Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️
Plot: 📚📚📚📚
Format: 🎧
POV: Dual


🕊️ ➞ Tropes:

🏚️👻Haunted House 👻🏚️
🧞‍♀️🧚💕Romantasy 💕🧚🧞‍♀️
😒👫Forced Proximity👫😒
☠️ Morally Grey MMC ☠️
🐌❤️‍🔥Slow Burn ❤️‍🔥🐌
🧿Chosen One 🧿


🕊️ ➞ Plot Breakdown & Commentary:

Opal had been plagued by dreams of the Starling House since she was a little girl and her mother read her the children’s book authored by the elusive former owner, Eleanor Starling. Now at twenty-six, Opal and her younger brother were orphaned after the death of their mother and struggled to make ends meet as Opal worked to get Jackson out of Eden.

Growing up, the townspeople were either tight-lipped about the Starling House or spread hushed stories and rumors about the horrible things that were legend to have happened in that house.



When Opal’s mother died in a car accident which Opal survived, she stopped reading The Underland and kept her mindless fascinations to herself. But Starling House wouldn’t let her go that easily and continued to haunt her dreams.

Built-in the 1860s, The Starling House was a beautiful gothic mansion clouded by foliage and an iron gate that never opened. Not much was known about the Starlings in Eden, well the newer Starlings, that is. Everyone knew about Eleanor Starling, the younger girl who was believed to have something to do with her husband and brother-in-law’s death. The girl who inherited the Gravely land and fortune, while the Coal mine and business were left to the rest of the Gravelies.

On her walk home one evening, Opal could see the house sparsely and pressed herself further against the iron gate. When she cut her palm, she looked up and suddenly there was the heir to Starling House, Arthur Starling.

After promptly freezing up, Arthur looked over at her palm and then roared for her to run. The next day the gates opened for her and she knocked on the front door using an excuse to ask to see the house.



He declined but I guess he felt enchanted by her so offered her a housekeeping job instead… ???



Shortly after she started the job, Opal began to realize that the house had a mind of its own. Arthur mostly kept to himself and only really spoke to Opal to hand her the day’s pay each night. Slowly they began to talk and Opal lingered around the house at the end of her shift. They each felt a draw to each other and one night Opal witnessed Arthur fighting off a nightmarish creature with a sword.



Down the rabbit hole, she went. Turned out each Starling family member wasn’t blood-related. The house chose them as its warden by coaxing them with dreams and visions. It was the warden’s job to keep the mist at bay and fight off the demons that came through each night. The house sat on a portal to a nightmarish realm where horrible bloodthirsty creatures slipped through. Only when the current warden fell did the next warden get called to serve.

As Opal uncovered more and more about the Starlings, we learned about Eleanor’s story as told by the townspeople. Eleanor Starling was a young girl who appeared in town out of nowhere. Soon after her arrival, she married the oldest Gravely boy. Gravely family were wealthy miners in Eden and owned the town’s mining company. After their nuptials, Mr. Gravely was found dead on the side of the road in town. After his death, Gravely left his fortune and home to Eleanor. The remaining Gravely brother inherited the family’s business. Eleanor eventually had the Starling house built on her former husband’s land and no one in town ever saw her again. She only remained relevant in Eden after she wrote a book about the Starling House and the monsters haunting it.

As the plot progressed, Arthur was determined to be the last warden of Starling House. He planned to enter Underland and seal the rift. Opal wouldn’t let that happen. But to enter Underland you had to drink special water and fall into a deep sleep, for Underland is a world of dreams.

When Opal entered Underland, she tried to aid Arthur as he fought a creature but was lured to Eleanor, who lived in a replica of Starling House. As the two sat and Opal asked for mercy, Eleanor told Opal the real story of her and the Gravelies.

Eleanor was actually Gravely born. Her father, the eldest of the three Gravely brothers, married her rich mother and ran away with her dowry. Eleanor was born in the spring of 1851. Eleanor’s mother never spoke of her father and Eleanor never asked. When her mother passed away from cancer, Eleanor was shipped to Eden, Kentucky, and forced to live with her father. The Gravely brother did well off of her mother’s money and ran a successful mining business. But they weren’t always wise businessmen. They owned a big house in town along with loads of acres and a cage of European Starlings.

Eleanor’s father and uncles, John and Rob, were very evil men and abused her two ways to Sunday. They kept her locked in their home and the only reason the townspeople knew she was a Gravely was because the eldest Gravely picked her up at the train station and called out her name. Eleanor dealt with the abuse by dreaming up Underland and when she told the creatures of her nightmares the sins of her father, they sought vengeance.

After her father was found dead, it was revealed that he left everything to Eleanor and nothing to his brothers. With her eighteenth birthday approaching, John had the sick idea to marry her as a way to keep the money for himself.



On the day of her wedding, Eleanor released the birds into the woods and attempted suicide before she met the boatman he convinced her to let the Underland creatures give her uncles their comeuppance.

She went through with the marriage and went it came time to consummate, she fled to the river and entered Underland just like the Boatman showed her. When Eleanor told the beasts about her uncle, the creatures fled and returned covered in blood, she cleaned them and eventually returned to her realm and underwent investigation before being cleared.

She had Starling House Built and remained at peace with her uncle Rob until he got greedy and Eleanor lost all faith in humanity. She sicked the beasts on him too as well as all townspeople who knew of the abuse and turned a blink eye for the right price. Eleanor cursed them and all their descendants.

Opal was able to comfort Eleanor and help her heal. The curse lifted and Eleanor’s spirit moved on and Underland was transformed into light and the creatures turned into docile animals.

Arthur and Opal lived out most of their lives in Underland with the occasional visit back to the real world. The story concluded happily yet yearning.




🕊️ ➞ Closing Thoughts:

Little slow-moving, loved the footnotes, great world-building, fade-to-black romance, and a HEA. I loved the structure of the book and the way the author wrote in the footnotes to help build the world of Eden. Bravo.

I definitely recommend Starling House if you’re looking for a gloomy spooky fantasy with a splash of romance.

Have you read Starling House? If so, comment your thoughts below!


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