Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I loved Alix E. Harrow’s writing in The Ten Thousand Doors of January, so I went into this novel with high expectations, and they were ABSOLUTELY met.

Opal (POV character) has two lists: what she wants, and what she needs. And only the second list matters, because that list has her brother’s name on it. Opal will do anything to get Jasper out of their small town of Eden–even if it means taking a job at Starling House, the mansion she’s had haunting dreams of for years, and that is solely owned by Arthur Starling.

Arthur Starling (POV character) is the Warden of Starling House. And, if he has any say in things, he will be it’s last. Which is made complicated when Opal is drawn to the property, and he finds himself reluctantly hiring her via a combination of loneliness and guilt. From there, the history of Eden unravels, and along with it, the mystery of Starling House's first owner, Eleanor Starling.

This book hit everything. Eerie atmosphere, fleshed-out characters, themes of family and love and loneliness and overcoming the bad in one’s life–or drowning in it. Not to mention that Harrow has such a beautiful way with language.

A listened to the audio version of Starling House and would highly recommend it! Natalie Naudus did a phenomenal job of bringing Opal, Arthur, and the whole of Eden to life.

What I love about this tale is the storytelling that occurs within it. Secrets, especially in small towns like Eden, are really just mutated versions of Truth, bent by the will of the storyteller. And as Opal uncovers the roots of Starling House and how they are directly intertwined with Eden’s history, the stories begin to unfold. It’s a mesmerizing tale of perspective. And in this tale, sometimes the real world hurts so bad, it’s the nightmares where people finally find comfort. Or safety. Or vengeance.

Opal is a strong FMC, and she’s not wholly moral. Especially by Eden’s standards. I adore the way she navigates the world and how it’s so viscerally, painfully real through her eyes. The way her and Arthur bond tugged at my heart, and I’m a sucker for a sentient home.

There were a few lessons that came a bit heavy-handed, and the inner monologue of some of the characters became repetitive. <spoiler>Eleanor’s story in particular was long. I wanted EVERYTHING she had to say, but I did need it broken up a little bit by character reactions or something. It started to feel like an info-dump of what happened to her, which made the flow/pacing falter. I also SO BADLY want to know if Starling House remained sentient after Eleanor moved on. Reading into things, I’ve just decided that it’s a yes, because I love that damn house.</spoiler>

While there is a bit of a gothic atmosphere, I certainly wouldn’t peg this as horror. And I definitely didn’t get sinister out of the house. That was an odd and misleading descriptor to put in the cover copy. Keep that in mind before picking this novel up.

This is a read for anybody who has felt trapped, or aimless, or caught in a story they desperately want to make their own.

Another beautiful novel from Alix E. Harrow.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a solid 4 stars. The Starling House follows Opal’s journey to find something other than the cards she was dealt. Being the primary caretaker for her brother after a tragic accident with her care free, lackluster mother, Opal is striving for more. This led to her dreaming of Starling House, the small towns token haunted house.

This novel was an enjoyable immersive gothic story. I thoroughly enjoyed the primary character, Opal. The relationships she has with those around her were entertaining. The grim Starling House caretaker, Author was alluring. All in all this was a great book.

"The biggest lies are always for the ones you love the most. I'll take care of you. It'll be fine. Everything's okay."

Family is a running theme throughout Starling House: the tangled webs of obligation, affection, sacrifice, and expectation that bind us to our families, whether inherited or made. The novel revolves around two lonesome protagonists: Opal, a resourceful high school dropout, and Arthur, the reclusive heir to the brooding mansion, whose halls he stalks while waging a private war against supernatural forces. A mansion called Starling House, whose founder mysteriously vanished over a century ago, and which seems to be the epicenter for every unlikely accident and tragedy that plagues the town of Eden, Kentucky...

Both Opal and Arthur are grieving the parents who failed to protect them against a cruel world, and to grapple with the obligations those parents left them. For Opal, that means doing whatever she can to get her asthmatic brother Jasper out of the smog-choked town that's slowly killing him. For Arthur, it means inheriting the decades-long war against the sinister creatures that emerge from beneath Starling House to prey upon the unsuspecting townsfolk. Both of them are searching for belonging, though neither would ever admit it. And both of them are intimately connected to both Starling House, in more ways than either of them first realizes.

Harrow's prose is impressively facile, shifting from lyrical and winsome one moment to sharp and crisp as an autumn chill the next. The setting is at once Gothic and contemporary, and the dying town of Eden, Kentucky is clearly an homage to Harrow's real-life Kentucky roots. I enjoyed both the ebook and audiobook versions of this novel (narrated by the unrivalled talents of Natalie Naudus) and recommend both without reservation for fantasy fans.

