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A review by mitzee
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Similar to the previous book I read from Harrow (The Once and Future Witches) I felt like this book was only okay and was more style than anything. It had a great set up but the resolution wasn’t very satisfying.
It took about halfway through the book to get to truly fantasy - which was what I was mostly interested in. Then it was mired in a lot of reality, just not where I was hoping it would lead.
Summary with spoilers for my own reference:
Opal and her brother Jasper are homeless “kids” (I think Opal is 20 something) who live in a small Kentucky town. They were never wealthy but their mom died about 12ish years ago in a car accident in the winter.
Opal takes a job cleaning this old beat up mansion, and was hired by some guy whose parents used to own the land but he had abandoned them and returned when they died. The house seems haunted but nothing bad happens to Opal.
She’s saving up the house cleaning money to send her brother to a private boarding high school. Opal and Arthur (the haunted house owner) have a strange relationship in which he tries to keep to himself and seems tortured in some way.
Eventually Opal is propositioned by some lawyer lady working for the power company who want to buy the land the house is on to mine it for coal. They start to give Opal money for pictures or notes/info about the house. being an opportunist she goes along at first but then she starts to feel bad and Arthur keeps doing nice things for her like giving her a wool coat and his old car, etc.
When she starts to pull back from the power company they threaten her and her brother. Anyway that’s the most boring part. The more interesting part is what happens with the house. It seems to be alive and seems to be the fulcrum of some mysterious power. All the previous homeowners and caretakers had dreamed about the house and were drawn there. They ended up taking the last name Starling.
It seems like the house is alive in its own way and brings people to it. It has whatever they seem to need. The lore is that the original owner and builder of the house was a woman who was to get married to a man and on their wedding day he died mysteriously and she inherited everything. Then she built this house. Arthur’s parents were there and fought back demons and monsters that came from the depths of the house. Like it was at the Hellmouth in Buffy and Arthur didn’t want to take this on but he ended up doing it when his mom and dad were killed by these beasts.
In the end we learn that the original owners soul was trapped in a river under the house and her imagination had created those monsters, the beasts that she cared for. And that the only thing that really happens is that the homeowners dreams cause the things. I don’t know how or why exactly it didn’t really make sense why her beats continued to exist and needed to be cut down and nobody ever tried doing something different. That’s where the book falls apart I feel and I was a bit disappointed at the end with the outcome. Opal basically figures it out, saves Eleanor (or puts her soul to rest) and saves Arthur and saves the house and the town and everything is fine.
It was a NICE ending but not what I was hoping for.
It took about halfway through the book to get to truly fantasy - which was what I was mostly interested in. Then it was mired in a lot of reality, just not where I was hoping it would lead.
Summary with spoilers for my own reference:
Opal takes a job cleaning this old beat up mansion, and was hired by some guy whose parents used to own the land but he had abandoned them and returned when they died. The house seems haunted but nothing bad happens to Opal.
She’s saving up the house cleaning money to send her brother to a private boarding high school. Opal and Arthur (the haunted house owner) have a strange relationship in which he tries to keep to himself and seems tortured in some way.
Eventually Opal is propositioned by some lawyer lady working for the power company who want to buy the land the house is on to mine it for coal. They start to give Opal money for pictures or notes/info about the house. being an opportunist she goes along at first but then she starts to feel bad and Arthur keeps doing nice things for her like giving her a wool coat and his old car, etc.
When she starts to pull back from the power company they threaten her and her brother. Anyway that’s the most boring part. The more interesting part is what happens with the house. It seems to be alive and seems to be the fulcrum of some mysterious power. All the previous homeowners and caretakers had dreamed about the house and were drawn there. They ended up taking the last name Starling.
It seems like the house is alive in its own way and brings people to it. It has whatever they seem to need. The lore is that the original owner and builder of the house was a woman who was to get married to a man and on their wedding day he died mysteriously and she inherited everything. Then she built this house. Arthur’s parents were there and fought back demons and monsters that came from the depths of the house. Like it was at the Hellmouth in Buffy and Arthur didn’t want to take this on but he ended up doing it when his mom and dad were killed by these beasts.
In the end we learn that the original owners soul was trapped in a river under the house and her imagination had created those monsters, the beasts that she cared for. And that the only thing that really happens is that the homeowners dreams cause the things. I don’t know how or why exactly it didn’t really make sense why her beats continued to exist and needed to be cut down and nobody ever tried doing something different. That’s where the book falls apart I feel and I was a bit disappointed at the end with the outcome. Opal basically figures it out, saves Eleanor (or puts her soul to rest) and saves Arthur and saves the house and the town and everything is fine.
It was a NICE ending but not what I was hoping for.