Starling House might be the most atmospheric novel I’ve ever experienced, made even better by reading in front of the fireplace. Though I think I'm a little scared of the fog now? If you've read the book, you know why. But honestly, the way Alix E. Harrow transports the reader to a small unfortunate town, Eden, and an unkempt manor, Starling House, is truly extraordinary.

“Starling House was no longer just a house. What had begun as stone and mortar had become something more, with ribs for rafters and stone for skin. It has no heart, but it feels; it has no brain, but it dreams.”

Eden is an old coal town known for a children’s book author who wrote about monsters and built an ostentatious house for herself. A house that has since then housed members of the peculiar Starling family. The current inhabitant is a young man called Arthur, who keeps himself apart from the townspeople such as our main character Opal.

Opal has had a lifelong fixation on the Starling House. She lives with her brother at a motel, working towards one and only goal: getting her brother out of Eden. An opportunity presents itself for Opal to work at the Starling House. She claims to do it for the money, but the house has an irresistible pull and slowly Opal starts to learn its secrets, and its warden.

In addition to the atmospheric writing, I found the characters great. I especially like Opal and her relationships to her brother and Arthur, and to the house of course. What I didn’t quite get on board with is the ending. It seemed too convoluted and I think something was lost trying to make it so epic and emotive, though the main reveal to the mystery of the house is satisfying.