Thank you so much to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Starling House follows anti-Hero Opal, town recluse Arthur as well as a found family of miscellaneous town outcasts as they navigate the mysticism surrounding the Starling house in their town of Eden, Kentucky. Opal has had to raise her younger brother since the untimely passing of her mother years before. Since then her life has been a series of bad luck, dead end jobs and general distrust of people. Oh and romance books from her local library. While hustling to get her younger brother out of their town and off to a fresh start, Opal finds herself outside Starling house meeting the current warden, Arthur. The job of warden of Starling House has guaranteed nothing but violence and shortened life span and Arthur has no reason to think he can escape this eventuality. Resigned to his fate the ever exhausted Arthur hires Opal as a house keeper for Starling house. The house has fallen into disrepair and the semi-sentient house thrives off of care, which Arthur has spitefully withheld. While caring for this house Opal starts to uncover the truth about the famed 'haunted house' of Eden.

I loved the gothic nature of this book. There were mystical elements that crept in pretty steadily and while nothing was confirmed from the start of the book you got the vibe that there was much more at play. The house was an actual main character in this story and honestly- kind of my favorite character. Though Opal was without a doubt written as an anti-hero she was still a delight to read and person you genuinely rooted for. She had the weight of the world on her shoulders and instead of just balking at that, she decided to try to carve out whatever happiness she could while also fighting tooth and nail to see that her little brother had more options.

While i loved the characters of this book, I wouldn't say it's a character driven plot. You really can't have that while there is also a door to hell with monsters coming out. But the characters were my favorite part. Though I loved them individually and I saw the love that Opal had or developed for each of them, the characters still spent most of the time orbiting each other instead of fully interacting. I felt like each of these people had to be taken by themselves not as a 'found family' which I think did a disservice to what they could have meant to the reader.

There was some truly beautiful prose in this book. The author is undoubtedly great at her craft. Unfortunately I think she relied to heavily on that ability. There were times that the reader was fully taken out of the story in service to the prose and I think you can have one without sacrificing the other as long as you don't force it. It was almost as if she said 'stop caring about what's happening and look at how beautifully I can talk about it'. and because of this I found it hard to invest in the story. I also had some issue with the pacing of the story. She would just skip months at a time which I assume is to allow the reader to believe that the characters are getting to know one another but you can easily do that in an abbreviated time if you just show it on page. It was hard to be invested in things that happened over that time since we had no knowledge of it.

all in all I am a little disappointed that I'm not rating this book higher. There were times that it was a 5 star book and others that it was a solid 3 so I'm settling on 4. It was just so hard to stay invested in which is odd because so many other parts of the story were so good.

As this was the audiobook format I do want to also mention that the narrator put an affect on her voice to make it more grumbly, I assume just to match the gothic nature but all the narrator actually ended up doing is sounding like she was whisper growling the entire time.

Beautifully haunting, I was totally sucked in right from the start. The main character is a tough and rough around the edges girl but the writing has such an air of poetic dreaminess…it’s an interesting contrast that, for me, really worked. The story felt a bit longer than it really needed to be but around 50% of the way through, I took a break for a couple of days and then came back to it…and got sucked right back in!

The audiobook performance is fantastic! Natalie has narrated quite a few books that I’ve listened to over the last year or two, and is always such a pleasure to listen to!

While not necessarily the most groundbreaking narrative, Starling House was a fast and compelling read. I love Southern Gothic, and I LOVE a weird old house, so this was an easy win for me. The plot draws on familiar elements, leaning on conventions of the genre but brings a freshness that makes the familiar play in a new light. I had such a fun time reading I didn’t even mind the footnotes.

