I loved everything about this book and I only wish I'd read it sooner! I read it over the Christmas period and it was surprisingly cosy, curled up by the tree absorbed in such a chilling tale. The characters were well drawn and I enjoyed the overall plot and the atmospheric writing style. Will be looking out for more books by this author.

I am OBSESSED with this cover, first of all! Let's take a moment to applaud it please!

I did struggle to get into this to begin with, I have to admit, but about a third of the way through I managed to immerse myself and I ended up really enjoying this! The atmosphere was intense and haunting and I LOVED the sentient house! Opal was an amazing character, flawed and genuine, and I really liked her and Arthur together - I wanted to protect the both of them, and I really loved watching them very slowly open up to each other.

The author has such a way with words and I would honestly read her shopping list at this point, She writes so beautifully and elegantly, and every word feels so carefully chosen. Despite the violence and horror that lies beneath this story, she also somehow manages to make it feel very cosy and hopeful at the same time.

Although I really enjoyed the second two-thirds/second half of the book, I feel like I do have to take away a star on account of really struggling to get into the story at the start.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this arc

This book started out really good but I couldn’t get a good connection with the characters and it felt really difficult to pick up and it wouldn’t keep my concentration.

I think overall it was somewhat good, the storyline was there but due to my lack of caring for the characters or the plot I couldn’t engross myself into the book unfortunately.

I would still recommend the book as I know it’s a good story but just not for me!

I loved this dark fairytale. Alix E Harrow spins known fantasy and myths into something whole and new in Starling House. With family drama, politics, sins of the rich and a sprinkling of romance there was lots to keep me interested alongside the magical.

26-year-old Opal is independent and puts a lot of pressure on herself. Life experiences have taught her to have low expectations – of other people and herself. She’s fiercely protective of her brother Jasper and wants a better life for him. Although this can be blinding in itself …

I liked Opal from the beginning. Flawed and raw, her don’t care attitude is a screen for a complexity of emotions. There were times when I just wanted to mother her, even though she wouldn’t have let me. And times when I wanted to throttle her!

I felt Arthur’s background and reason for hanging on to the house were a perfect match for Opal. She’d been fighting for survival all her life and I so hoped that she’d make a difference. Not just to Arthur but so that Eden could pull itself out of the mists and miasma of despair.

Starling House is the epicentre, a gatehouse I guess you’d say, with its own characteristics and desires to either protect or harm. It was so easy to visualise scenes here but I would liked to have seen more action in the house.

Underlying it all, is a message about home; your tribe of people and where you think you should belong. It’s not always what you think it is. Open yourself up, let down those barriers and feel the emotions.

A gothic fantasy story about a mysterious old house and the two people who are drawn together through the mystical goings on around it - I wouldn't call this book a horror book, but it does have good creepy gothic vibes.

Opal is a local woman who wants to escape her small town with her younger brother so starts working for the owner of Starling House, Arthur, to earn the money she needs. She then starts to unravel the mysteries around this haunted house and Arthur's supernatural heritage. I loved Opal and Arthur's relationship - their friendship steadily grows into something more in such an organic way.

LOVE LOVE LOVED THIS BOOK. LOVE ALIX. LOVE OPAL AND ARTHUR. love love love love. it was so good i wish i could reread it for the first time

3.5 (rounded down)⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

I really liked The Once and Future Witches so was keen to read the authors next book. For me this didn’t resonate quite as much but I still enjoyed it.

I can’t quite put my finger on why it didn’t grab me as much. I would have liked more exploration around the mystical that occurs in this book, but I understand it is likely intentional that there ain’t that deep delve into it.

I did also feel like a few plot lines/points weren’t carried through with and I’m the kind of person who likes to have plots completed and not left to the imagination.

I did like the premise and I did really like that the MC wasn’t a typical downtrodden girl, one who doesn’t know how beautiful she is or has a secret power or is actually a genius etc etc.

I devoured "Starling House" by Alix E. Harrow! The book is an intimate horror story about a house with a mysterious past and its secretive line of residents. It has small town aesthetics, corporate evil, eco horror undertones, and no dull moment. It honestly was so great to read a book filled with so many messages,such a strong voice, and a mystery that made you catch your breath at every turn of the page.

Writing this review is hard because I finished this book this morning, and I am still incredibly excited by it. Like with many characters in the book, Starling House entered my dreams. But, I willed myself awake so I could read what happens next.

On the more serious, less fangirling note, "Starling House" plays with many themes, but the main ones, for me, were the illusion of true history and familial obligations. Both of these themes are not only explored through the characters but are driving forces for the plot. The harsh search for the truth is also a pivotal aspect of the book's structure.

