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.
This is a story of poverty and class, the power of dreams, strange creatures, and revenge.
Opal is a young woman who has been plagued by strange dreams involving the crumbling gothic mansion known as Starling House. She has been raising her little brother ever since their mother's death. Some faked records and a free motel room allowed her to keep him even though she was only 15 at the time. A dead end job and occasional petty thievery have kept them afloat. She doesn't want much for herself, but she is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure her brother has a better life than he can have in this small, secretive, dying town, even if it involves working for the owner of the house she's been warned to stay away from.
I loved Opal and her brother Jasper. By the end I even loved the grouchy motel owner. I'm not usually one to read romantasy, but throw in a dark gothic vibe with a mystery in a crumbling house that seems to be coming to life and I'm all in!
4 out of 5 stars
My thanks to Tor Books for this gorgeous illustrated paperback.
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