Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Starling House

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

32 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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kaneebli's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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steph_weigle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? No

5.0

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otakatoe3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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kelisabeth's review against another edition

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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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_david_'s review against another edition

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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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