Starling House is a gorgeous, fantastical listen. The narration really brought the Gothic tale to life. I loved Opal and Arthur, and enjoyed the POV. However, I would have loved more of Arthur. Both MC were perfectly broken, which I found highly relatable.

Listen if you enjoy:

*Southern Gothic fairy tales
*Sentient homes
*Found family
*Small towns with secrets

This was my first Alix E. Harrow book and it definitely won’t be my last!

I received this book as an Audiobook ARC and was pulled in almost immediately after I started listening. Opal is the main character who lives in a motel with her brother Jasper after her mother’s death.

The Starling house has always been a mystery and the talk of the town as long as anyone can remember. She ends up landing a job as a housekeeper with the houses odd Caretaker, Arthur. So many crazy things happen during her journey through the housekeeping job and I couldn’t get enough of it! I finished this audiobook so fast!

I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great read/listen for this spooky season!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the author for providing me with the ARC!

WOW. This was the perfect fall read. From the very beginning it felt very atmospheric and southern gothic. Then the plot picked up and I was hooked!

Opal lives in a small, bad-luck town in Kentucky. She begins working at Starling House after she is drawn there by her repeated dreams of the house. Working at Starling House isn’t easy, though - there are sinister forces at work inside and outside the house.

I really enjoyed the mythology behind Starling House that Harrow managed to create. I found Opal, the main character, to be funny and relatable. I really appreciated how the eponymous Starling House felt like a character, not just a setting. The themes that were present throughout the book were so meaningful and impactful. At the end, I felt like everything had been tied up beautifully. Also, I listened to this as an audiobook, which really brought home the southern gothic feel thanks to the narrator!

This book was a fantastic mix of gothic atmosphere, mystery, fantasy, ominous small town, wholesome family moments, and romance. It was the perfect fall read, and I cannot recommend it enough!

Opal has lived in the small mining town of Eden, Kentucky her whole life. Her mother was a grifter of sorts, and died in an accident when Opal was young leaving Opal to fend for herself and her younger brother. Living in a motel and working the jobs she can to get by and save money for her brother, Opal is haunted by dreams of the 19th century mansion on the edge of town. Starling House was built by the reclusive author E Starling after the death of her husband, and a strange rotation of characters has lived there over the centuries. A winter day finds Opal on the steps of Starling House, ringing the bell, and somehow agreeing to work as a house cleaner for the current resident, Arthur Starling. The house has a mind of its own, and it’s certainly tied to the legend of Eleanor Starling and the monstrous things depicted on the pages of her book.

I am *not* a horror girl usually (she says as she read three haunted house books in two weeks), but Starling House hit some really sweet spots for me as a reader. Opal’s life gave me some callbacks to Alex Stern’s from Ninth House, though less violent, with a main character who hopes for something more and will work hard to get it, but continuously feels like she may be falling short. I love a house with a good personality, changing and adapting to its inhabitants. Starling House is capable of caring for its residents, but also clearly loves receiving care in return. It responds well to the coddling that Opal gives it, by paying attention and cleaning it thoroughly.

I love a good mining town story, especially one with an underlying social horror component of haves versus have-nots.There’s not a lot more detail I can go into on plot points, but the book gave me a strong overall feel of being in an Edward Gorey illustration. The book is creepy and atmospheric - I had to stop listening to the audiobook while I was home alone for a bit! - and perfect for a cool fall evening. Natalie Naudus’s narration gave me appropriate shivers, and I highly recommend listening to this one.

The town of Eden, Kentucky doesn’t have much to show for itself, but it is the home of a reclusive nineteenth-century author/illustrator who vanished after releasing her book, The Underland. Her former home, Starling House, is creepy, and residents generally avoid it at all costs. But lately, Opal has been drawn to the house, and her increasingly vivid dreams of Starling House aren’t going away. When she is unexpectedly offered a job cleaning the old house, she begins learning more eerie things about the old mansion, and Arthur, the caretaker and heir of Starling House. Perhaps some things are best left alone, but Opal cannot help but dig up that which should be left alone.

Have you ever read a book and thought, “maybe it’s not the book, maybe it’s me?” That’s how I felt about Starling House. I have already heard so many glowing reviews, but this book just didn’t enthrall me. The description sounded so interesting, but apart from Opal’s broth Jasper, I never found myself caring much about the characters. There is a bit of a love story, and while I generally love romance, I felt it was an unnecessary component of the plot. I think I wanted more from the House itself. While sold as a gothic, spooky story, the creepy house at the center of this story just fell a little flat.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read and review this audiobook!