The theme of the illusion of true history is explored through fables and folk tales, urban myths, and google searches. It all begins with a children's story, which, like all good fiction, hides the truth behind it. But because reading is not a pastime for the faint of heart, it demands that you synchronise emotion and logic to dig beyond the surface and get to the truth. Harrow reminds us in this novel that, even when you search for the truth behind a children's story, there are many layers of truth, and all of them are 100% real. Like Opal, I was searching for the unequivocal facts of the origin of Eleanor Starling. When the truth was revealed (Shhhh.... spoilers), I understood that Harrow had been preparing me to hear it all alone, and yet, it still shocked me, and I cried for it. It is for this reading that I loved the ending and how Harrow resisted giving an unchallenging finale. It reminded me that even after Opal dug so deep to find the truth, the story was not quite over. If she kept searching, more narratives of what happened would unfold. It was, after all, not just Eleanor's story but the collective memory of a town.

Which was a tribute to the real-life inspiration of the story. Stripped from the magic, the gothic aesthetics and the softer edges, the real life case of a town (Not Eden) consumed by greed, built on human suffering and endured until its bitter end thanks to short term profiting and long term indifference is visible. "Starling House" is just another narrative searching for the truth behind that story.

(Read Harrow's blog for more information on the town Eden alludes to)

The search for honest information is framing the book as it reads partly like a fictionalised version of a non-fiction book, treating its characters like real historical figures. Its ending is a homage to these kinds of books as well. It asks us, I felt, as fellow humans to never stop searching for what lies behind the smirks of our friends, our parents' idiosyncrasies, and the misfortunes that surround us. And, at the same time, it tells us that dreams and stories exist to save us from the harsh reality, so long as we don't let the fantastical worlds take over completely.

The second theme was family identity. I am sure anyone who has read one review by me would immediately know that I always find myself attracted to anything family and identity related. Like a moth to the flame, I long to be burned exploring these issues. This book was about the absence of family and how much characters longed for equal human contact. Opal loved her brother, clutched onto him to save herself from facing inwards but she understood, slowly and painfully, that she longed for a partnership of equal footing, and let her brother go free to find it. Arthur couldn't abandon the house his parents lived in because he couldn't forgive himself for not appreciating them while he had them. Opal is surrounded by her mother's ghosts and women who became parent, aunt, cousin, and friend in her life, but she never looked enough to see them. Arthur keeps having to deal with Opal, who becomes his first honest human connection in adulthood. And Eleanor stands alone, with only Underland as her companion.

I cried reading this book. I trembled with excitement reading it. "Starling House" is a story of befriending the mosters instead of taming up the sword because the real monsters of this world we live in are not made of mist and magic. They are flesh and bone. They live in shiny castles and lord over land. They can only be taken down if we all, together, desire hard enough to break their shield walls, accepting the bitter truth that some of us must also be hit by the falling rumble.

Once again Alix E Harrow has delivered a famtastic read. I started 2023 with Once and Future Witches (if you havent read it - do) - so when I saw Starling House I knew I had to read it.

The story follows Opal, a lovable misfit (you know the type) who lives in motel room 12 free of charge after her mum is killed in an accident that the police belive was a suicide - Opal isnt convinced though as she was in the car, her mother had been promising to make their life better that night and Opal swears her mum swerved to avoid a creature.

Years later and Opal is troubled by dreams of Starling house - a strange house on the edge of town. Everyone has a rumour to tell about it and throughout the book Opal tries to piece together the real story of Starling house when she starts working for its owner Arthur.

She soon learns that this is no ordinary house and is thrust into a world full of monsters both mythical and human.

I loved Opal and her growing intimacy with Arthur. This is not a romance novel - which was refreshing. The growing friendship and then desire that blooms between these two is definitely not at the forefront of this novel but just a natural subplot - something that Harrow does so well in her books.

It also completely normalises the LGBTQ+ characters - another thing that I love - there's no drama caused when introducing queer characters - again something that Harrow does so naturally in her books.

Overall another fantastic stand alone novel which draws upon that classic gothic "haunted house" trope in an exciting and engaging way.

This was a 3.75⭐ read for me- an eccentric and spooky modern gothic tale that kept me hooked and on the edge of my seat. This book unsettled me from the get go- there was something off about Eden, Kentucky, it felt like a twilight zone that seemed to sit out of time in a similar but much darker way to the way the TV show Sex Education does. The way the scene was set, the pathetic fallacy of it all, was really well done and well written. For me this, along with the characterisation of the house itself was one of the best parts of the book and really supported the plot driven narrative.

