I love a good creepy Gothic romance (or Gothic suspense) so I was excited to try this Reese’s Book Club pick! What did I think? Check out my review of Starling House by Alix Harrow
Starling House could be for you if you love
- Tragic (yet spunky) orphans
- Creepy, possibly haunted houses
- A slightly off-kilter romance
- Themes of class disparities and corporate greed
- A Beauty and the Beast vibe
The Who What When on Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Published on October 3, 2023 by Tor Books
320 pages
I checked this book out of the library and read it in November 2023
Starling House is an interesting and quirky book
It’s definitely a gothic tale that, like many gothics, incorporates romance, suspense and paranormal elements.
Starling House takes place in Eden Kentucky, a coal mining town where two orphans struggle to get by. Opal lives with her smart and irreverent younger brother Jasper in a hotel room. She’s desperate to raise the money she needs get him out of his local public school (where the kids tease him for being half Mexican) and into a private school.
Enter Arthur, who seems as stuck in crumbling, creepy Starling House as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. He hires Opal to clean (?) the house. Other characters include a snarky librarian, and an evil corporate schemer.
Arthur May Be a Beast, but Opal’s No Beauty
If you’re tired of characters who have no idea how attractive they are, these two will be a refreshing change. I was laughing at the way these two described each other:
Opal on Arthur: “His face is all hard angles and sullen bones split by a beak of a nose, and his hair is a tattered wing an inch shy of becoming a mullet.” Be still, my heart!
Arthur on Opal: “a freckled scarecrow of a girl with crooked teeth and holes in the knees of her jeans, utterly unremarkable except for the steel in her eyes.” Okay, then.
Opal’s job tidying up the decrepit Starling House is a BIG one (she’s well read and makes a joke about cleaning out the Augean stables.) But she needs the money for Jasper.
What Are Readers Saying About Starling House?
With a 3.9 Goodreads rating, this book, which was picked by both Book of the Month and Reese’s Book Club, is hitting home with readers, who praise its atmospheric quality.
Some have loved it wholeheartedly. Those that didn’t either found the first half of the book slow, or said that the second half drags.
What Did I Think of Starling House?
I loved the first half more.
I was drawn in right away by the quirky narration, complete with footnotes and asides on the history of the town and of the house. Like another book I recently posted about on my YA blog, Starling House includes a story-within-a story concept, incorporating a fictional book called The Underland by Eleanor Starling, about a girl who discovers another world (a bit like the Upside Down in Stranger Things.)
Opal had a sly humor that I loved. She puts Arthur as “Heathcliff” in her phone contacts.
But I feel like the second half of the book got far more predictable, leaning into some very common YA paranormal tropes.
Is Starling House a YA Book or an Adult Book?
It was technically published as an adult book and he characters are in their early twenties. There’s no explicit or violent content that would make it anything above a PG rating. Starling House seems to fall into a crossover category designed to appeal to both actual teens and adult readers of YA.
Will You Like Starling House?
If you are looking for a swoony gothic “hot guy in an old house” romance, no. This is not your mother’s Victoria Holt style gothic romantic suspense. If you feel like “gothic” is an aesthetic rather than a literary genre, possibly not.
But if you are a fan of classic gothic novels like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, I think you’ll enjoy the way Starling House brings a well-loved subgenre into the 21st century.
Atmospheric, quirky, and filled with ideas, Starling House will appeal to fans of YA authors like Lauren Blackwood, Maggie Stiefvater, or April Genevieve Tucholke and readers of adult authors like Lauren Groff.
Have you read this? Talk to me in the comments!