“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.
“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.
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Find Starling House Alix E. Harrow in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Starling House Alix E. Harrow in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
5 books in catalog
Speculative fiction featuring portal doors, historical re-imaginings, and fairy tale subversions has established a distinct voice in contemporary fantasy, most prominently showcased in The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Alix E. Harrow became a Hugo Award winner and New York Times bestselling author through rich narratives that probe magic, power, and historical agency.
Her short fiction and novels blend academic historical research with mythic reimagining, earning accolades across major speculative literature organizations and building a devoted readership.
Born on November 9, 1989, in Idaho, Alix E. Harrow grew up in Colorado and Kentucky. She entered Berea College at age sixteen, graduating in 2009 with a degree in history. Before pursuing creative writing full-time, Harrow worked in various roles including research assistant, cashier, housekeeper, instructional designer, and migrant farmworker. She earned a master's degree in history from the University of Vermont and taught history at Eastern Kentucky University. Publishing her debut story 'A Whisper in the Weld' in Shimmer in 2014, Harrow also wrote under the name Alix Heintzman. She gained broad literary prominence when her short story 'A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies' won the 2019 Hugo Award and earned nominations for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus awards. Her work has also won a British Fantasy Award and received nominations for the Southern Book Prize and Goodreads Choice Awards. Originally from Kentucky, she now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband and two children, and is represented by literary agent Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.
Harrow's writing frequently examines the social mechanics of power, historical agency, and the transformative potential of books and written words. Her narratives draw on folkloric structures, gothic tropes, and portal fantasy conventions to explore themes of regional identity, autonomy, and resistance. By combining academic historical awareness with mythic reinterpretation, her work subverts classic fairy tale premises—such as in her Fractured Fables novellas—and interrogates entrenched institutional structures while maintaining accessible, character-driven storytelling.
5 books in catalog
Speculative fiction featuring portal doors, historical re-imaginings, and fairy tale subversions has established a distinct voice in contemporary fantasy, most prominently showcased in The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Alix E. Harrow became a Hugo Award winner and New York Times bestselling author through rich narratives that probe magic, power, and historical agency.
Her short fiction and novels blend academic historical research with mythic reimagining, earning accolades across major speculative literature organizations and building a devoted readership.
Born on November 9, 1989, in Idaho, Alix E. Harrow grew up in Colorado and Kentucky. She entered Berea College at age sixteen, graduating in 2009 with a degree in history. Before pursuing creative writing full-time, Harrow worked in various roles including research assistant, cashier, housekeeper, instructional designer, and migrant farmworker. She earned a master's degree in history from the University of Vermont and taught history at Eastern Kentucky University. Publishing her debut story 'A Whisper in the Weld' in Shimmer in 2014, Harrow also wrote under the name Alix Heintzman. She gained broad literary prominence when her short story 'A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies' won the 2019 Hugo Award and earned nominations for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus awards. Her work has also won a British Fantasy Award and received nominations for the Southern Book Prize and Goodreads Choice Awards. Originally from Kentucky, she now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband and two children, and is represented by literary agent Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.
Harrow's writing frequently examines the social mechanics of power, historical agency, and the transformative potential of books and written words. Her narratives draw on folkloric structures, gothic tropes, and portal fantasy conventions to explore themes of regional identity, autonomy, and resistance. By combining academic historical awareness with mythic reinterpretation, her work subverts classic fairy tale premises—such as in her Fractured Fables novellas—and interrogates entrenched institutional structures while maintaining accessible, character-driven storytelling.
