Starling House
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Description
Opal is a lot of things – orphan, high-school dropout, full-time cynic. Most of all, she’s determined to find a better life for her younger brother. One that gets them both out of Eden, a town renowned for bad luck. So when Opal gets the chance to earn a good wage at Starling House, Eden’s very own haunted mansion, she can’t resist. Her new workplace is uncanny and full of secrets – just like Arthur, its brooding heir. It also feels strangely, dangerously, like something Opal never had: a home. As sinister forces converge on Eden, Opal realizes she might finally have found a reason to stick around. But now she’ll have to fight for it.
Reviewed on 8th February 2025
While not my usual choice of genre, this book leapt off the table in the bookshop and demanded that I buy it, and so I did.
It’s a sort of horror romance, about a young woman bringing up her younger brother in a run down American town with a creepy house.
The story isn’t really all that creepy - and the reader sees a bit more, probably, than the character, which helps it feel a bit safer. It does however try to expose a lot of nasty things about the town’s history and what it’s done to marginalised people in both the past and recent times.
I really liked the book. Maybe not enough to want to go and hunt out more by the author, but enough to consider recommending it to a friend, if I can find one I think will be into this genre twister.