Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Title: Starling House

Author: Alix E. Harrow

Publisher: Tor Books 2023

Genre: Horror

Pages: 320

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: BOTM Cleanout; Unread Shelf

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.

The absolute perfect book for spooky season! I love a super atmospheric horror tale with an interesting location. This book delivered on all fronts. Right away, we know that there’s something special about Starling House. We get to follow Opal as she is invited into the house and is given a task of sorts. Opal is an extremely rough-around-the-edges character but I found myself rooting for her from page one. I was hoping to see Opal really grow into her own and lower some of her walls for anyone. And so enters Arthur Starling, Warden of Starling House. We only get glimpses of him throughout the first half of the book, but I loved him immediately. As the mystery unfolds, we learn more about the house and the history of the town. We get some super creepy beings and a ton of good spooky scenes. I took my time reading this book, not speeding through it, but really savoring the pages and the beautiful illustrations throughout. This may just go on my Top 10 of the year list.

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow

Title: A Mirror Mended (Fractured Fables #2)

Author: Alix E. Harrow

Publisher: Tordotcom 2022

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 144

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.

Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends and she's desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it’s too late for everyone.

Will Zinnia accept the Queen's poisonous request, and save them both from the hot iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path?

I really enjoyed the first book in their series and was looking forward to the second. This one definitely delivers on it’s promise of a feminist reexamination This time we get to Zinnia deal with a story different from her own Sleeping Beauty story, I loved her uneasy alliance with the Queen as they explore a variety of Snow White stories. This is a very slim novella, but takes the reader on a high-speed journey right from the first page. I really enjoyed the conclusion to this story and really came to love the Queen.

Fractured Fables

• #1 A Spindle Splintered

• #2 A Mirror Mended

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Title: A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables #1)

Author: Alix E. Harrow

Publisher: Tordotcom 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 126

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; Seasonal TBR

It's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one.

Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.

Loved this meta fairy tale where Zinnia falls into her favorite story, Sleeping Story. We get multiple pop culture references along Zinnia’s path to her own story. This book is very short, but fast-paced and fun. I loved seeing her interact with the other fairy tale characters. The twist at the end made the book worth it.

Fractured Fables

• #1 A Spindle Splintered

• #2 A Mirror Mended

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

Title: The Once and Future Witches

Author: Alix E. Harrow

Publisher: Redhook 2020

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 529

Rating: /5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR; Currently Reading - Kept Me Turning Pages After Midnight

In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters―James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna―join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote―and perhaps not even to live―the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

I’ve been waiting on this one since i read The Ten Thousand Doors of January and it was definitely worth it. I immediately fell into the story of the Eastwood sisters. I loved that it wasn’t simply a story of bringing back witchcraft, but that we get a story of bringing three sisters back to each other. Agnes was my favorite sister, but all have some great moments. The first 60 pages are a bit slow, but once we really get into the story, I couldn’t wait to figure out the mysteries of the Lost Way of Avalon and Gideon Hill. Seriously, every time he appeared, I shuddered. So incredibly creep! And I loved his dog. Once the tower gets called back, the story kicks into high gear and I had trouble putting it down. Lots of fun.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Title: The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Author: Alix E. Harrow

Publisher: Redhook 2019

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 385

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook; TBR Jar Random

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

I can’t stop smiling a bout this book. I loved diving into the January and Julian and Adelaide’s world of doors and terrors. This was definitely my kind of fantasy. We get some romance, some terror, some adventure, and most of all, a story of growing up. Mr. Locke and the his fellow society members were great villains setting up just enough terror to keep the other characters on their toes. Havemeyer was particularly terrifying. I loved visiting all the other worlds and eventually spending more time in Written. I can just imagine January and her tattoos and words. I will be rereading this one soon I imagine.

Next up on the TBR pile: