Preview
  • Starling House

  • A Reese's Book Club Pick
  • By: Alix E. Harrow
  • Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
  • Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (1,609 ratings)

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Starling House

By: Alix E. Harrow
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
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Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

“This book has everything you could possibly want this fall...a cursed town, a haunted house, a vivid & eerie setting—plus, characters willing to risk everything.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club October ’23 Pick)

Starling House is a gorgeous, modern gothic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

I dream sometimes about a house I’ve never seen….

Opal is a lot of things—orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier—but above all, she's determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago.

All she left behind were dark rumors—and her home. Everyone agrees that it’s best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur. Almost everyone, anyway.

I should be scared, but in the dream I don’t hesitate.

Opal has been obsessed with The Underland since she was a child. When she gets the chance to step inside Starling House—and make some extra cash for her brother's escape fund—she can't resist.

But sinister forces are digging deeper into the buried secrets of Starling House, and Arthur’s own nightmares have become far too real. As Eden itself seems to be drowning in its own ghosts, Opal realizes that she might finally have found a reason to stick around.

In my dream, I’m home.

And now she’ll have to fight.

Welcome to Starling House: enter, if you dare.

A Book of the Month Club Pick

An October 2023 Indie Next Pick

A LibraryReads October 2023 Hall of Fame Pick

Apple, Best Books of October

EW.com, Fall Book Must Reads 2023

Washington Post, Noteworthy Books for October

Paste Magazine, The Must-Read Fantasy Books of Fall 2023

PopSugar Best New Fantasy Books of 2023

BookPage, Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2023

Observer, Must-Read Books of Fall 2023

Polygon, 12 Best New SFF for the Fall

LitHub, October’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

Bookish, October’s Most-Anticipated Books

Gizmodo, October's Huge List of New Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2023 Alix E. Harrow (P)2023 Macmillan Audio
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Critic reviews

"As knife-edged and sharp as its protagonist...A smart, spectacular contemporary Gothic that will leave its roots in you and linger in your dreams."—Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

"Alix E. Harrow is an exceptional, undeniable talent, and Starling House, with its gentle reassurances of the homes we make and the love we deserve, is more than satisfying. It’s pure loveliness in book form."—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

"Gorgeous, poignant, and honest—an unforgettable read."—Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

What listeners say about Starling House

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Boring

I found this book boring, long and slow. It was not spooky or intriguing. I am not a fan not sure why everyone else thinks it is great. I can not recommend this book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Monster House: A Love Story

An engaging gothic fantasy horror! Although, I tend to enjoy more horror elements in my horror books, I found this book, perfectly lovely, and found myself unable to put it down. 

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect

Loved this book so much! A love story & woman rising from the ashes with some supernatural thrown in

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great “haunted house” book

Loved the overall feel and setting of the book. Meant to listen to it just in the car going to and from work, ended up finishing it in just a couple sitting. I love that the house is a character itself.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Creative with Refreshing Representation

Some of the themes are nods to more well-known concepts, symbology, and classic stories. While pleasantly predictable, they were brought to life through creative interpretations and interwoven storytelling. But what I enjoyed the most was representation of less-obvious groups marginalized bc of normative culture, beauty standards, sexism, racism, classism, inequity.

Both plus and minus RE pacing:
+ Around midway through the (audio)book, I was notably impressed to find very good pacing with plot thickening slowly but not too slow nor rushed.
- However i found the way certain aspects and explanations were resolved as more confusing and less engaging with the last few chapters feeling almost anticlimactic, oversimplified, and rushed.

But overall I so enjoyed how the writer created such palpable imagery and rapport between characters, with unexpected and refreshing acknowledgements of lesser-seen themes.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating

I stayed up into 0200.. I had to work the next day and be UP by 0500.. I couldn't stop listening. I was as trapped as Eleanor Starling.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect All Hallows Eve & Day of the Dead read

The narrator was fantastic & carefully selected for this novel for maximum effect. I found it to cover several genres namely horror, fantasy & romance. Worth the time & money/credit.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good but could have been great

I loved the actual plot or storyline (I’m from Kentucky) but I felt the fantasy part of the story wasn’t well developed or well written. Some things weren’t explained well and you just had to roll with it. The monsters, fighting the monsters and under land fell short and was overshadowed by Opal’s daily life and budding romance with Arthur. Even the house being somewhat alive and responsive to Opal was just accepted as normal day to day. Oh and I didn’t have to walk far because the house rearranged the rooms … oh well I’m gonna dust some shelves.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Intertextual Playground

I have an interesting relationship with Alix E. Harrow. I read “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” and loved it. Five stars. I DNF’d “Once and Future Witches.” Would you call it love/hate? I don’t know. All I can say is that I didn’t know what to expect from this book, and in a way, it was a tie breaker for me.

I loved it! I inhaled it. I think part of my enjoyment was pulling on intentional or unintentional intertextual connections. This book is giving Jane and Mr. Rochester, it’s giving Buffy, it’s giving Encanto, it’s giving Miss Havisham, it’s giving Alice in Wonderland, and I am here 👏🏻 for👏🏻 it 👏🏻. It had a nod to my boy Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Alix E. Harrow is clearly someone who enjoys reading as much as she enjoys writing and it was consistently evident in this book. I highly recommend.

I like Natalie Naudus’s performance. There were some times when I thought that the dialogue was spoken with more emotion than what the situation called for, but overall, she did great.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved the book, such a great story!!

I love not having to follow a long winding series for once, but this book really does have everything you could want. No sappy romance, I really don't get into that. This book has just the right amount.
It also feels very real. Like this maybe, possibly, could happen.
I did not like the narrator. Not so much that it threw me off, just thought I should include it. She was very sharp, but breathy. Just weird.

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