✨ Review ✨ Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

You know that moment when you realize a book is almost perfectly tailored to you? This was it!
⭕️ history vibes: footnotes and a fake bibliography (lol!) ✅
⭕️ gothic horror and an animate house ✅
⭕️ a sense of humor ✅
⭕️ some kind of mysterious magic happening ✅
⭕️ off-beat romance with a mysterious self-tattooed man ✅
⭕️ incredible multi-layered illustrations ✅
⭕️ smart commentary on class, race, gender, poverty, etc. ✅
⭕️ a hellcat, a lovable librarian, a stubborn teen brother, and a HILARiOUS motel owner always bringing comic relief

The brilliant match I found in this book also makes it hard to review 😂

Opal's living in a motel with her brother Jasper in a run-down Kentucky mining town, trying to scrape enough money by to get him out. She regularly dreams about the Starling House, a creepy house in the town, surrounded by gates and the lore about her favorite author E. Starling. When the opportunity to enter the old mansion and make some money comes about, she can't avoid the chance to explore this place that's haunted her.

As she gets to know the house, she digs deeper into the mysteries of Starling House, E. Starling, and the family who owns the local mining industry and has single-handedly ruined the town for their own gain. As Opal starts to piece together the story, she also provides a really poignant reflection on history, and how many perspectives come together (the first page of ch 17 is one of my all-time favorite book pages - I want to frame it and put it on my office wall!)

This book is quirky and beautiful and spooky and clever and so so many things. I know it won't be quite as perfect of a mix of components for everyone, but my goodness, it nailed it for me!

PS: the print copy is WORTH IT for the illustrations! :)

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Genre: fantasy
Setting: rural Kentucky
Pub Date: 03 Oct 2023

Thanks to Tor Books, Macmillan Audio, and #netgalley for the advanced copies of this book!

My new favorite book? Um, yes. This is a scary book, without the descriptions that usually leave me skimming words due to grossness. I adore haunted house books, and this delivers a town-wide mystery as well.

This book was perfection. I loved how dark it was, the moments of humor and delight, and our snarky main character, I love how Alix Harrow has clearly done the work and quite consciously but gently works diversity into her stories. She is who all white cis authors should aspire to emulate.

4 stars

This is my first book by Harrow and man with this BEAUTIFUL cover and haunting promise of a gothic tale - I was hooked. It started a little slow for me, but I was intrigued once Opal was in that house.

It has an interesting take on a seemingly haunted house in a small town. Opal and Arthur have a slight enemies-to-lovers thing that makes this tale all the more fascinating. I loved how the house had a life of its own - it was kind of like Monster House but was good and just wanted to be taken care of.

There's a lot going on in this book surrounding the house, the families who have lived there, and the myths surrounding what is really going on. All the secrets unfolded slowly so you get little glimpses as you go instead of one big reveal. I actually prefer this because it keeps you interested in the story as it goes on. It's a dual POV between Arthur and Opal - which I might add I love how they fell for each other.

Overall, it was a great gothic tale with some fantasy and romance elements in it along with a big mystery. It will make a GREAT Halloween read or even just a great fall read. I highly recommend this if you love a gothic tale.

Big thanks to Tor Publishing, Alix E. Harrow & NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!

I've really enjoyed all of Alix Harrow's work, but this might be in the running for my new favorite. A gothic horror (though the horror elements are quite light, more spooky than gruesome) set in a dying Kentucky mine town, centered on a young woman named Opal trying her best to both survive and get her little brother. I loved Opal as a character; it's rare that SFF features true, particularly contemporary, working class voices and characters and her struggles cut deeper for how reflective they are for so many in America right now. As usual, Harrow's prose sings, somehow both sparse and incredibly evocative. I couldn't put this book down and kept stealing any minute I could to read.

I absolutely love this book. Themes of class structures, socioeconomic disparities, and generational storytelling consume the pages of literary fiction. Still, Alix E Harrow proves that gothic lit can also be their perfect vehicle. Hauntingly beautiful prose mixed with equally hauntingly beautiful illustrations (thanks @that.one.for for sending me pictures of your final copy) makes Starling House an excellent selection for October.

