Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This was a good fall read for sure! I enjoyed the world building and thought it was very well written. The narrator did good as well.

I usually love a good spooky, family drama, but I could not get into this one. While I liked the idea of the book I found the characters unlikeable.

This was such an immersive, haunting, atmospheric read. You can always count on Harrow to deliver in story telling. We have a Cursed small town, spooked locals, misfit families, sibling relationships, a FMC with realistic baggage/flaws, a little romance, and spookiness. It was an excellent audiobook experience. My attention did seem to drift around the middle of the book. I had to rewind a couple times. Ultimately I don’t think this book is going on my favorite reread list, but I had a good time overall. Definitely recommend the audio version for this story. Gothic vibes all the way.

I can't even begin to express how much I loved this book. I immediately purchased the hard copy of it as soon as I finished. This was the perfect, fall read with just the right amount of horror and fantasy to keep me sprinting through it. This is a definite favorites list for me! I also went ahead and starting looking through this author's backlog by how blown away I was with this book!

It's not you, Starling House, it's me. For such a short book this audiobook took me SO long to get through. If I were the type to DNF a book I probably would have with this one.

The audiobook narration is fantastic, quite engaging throughout.

This book was a bit more weighted in the fantasy genre than I was anticipating, I'm not sure why, I thought it would be more of a mystery than fantasy but it's definitely not that.

The writing is strong and her imagery is amazing, but I didn't connect with the storyline until the book was almost over.

If gothic fantasy interests you, go read the reviews of others who like the genre more than I do.

5/5 stars

Hauntingly spooky with a touch of magic and monsters and a dash of found family, this is the PERFECT fall read.

This story has absolutely everything one could want in a dark fantasy: a children's book, a magic house, monsters in the night and the young people chosen to work together to fight them, all of the best found family vibes, and of course a hint of enemies to lovers.

Harrow has created a captivating tale of a world *just* close enough to reality to make one wonder if there really is more out there that we don't perceive. Naudus does a fantastic job narrating both POV's and has you sitting on the edge of your seat the entire time.

This was the perfect, gothic, atmospheric read for fall. It was eerie, but also laced with levity and humor. I loved the characters, especially Opal. She’s that morally grey MC that you can’t help but root for. The world building was superb. I could picture Starling House in my mind as I was reading. My only complaint is the footnotes. I’m not a fan of footnotes, especially in audiobooks. I think the story could have been told without them. Otherwise, this was a well crafted story, and one I’ll definitely be returning to.

Rating: 3.8 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 3/5
-Cover: 5/5
-Story: 4/5
-Writing: 4/5
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Gothic, Mystery, Romance
-Horror: 1/5
-Fantasy: 5/5
-Gothic: 5/5
-Mystery: 3/5
-Romance: 4/5
Type: Audiobook
Worth?: Yes

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

I had requested this book and was on the fence about it. I left it sitting and was going to pick it up later September but a woman on Tiktok said she wished she had picked it up sooner. That really had me curious. Do I agree with her? Kinda.

Where I did enjoy the story a lot as a whole I did have some annoyance with Opal, mostly, and a bit from Jasper. Opal could be a bit much and how she acted towards Arthur made my blood boil sometimes. As for Jasper. How he treated Opal sometimes annoyed me. Also this whole book felt like a NA/YA novel. For these people to be 26/27 and acting like they fresh out the womb... it was annoying.

Beyond that, the story was... so so good. Despite how I felt about Opal as a person I did cheer for her and Arthur a good chunk of the time. It was magical and gothic. It showed the ugly side of history. It showed how people are disgusting monsters when it comes to ownership and land. I really really do recommend this book.

🪞AUDIOBOOK REVIEW🪞

Starling House - Alix E. Harrow
Rating: 4.5/5

Thanks to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for my copy!

"This book has everything you could possibly want this fall...a cursed town, a haunted house, a vivid & eerie setting—plus, characters willing to risk everything." —Reese Witherspoon

This spooky, eerie gripped me from the first chapter. I loved the atmospheric writing. Based in rural Kentucky, it follows Opal, high school dropout, who is trying to make a better life for her brother. She’s really one of those characters that I instantly connected with - willing to lie, cheat or steal to survive. Her relationship with her brother was so tender and heartwarming.

