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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a book I picked up for a reading challenge, and didn’t really think much of. Needless to say (if you look at the star rating), my expectations were exceeded. Here I am, an European city girl, longing for the Kentucky countryside?? Just from the descriptions of the smells, the plants, the feel of a railroad bridge.
Reading reviews of this book, I see a certain split. If you want to read it, I think it’s extremely important to mention that this isn’t really a haunted house book. It seems that way from the blurb and the title, but it’s not. This is a modern fairy tale kind of book. Just a little gothier than what you usually see.
Almost all my most beloved books are heavy on belonging as a theme, and so is this. It’s a book about home. About finding one, making one, keeping one.
Home is where you are loved.
Reading reviews of this book, I see a certain split. If you want to read it, I think it’s extremely important to mention that this isn’t really a haunted house book. It seems that way from the blurb and the title, but it’s not. This is a modern fairy tale kind of book. Just a little gothier than what you usually see.
Almost all my most beloved books are heavy on belonging as a theme, and so is this. It’s a book about home. About finding one, making one, keeping one.
Home is where you are loved.
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found this book to be delightfully weird, satisfyingly eerie, and reminiscent of HP Lovecraft. And with that, it had a lot of excellent themes around family bonds, love and relationships and small town gossip!
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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
At some point I closed the book (maybe it was that day I was reading it on a bus or that day sitting in IKEA) and I just never felt like opening it again.
It happens sometimes.
The story was interesting
The writing was beautiful
I didn’t care about the characters though
It happens sometimes.
The story was interesting
The writing was beautiful
I didn’t care about the characters though
I truly don’t understand what about this book made me like it so much, but I really do. It was interesting and I never have read a book like this before.
I liked elements of the book and appreciated Opal by the end, despite not liking her.
Starling House begins as a tale of a small town's infamous haunted house with a creepy and mysterious past and ends as a compelling tale about finding a place - or person - to call home.
“To every child who needs a way into Underland. Befriend the Beasts, children, and follow them down.”
This book is a fantastic blending of gothic fantasy and mystery, with elements of romance - Alix Harrow is a fantastic storyteller and her prose creates an incredibly atmospheric tale along with characters who are fully developed, flawed, and relatable. The twists and turns of the plot kept me turning page after after, and I could not put this book down.
Some of my favorite quotes:
Star rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating:
“To every child who needs a way into Underland. Befriend the Beasts, children, and follow them down.”
This book is a fantastic blending of gothic fantasy and mystery, with elements of romance - Alix Harrow is a fantastic storyteller and her prose creates an incredibly atmospheric tale along with characters who are fully developed, flawed, and relatable. The twists and turns of the plot kept me turning page after after, and I could not put this book down.
Some of my favorite quotes:
“I have no home, no porch light. But I have what I need, and it’s enough. It’s just that, sometimes, God help me, I want more.”
“Drinking, because then be would sleep, and when he sleeps the House sends him dreams of her, of them, of a future they won’t have. How selfish, how fundamentally silly, that he should start wanting to live right when he ought to die.”
“Surely the precise shape of the wound doesn’t matter as much as how much they hurt, and whose hands dealt them.”
“They simply told themselves a different story, one that was easier to believe because they’d heard it before: Once there was a bad woman who ruined a good man. Once there was a witch who cursed a village. Once there was an odd, ugly girl whom everyone hated, because it was safe to hate her.”
“The only monsters here are the ones we make.”
Star rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating: