Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

 

Summary (from the publisher): A grim and gothic new tale from New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared.

Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

Review: Opal has had a grim childhood in Eden, Kentucky. Raised by a single mother who died when Opal was still young in a car crash, Opal has been responsible for her younger brother Jasper and the pair live in a hotel room. The only thing their hometown is known for is the reclusive E. Starling, an author and illustrator from the nineteenth-century who disappeared after the release of her one and only book. But before she left, Starling House appeared. Despite warnings to leave it alone, Opal feels drawn to the house and its mysterious occupant, Arthur Starling. But an unexpected job offer gives her a chance to explore the house and earn income she desperately needs. 

This felt like the perfect October read. A spooky haunted house with a mysterious occupant and an eerie backstory were very compelling. There were a few very creepy scenes, most notably Opal's first interaction with Arthur was so unsettling, as she is yanked towards the house's gate. It was hard for me to transition from this creepy scene to seeing Arthur as a love interest. He just gave me the creeps. I also found the mixed messages from the house confusing. At times the house is evil and bad, harboring horrible demons in its basement, ripping into Opal's arm, trapping its guardian against its well. But in other ways the house is almost a benevolent spirit, rearranging things at will and making things easier or harder for its occupants based on its mood. 

The plot of this just didn't work for me. Arthur desperately wants to save Opal from a similar fate, trapped in the house, and yet invites her in to give her a job? He tells her to run and never come back, but then continues to open the door. Opal supposedly lives and breathes for getting her brother out of their poverty-stricken lifestyle but is saving for a school where he would be miserable. How could she know and understand him so little? The great reveal of why the house has been haunted all this time just felt underwhelming to me as well. 

Also, what was with Opal's weird smile? Multiple times, she references that she could tell by the other person's reaction that she has given them her real smile, which she describes as "crooked" and "mean." At first, it made sense because she was smiling at someone she disliked. But later, she gives this smile to Arthur. It felt like an odd detail, almost suggesting that Opal herself is flawed and dark inside, which is not the impression I got from her character, rather that she was an innocent caught in the tangled web of the house and its dark history. 

Stars: 3