a story that's about the underland and monsters that live there who will protect at any cost necessary but can also cause unknown harm as well.

I realize this review is a mess but it's what I've got for now. Put this on your spooky TBRs friends because it's a perfect Halloween read.

after finishing this book, i would gladly read alix e. harrows grocery lists. the writing in this is so hauntingly gorgeous i forgot i was reading a story about a terrifyingly haunted house with invisible beasts running around in a town that also has its own beasts (invisible or not). i know this book isn’t purely about the romance (there’s so much more + i could on about it for hours) but the relationship between opal and arthur is just so. perfect. they’re hesitant about getting close to the other person but somehow they stick together like a person takes care of a stray cat they can’t seem to shake (shoutout to hellcat) alix e. harrow put together such a unique story that i refused to put down, this book and its characters even weaseled their way into my dreams (very dramatic and on brand for this book) and i just know i’ll be thinking about it for a long time after finishing it.

AHHHH this book was incredible!! Starling House is a cozy modern gothic fantasy complete with complex characters, an expertly woven plot, and a romance that will leave you breathless. Somehow, Alix E. Harrow manages to write about the strange, ugly, sour things of the world and make them beautiful.

This book was also RIDICULOUSLY readable—I read it in two sittings and have not stopped thinking about it since I finished. While this is a great story to read at any time of the year, I highly recommend reading this in the fall/around Halloween. If you’re a soft little marshmallow like me and don’t like reading things that are *too* scary, this book is for you. It’s just unsettling enough to be creepy and just whimsical enough to be cozy.

Please read this book!! You will be so glad that you did. I’m obsessed with Opal and Arthur and know this will be a book I come back to year after year!

**Also, a special thanks the the publisher, the author, and Netgalley for the ARC!!**

If Casita from Encanto was deposited into the world of the novel, Ninth House, you would have something similar to Starling House.

There are monstrous creatures, and underworld type of place, those who are tasked with preventing the beasts from getting out, and a magical living house. There is also a little unexpected romance.

I really loved aspects of this one, but there was something missing I couldn’t quite identify. I don’t know why I wasn’t fully invested in the characters or why some of the elements that were meant to wow me fell somewhat flat.

Another fantastic fantasy book from Alix. I loved this one. The Starling House itself was such a delightful character. This author knows how to use words and language to weave a stunningly beautiful story.

I have really been in my horror era lately, so when I received an ARC of this, I bumped it to the top of my TBR—and I am so glad I did. Starling House is a haunting story about a girl, a boy, and the house that ties them together. The writing is gripping. The setting is perfectly terrifying.

I think what really stuck out to me most were the characters. They were all fleshed out and visceral, with their own secrets and motivations. You never truly know who you can trust. You might not even be able to trust the narrators. And speaking of the main characters, I absolutely adored Opal and Arthur. Opal is very disillusioned with the world—and yet, she has so much hope for her brother, and she works so hard to make the world easier for him. Arthur is… well, you’ll have to read the book to find out more about him.

The pacing was much slower than I'm used to, but I didn’t really mind. It was worth it in the end, I think. This is a story that is going to haunt me long after I finished it. I can't recommend it enough!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! All views reflected are my own.

This was so much fun. I haven't been having a ton of luck with fantasy lately, but I really enjoyed this. The characters are well drawn, likable, consistent and acted in ways that made sense given their various personalities and motivations. The house was sufficiently spooky/it's own character, the townsfolk felt reallllllllllly real (source: I grew up in the rural south), and the underlying mystery/story was pretty perfectly and slowly revealed. The town in the book, Eden, is at least partially based on the town of Paradise (more on that in a moment), It's also a standalone, so you don't have to read like 9837458 books to get the story, so that's a plus too.

Here's a tangent that no one cares about but I MUST TALK ABOUT IT, so. Fun fact about me: in college I was a camp counselor at an environmental education camp in western NC whose theme song was Paradise by John Prine (the camp was called the Green River Preserve, so now you get it, and, why yes, this is a camp for rich hippie children). So anyway, it was pretty obvious that that was the inspiration for Eden, which the author admits kind of right at the beginning by pointing out an altered line from the song (Mr Gravely's coal train hauled it away). So the actual line in the song is "Mr. Peabody's coal train", and the eldest Gravely in the book was named John Peabody and we just LOVE that attention to detail over here.

So yeah, I really enjoyed it. This was my second Alix Harrow book and I love her writing style so I think I'll be picking up whatever she writes next. I'll definitely be recommending The Starling House widely and I think it definitely has a ton of YA crossover appeal. 4 stars - I really liked it!

3.5* Alix E. Harrow is one of my favorite authors; i love her writing and methods of storytelling so much. Starling House was a great little cozy gothic fairytale is what i would call it. I loved how the house was basically a character, and our main character was a rough and tumble sort of gal doing whatever she needed to in order for her and her little brother to get by. The story line was interesting, and all the fairytale elements were much more prominent than the gothic elements in my opinion. Which isn't a bad thing...but i was wanting/expecting descriptions to be a bit richer or spookier with a book that has a label as "gothic" and "horror". It felt cuter/endearing than it did spooky to me. How the plot was written was very well done though! The call backs to earlier sections of the book, and plot twists involving different characters were great...but overall i just felt good about it. There were very few moments where i remember being really hooked on, and mostly those were when our two main characters Opal and Arthur and their lil bouts of sexual tension, and a few of the monster scenes; otherwise, i was finding myself easily distracted from the story. Harrow will always be an auto-buy author for me; i just think 'fairytale-esque' stories are hit or miss for me, and this one landed somewhere in the middle in terms of enjoyment.

absolutely devoured the audiobook for this one today. i love the way that alix e. harrow creates settings with her lyrical prose, and 'starling house' was no exception. this book is a love story to the haunted house genre, where the house & the warden become one in the same the more that opal, our protagonist, begin to know them. taking a job at the house to make money to give her younger brother a better life, this story unfolds on the page as the reader and opal together begin to realize what's really happening in the starling house.

i highly recommend going into this book blind the way i did, because it truly is a beautiful homage to the southern-gothic novel, and the story will come to surprise you the way it did for me.

