Starling House

"I don't think I liked this book as much as the other two I've read by this author but I did enjoy it! I love books where the house is almost another character. "

"Spooky, heartfelt, interesting with an unconventional romance. Love this author!"

""People like me have to make two lists: what they need and what they want. You keep the first list short, if you’re smart, and you burn the second one." - Opal <strong>Starling House</strong> This is a wonderful, multi-faceted book. I love that the main characters are not attractive. It makes them even more real. Opal is independent to a fault. She has only one thing she cares about in the world- her brother and getting him out of Eden. By the end of the book, you know Opal and Arthur so well you guess their reactions (in a good way. Not predictable because neither Opal nor Arthur are predictable. You just intuit their reactions based on how well you know them.) The world building is amazing. Starling House is something else. From the Iron gates to the amber lit window, to the driveway that becomes shorter or longer depending on who is approaching the house,..... The Starling House is definitely not your ordinary house. This is a book about relationships, about putting others before yourself, about feeling stuck, and about dreams. A definite must-read."

"This book was so so good I loved everything about this story."

"It's a hauntingly beautiful book with an intriguing, fresh plot (despite this whole haunted house theme) and amazing characters. Everything makes sense, and the plot twists are fantastic, but it's a very dark and very cruel book that has made me feel hollowed out many times. There's not much gore, for instance, but the plot is built on themes of depression and physical and emotional hunger. The main villain made me so angry I felt 0 happiness even after I found out the characters got their happy endings. It's a great book, but please look up all trigger warnings before you decide to read it, even if it might mean getting a little spoiled."

"Did not finish. I got about a third of the way through. The editor wasn't doing their best with this one. Basic grammatical and syntactical errors abound. The narrative isn't terribly compelling. It's about as interesting as your typical IP-based creepypasta, with this one being based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Keeping with the creepypasta comparison, this book is even written in the first-person-present tense (except for brief sequences written in third-person-present, which might be an even stranger creative choice), and I'm pretty sure that I can tell where the narrative is going, already. But, look, let's be honest. I'm a thirty-four year old man. I'm probably not this book's target audience, anyway. "

"I grabbed this off the lucky day shelf at my local library thinking it would be a good book to start the spooky season. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me. It definitely had the spooky vibe but just did not hold my attention. It felt too long and I never really felt connected to the story or the characters. The ending felt anticlimactic for my taste. Many others have really enjoyed this book. Take a look at the synopsis and decide if it sounds like a good fit for you."

"The was my October BOTM and my first novel by Harrow. I had no expectations going into this novel but I was immediately blown away by Harrow’s writing style. I loved the setting, the characters, and the story line so this was a trifecta for me. It also reminded me a lot of Ninth House which is one of my favorite novels I have read this year. Taking all of that into consideration, this book was a 5/5⭐️ for me. "

"This book was a wonderful spooky edition to the season. I really enjoyed it. I found the characters to be well flushed out and the story to keep me fully engaged. The story telling in this book was absolutely amazing. I found myself wanting to rush through to the end because I wanted to see the conclusion and how the characters faired out. Although there are really only two main characters, all of the characters felt like they provided another layer to the story. The book is told like a true story and truly makes you believe it. For reference the town is built off the back of coal miners, and the corruption of how the coal mines came to be. Yet the big mining company has a quite devilish past that seems to be covered up by lies, secrets, and money. Although the book has a lot of magic aspects included in the story, the underlying lives of the characters are very believable and came alive on the pages. The struggles of the characters and how it transformed how they react was very believable. I loved the storyline, at no point in the book did I feel like it was lacking in suspense. The book kept me fully engrossed from start to finish. Although the characters often GOT ON MY NERVES, they were very strong willed and really progressed and advanced the narrative in a new way. I’m very happy that I picked this book up. If you’re looking for a real story line with the addition of magic elements and a deep, dark past for the characters as well as a town, this book will be wonderful for you. It’s a gothic fantasy, it’s spooky and suspenseful but not very gory or like jump scare-ish. I definitely recommend."

"Intriguing gothic fantasy reminiscent of a combo of The Hazel Wood and Gallant. An entertaining book about an unusual house with a mysterious past, and the woman who attempts to unearth its secrets. "