Starling House
Ratings216
Average rating3.9
I loved Opal and Arthur. This book was the perfect amount of spooky, but safe. I loved the house and the Hellcat and Bev and Charlotte. I wish it was harder to figure out the mystery of Elenor/ Nora Lee and the Underland story. I needed there to be more of a riddle or something. Even though Opal and Arthur were in their late twenties and early thirties, they read like 18-year-olds. They were petulant and it definitely felt like more of a coming-of-age story than an adult fantasy. I still really liked it, but it needed to be more.
4.5 stars. An adventurous gothic fairytale. Brontë meets Beauty and the Beast meets Alice in Wonderland meets Stranger Things. Super fun.
The pacing lagged in the middle, and there was a lot of exposition without letting the reader piece things together on their own, but aside from those aspects I enjoyed it. The prose is lovely, and the way both the characters and their relationships develop is masterful. I can't award this a full five stars, but I did enjoy my time with it and I'm glad I saw it through.
Reallllly thought this was going to be a five star read from the start, but then it took quite too long for the story to really progress. The writing style was way too descriptive at some points.
Actual rating: 3.25 stars
more unnecessary romance but its alix e harrow shes good at that
i really liked the house though. its like a friendly haunted house which was cool. i enjoyed the monsters and i feel bad for that girl whose name i cant remember and its not mentioned in the description. i mean jesus fuck. i want a story about HER not these fucking horny teenagers opal and arthur. i LIKED arthur too til it turns out he was just ordinary guy
Although this has a pretty slow start to the storyline, the character building and mystery keep you hanging in till things begin to pick up. Where I thought the story would have a natural ending, I discovered the book was only half-way done, leaving one to wonder where the story could move to from here? I wasn't disappointed at the remaining half of the book, nor the epilogue.
This book was magical! I couldn't stop reading it.
When Opal was younger she was endlessly fascinated by the mysterious Starling House that has a long history of creepy and interesting stories about it and it's inhabitants. She would dream about it often but when her mother dies tragically she can no longer live in fantasy. Presently, Opal lives in a motel in a dying town with her younger brother that she cares for. Opal is doing all she can to keep them afloat and to hopefully save enough money to get her brother out of the town. But when she gets a job offer to work in THE Starling House she knows that nothing good can come from this but decides to take the job anyway. With each work day that passes she starts to feel like Starling House is her home and gets more pulled in by the odd owner. However, strange and dangerous things also start to happen.
The writing of this book is so beautiful. Many parts of this book are not beautiful but instead ugly and heartbreaking but it's impossible to not invest in the characters, the town, and the house from Alix E. Harrow's writing. I very much enjoyed how there was a fairy tale mixed with some true crime lore surrounding this house. And the house is a character in itself.
An impeccable story. It has romance, mystery, mild horror, a spooky house, and even a little bit of comedy. No notes.
The setting and atmosphere were great - atmosphere is very moody and gothic because of this sentient house & the mist that surrounds it. There are also a lot of mysteries surrounding the house and the owners of the house that I found intriguing in the beginning. I thought it was interesting finding out why the house attracts the people it does.
I didn't love the romance in this and felt that it was kind of unnecessary and would have been better as just a friendship. I think there was a lot in the plot that felt unnecessary and I wasn't sure why it was in there; plot was just kind of losing me as the book went on.
Starling House cast a reading spell on me that I haven't experienced since [b:The Raven Boys 17675462 The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1) Maggie Stiefvater https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573508485l/17675462.SY75.jpg 18970934] and its sequels more than five years ago. I couldn't speak, eat, or sleep until I finished it. With a few days' distance, I can see objectively that the book has some flaws. The racism subplot is underdeveloped, and the romance between tough as nails, ornery Opal and foreboding, reclusive Arthur needed more interactions to be convincing. But none of that mattered as I was immersed in this unique mix of Southern gothic, fantasy, mystery, horror, and love story (with a bonus “hellcat” that deserves its moniker). Consider yourself warned: Starling House will grab its claws into you with its first sentence and not relinquish its hold until you turn the last page.
Horror like this isn't really my thing, but I feel like this is a very solid follow up to Shirley Jackson... and it makes a bit more sense.
Gothic, sort of haunted/sort of alive mansion plus shades of a Beauty and the Beast retelling? Yes, please, give me 800 more pages of it! It's just so nice to find a book that checks off LITERALLY ALL OF YOUR INTERESTS.
Rounded up from 4.5; Alix E Harrow did it again. Right away I loved the voice of Opal - strong, snarky, defiant, hard edged. I love the atmosphere created - you never really know if the house is scary and comforting and I found that lovely. I thought the pacing was perfect through out most of the book - the ending felt a bit rushed for me - but that didn't stop me from loving this book. This was a great read for October/November
3.5 stars rounded up for the ending. I admit I think this book started out a little slow. In my opinion, it wasn't in a slow burn kind of way, just a slow start. I'd say about halfway through it got more speed and ended great and excitingly.
It's been a long time since a book had me turning pages and wanting to ignore life to read it. Starling House is also exactly the type of story I was looking to read for autumn/fall...creepy, mysterious and atmospheric. I'm not a big horror fan, but I do love stories that are unsettling and mix the supernatural, folklore and fairytales. Although never stated, I felt there was a bit of a play on Beauty and the Beast, but in Harlow's hand it becomes a different and unique story. Her lyrical writing gives everything an otherworldly feel, most especially in respect to the house itself, which becomes a character in its own right and one I thoroughly enjoyed and loved. The mystery aspect is what had me reading every chance I could get, but the heart of the story is really about family and home. Complicated, messy and often what you make it, not what you're born into. There's a bit of romance. I thought I was over the brooding types, but apparently Arthur proved me wrong. But it never becomes tropey or ridiculous. It's a bit gothic mystery, a bit dark modern fairytale, a bit ghost story and overall just a great read! So many elements I love and though I still hold Harlow's The Ten Thousand Doors of January above this one and an all-time favourite, Starling House is certainly up there and I highly recommend it!
This was okay, but something was missing. I would have loved it if a POV from Eleanor was included.
The secret of the house isn't much of a secret, but the how to deal with it was what I wanted to discover. The way the secrets are unveiled and the layers are pulled back kept me listening to the audiobook. The sense of gothic darkness around the house definitely came through the audiobook as well. It is a great creepy book, but not as scary as I had hoped.
A girl ends up working for a dude in a spooky haunted house.
I don't want to give this a 3 because it's objectively not badly written, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone either? 3.5/5