This book was perfection! The author did an incredible job creating a southern gothic feel. The author also did a great job depicting loneliness, grief, and love. Opal was a character I would consider morally grey. She was a turd, but you couldn’t help but like her. I also love the magical elements in this book, especially the house and how it chooses people. Overall, this was an awesome book and I’m so excited for its release!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of Starling House. I absolutely adored this book. It has unique story telling, with awesome characters, great lore, and an intense atmosphere. I love anything Gothic and this really delivered. Starling House itself was a character all it's own, but Opal reigned Supreme for me. She was such an amazing character, she will be tucked away in my book of favorites. The writing was superb and unique, and I was hanging on every single word. I can't wait for everyone to read it.

Uh WOW I think this is one of my favorite books this year and I do not say that lightly.

I love this storytelling. It’s hard for me to keep my attention when stories are first ramping up, but I never lost my enthusiasm for this read. I love how this book hit the ground running immediately, but didn’t overwhelm and desensitize me with constant high-stakes situations. I normally don’t like love plots either but this one was so good and I found myself carving out pockets of time during my day just to get back to the story.

It’s extremely refreshing to have a book filled with average-looking people as well. I’m really sick of the rich, mysterious guy having six-pack abs and a jawline that cuts glass. It felt way more relatable that the protagonists are just regular-looking people. I know Arthur is described as ugly but I don’t want to be rude to him, even if he is a fictional character. He’s been through a lot!

In addition to the thrilling plot and awesome writing, this story is also an amazing reminder that we all need community lest we succumb to the illusions in our own minds, and that we are always in control of how we see and move about the world around us.

The only critique I have is that there are an alarming number of grammatical errors, probably the most of any book I’ve read through Netgalley to date. I usually find 1-2 in each book, but this one had at least 6 or 7. The footnotes also appear in weird places in the Kindle version of the book, so it may need some formatting adjustments.

5/5 from me! And I’m going to binge-read every other Alix E. Harrow book I can get my hands on.

Thank you Tor Publishing Group for the ARC of this gem of a story!

(I will be posting my TikTok review on release day).

Starling House is a fine book, but overall, it is nothing I haven't read before. It's my fourth Alix E. Harrow novel, and it's time to accept her writing is not for me. It felt thematically similar to V.E. Schwab's Gallant and wanted to be Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (a book I discovered through an Alix E. Harrow recommendation). I wish Starling House leaned more into its southern gothic roots (which was also a huge marketing platform for this book) and explored, perhaps, the plot through an environmental lens. Instead, the result was a generic fantasy-horror story. I wanted this book to pull me in, but it ultimately did not hit the mark.

What I liked: the romance was cute! But I wanted more. It felt rushed, and I found myself thinking: how did we get here?

One of my most anticipated reads of the year!

𝘖𝘱𝘢𝘭, 𝘢 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭-𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘺𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵-𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 #12 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 19𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤 𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳, 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘳. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘱𝘢𝘭. 

𝘖𝘱𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦--𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥--𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦?

This book was not what I expected. I adored Opal, who was so snarky and full of grit and had a wonderful take-no-bs attitude. I also found it refreshing that Opal is described as having crooked teeth and Arthur is “ugly”, instead of the usual flawless heroin and her gorgeous knight in shining armor. I enjoyed Arthur’s character too, and the House itself seemed one in’s own right (think a spookier Casita from Encanto). I was, however, expecting the story to be a little creepier than it was, but overall I did really enjoy this book and will definitely be reading more by Alice E. Harrow!

Thank you so much to @torbooks and @netgalley for my review copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I cannot adequately put into words how much I loved this book. It's filled with complicated and detailed characters whose actions sometimes really make it hard to root for them, but you can't help loving (many) of them anyway.

It would be so easy to lean too far into the cheesy aspects of a House that's somehow alive and monsters made of mist, but Harrow's talent instead creates an intricate world that's the perfect amount of gothic with a sprinkling of light horror and fantasy. I find myself thinking about it in the days since I finished. I want to get lost in the House and fall asleep on the lawn listening to the starlings sing.

Fyi: the cat does not die.

Who needs Wonderland when a tumble down the rabbit hole can take you straight to hell?

“Starling House” finds Opal at the end of her luck trying to care for her teenage brother as her dreams whisper of the elusive Starling House known for its rustic architecture and short lived owners but his current owner Arthur has just enough allure to tempt her within the rod iron gates.

I love love loved this book!

Everything here was so much fun with a fairy tale like take on the overall storytelling but with these footnotes of “fact” that had me wondering just how much of this was truth vs fiction and thankful I never gave in and googled to break the spell that was cast from the very first page.

Opal was everything I could ever want with a character and I was a little surprised that she was so much older (my age let’s be real) than your typical protagonist in what I have to believe is a young adult story. Her fight to do whatever she could to make her brother proud and better off than her was so powerful and her unlikely friendship with Arthur was that much more special because he was the only other person in that small town who could understand her fight to do better and her obligations to her family no matter what pain it left to her.

The plot was so much fun and had this growing unease as each layer of the generational pain unfolded to reveal the horror and trauma beneath and the ripple such ruin can leave on a small town that keeps more than it’s fair share of skeletons in their closets.

I cannot recommend this book enough and for it to come out in October is absolutely perfect.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.**