Quick Take: Explore my End of Year Book Tag, diving into unread gems on my shelves, and my 2023 TBR priorities, including a book I’ve owned for ten years!
(more…)The End of Year Book Tag: 2023
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Book Review: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
B
The Gist: Starling House artfully employs dark academia and an enigmatic haunted house to delve into the racism, sexism and classism that plague a small town.
Series: Standalone
Release Date: October 3, 2023
Synopsis
A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can’t stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.
Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.
Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.
As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.
If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.
Ending
HFN
Representation
• Bisexual main character
• Mexican Biracial Supporting Character
• Lesbian supporting characters
• Sapphic side relationship
• Mexican Biracial Supporting Character
• Lesbian supporting characters
• Sapphic side relationship
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Grief (Heroine’s and the Hero’s parents died before the book starts)
• PTSD from near-death experience
• Sword violence
• Homelessness
• Incest recounted (by a side character)
• Racism
• Homophobia
• PTSD from near-death experience
• Sword violence
• Homelessness
• Incest recounted (by a side character)
• Racism
• Homophobia
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• No OM/OW drama
• Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
• No OM/OW drama
• Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 4.25-stars
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