Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Starling House

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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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I actually really fucking enjoyed this???? Funny, sad, tense, mystical, with a smigde of vengefulness… delicious book

Opal was a funny as shit protagonist, and Arthur was so sad and pathetic in a very cute way. I love when men are described as ugly and annoying at first sight but by the end of the book your heart is like vVvVvV. do you get me

I also loved the narrative style; things were kept from Opal, but not from the reader; Arthur’s chapters were deliciously revealing while Opal still went 100mph towards answers. Loved it.

Jasper was sweet and made my older sister heart grow 3 sizes. your baby brother that you spent so long protecting becoming a protector in his own right is so !!! the sibling relationship was everything

Eleanor… my unhinged queen and ally white woman… incredible work

the funky little lesbians also made my day, Opal being the most oblivious straight to ever het only added to her charm lmao

10/10 read, buying this is print but thank you to BCPL for the ebook <3

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szuum's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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

4.0

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livlamentloathe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I think both the beginning and ending of Starling House were strong, but the middle really dragged along. There was a lot of back-and-forth between Arthur and Opal that could've been pared down. Of the 2 weeks I spent reading this, the first 65% I read in a couple days. Then the remaining 35% took a week and a half. I do think the narrator was part of my issue though. I just wasn't engaged by her reading.

I also wanted more of the book to touch on the racism Jasper faced in Eden. I wanted Jasper to better scold Opal for the way she ignored about that part of him. She made a comment later on that alluded to her getting it in part. But she also definitely was very forgetful of his race. The book itself barely even acknowledged his race. It took until the middle of the book for me to determine his ethnicity - maybe that's my bad and I missed an early tell. But I think overall, this book wanted to hide details and it didn't always handle that well. It would be evasive and add extra page time instead of being a bit more upfront about things. Maybe that was purposeful too with Opal's personality. But it felt like it was just trying too hard.

The premise felt like a cross between The Hazel Wood and Book of Night. I thought it was meant to be horror, but it wasn't horror so much as gothic. More of a magical realism/low fantasy romance. This book could've been great but I think it needed further editing and less evasive plot points. I get it. Most details were meant for "reveals" later but it became excessive when I got lost wondering what the point of the book was. Or what was going on period.

P.S. I'd have loved more of a violent ending for the Gravely family and Elizabeth Bane.

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thalassa_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-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

This is an amazingly written modern gothic story about finding beauty in the beastly, about learning to see the good in people and in yourself. The protagonist is a revelation, what an incredible character. I loved her voice, her development and the very slow-burn romance. Also remarkable prose, the descriptions and metaphors were often surprising but very visceral and fitting. I've seen this book described as somewhat of a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but while the story features an initially scary guy in a weird house, it's really the protagonist who discovers that she isn't the Beast she thought. I loved how she almost grudgingly realizes that there are people who care for her, and she doesn't have to stay behind her wall of self-sufficiency and hardness.
Also, the House!! It's amazing!

But I found the ending quite unsatisfactory. Central arcs that motivated Opal's actions were suddenly set aside, the previous villains didn't matter anymore. The story spent so much effort on showing injustice and cruelty but then turns around and seems to say, cocooning oneself away is the path forward. I don't understand what happened to the House and why but I didn't like it. And finally, the author seemed to shy away from showing actual happiness and found family, instead there was a weird epilogue written from a great distance. It's far too short and unemotional to wind down from the finale.

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erinreadsbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

3.5

My first reaction upon finishing this book is that it was way longer than it needed to be. I enjoyed the second half, which is where most of the plot occurs, but I was bored during the whole first half of the book, to the point where I was considering not finishing it.

Once the plot picks up around the 50% mark, it gets interesting and I began to get invested in the mystery of the house and the people surrounding it. I was entertained as Opal unraveled it but I must admit it was pretty frustrating that she withheld so much information from her brother with no real explanation. If it came from some sort of desire to have something for herself, it might have been nice for the author to have alluded to that, but without explanation it was almost infuriating that she wasn’t sharing this information she was finding out.

I liked all the secondary characters and I wish we got to spend more time with them, perhaps seeing more interaction with them in the first half to invest the reader a bit more.

Ultimately, the end was more or less rewarding as everything was revealed, but I wasn’t rooting for Opal as much as I was rooting for everyone else around her.

Read if you don’t mind slowly paced dark mysteries with light mythological elements.

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