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Starling House by Alix Harrow
Oct. 23rd, 2023 02:54 pmStarling House
3/5. Opal, who clings to the precarious edge of survival in her tiny southern town, gets a job at the local haunted house to pay for her brother’s ticket out of town. Stuff happens involving evil capitalists and old children’s books and creepy mines.
I have realized that I like the stories that Alix Harrow tells, but that I decidedly do not like the way she tells them. This is a book about found family – about opening your eyes and seeing the family right there reaching for you – and making a home and all sorts of other stuff I’m into. Also sentient houses. But it’s told in such an overly precious way that I just can’t with it. Everything in this book means so much, guys. There’s an emotionally significant Toyota logo at some point, for real. And this is the sort of book that has a protagonist who is a nearly thirty year old man, and yet the narrative refers to him consisently – insistently, even – as a “boy” throughout. For the vibes, you know.
I had this same problem with one of her prior books, which had a terrible case of capitalizing random nouns, which I feel is a symptom of the same kind of preciousness. Shame, because I otherwise would have really liked this.
Content notes: Violence, hauntings, threatened sexual assault/incest referenced, parental loss
3/5. Opal, who clings to the precarious edge of survival in her tiny southern town, gets a job at the local haunted house to pay for her brother’s ticket out of town. Stuff happens involving evil capitalists and old children’s books and creepy mines.
I have realized that I like the stories that Alix Harrow tells, but that I decidedly do not like the way she tells them. This is a book about found family – about opening your eyes and seeing the family right there reaching for you – and making a home and all sorts of other stuff I’m into. Also sentient houses. But it’s told in such an overly precious way that I just can’t with it. Everything in this book means so much, guys. There’s an emotionally significant Toyota logo at some point, for real. And this is the sort of book that has a protagonist who is a nearly thirty year old man, and yet the narrative refers to him consisently – insistently, even – as a “boy” throughout. For the vibes, you know.
I had this same problem with one of her prior books, which had a terrible case of capitalizing random nouns, which I feel is a symptom of the same kind of preciousness. Shame, because I otherwise would have really liked this.
Content notes: Violence, hauntings, threatened sexual assault/incest referenced, parental loss
