Starling House

A Reese's Book Club Pick

By: Alix E. Harrow

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

“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)

“The moody prose and atmospheric setting are brought to vivid life by Naudus’ lyrical rendition. This gothic horror novel keeps listeners guessing whether the monsters are real or crafted from the depravities of the unequal power dynamics of class, gender, and race.” — Booklist

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.

A Book of the Month Club Pick
An October 2023 Indie Next Pick
A LibraryReads October 2023 Hall of Fame Pick
Apple, Best Books of October
EW.com, Fall Book Must Reads 2023
Washington Post, Noteworthy Books for October
Paste Magazine, The Must-Read Fantasy Books of Fall 2023
PopSugar Best New Fantasy Books of 2023
BookPage, Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2023
Observer, Must-Read Books of Fall 2023
Polygon, 12 Best New SFF for the Fall
LitHub, October’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books
Bookish, October’s Most-Anticipated Books
Gizmodo, October's Huge List of New Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

Such a wonderful book!

This is such a perfect gothic/romance/mystery/witchy book! The written words and audio performance were both excellent.

Absolutely captivating!

Wow! I have never been more thrilled to leave a 5 star review. This book had me at the start. It got better and better and better! Definitely worth ready.

Not a typical haunted house story

This is not a ghost story, it’s a poetically written fairy tale about monsters that live in the dark, in our dreams, and in our pasts.

Finished in 24 hours

I could not stop listening. I have done absolutely no work for 24 hours plus. This book was fantastic.

Beautiful and nuanced, perfect!

I've read every but of writing Harrow has publicly available and I will continue to devour her works as fast as she can release them. Phenomenal author, story teller and weaver beauty, ugliness, joy, despair, hope and hopelessness. Harrow manages to fully form the complex labyrinth of the human experience in each character while building a fantastical, magical world. I love the range and the depth of every novel. but especially this one. With not just flawed characters but decidedly physical described as ugly characters. It is absolutely refreshing to have an entire cast of characters that are rich and and wonderful in personality, flaws and all, without the convention of any of them having some "redeeming" construct of attractiveness to help the reader like them more or the surrounding cast to like them more. I also really, thoroughly love the aspect of each character battling their own selfishness and not always winning each battle but still muddling through. It's a gorgeous portrait of tragic, terrible choices, of being backed into corners and having to survive a cruel world.

A well crafted and delightfully haunting romp

Loved everything about this story and the characters. Dark, sweet and engaging from cover to cover.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Absolutely fantastic story. So well done and a great fall read. Loved the characters and story development. Didn’t want it to end!

Amazing story!

This is such an amazing story! If you like magical realism mixed with horror, this is your type of book!

The Starling House

Absolutely love this story and the performance is amazing 👏 it is a great listen!

Gripping and fantastical

This book kept my attention from the first page. I hated when I had to put it down or go to bed! Ha! It’s a must read for you fantasy folks out there and even if your not a fantasy person, give it try. Who knows you might change your mind.