Starling House - by Alix E Harrow

About the Book

"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 had: a home. As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice: 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."--

Book Synopsis

A gorgeously modern gothic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY.

I dream sometimes about a house I've never seen....

Opal is a lot of things--orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier--but above all, she's a determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago.

All she left behind were dark rumors--and her home. Everyone agrees that it's best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur . Almost everyone, anyway.

I should be scared, but in the dream I don't hesitate.

Opal has been obsessed with The Underland since she was a child. When she gets the change to step inside Starling House--and make some extra cash for her brother's escape fund--she can't resist.

But sinister forces are digging deeper into the buried secrets of Starling House, and Arthur's own nightmares have become far too real. As Eden itself seems to be drowning in its own ghosts, Opal realizes that she might finally have found a reason to stick around.

In my dream, I'm home.

And now she'll have to fight.

Welcome to Starling House: enter, if you dare.

Review Quotes

"Alix E. Harrow is an exceptional, undeniable talent, and Starling House, with its gentle reassurances of the homes we make and the love we deserve, is more than satisfying. It's pure loveliness in book form." --Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

"Gorgeous, poignant, and honest--an unforgettable read." --Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

"As knife-edged and sharp as its protagonist...A smart, spectacular contemporary Gothic that will leave its roots in you and linger in your dreams." --Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

Praise for Alix E. Harrow

"Devastatingly good, a sharp, delicate nested tale of worlds within worlds, stories within stories, and the realm-cracking power of words." --Melissa Albert, New York Times bestselling author, on The Ten Thousand Doors of January

"One of the most unique works of fiction I've ever read." --Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author, on The Ten Thousand Doors of January

"I couldn't put it down." --Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M, on The Ten Thousand Doors of January

"One for the favorites shelf... Here is a book to make you happy when you gently close it. Here you will find wonder and questions and an unceasingly gorgeous love of words which compasses even the shape a letter makes against a page." --NPR on The Ten Thousand Doors of January

"A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word, and the power of many kinds of love." --Kirkus Reviews on The Ten Thousand Doors of January

"A breathtaking book-brilliant and raw and dark and complicated. It's also, to be blunt, uncannily relevant." --Sarah Gailey, author of Magic for Liars, on The Once and Future Witches

"This book is an amazing bit of spellcraft and resistance so needed in our times, and a reminder that secret words and ways can never be truly and properly lost, as long as there are tongues to speak them and ears to listen." --P. Djèlí Clark, author of The Black God's Drums, on The Once and Future Witches

"This is a delightful, satisfying novel, a tale of women's battle for equality, of fairy tales twisted into wonderfully witchy spells, of magics both large and small, and history re-imagined. All of it is told in Alix Harrow's exquisite language and with her vivid characterizations-a great pleasure to read." --Louisa Morgan, author of A Secret History of Witches, on The Once and Future Witches

"A brilliant dazzle of a book. This story of sisters and witches, memory and power cracked open my heart and set down roots there. I devoured it in enormous gulps, and utterly loved it." --Kat Howard, author of An Unkindness of Magicians, on The Once and Future Witches

"A love letter to folklore and the rebellious women of history." --Publishers Weekly, on The Once and Future Witches

About the Author

Alix E. Harrow is the Hugo Award winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, and various short fiction. Her Fractured Fables series, beginning with the novella A Spindle Splintered, has been praised for its refreshing twist on familiar fairy tales. A former academic and adjunct, Harrow lives in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids