Book Review: Starling House by Alix E Harrow
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About the book
Opal is a lot of things – orphan, high-school dropout, full-time cynic. Most of all, she’s determined to find a better life for her younger brother.
One that gets them both out of Eden, a town renowned for bad luck. So when Opal gets the chance to earn a good wage at Starling House, Eden’s very own haunted mansion, she can’t resist. Her new workplace is uncanny and full of secrets – just like Arthur, its brooding heir.
It also feels strangely, dangerously, like something Opal never had: a home. As sinister forces converge on Eden, Opal realizes she might finally have found a reason to stick around. But now she’ll have to fight for it .
Why we love it
A word of warning from the outset, this is one of those books that will keep you up all night reading until the small hours because you just have to read one more chapter - stock up on coffee and snacks before diving in!
A vividly atmospheric modern gothic tale, the book is set in the fictional coal-mining town of Eden, Kentucky, where life is anything but idyllic and where tragedy and bad luck are the norm.
Centred on Opal, a young orphan woman with a knack for survival against the odds, the story follows her as she struggles to build a better future for herself and her teenage brother.
Through desperation, she's takes a job at Starling House, a crumbling mansion steeped in mystery that's haunted her dreams since childhood, where she gradually becomes caught up in the web of secrets surrounding both the house and it's enigmatic current owner, Arthur Starling.
It soon becomes clear that Opal and Arthur are two equally broken individuals, both yearning for a sense of home and belonging and it's their cautious, hesitant connection to each other that gives so much heart and emotional depth to the book. Yes, there's sinister supernatural forces at work, malicious villains to defeat and a mystery to be uncovered, but really it's just about two people in search of safety and warmth.
I loved the way Starling House itself becomes like a character in the story, equal parts eerie and welcoming - if people long for a house which is a home, what might a house long for from it's inhabitants?
This is just such a fantastic book. Alix Harrow skilfully blends mystery and folklore with sharp social commentary about class and prejudice, and the end result is an unforgettably haunting, heartbreaking fantasy novel that you'll just not want to put down.