Starling House was an all rounder that straddled multiple genres.The book was gritty and it had undercurrents of horrer, thriller and mystery. Romance and love played their part but weren't the be all and end all. Although it was an enjoyable read, it just felt like something was missing or that it was lacking, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but I just wasn't as excited by this as I could have or would have liked to have been.

Starling House is the creepy story you were looking for - or that you should have been looking for - this Hallowe'en. But it's much much more than that. In the hardscrabble town of Eden, Kentucky, where bad luck seems more common than in the rest of the country, stands a peeling, decaying mansion surrounded by a garden run wild. Sometimes, a single lit window shows at night.

In the house lives Arthur Starling, a recluse, cloistered among vines and surrounded by stories...

Also living in Eden - a less apt name it would be hard to find - is young Opal, a woman orphaned by her mother's car accident who has devoted herself to racing her younger bother Jasper. The siblings live in a motel room - Room 12 - which her mum somehow managed to secure for them from testy landlady Bev. Everything about Opal's life seems tenuous, from her place in Eden's society (she's widely held, correctly, to be a thief) to her hold on her job, to her right to be her bother's guardian, even to her romantic relationships (dismissed as 'mutual groping'). Opal's overriding project - the one item on her list - is her quest to get Jasper out of the town, where coal dust and asthma are destroying his lungs to a place at a posh college. Jasper is bright and hardworking has been accepted (though he hasn't informed him that she applied...) but how can Opal possibly afford to pay?

Luckily, she manages to blag a job as caretaker at the Scary Old House (don't go near the scary old house, Opal!) and Arthur seems to have cash to spare. Apparently a haughty, antisocial man who gets up to who knows what in the darkness and whose parents also came to a Bad End, he and Opal seem bound to run each other up the wrong way. As they meet - and clash - we learn the origin story, or stories, (we are told several versions) for Starling House, which concern a 19th century writer, Eleanor Starling, whose husband died on her wedding day and whose dark take on the fantastic is still in print 150 years later. Distrusted in her home town, and always daggers drawn with Gravely, the local mine-owners whose fortune was built on enslavement and exploitation, Eleanor lived a lonely life in the house that she built.

It turns out that Arthur is more than just the latest of the Starlings, but that he is a Warden of sorts, fulfilling Eleanor's design but also keeping her supernatural legacy in check. What's going on under Eden is complicated, a delicate balance established by the Gravelys' cruelty and exploitation, Eleanor's determination to make her own stories, and the subsequent decades of conflict. It's a balance that is now threatened by Opal's trespassing on Starling land, for she, too, has secrets - even if she doesn't know them.

This was a powerful and effecting story. There is a strong romantic subplot, which absolutely feels right here but creates great jeopardy. Opal has poured her life and energy into protecting her brother rather than herself which has left her unknowingly vulnerable. Similarly, Arthur, driven by guilt and notions of duty, has turned inwards, determined to do what it takes to be the last Warden. Almost from the first meeting something smoulders between the two, but Harrow delicately draws out the subsequent ignition, raising questions about whether it could result in a fire that burns the town to the ground.

Something Eden does, perhaps, deserve, for all those averted eyes, that tolerance of injustice, that profiting from misery and injustice. Starling House embodies questions about history and about the ability of powerful men to bend reality, to get their way. Eden's chemical pollution - filthy air, filthy river, tainted groundwater - is accompanied by a kind of supernatural wrongness, leading to that aforementioned bad luck. It's a wrongness that has come to the attention of the power-hungry, who will do whatever they need to to grasp at and use it, even if they break Opal and Arthur in the process - another way in which they are vulnerable.

Consequences. Guilt. Original Sin - this version of Eden embodies all of them. The town is built from that sort of crooked timber of which nothing straight can be made - and everyone seems to know it's and not know it. Against this, what use can Opal's small efforts achieve?

A totally riveting read from Alix E Harrow, possibly her best book yet, you really need to read this.

I adored this book, but I was very aware while reading it that it's not the sort of book everyone will like. It is a book of vibes and while there is a plot, it's very slow to start and for most of the book it's happening in the background. I personally adored the vibes and was very happy to just sink into the book and enjoy it, but I know other people have had problems with books like this, so I wanted to issue a warning.

I loved the themes of finding a home in this book. The main character Opal lives in a motel room with her brother and there were other characters looking for a home in Starling House too. It was very much a book about finding where you belong as much as it was of haunted house vibes.

I also have to say it was refreshing to see a story that didn't shy away from the realities of rich families in America who've made all their money through colonialism and slavery. Alix E. Harrow has always been very good at this and it's good to see that not only acknowledged but made a big part of the plot.

