Opal has been dreaming of Starling House, but the house seems to have dreams of its own… Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is a brilliant Gothic fantasy which came out earlier this month. With a sentient house, a cursed family, and long-buried secrets rising to the surface, this book puts Kentucky Gothic on the map.
Opal has two lists: her Wants and her Needs. The only thing on her Needs list is taking care of her younger brother Jasper. Her Wants list has been crumpled up and buried deep inside herself. Ever since their mother died when her car plummeted into the river, Opal has done whatever she had to—mostly lying, cheating, and stealing—to carve out a simple existence for herself and her brother in the small, backwoods town of Eden, Kentucky. Saving up money to get Jasper out of this town and on a path to a better life is the only thought that gets her through the days working at the Tractor Supply store. But at night, she dreams about Starling House, the large, decaying mansion at the edge of town where Opal’s favorite children’s book The Underland was written and where the last heir of a strange, reclusive family now lurks, getting up to who knows what sort of devilry. Arthur Starling is brooding, ill-mannered, and maybe a little insane, but when he offers Opal a job as a housekeeper she can’t resist the pull of the house. However, the more she learns about the house, about the Starling legacy, and about the bad luck that haunts the town of Eden, the more Opal realizes they are all tangled up together with her own past—and her future.
One of my favorite characters in this book is Starling House itself. After more than a century of serving as the focal point of supernatural activity, the house has acquired a certain level of sentience. It has a symbiotic relationship with the Wardens who live within it, although in Arthur’s case, the relationship can often be antagonistic as he grows to resent his role in the house and the tragic memories it holds for him. The house can alter its architecture and its grounds to protect itself from outsiders or appeal invitingly to friends. Opal immediately and naturally bonds with the house, even before she accepts the full extent of supernatural goings-on. Her first instinct is to pity and relate to the house as a fellow lonely and neglected creature. When the house frightens or frustrates her she talks to it, and as housekeeper she lovingly cleans and restores the rooms and furnishings. The house, meanwhile, repays her by opening locked doors, caressing her with sunlight and warm breezes, and offering up its secrets. There’s an extra temptation in this magical, magnificent house for someone who’s never quite felt like she had a home.
As is often the case in Gothic works centered on an old family home, legacy and identity are important themes in this novel. As an orphan with no known last name (her mother had a tendency to constantly invent new surnames on a whim), Opal struggles to figure out who exactly she is and where she belongs. The Starling name, meanwhile, is not one passed down by blood. Every few decades (usually after the previous Warden of the house dies a mysterious death), a stranger finds themself drawn to the house by their dreams and takes on the Starling name along with the duties of the Warden. The Starlings are often contrasted with the Gravelys, the most powerful family in Eden who view their surname as signaling a birthright to the land and its resources and anything else they want. As Opal learns, names can contain important information about one’s past, but they do not have to determine one’s future. Everyone has a choice in when to shoulder old legacies and when to start again new.
Starling House is a love letter to the Gothic genre, to old spooky houses, and to outcasts—I highly recommend checking it out! You can find the book on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve read it, drop your thoughts in the comments below!