While I did enjoy the spooky, Southern gothic haunted house part of the story, my favorite take away was the consequences that can happen when small towns collectively keep secrets. I thought Harrow did an excellent job with mixing in themes of poverty and generational trauma into a horror, fantasy setting.

Recommend if you like:
- Southern gothic
- A haunted house
- Towns full of secrets
- Slow burn romance
- Complex characters

I'm a sucker for a book that nestles in-universe information via things like Wikipedia excerpts and people telling stories to other people, so unsurprisingly, this ended up being incredibly up my alley. It's a combination of a story about the power of stories to shape a community, as well as an old school gothic romance set in a slowly decaying mining town. You've got a mysterious, quite probably haunted house, the mysterious young man who owns it, the strange happenings around it and the town itself, and a curious girl who has a wider tie to all of it that she's not necessarily aware of just yet, and the community and people around our protagonist. We also get a combo of first person and third person POV, which is just fun. This was mostly read on my commute to/from work, and it was something that gave me something to look forward to during the work day if nothing else. Plus, Rovinia Cai illustrations!! Definitely worth a read through when you can get your hands on it. Also Ms. Naudus does a great job narrating!

Starling House was an eerie, clever, and incredibly intriguing ghost story full of magic. I did not want to put this one down.

Fantastic writing! The story is woven together perfectly, with so many layers that keep the reader guessing and turning the page.

I listened to the audiobook. I listened at 1.5x speed (my normal is 1.75x speed) because I wanted to capture all the detail, and the main narrator speed seemed a bit faster than most adult books. I loved both the main narrator, and the secondary. They did a fantastic job!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced audio copy.

Starling House is a Southern gothic story that follows Opal, a young, poverty-stricken women in Eden, KY, scraping to get by as she cares for her teenage brother. She gets an opportunity to work at Starling House, a mysterious and infamously creepy place, that she’s been obsessed with since she was a child. Opal falls deeper into the mystery of the house and it’s owner as the story unravels.

This book sounds exactly like the kind of gothic fiction I usually love, and I did enjoy the main plot line and the house itself. What I didn’t connect with were the characters or the romance-while-in-peril side story.

I listened on audio as an ARC and I would not recommend it. The narrator was not a good fit for the character and had no hint of a rural Kentucky accent. As someone with in-laws from that area, I just couldn’t forgive the oversight.

This story is more grounded and gritty than any of Harrow’s previous works and while many readers will connect more with this, I did not. I’m here for the fantasy and escape.

While this not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, it was just okay for me. I will still read more from Harrow because I love her creative ideas.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Such beautiful writing, a bit spooky, a lot gothic, beautiful and atmospheric- the perfect pick for fall !
This book is an amazing slow-burn southern gothic/ urban fantasy/horror novel about a creepy house with a complicated history, a book about a book, an exploration on how history distorts the truth and is told by the winners, how poverty can be just as horrific and scary as the fantastical horrors plaguing this fictional town of Eden, Kentucky - or is it really a Beauty And The Beast retelling ?
Opal's character from start to finish was so incredibly written - a grumpy MC with crooked teeth hardened by years of not really being wanted anywhere, just tolerated. I feel that Harrow has truly nailed her flowery prose with this one - descriptive, emotive and atmospheric with a straight to the point plot.
Opal is in need of work to look after her little brother, but she is stuck in a dead end town dominated by a mine which poisons the water and the air and contributes to her brother's asthma and the need to get him out of there which requires money she doesn't have or can realistically earn with her measly retail hours. So when she's offered the job of housekeeper to an obviously haunted house, with a reclusive owner, she takes the offer. But her Heathcliff isn't brooding, he is determined, but what if the house has been calling for her?
I could not stop reading/listening to this book. Listening to the audiobook for this really immersed me in the world. It felt so atmospheric and gripping I sped through it in just two days!

This book has a little something for everyone: horror, fantasy, romance, thriller…. It would probably be a four star read if it wasn’t for the slow start. I almost stopped reading about half way thru, but I’m glad I stuck with it because it paid off in the end.