What I loved (spoilers in my bullet points - so stop reading if on your TBR):
✨Female rage: Starling House was built by Eleanor Starling, who, as the legend goes, murdered her husband and used his money to build the house that seemingly haunts the town. However, Eleanor’s emotional and physical trauma controls the land and Starling House to the point that Starling House feels like a female character. Brilliant!
✨Magical world: dreams, folklore, and legendary curses create real and imagined monsters. Atmospheric is an understatement.
✨Unexpected love story & found family: Both these tropes weirdly wormed their way into my heart. I couldn't help but cheer for some of these morally gray characters.

I paired the physical with the audio, which Natalie Naudus narrated. Her narration adds to the dream-like quality of the story. As a reader, you can’t go wrong with either format.

Excuse me while I rush out to buy a finished copy. I need the illustrations. But I’m forever keeping my ARC for all the well-placed f-bombs. @alixeharrow - I understand why you deleted them, but they provided the best-unexpected humor for me. I’ll cherish both copies.

Starling House gives you a gothic and spooky vibe that is intriguing and shrouded in mystery. You have a small cursed town with a haunted house that Opal cannot ignore. The slow-burn romance was beautifully done and progressed in a way that left you flipping the pages into the late hours of the night for more.

The world-building was vivid and creative to the point I felt transported into their world full of mystery and darkness. There were so many twists and turns that I would not have expected. The characters were realistic and unique with interesting family dynamics. Opal was the FMC with a feisty attitude who didn’t know how to get out of the survival mode she constantly had on. I fell in love with her character and Arthurs as they were complex and beautifully written.

Overall, if you love a good cozy spooky read I recommend picking up this book!

Stranger Things meets gothic haunted house vibes. Add in a dash of enemies to lovers 🖤. I got choked up about 4 times while reading, and I laughed or guffawed out loud about 14 🥹. 5/5⭐️!
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Opal is a high school dropout with a part-time job as a cashier at the Tractor Supply store in Eden, Kentucky. Her only goal in life is to get her brilliant little brother, Jasper, out of this dead-end town. The town is known for its bad luck, and for being home to Eleanor Starling, the famous nineteenth century children’s author who mysteriously disappeared a century ago. Arthur is the current heir and caretaker of Starling House, the creepy Southern gothic mansion Eleanor left behind. Arthur hires Opal to work as a housekeeper, but she realizes the house is more than what it seems. She’s soon face to face with dark forces and generational curses. But will she flee, or will she stay and fight?
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I love Opal so freakin’ much. She’s a ride-or-die sister who would do anything for her brother. She’s surly and scrappy, and she’s done what she needs to do to survive. This is a story about identity, free will, and not being bound by the past. Harrow’s writing is honest, heartwarming, and atmospheric. This book will make you question the reality of your dreams, and your nightmares.
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Add Starling House to your spooky season TBR asap friends! I read and listened to this one. The narration by Natalie Naudus is gorgeous and haunting. Thank you to @macmillan.audio @netgalley and @torbooks for the ARCs!
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Starling House - Alix E. Harrow
5/5⭐️
🎉OUT NOW!🎉
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💜QUOTES💜
(I have so many tabbed, it was hard to pick the best ones. 😂)
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“It’s the kind of hate no natural animal has ever felt, a mad, howling, frothing fury, the kind that only comes from unrighted wrongs and unpunished sins.”
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“And I might be a liar and a thief and a cheat, but I’ll walk barefoot through Hell for what I need.”
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“…and 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.”

I'm a big fan of Alix E. Harrow, so I was definitely looking forward to Starling House. Though I didn't like it as much as Once and Future Witches (an all-time favorite of mine), it was on a par with Ten Thousand Doors of January, though in very different ways. What I liked most about Starling House was the way it juxtaposed gothic and dark fairy tale vibes with the very real struggles of a young woman trying to hold things together for herself and her small family (she and her brother). Opal was a compelling character I could really get behind, even as she was making poor decisions. I was all in both with her struggle to make a better life and her developing feelings for Arthur and what those might mean for her relationship to the Starling House itself. In all, a well-written dark and magical book that definitely worked for me.

