Starling House

Harrow’s third novel is a gorgeously modern Gothic fantasy with horror elements set in the fictional town of Eden, Kentucky that was once a booming coal town but has fallen on hard times. Opal desperately needs money to care for her brother and takes a job working for Arthur at the creepy, brooding Starling House to pay the bills. The Gothic mansion was owned by a mysterious nineteenth-century author and illustrator who was rumored to have killed her husband. The house holds many secrets, and Opal and Arthur will have to contend with a deep darkness, both literal and metaphorical, in order to right the wrongs done to individuals and to their whole community. I marveled at the way Harrow incorporated real events from Kentucky’s history into her story in astoundingly creative ways.