A review by destiniev
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

 Rep: Bi MC, queer secondary characters, BIPOC secondary characters 
Format: Physical
Rating: 5⭐️ 
Cawpile: 9.07

Quote: “I know that part of the story must be made up, because there’s no such thing as curses or cracks in the world, but maybe that’s all a good ghost story is: a way of handing out consequences to the people who never got them in real life”

Starling House is a story about stories. Stories that get remembered, stories that get forgotten, stories that get twisted and rewritten for the benefit of others and stories that can heal. Starling House is a ghost story and a fairytale and it’s about the people who live in them. 

Starling House is full of beautiful pros and is in its essence a dark fairytale. 

I think if you go in expecting a horror or even a gothic horror you will be disappointed. It’s more reminiscent of Nettle & Bone with the whimsical feel to it. In fact for me Starling House feels like a dark fairytale version of Casita in Encanto. 

I overall really enjoyed this story. I fell in love with Starling House itself and loved Arthur’s character. I liked seeing a darker side of the small towns trope and the realities of what it means to be different in a small town. Not the romanticized versions we usually see in fiction. I also like reading about how one can feel trapped in the stories they create about themselves and how to move through that and how we can rewrite our stories. 

I feel that if you are a fan of T.Kingerfishers’s style of dark fairytales then you may enjoy Starling House. 
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