Hardcover, 320 pages
English language
Published June 9, 2023 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom, Tor Books.
A grim and gothic new tale from 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 had: a home.
As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a …
A grim and gothic new tale from 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 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.
Creepy house, downtrodden town. Got to be a curse of some sort, right? Wonderful exploration into this set up.
Harrow also has a knack for putting her protagonists in inescapable peril. Which works only if you care for them, which you do. The path out of it is satisfying.
I really enjoyed this, the characters and twists and turns were all delightfully intriguing. Surprising while still believable (magically and hauntingly believable). The historical and sociological aspects of the novel contribute so much to this believability and add that subcontextual commentary that I so enjoy discussing and ruminating on after the fact. Small towns and all the challenges that come with living within, with, outside, and despite the socioeconomic, class, racial, and other such structures that are so prevalent within them….especially when they are ancient and deep.
Another little gem of a book that brilliantly plays with the tropes of the haunted house, a small town with too many sins and secrets and the power of stories and dreams. Gothic and lovely at the same time.
