Clare L. Deming

I have had Alix E. Harrow on my radar as an author since I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January and called it one of the best books I read in 2021. You can find my review of it here. I did not enjoy her next novel, The Once and Future Witches, quite as much but felt like it was still a good read (paid links).

This new book, Starling House, is another stand-alone novel with a more gothic feel. Read on to see what I thought of it.

Here is the blurb:

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

I loved this book, although perhaps not quite as much as The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This was a surprise to me, because the description make me expect this to be more of a gothic horror story (not my thing), when it was actually more like fantasy with some creepiness mixed in. Opal is a gritty and brave heroine, fighting to survive after her mother’s tragic death, so I was automatically rooting for her.

The description of the creator/builder of Starling House and her book reminded me of Edward Gorey’s work. While I’m not a fan of general horror, I guess I do enjoy weird monsters. Starling House also features a sword, so that drew me in as well.

The book is written mainly from Opal’s perspective, but with an occasional chapter shown from Arthur’s point-of-view. The way that the story is structured creates a mystery wherein Opal wants to understand her strange dreams and learn about Starling House, while Arthur shows us the sinister threat that he has been facing.

I didn’t expect this story to have romance, but that is also part of the tale. It isn’t the main plot, but it gives more strength to the reasons why Opal keeps returning to Starling House. The pacing of the story was also very good. I read this entire novel in about three days, and I wish I had slowed down at the ending to make it last longer. I’ll be sure to look out for more books by this author in the future.

Have you read any of Alix E. Harrow’s books? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.