Welcome to Starling House. It’s creepy, it’s decrepit, it’s probably cursed. It sits in the middle of Eden, Kentucky, a small town plagued by mysterious deaths and disappearances. 

Come for the spooky house, stay for the incredibly dark, romantic, contemporary southern gothic fairy tale that swirls and twists and spins like a murmuration of starlings. 

Alix E. Harrow’s latest novel is Beauty and the Beast meets The Haunting of Hill House. The main character is neither the feisty Opal who will do whatever it takes to get her brother out of Eden, nor the trauma-laden, rarely glimpsed Arthur Starling, but in fact the borderline sentient Starling House with the temperament of an annoyed cat, a penchant for choosing its family, and a basement full of beasts. 

I want to live in the pages of this book. Starling House is one of the best things I’ve read this year.