Reviews tagging 'Death'

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

114 reviews

kaigar96's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I really really wanted to like this Starling House. And I did, for the first few chapters. Unfortunately, it just fell flat.

Starling House is a fascinating idea for a story: a gothic house, a disappearing author, a town rooted in mystery and secrets. All the ingredients sound like the recipe for the perfect fall book, but they just weren’t enough. 

Each chapter followed the same format (Opal goes to clean the house, Arthur is broody, Opal goes home to her life of misfortunes, Opal loves her brother) and repeat. For a book that was just over 300 pages it felt far too long and could’ve been, honestly, 100 pages shorter. By 200 pages in, I wanted to put it down and forget about it. 

Let’s talk about why the book wasn’t enough for me:

• Footnotes: an interesting writing technique, but wasn’t used consistently. I don’t understand why an author would use footnotes and then stop stop about half way through. 
• Romance: if there’s going to be a romance, there needs to be more to make to me care. Or use none and keep it as a friendship. 
• Characters: if these characters have a hard life, show don’t tell. I get it, they live in a motel. I get it, she works hard. But show some of these scenes more to make me care about them. 
• Themes: the book follows interesting themes about marginalized peoples, slavery, etc. but I wish it was incorporated more organically, especially in the beginning. I felt like there was almost too much exposition towards the end to tell us how these characters and their experiences intertwine. 

To me, Starling House suffered from first draft syndrome. It had everything I love in books, but just wasn’t executed in a way I  could love.  I recommend trying out the first few chapters. If you’re really interested and don’t find the pacing too slow, then this might be for you. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

The author deals with serious topics such as

slavery, incest, child marriage

but doesn’t delve into them as much as I would like. Personally, I felt it didn’t respect these topics as it should have.

kiragreads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

maresuju's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Incest, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Slavery

nukie19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content and Injury/Injury detail

fran_buesa's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Vomit, Car accident, and Death of parent

snickies's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, and Vomit

echolliot's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Grief, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

kelisabeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jennabi8's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

A five⭐️ because I can’t give it a 4.5⭐️  but I don’t believe it’s a 4⭐️🤷‍♀️  don’t be detoured by warnings. It’s all very brief and not the main focus of the book!
This book is UNIQUE, in my opinion! The story is creatiiiivvve; sorry no spoilers here! The gothic and dark ambience of the town is written so consistently, it really sets and keeps the tone of the book! The chosen words and descriptions were, again unique, and align with theme so well. I genuinely enjoyed this book, its story and its unique energy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

_david_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book reminds me of Life is Strange 3: True Colors. If you enjoyed either, you will also enjoy the other.

I thoroughly enjoyed the logic used by the characters in the book. If they're acting irrational or making assumptions, they're aware of it and/or it's challenged later on. For a second I thought a cliché (key location hidden in plain sight) would be dragged out, but then a main character just plainly said "of course I already looked there, duh" a few pages later.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the house. It reminded me of Encanto's house but in a horror setting. You'll probably enjoy the characters if you like YA's. They have a lot of growth to do with big impacts of their lives. At certain moments, the main character's self-pity annoyed me and

she never seemed to get that it was selfish to push so much of her own identity and values onto her brother

. Some of the antagonists are just almost pure evil without nuance, so you'll have to be okay with that.

The big lessons are a bit obvious in the book, but the main character actually points it out and sounds like she needs it, so I don't mind it as much.

A warning to people with trauma related to drowning or corruption (e.g. being blackmailed). Both are big themes in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Incest, and Slavery

Drowning, water Mines, claustrophobia Corruption: blackmailing, bribing, rich people fucking over local area/nature/people for the sake of earning more money