I may be slightly biased in this review because Harrow is one of my favorite fantasy writers and this book is just as excellent as her previous books. And despite featuring an Underland this book is less fantasy than Harrow's previous works.

Starling House is set in Eden, Kentucky and follows the down-on-her-luck Opal trying to make a better life for her brother. The town is overshadowed by the Starling House home of mysterious and perhaps sinister writer of The Underland, a collection of scary children's stories. The house is closed to visitor's at least until Opal takes a job as a cleaner and befriends Arthur the grumpy heir.

The book is mysterious and weird and deeply unsettling at times but Harrow ekes out all the details to paint a portrait of a messed up family in a messed up town. No spoilers but there is a happy ending that feels well deserved after everything the characters go through.

I would definitely recommend to new and existing fans of this author.

I was provided a free copy of this book through NetGalley

The Starling House by Alix E. Harrow follows Opal and her brother Jasper living rent free in the local motel since their mother died years before. Opal has always been fascinated by the Starling House, its past history and the chidlren book written by the previous owner, Elinor Gravely. Opal has always been drawn towards it and doesn't really know why until she meets Arthur Starling, the current warden of the Starling House. This is a modern gothic horror / thriller book that is a fast paced read. Alix E. Harrow paints a vivid picture of the Underlings and of Elinor's beasts that Arthur has been keeping away form Eden, Kentucky with all of will power. If you have read Ten Thousand Doors of January, you will definetly love this book with world with a world kind of way.

Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House caught me so thoroughly off guard. This story was spooky and beautiful and so very heart-wrenching. I can honestly say I laughed out loud (and then made my roommate come read particularly funny lines) and absolutely cried my eyes out.

“She wears the scars well—she’s made her life into an act of defiance, a laugh in the dark, a smile with bloodied teeth—but he refuses to add even one more.”


Starling House follows Opal, living in a small, nothing town where things go wrong too often. Orphaned young, Opal has had years of doing everything in her power to take care of her brother. She’s sly and angry at the world, but she’s also lonely enough to cling to the dreams she has about the old Starling House. When she sees an opportunity to help her brother and satisfy the pull the house has on her, she becomes embroiled in the house, its mysteries, and Arthur the Starling heir. Working there Opal finds out how very not normal Starling House is but potentially also the source of the town’s tragedies.


This is the first of Harrow’s books that I’ve read, but something about her writing just scratches an itch in my brain. She has this effortless kind of description that paints an absolutely bananas vivid picture without ever feeling heavy or clinical. I don’t know why I’m so deeply tickled by the way she describes people, but I wish people in my life would follow her lead. Remember Kevin from work, the one who’s the human equivalent of unsalted butter? Can you imagine? Truly the ideal world. The narration is presented like an article, with pithy footnotes off on tangents and quasi-monologues reading like interviews. While mostly the narrative follows Opal every few chapters we do get some of Arthur’s POV.

“He was born in the House, but Opal was called, and the House calls the homeless and hungry, the desperately brave, the fools who will fight to the very last.”

I love an FMC that’s scrappy and angry and not afraid to bare her teeth. It just makes it all the better when she’s able to grow and be vulnerable. It was lovely to watch Arthur and Opal circle each other over the course of this story, so much reluctant growth to route for. Ugh, I wanted these two to have all the good things in the world. I’m also not sure how Harrow managed to make a sentient house precious, but the house is the lovable sidekick somehow.


This book was the moody, gothic equivalent of that movie Monster House that scared the pants off me as a child and I loved it. I wouldn’t class it as horror, but there’s definitely a level of eeriness to make you want to swaddle yourself in a duvet while you devour it, and it’s twisty enough that you will be devouring it.

