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A review by knkoch
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I think the strongest thing about this novel is the specificity of the sense of place. This reminds me strongly of Demon Copperhead and the video game "Night in the Woods" in the way it evokes a particular sort of American city: an Mideast, working class mining town where the large corporations with mineral rights have extracted and exploited everything they can from the land. The mining operations are winding down, the jobs are scarce, and the air and water quality are shit. But the only people left to breathe the air and drink the water are poor and disempowered politically, so the best thing they can do is leave town. Of course, leaving either requires a good education (hard to come by at underfunded schools) or money, but usually both. The characters living in Eden are mostly decent or normal people stuck in a place with few opportunities, and the idea of Starling House, its legacy of guardians, and the story its a part of all fit pretty well within a town like this. It was satisfying the way the story kept digging deeper and deeper into the greater history of the whole region, especially reading it in 2025 when there's such a strong aversion nationally to grappling with unpleasant histories and difficult truths. 

The weakest thing about this book for me was the prose style. I don't always mind ornate or decadent writing, but this just missed the sweet spot. I found myself reading rather quickly to cut through the stylisitc writing to move forward in the plot. I guess it just didn't charm me as much as it was trying to. But I liked Arthur and Opal and Jasper. The pacing was a little uneven at times, I suppose, but overall it was an interesting read. 
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