I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. It is definitely going to be on my staff pick list. The writing was engaging, I loved the story and felt compelled to know more and more about it. I had a bit of a scare towards the end when I thought things were taking a very fatal turn but I'm glad to know that there's a sequel planned.
This was my first Alix E. Harrow title but it definitely will not be my last.

This was my September book highlight! The narrator is spot on when it comes to tone; her voice is simply magnetic. I have read other Alex E Harrow books, and while those others have been also magical, this one is haunting. Starling House shines in its unconventional romance, the down on her luck MC who tries her hardest to give her brother everything she couldn't have, and the SENTIENT house that is the only thing in between this little in the middle of nowhere town and the gates of hell. I loved every second, and am truly bummed there isn't a sequel. I will definitely pick up the next Alix E Harrow book, and anything this narrator does in the future.

I put this audiobook on for the first really cool fall day of the year and it did not disappoint. It was a beautifully written, yet spooky read that I would highly recommend if you're looking to get into the fall mood. It wasn't a "keep you up at night" kind of spooky, it more so makes you nostalgic for nights out by the fire telling ghost stories. This was my first read by Alix E. Harrow but it certainly won't be my last. This was so addicting I had to finish it in one day. This is an incredible introduction to anyone looking to dip their toes into horror.

“Once there was a little girl named Nora Lee who had bad, bad dreams. The dreams were full of blood and teeth, and they frightened her very much, but I will tell you a secret: she loved them, too, because in her dreams the teeth belonged to her.”

This book was an absolute delight. Alix Harrow is obviously well read within her genre, and I loved the references she made to well-loved gothic novels.
Starling House is a gothic haunted house story with a sprinkle of magic. The setting is believable and Opal was a great protagonist, a scrappy young woman pushed to the edge by responsibility and poverty. She takes the job as a cleaner at Starling House, the creepy mansion just outside of town. But the house is full of secrets--and its last heir, Arthur Starling. As the two learn more about each other, they find they aren’t so different; two people cast aside by the town of Eden who are fighting tooth and nail to survive.

The audiobook is very well done, each character has a distinctive voice and I was able to be immersed without losing my place or getting confused. Fantastic work.

Starling House has permeated Opal's dreams for as long as she can remember. Not just of the mysterious E. Starling - the author who wrote one classic of gothic children's fiction and then mysteriously disappeared - but Opal dreams of herself walking the halls and the grounds. She's always been able to avoid the glow of the window in the night. But one night it calls to her stronger than before and she finds herself at the gate.

Unbeknownst to Opal, Arthur Starling has come home to live out the family legacy and protect Eden, Kentucky from the evils waiting to be unleashed. He's promised himself he'll be the last Starling. But Opal throws his plans awry. Together they'll have to untangle a mystery that has everyone telling a different version of the story which, giving weight to the fantastical, also drives toward an unavoidable conclusion.

Listening to this book on audio really brought the gothic feel of the story to life. There's just this sense of tiredness in Opal's narration which is felt because Opal herself is kind of in a listless spiral. That is, until she makes that decision to go to Starling House.

I like that the book is kind of presented as a history. Opal's history, Starling history, kind of intertwined. It is the first time I've listened to a book with footnotes. Overall I think the narrator handles these little side-sections very well within the overall narrative changing the cadence of their voice enough that you understand you're being taken out of the main narrative of the story.

I think my favorite part of the story was how Alix E Harrow presents the ideas of mythology. The idea that myths, or legends, change with culture, they change depending on who is telling the story. They often change to suit a certain narrative or ideology like a cautionary tale. We get the "true" story of the Starlings and Starling House told various times throughout and it's interesting seeing the ways they line up and the ways they deviate. You start seeing a pattern of the truth lying somewhere in-between.

The story itself unravels in a very methodical way. I was never quite sure what would be thrown at us next or how things were going to end up, but as I look back, I cannot imagine a different way for things to go.

Overall, this story is exactly what I expect from Alix E Harrow: a sprawling, winding, gothic fairy-tale with mysterious elements that pull me in and refuse to let me go until the very last page.