Have you ever wanted a retelling of Alice in Wonderland that felt new and original, dark and gritty, with the perfect amount of gothic horror and monsters? Well, you’re in luck, because you’ve just stumbled on the right book for you. Opal is not your typical protagonist, which I am pretty happy about in a lot of ways. However, she is also pretty hard to like as a person as well, though she seems motivated by some fairly strong convictions that constantly push her forward. She’s always been drawn to Starling House and when she walks by, sometimes it feels as though it’s calling to her. Even in her dreams it sometimes tries to reach out. However, something in the sleepy town of Eden is changing and Opal and Starling House’s soul occupant may have to work together to try to prevent something terrible from happening. I really do not want to give too much away about this book; even the summary on Goodreads does a magnificent job of giving just enough to keep the mystery shrouded in fog for the reader to uncover. I had a hard time putting this book down and have already recommended my podcast girls read this so we can bookclub it for an upcoming episode. I hope this becomes a phenomenal fall hit as I thought it was perfect for the spooky season.

4.5

“I know that part of the story must be made up, because there's no such thing as curses or cracks in the world, but maybe that's all a good ghost story is: a way of handing out consequences to the people who never got them in real life.”

I love when a book defies genres or mixes several of them up in a single book. When trying to come up with what subgenre I’d place it in, “medium spooky modern gothic” is what I came up with. I feel like the author’s own words on this sum it up better than I ever could, though: “a horror novel and a paperback romance, a contemporary comedy, a tragic historical, a classic coming-of-age story, a mystery, a memoir, and a pulpy gothic.”

I have loved all of Harrow’s full length novels and short stories, and this one was no exception. Excellent writing, unique plot lines, compelling characters, and social commentary that perfectly balances being strong enough without feeling like it’s being shoved into the reader’s face. I loved the sibling relationship and the found family, the desire to finally call a place home, and the value of a chosen name.

There were a few elements at the end that I felt didn’t get the resolution I was hoping for, but otherwise I absolutely loved it and will definitely revisit it in the past. I also really appreciated that the author’s newsletter had information on the real town and events that inspired this story.

I’d also like to give a shout out to the narration of this book! I had both the eBook and audio, and I loved being able to utilize both of them as I read. Natalie Naudus is one of my absolute favorite narrators, and she’s never let me down in terms of excellent narration!

Book of the year for me? Probably! This was everything a gothic fantasy should be. Beautifully written, extremely creepy, and unpredictable. I was pulled in from the start, nothing drags. It had a “The Haunting At Hill House” type vibe. I’ve already purchased copies as gifts. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read!

Alix E. Harrow burst onto the scene in the late 2010s with a blend of beautiful imagery, bingeable prose, and fabulist plots featuring sharp moral divides that earned her six Hugo nominations in five years. As a big fan of The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Mr. Death, I’m always up for giving her work a look, and October 2023’s Starling House promised the sort of “small town with a secret” story that I so often love.

Starling House takes place in a small Kentucky town ravaged by a coal mining company that would rather pay a fine than take meaningful steps to rectify their environmental crimes. Those who can get out generally do, but the heroine finds herself stuck working at Tractor Supply and living in a motel with her teenage brother after the tragic death of their mother years before. For years, she dreamed of the almost-certainly-haunted Starling House that she regularly passes on her way to work. And now it seems that Starling House has taken an interest in her as well.

Having read a fair bit of Harrow’s work before, I’m beginning to get a good sense of what to expect, for good or for ill. She’s certainly had some short fiction that leans a little more literary, but the books I’ve read (and even some of the short fiction) have all included small-town female protagonists, probably from Kentucky, and strong narrative voices. Invariably, I find the prose facilitates easy immersion and fast reading, despite a penchant for some beautiful and poetic imagery. The villains are usually rich white men whose identities are clear from the opening pages, and the themes are heavy but drawn with sharp moral lines that leave little room for ambiguity. Heavy fairy tale inspiration is typical, as are pointed asides drawing explicit connections to contemporary social issues.

