A review by discarded_dust_jacket
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

First off, one thing that really worked for me about this book was the writing style. The author has this way of describing things that is both succinct but also really evocative. 

(On the topic of descriptions, I will say I got a bit annoyed at the sheer number of times we had to be reminded that the protagonists are like REALLY ugly, but, that’s not a super big deal I guess.) 

Secondly, I just thought the premise was really interesting. I love stories that center around houses, and a creepy, almost-sentient, potentially cursed house? I’m all in.

What didn’t necessarily work for me: often I find that when I’m reading fantasy/fantasy-adjacent YA stories, I have to remind myself over and over “these are children,” because they’ll be like, crime bosses and speak like adults (*cough* six of crows *cough*), but this story I had the opposite experience: for some reason, I kept having to remind myself “this isn’t YA; these are adults” again and again.

I think it was the plot elements. An impoverished, smart-mouthed, scrappy young criminal that has to do what it takes to raise their sibling on account of dead/absent parents reads very YA to me. (And I feel like Opal speaks a lot like a teenager too.) It was just something that took me out of the story every time I was reminded “oh that’s right, they’re meant to be in their mid-late 20s!” 

Overall, if I was rating the like, first 60-70% of the book, I’d give it a solid 4.25/4.5 stars. The pacing was admittedly really slow, but idk, I liked it (especially the slow-burn romance with the broody man alone in his old house; that’s my kryptonite). 

But the last quarter of the book I’d probably only rate like a 2.75/3. The part that was meant to be the most thrilling/climactic moment seemed to stretch on for way longer than it needed to and I just kept thinking “is it really not over YET?” which was disappointing. 

The big reveal is sort of just one long info-dump, but at the same time I also see WHY it was done that way given how everyone’s different partly-correct versions of the truth get peppered throughout the story. It was like at the end the actual truth had to be laid out in a similar manner. But it still felt a bit… idk, lazily tacked on?

So… mixed feelings! Lol.
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