This book was super atmospheric. It was weird and spooky and had monsters. I think that is the most intriguing thing about this book. You just really want to know what has happened to and in this spooky house.
I liked the characters, I honestly think I liked the side characters more than the main characters Opal and Arthur. I loved Opal's brother Jasper and their relationship and I also loved the motel owner Bev, especially towards the end. Opal was basically raising her brother since their mother died and Opal almost died along with her. She takes up the job at Starling House as a housekeeper for Arthur. He is very kind of recluse. I thought Opal and Arthur's relationship felt a little forced.
The plot was interesting. It felt a little weirdly paced at times, but for the most part, it flowed together well and I was very interested to see what happened next. We get this spooky house for a big part of the book and then are introduced to the magic and monsters.
The narrator for this book was wonderful and really brought the story to life.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Narrator: Natalie Naudus
Rating: 5 stars
Pub date: 10/3

This cozy, enchanting, and mysterious story could not be more perfect for fall. From the moment I started this one, I was hooked.

Opal, our relatable and down-to-earth heroine, has one goal: to make sure her younger brother gets to leave the dying town of Eden, Kentucky, where they live. They’ve always been outsiders, but since their mother died, they’ve been mostly on their own. At night, Opal dreams of Starling House, an eerie manor that is the stuff of legends in town. When she stumbles upon the opportunity to become a housekeeper there, she can't help but accept and finally give in to the curiosity that borders on obsession with the house and the person who lives there.

This book masterfully combines elements of cozy horror with a dash of the supernatural. It's just spooky enough to satisfy your need for chills, yet it won't keep you up at night with nightmares. Harrow's storytelling weaves a web of mystery and magic that kept me turning pages well into the night. I also listened to this on audio, and the narrator, Natalie Naudus, did a fabulous job adding to the story’s spooky atmosphere.

The haunted house is a character all on its own, and my favorite chapters were when Opal was working there. One brilliant touch in the story is the perspective of Arthur Starling, the last heir of Starling House and supposed villain, who is actually just a person fighting a secret battle that no one knows about. His POV rounds out the story and helps to explain the town's curse and why people fear him. The romance between Opal and Arthur was sweet and lovely and made me swoon repeatedly.

This book is gothic, gritty, romantic, fantastical, and mysterious, and I absolutely loved it. I cannot wait for people to get their hands on this perfect spooky season read. If you're looking for a hauntingly beautiful tale that tugs at your heartstrings while sending shivers down your spine, Starling House is the book you've been waiting for.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Tor Books, and Macmillan Audio for my advanced reader copy and my complimentary audiobook.

Read if you like:
*gothic thrillers
*fantasy
*haunted houses
*found family
*a little bit of gore but not too much

This audiobook was spectacular! Natalie Naudus was the perfect narrator for this story.

Opal and Arthur are both flawed individuals that carry the weight of the worlds on their shoulder. When Opal accepts a job at Starling House so she can afford to send her brother to a prestigious school, she finds it to be dilapidated, haunted, and full of mysteries.

Arthur wasn't planning on hiring Opal to clean up Starling House, but he can't resist the connection the the house seems to have with Opal... or the growing attraction they seem to have to each other. As they work together to solve the mysteries of Starling House and their little town of Eden, Opal discoveries more about herself, her family, and her town.

I absolutely adored this book. It was so engaging and perfect for a pre-Halloween read.

The structure of this book was a fun ride of story telling. The reader gets multiple versions of the lore of Starling House as if we live in the small town of Eden ourselves. I used this book to kick off spooky season. It did not keep me up at night with fear, but it did make me nostalgic for the ghost stories growing up in a small town. I would recommend this book to everyone.

I loved that Opal and Arther were not beautiful and were very broken. I could see the broken and bad luck town Eden so clearly in my mind as well. This was such a refreshing change from my summer of romance binging. This is a perfect read for October. Even though it is listed as horror it is very mild and not scary. This is my first book by this author and I will definitely be catching up on her other books. I listened to the anudiobook and the narrator did a good job. Enjoyed this one a lot

I loved this book! I have read most of Harrow's books and this one has been my favorite. I loved the creepy atmosphere - it's a great haunted house story. Opal is a scrappy heroine with grit. What I liked best about the book though is how it is revealed through layers of tellings of the story of Starling House so it highlights how truth is varied and multiple perspectives add to getting closer to truth. A lovely book to be released on Halloween :) I listened to the audio version and the narrator did a great job too!
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this advance listening copy for review purposes.

This gothic fantasy slowly unwinds dark secrets in an unlucky town with a sinister house. It's sinister but not terrifying. Opal and Arthur are both quirky characters with emotional baggage, that you can't help but admire by the end for their fierce determination and steadfast commitment to those they love. The audiobook narrator brought emotion to the scenes that called for it, which really enhanced the readying experience.

Thank you Tor Publishing Group, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.