Reviews

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

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booksnapsandcatnaps's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

"Starling House" by Alix E. Harrow is a captivating gothic fantasy that weaves together themes of power, family, love, and the search for belonging. Set in the eerie Starling House, this book reads like a cozy gothic fairytale, drawing readers into its mysterious and atmospheric world.

Despite the protagonists being adults in their mid-to-late 20s, the story has a youthful feel, which may be off-putting to some readers. At times, I thought the characters were teenagers, which slightly impacted my immersion in the story.

The pacing in the first half of the book is quite slow, which made it challenging to get fully invested in the story. However, the second half picks up significantly, drawing readers deeper into the mystery of the Starling House and its secrets. The gradual unraveling of the house's mystery was both surprising and satisfying, adding depth to the narrative.

One of the highlights of the book is the development of the characters, particularly the protagonist, who starts off as a "tougher-than-nails" heroine but gradually lets her walls down, especially in her relationship with Arthur. However, Arthur himself felt stale and lacking in depth, which was a bit disappointing. The romance between Opal and the warden of the Starling House felt somewhat rushed and like an afterthought, but it still had its endearing qualities.

Overall, Starling House is a compelling read that combines mystery, romance, and fantasy elements. While the pacing may be a bit slow at times, and some characters could have been more developed, the story is engaging and full of surprises, making it a worthwhile read for fans of gothic fiction.

jcmull's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

meturner10's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

mariethepotato's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Alix E. Harrow blends stories and truth in a way that is lovely, nostalgic and heartbreaking. Her books reminds me of who i was, so many years ago, when i fell in love with reading.
Her stories might not be perfect, have some unimportant flaws, but the truth that lies in her words stays with you long after you've finished reading.
I am grateful for the journey.

bookdragon2802's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lines__lines's review against another edition

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3.0

This took me a little bit to get into, but I ended up enjoying this overall. The house that has grown some sentience and functions as both "eldritch being" and "beloved dog" sort of characters is equally gothic and charming. I'm always a fan of clever architecture. There's nods to Greek mythology and Beauty & the Beast throughout the book, as well as the narrative device of overlapping different versions of oral history and local mythology to arrive at a fuller picture of the truth. I like the layers of stories and tropes woven subtly in, and that the text is clever enough to self-reference the original myth/fairy tale without drawing too much attention the ways they get re-purposed. It also builds its own mythology to peel apart the layers of.

The dynamic between Opal and Arthur was the main character focus (hope you like slow burns, hoo boy, it buuuurns but sloooow), but I appreciated that there was also an underlying theme of found family and making homes where you are loved. I wished that we had gotten a little more with her brother, Jasper, who, though his well-being is Opal's primary justification for many of her decisions, is actually absent for most of the novel. I would have liked more sibling time overall.

Other nit-picks include: didn't love Elizabeth Baine, the villain hired by the Gravely power (mining) company. She was too sleek and inhuman when a perfectly normal sleek shitty human would have done equally well,

and the implication that her company was in it for the access to magic never really got resolved?

Also never resolved is who's writing the footnotes. Their inclusion raised questions early on that were unnecessary (like, what is this text? why does it have footnotes?), and made me think that Opal was an unreliable narrator at first. Which, she's maybe not entirely reliable, but she is telling the truth. Because she lies about her age, I did have some confusion for quite a while about everyone's age and when her mom died

(mom had Opal at 16 [1993, but in a 1994 corvette bc cars are dumb like that], her brother 10 years later, and died 5 after that)

. I think the footnotes were trying to clear that up somewhat, but the text ended up doing a better job in the end, and I don't know that the footnotes really provided enough extra context that wasn't already included in the (very good) world building in the main narrative. This early questioning of text format also led me to wonder why Arthur's chapters were in third person? It's really Opal's narrative, so though I like having Arthur's chapters, they seemed a bit out of place.

Overall, I'd rec this book for the weird house, the slow burn relationship, and for fans of books that make use of myth and folklore.