I love everything about Starling House, the gothic setting, the aching romantic B plot, and the hidden secrets in plain sight.

This book transported me and I adored every second of it.

All the stars go to Starling House, I will be dreaming of it for years to come.

If you are a fan of sentient houses, gothic settings, spooky vibes, and romance that makes you ache - read Starling House.

3.5 Stars
Love the concept

Opal's fascination with the Starling house started the moment she devoured E. Starling's spellbinding novel - The Underland. Each page filled her mind with vivid images of mystery and adventure, leaving her yearning for more. Now, years later, the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself, offering her a chance to not only come closer to the enigmatic Starling house but also to give her beloved younger brother a chance to leave this desolate town. Can she unravel the secrets shrouding the Starling house? Or has she embarked on a perilous journey beyond her imagination?

I must confess that it took me some time to get into the story. The initial half was a bit slow for my taste. However, things took a significant turn in the second half, where we were finally presented with answers and clues regarding the enigma of the Starling house. It was a surprising twist that I was not expecting.

Overall, an interesting read. Would recommend it to fans of horror and fantasy.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Alix E. Harrow, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

First thank you to Netgalley and the Author for allowing me to arc read this lovely book. This is solely my honest opinion and I haven’t been paid to make this review.

I loved the way the way this was written and had a spooky vibe to it on a “Goosebump” level. Being an adult, it fell a little short for me. I did enjoy the book and I would absolutely recommend the book and will be getting a hard copy for myself.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this book. I am a huge Alix E. Harrow fan, particularly of his fractured fables, and Starling House does not disappoint!

At Starling House, you can never be free from your past, and the truth is never as it seems...

In this Southern Gothic haunted house tale, we meet Opal, an impoverished girl who needs money to take care of her younger brother, and Arthur, who lives in a huge lonely house with a lot of secrets. Arthur is the last warden of the Starling family, and must battle the nightmares plaguing both the house and his family. But Opal has secrets of her own. What starts out as an employer-employee situation turns into a dark, spooky romance and an unlikely hero, with battles against monsters, and a whole lot of blood.

I loved everything about this story, from the plot, to the characters. The development of Arthur's character in particular was great to read. The audiobook was a great listen, and had the perfect pace and narration. It really transported me into the story! There were some definitely dark undertones in the story, slavery betrayal, female anger, and revenge, but everything came together beautifully into a haunting story that had you emotionally invested in the characters by the end.

I will definitely be recommending this book, both in audiobook and print form! Any fan of Gothic Horror will love it!

🖤🎃𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝑬𝒗𝒆🎃🖤

How is Halloween already, I’m not ready for October to be over!!

🥺

“𝑰 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏…”- 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆

If you are like me and will be continuing to read spooky books all the way till December, be sure to add STARLING HOUSE to your TBR! It was so good🥺👀☕️🤌🏻

👻𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄👻

Published Oct. 3rd, 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Audio narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
**highly recommend the audiobook🎧

It’s almost like a cross between adult fiction and YA so it’s on the lighter side of folklore and haunted myths but oh my gosh it was the perfect fall book. Contains: a gothic mansion (haunted of course), a cursed and sinful town, dark fairytales, and vivid dreams. PERFECTION🤌🏻

Have you read this one yet?! Do you plan to??

In a small town in Kentucky - Eden - everyone knows about the mysterious Starling house. Trash piles up for days. The Starling heir, Arthur, is supposedly living there, but is never seen. Opal starts having dreams about the house before she ever accepts the job offer to work there. She knows she's supposed to be there.

There she finds about the mysterious E Starling, who wrote about a mystical world called the Underland before disappearing forever.

I found this so engaging to listen to. I'm usually not a big history fan, but given that this is mostly a history set in present day, I was just so drawn into it. It's like a dark gothic fairy tale, and I loved it. It's definitely not traditional horror and I can understand why some reviewers are saying it doesn't really fit.

Even if you're not a big fantasy fan (I'm not either) give this one a chance.

Thank you Macmillan audio for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.