Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Starling House

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

269 reviews

alibraryinthegloaming's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

this book made me cry several times so you'd think it'd be a five star, but it didn't rattle me down to my bones and utterly capture my heart, hence the four stars.

also, Harrow's writing is EXQUISITE. i need to devour everything she's ever written expeditiously !!

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kaigar96's review against another edition

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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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