The narrator was excellent and she gave a sort of dream like quality to the book that really really fit well with the aforementioned vibes. I would recommend having a hard copy of the book to refer back to though as there were places I wanted to look back to confirm the details of, especially with the different stories of Starling House.

If you like a book with good vibes, this is a great choice!

Welcome to the town of Eden, a beautifully haunting, spooky and mysterious town that provides this books setting. A slightly predictable plot is forgiven, with some nice classic gothic allusions, intriguing characters and FOOTNOTES! If you enjoy a haunting read, with a spice of magic and adventure, and beautiful prose; Starling House is for you. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for honest review.

I loved it. It reads like a real story, the kind you would read in an obscure book about supernatural locations in Kentucky and their lore and cryptozoology.

I liked how the House was an important character and had moods and almost speaks.

The intertwining of the character’s lives and how history and future twist and turn around one another is very well done.

I really like Harrow’s style and it also suits this story very well.

I received this from Netgalley as an ARC and would like to thank them, Alix Harrow and Pan Macmillan for providing it in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for a honest review.

TL;DR - 5* stars - gothic vibes, a house with ~attitude~, breaking generational trauma, and a love story between vibes.

I wasn't sure what to expect going into Starling House. Books marketed as "gothic" can, in my experience, be hit or miss, particularly in a modern setting. But Starling House feels like it was written *for* me and I was instantly enthralled. Starling House grabbed a hold of me and wouldn't let go.

With unexpected twists, excellent characterisation, a strong narrative voice *and* diverse rep throughout, Starling House is a story of truth prevailing over lies in a small town where name and reputation is everything. Harrow's characters are truly alive and come bursting off the page - I felt like I watched a movie rather than read words on a page. I was completely immersed in the story and I am completely in love with this book.

I'm not quite sure what I'll do with myself after finishing this book. I wish I could go back and read it for the first time all over again! I'll be reading and reviewing more of Alix E. Harrow's books in the future, for sure.

Have you heard the story of Starling House? It depends who you ask but that house is bad news.

Every night Opal dreams of Starling House, yet has never visited. Arthur is the lonely warden of Starling House and has to face his fate.
I absolutely adored this gothic fantasy story. Each character was so different but loveable in their own way. Throughout the book I found myself rooting for the characters and loathing the villians. The house itself had so much character and was so sassy, I loved it.
Opal and Arthur's slow burn relationship was adorable and so romantic. The sibling dynamic between Jasper and Opal was also one of my favourites because I found it so realistic.
I'm so glad I read this book and it's definitely a new favourite.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alix E. Harrow and Pan Macmillian for sending me an eArc of this. This was published 31st October 2023 and highly encourage you to pick this up!

I knew I was going to love Starling House from the first page. From its first sentence.

Alix E Harrow initially grabbed my heart with their debut The Once and Future Witches and yet Starling House is so starkly different - but no less amazing.

I adored each flawed character and the atmosphere was mesmerising.

Starling House is an atmospheric, creepy, brilliant read.

The house captivated me from the start. I love a story with an old house and a reclusive owner. Starling House booked me from the moment it too. Opal's blood and drew her in.

The house is even more baffling when she gets inside, seeming to be sentient and prone to moods. Arthur, the owner, is a strange man and it took me a long time to understand his pulling Opal in and pushing her away at the same time.

I loved the supernatural elements to this book, and trying to understand the mystery behind the house and the weird town of Eden kept me turning the pages.

I also loved Arthur and Opal's family stories and the slow reveal of this. The relationships in this book are wonderful; I especially loved how fiercely protective Opal was of her brother Jasper. Opal is a brilliant character, I loved her attitude and the way she will do anything for those she truly cares about.

Absolutely loved this one and I'll definitely be recommending it.

I honestly don't understand the hype around this book. This was one of my most anticipated book, and I couldn't get past the first 50 pages. The writing was so confusing and boring.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free ARC in exchange for a review.

This is a messy, muddy, dark fairytale, and I enjoyed it every much! The drawings in particular are amazing.

Opal and Arthur are deeply messed up and their story is deeply messed up, but so engrossing. The Southern Gothic atmosphere was so well done and the writing was just gorgeous. The call of the House was reminiscent of Slayers to me almost, and I loved the Nightmares and their childlike creation. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland mixed with Shel Silverstein and Coraline. I totally adored it.

The footnotes were a fun addition but they stopped halfway through for no reason. Seems like they should have kept going. All the fake Wikipedia articles and books and websites were immaculately done, to the point where I was questioning if E. Starling was somehow a real author that I'd never heard of.

The romance was really a background to the intricate tale of Opal and her quest to help her brother, but I didn't mind at all. Her and Arthur really grew together and it was so lovely to read. Five stars.