Starling House is a gothic fantasy that barely dips its toes into horror. The prose and illustrations are beautiful and the characters are interesting, but there's not much plot depth. The pacing also felt somewhat off to me.

The romance was really sweet, but I think it developed too quickly on Opal's end.

Opal says she wanted Arthur before they kissed, but I didn't feel it. I would have liked some more yearning.

I also felt like the arrest/interrogation scene was 1) really unrealistic; it didn't make sense at all and 2) dragged on forever.

It would have made more sense for Baine and her cronies to use the fire as a cover to kidnap Opal, rather than have her arrested. Because there are too many unanswered questions otherwise. Why would the constable allow an outside agency to take his newly arrested suspect into an interrogation room alone? Why would the constable even think she was a suspect after Bev, the owner of the fucking motel, said Opal wasn't there? Why did the constable care about why Charlotte was there? DOES HE NOT KNOW THEM? IT'S A SMALL TOWN! Why would Opal think Baine had any chance of sending her to jail when there were multiple witnesses saying she wasn't there versus Baine's one planted witness? And there's video evidence of Baine buying matches at Tractor Supply?

The scene is just so poorly constructed for something that's supposed to be so pivotal.

Then, the ending felt really rushed,

as if Eleanor gave up because the author needed her to so the story could wrap up, and not because it was earned. It didn't feel natural. The characters didn't have any room to breathe once we got to Underland, which is a real shame

. The book needed to be much longer, or (ideally) split into a duology. Getting to the ending area should have been the first book, and

exploring Underland/winning over Eleanor should have been the second

.

One of my favorite things the author did was jump between first person POV for Opal and third person POV for Arthur. It really made each of them feel distinct, while leaving Arthur a little bit more of a mystery than Opal. It was perfect. I also kept imagining Cillian Murphy as Arthur, which was really fun.

The other things I liked include: all the Easter eggs for other books and media to find, the "This is the story of Starling House" sections and how they came together

just like that map of the Mississippi River

, and the "character" of the House itself.

I was also surprised to learn that this is much closer to reality than I was expecting. One of the footnotes mentions a song called Paradise, which I looked up on a whim and it turned out to be real (although the lyrics were slightly altered for this book). That led me down a rabbit hole where I learned about the Green River area of Kentucky and all the shady stuff coal companies did (and still do) there. It's super interesting, and if you liked the book, I bet you would find this all really intriguing too!

Overall, I really liked this book. It was a bit dense, so if you aren't much of a gothic and/or fantasy reader, it might be hard to get into, but I think it's worth it.

P.S. Listen to evermore by Taylor Swift while reading this. The vibes are immaculate.