This was such a weird book and I loved it. The audio narrator did a fantastic job capturing the moody, gothic feel of the book and did a good job differentiating between characters (I wasn't the biggest fan of her rendition of Arthur's speaking voice but it wasn't bad, it just irked me a little). I loved all the descriptions of Starling House; Harrow does a fantastic job of making the House feel alive throughout the book. I loved the setting of a quaint little town full of secrets everyone knows but chooses to ignore (boy does that bring up some memories). And most of all, I loved Opal. She's such a fierce, mean little thing through most of the book, only caring about her brother Jasper and screw everyone else, though some softer moments do muddle through (her affection for Bev and Charlotte are there despite her pretending vehemently that it's not, even her love for the Hellcat who is so much an avatar for Opal that it's not funny, right down to Arthur reluctantly taking the Hellcat in despite his protestations). She was that perfect combination of a character with unlikable traits that you still root for. The mist and the beasts were the perfect amount of creepy and sinister, and the final confrontation was perhaps one of my favorite dénouements in a book that I've read in a long while. Seeing all the disparate versions of the story of Eleanor Starling come together was a perfect illustration of how stories can become twisted over time, like a long-running game of Telephone, until only small kernels of truth can be found in all the various tellings. I liked how the ending wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I started the book; subverting expectations can be lovely when done right and this definitely was.
So if you'd like a somewhat weird, moody, gothic story about a small town with big secrets and the mean girl who just wants to protect her brother at all costs, check out Starling House.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an early release copy to check out in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook was fantastic!

Opal is barely making ends meet… In fact, she has to steal and forge documents just to do that. She has custody of her brother, Jasper, but only due to the previously mentioned forged documents. Her mom died in a car cash when she was 15. Opal and Jasper live in a motel in the small rural town of Eden, Kentucky. She is doing everything she can to get her brother out of there and onto a path to succeed away from Eden. When the opportunity comes up to earn significant money cleaning the town haunted house of Starling House, she jumps at it.



Opal has always known about this house. It was previously owned by E Starling, an author of a dark Children’s book “The Underland”. She mysteriously disappeared a century ago. Opal has grown up reading this book and has started having dreams revolving around Starling House. Arthur is now the caretaker of the house and Opal gets sucked into the dark secrets of the house AND the town of Eden.



I loved the dark and twisty nature of this book. I have only read one other work of Alix Harrow, but I thoroughly enjoy how she makes you feel like you are part of this dark and gothic setting. The forks in the plot kept me captivated and I just couldn’t stop listening to this. I enjoyed the narrator and felt she did a great job. She became the story and didn’t take away from it in any way. If you like the dark, gothic fantasy books, this is one to pick up. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.



Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing a copy of this work in exchange for an honest review.

Harrow has such a way of bringing magic into the world. This story was so intricate and woven together so well that I fell in love right from the start. I felt that the characters were written well and had a nice development throughout the story. The plot was mysterious and dark and kept you pulled in with every twist and turn. The world building was fun and beautiful. The magic system is absolutely brilliant, I loved the multi generational pull that the house had on different people. Over all this was the perfect book to kick off my 2024 reading!

I liked this book well enough, but I feel like I was expecting something spookier or more horror-tinged, when really it was more about uncovering the traumatic histories of the characters and the house.

I think I wanted something with more of a haunted-house feeling, whereas this barely touched on that and spent more time foregrounding the slow-burning romance between the two broken main characters.

The narrator is excellent, though, and I've listened to several books read by her recently.

Thank you so much for this audio ARC! It was an easy 5 star read!

Starling House is a beautifully written gothic paranormal fantasy. It brings together so many concepts I never would have thought would go together but it works so well. I feel like the creators of the Netflix‘s Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor should make this their next spooky limited series. The audio book was well done. The prose were beautiful. The vibes were immaculate. One of the top 10 books I’ve read this year.

This book was my Autumnal Inauguration.

It was the perfect book at the perfect time.

I loved the title (and I’d argue MAIN) character, Starling House. How it breathed, and tantrum-ed, and cared for its people? Flawless.

I loved Opel, her honesty, her curiosity, her love for her brother, and her “Yeah, I picked your pocket. So?” attitude.

The whole cast of characters (think Stars Hollow, but with heavy metal poisoning)? The librarian (ALWAYS THE LIBRARIAN), the motel owner, Jasper, even the sheriff (who I can absolutely picture fondling his own belly button)? Fantastic.