That, as far as I can tell, is the book on Harrow. And if the obvious villains and straightforward themes don’t bother you, you’re likely to have a pretty good time. I certainly have in the past, and Starling House is no exception. It gestures in the direction of horror, with the opening chapters of a proper haunted house novel, but quickly moves in a more traditionally fantasy direction, with heavy inspiration from fairy tales and a Southern Gothic setting. The lead character voice is impeccable and makes her easy to cheer for, even when she’s being bull-headed. Contrarily, the men behind the (metaphorical) demons haunting her are eminently hateable from the start, even when the exact shape of their secrets is unknown. Harrow is an author who can signpost exactly which heartstrings she plans to tug and then make you feel it anyways, and that’s exactly what she did here, making Starling House a true pleasure to read.

There were some elements that I didn’t find quite as strong, though it’s hard to say whether they’re true flaws or just stylistic choices. I think the story would’ve had more power with a little more thematic complexity and less of a neat division into heroes and villains, but it’s hard to say it doesn’t fit within the author’s oeuvre or the fairy tale tradition that inspires it. And knowing the capitalist villains (or the romantic subplot) were coming from the get-go didn’t prevent the plot from having enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged and prevent the individual beats from getting too predictable. I did find the asides jarring at times, with plenty of shade aimed at suburban white couples—including a wrongheaded swipe at foster parents—in a story that spends very little time in suburbia, but some of that may be on me as a reader. They fit well enough within the lead’s general attitude that it’s hard to say they’re out-of-place in a first-person narration, but once I noticed how often Harrow includes these asides, I started seeing them everywhere, to the detriment of immersion.

Overall, I expect reactions to Starling House to fall very much in line with reactions to Harrow’s previous work. Those who demand moral complexity or want to be surprised about who is good and who is evil will find themselves frustrated—as will readers looking for a true horror novel—while those who let themselves sink into the lead’s perspective and come along for a thrilling tale of a small town’s dark secrets will have plenty to love. But even if there were moments where I wanted a little more complexity or subtlety, I thought the rich setting, engaging narrative voice, and exciting plot were enough to make this an excellent read.

Recommended if you like: towns with dark secrets, villains getting comeuppance, scrappy leads, Gothic settings, romantic subplots.

Overall rating: 17 of Tar Vol’s 20. Five stars on Goodreads.

This was a fun spooky read. I enjoyed the world building and the past informing the present in the story. I could have used a bit more character development but overall, I liked it.

Starling House is a gothic fantasy story about a house and the people that come into its life. The main character, Opal, is a young adult trying to raise her brother and make ends meet in a small town. The town has never accepted her, or her brother. But all Opal cares about is getting her brother out and settled into a better life.

Except she dreams of the Starling House, a house that is empty except for its mysterious heir. Her dreams combine with a children’s storybook. The author built Starling House and then mysteriously disappeared. But Opal can’t seem to resist the pull and takes a job as a housekeeper in the house that never seems to stay the same.

Starling House is the perfect fall read. It is the right level of mystery and mysticism with a mild dose of romance that even I can get behind. I loved the writing and the solid characters. I was hooked from the moment that I picked up the book until the end. I’m not sure I liked the ending, but I do think it fit and was well written. The story really is more about the journey to reach the conclusion.

This is a book that I see myself picking up to reread next fall.

Starling House is the one house in Eden, Kentucky, that everyone avoids. There are many rumors about the house and its inhabitants, but no one seems to know what really goes on behind its doors. Opal knows something about avoidance, because people avoid her too. She is a high school dropout whose only goal is to take care of her brother Jasper and get him far away from Eden. When Opal is offered a job as a housekeeper at Starling House, she accepts, not only to make extra cash, but because she has dreamed of Starling House for as long as she can remember, even though she has never been inside. I really enjoyed Opal's journey in this story, which had many twists and turns. It was very atmospheric and moody and will stay with me for a while.

There is nothing better than a perfect blend of gothic fantasy set in an atmospheric small town plagued with mystery and drama rooted from its oppressive history; add to that a perfectly woven plot of family legacy and romance --- Starling House is a recommended book for fans of Mike Flanagan and Guillermo Del Toro's works.

Hugo-award winning Alix E. Harrow pens one of her best books to date, with a prose that pierces with unwavering honesty. If there's any book that captures her skills as an outstanding storyteller, it's Starling House.