My only real complaint involves the mysterious, sinister female character (whose name I CANNOT remember). I wanted way more information on her. Who sent her? Who funded her? From whence did she come?

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing, Macmillan Audio, and my Seasons’ Pass paraBFF, Alix E Harrow for this stunning ARC.

Dipping my toes into gothic fantasy with this excellent novel from Alix E. Harrow.

What I liked:
- dark, atmospheric settings (creaking floorboards, rolling mist, ugh I loved it)
- So much description. It felt like I was watching a movie in my head
- Multiple strong female characters
- Mythological themes

4/5 stars! While I enjoyed this book, the romance between Opal and Arthur felt a little forced, considering Opal essentially said Arthur was boot ugly more than once. That being said, I love Harrow’s writing style and hope to read more in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced reading copy!

I loved this book and have recommended it many times! A very big Thank You to #NetGalley for the advanced copy.

A wonderful book, full of mysteries and magic. I loved it! The audiobook was very good as well!
I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook!

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow was a book that I typically do not read but it is one that I enjoyed. I thought the plot was interesting and while I did not make a full connection with the characters, I didn't find reading about their journey and felt that they had potential to be interesting characters. There are magical elements in this one as well as a creepy house that some will find intriguing. This was my first Alex E. Harrow novel and I am interested in other books by this author now.

I liked this one. The plot was interesting but it felt kind of slow. I liked the characters but didn’t love them. The history of Starling House and its magic were my favorite parts. The audio narration was very good though!

Overall, I would disuade you from picking it up. If you’re looking for a little tragedy, Magic, and creepy old house vibes then you might enjoy Starling House.

I love Alix Harrow, but unfortunately Starling House was not for me. I finished the book, but I did not connect to the plot as much as I’d hoped. I like the flashbacks of all of the misdeeds done in the town, but it was disjointed from the present for me.

I will still absolutely read Alix Harrow going forward.

OMGGGG I ATE THIS BOOK UP!! It was so so good!! The plot was amazing and I loved the characters! I highly recommend this book!

This grim and gothic fairytale was perfect for me. I loved it!

Alix Harrow is an amazing writer and I have enjoyed everything she has written.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced listening copy.

One thing that will always get me is a haunted house book. Thankfully Harrow does not disappoint in Starling House. The book is beautifully written and the story perfectly told. I am not usually a fan of gothic novels but something in this kept me going until the very end!

4/5 Stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with access to this audio-arc.

Young adult fiction
Gothic fiction
Ecological horror
Romance


This modern Gothic horror fiction book was an enjoyable read and an interesting take on the haunted house trope and dilapidated mansion that are synonymous with the genre. The addition of ecological horror elements was my favourite part about this narrative but I found that it was an under explored area of the storyline and more could have been fleshed out more rather than the heavy focus on the capitalist corporation. That being said it did add interesting social commentary embedded into and underlying the main narrative that is easy for young adults to grasp.

However, overall I just found the story to be nothing extraordinary or surprising. It didn’t truly add anything new to the genre as a whole and wasn’t a book I’d personally buy for my collection or plan to read again. However, it is a great modern gothic for younger audiences and as a whole a good read. The pace is that of a traditional gothic narrative, so more than half the book is spent leisurely building up the setting , characters, background, atmosphere and then around mid-point the story begins to spews up in pace and action. I did find the ending to almost feel a bit like it was grooming relationship and that was strange.
I got this book as an ebook copy from edelweiss plus and an audiobook copy from netgalley. I actually would rate the audiobook a bit higher 71/5 out of ten because the narrator did such a wonderful job and it was very enjoyable for me to listen to them

5 out of 5 stars

This is an absolutely beautiful gothic/fairytale/horror novel. I loved Opal who is living in a motel with her asthmatic teenage brother who is struggling to take care of him and give him the best future that she can. Opal has this overwhelming attachment to Starling House. She finds herself drawn to the house as if it were calling her name. When she meets the young and mysterious owner of the house and he offers her a job cleaning the house her life is change forever. This is a lovely haunted house novel with much more than you would ever expect.