One of my recent buddy reads was Starling House, and it was a brilliant read. Dark and twisty with a compelling plot and characters, it’s one of my favorite reads of the year. I love the writing style and Gothic vibes and thought I’d share some of my favorite quotes with you today. Let’s check them out!
Title: Starling House
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Pub. Date: Oct. 3, 2023
Page Length: 320
Publisher: Tor Books
Synopsis: 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.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Here are the most memorable quotes from the book:
Opal & Arthur:
Arthur Starling swore on his parents’ graves that he would be the last Warden of Starling House. He is many things—a coward, a fool, a terrible failure—but he is not a man to break his word.
He shivers but his skin is hot, almost feverish beneath my fingers, and I think dizzily that I know exactly why Icarus flew so high: when you’ve spent too long in the dark, you’ll melt your own wings just to feel the sun on your skin.
For the first time I understand how anybody could actually like winter; it’s a delicious defiance to be warm when the world is cold.
“Miss Opal—”
“If you call me that again, I will do you a harm.”
That treacherous not-quite-a-dimple crimps the corner of his mouth. “You wouldn’t hurt an injured man.”
“I would change your ringtone to Kid Rock and call you every day at dawn for a decade. My hand to God.”
“I would simply turn it off.”
I tilt my head. “Would you?”
His eyes move to mine, then away, dimple vanishing. “No,” he says quietly. “God, just go home. Please”—his throat moves—“ Opal.”
Her hands are fisted in the collar of his shirt and she is so vital, so furiously alive that Arthur understands for the first time why Hades stole Persephone, why a man who has spent his life in winter might do anything at all for a taste of spring.
How selfish, how fundamentally silly, that he should start wanting to live right when he ought to die.
He looks like a boy who wanted to grow flowers but was handed a sword instead.
About Dreams:
Dreams aren’t for people like me. People like me have to make two lists: what they need and what they want. You keep the first list short, if you’re smart, and you burn the second one.
I saw that dreams were dangerous, so I folded mine up and shoved them under the bed along with the rest of my childhood.
I figure dreams are like stray cats, which will go away if I quit feeding them.
It occurs to me that I was right: dreams are just like stray cats. If you don’t feed them they get lean and clever and sharp-clawed, and come for the jugular when you least expect it.
About Houses and Homes:
I have no home, no porch light. But I have what I need, and it’s enough. It’s just that, sometimes, God help me, I want more.
There were sharp teeth behind every smile, and bare bones waiting beneath the pretty skin of the world.
Starling House was no longer just a house. What had begun as stone and mortar had become something more, with ribs for rafters and stone for skin. It has no heart, but it feels; it has no brain, but it dreams.
Words of Wisdom:
The maps you make in childhood never fade, but are merely folded away until you need them again.
The biggest lies are always for the ones you love the most. I’ll take care of you. It’ll be fine. Everything’s okay.
It occurs to me that I’ve been mourning two people all these years—the mother I had, and the mother I wish I had—and that neither of them was the one who kept a roof over my head.
It’s easier to fall apart when no one is watching you.
It’s difficult for predators to imagine teeth closing around their own throats.
Have you read Starling House? Which quote is your favorite? Comment below!
I’m definitely going to pick this up at some point!
I’ve not read this one, but these quotes are amazing. It definitely sounds like a well-written book. I loved the quote, “It’s easier to fall apart when no one is watching you.” It is so real and relatable.
My faves: “He looked at me long enough for me to think in desperate italics…f@c!”
“He falters under the weight of em dashes…”
Yes! Those are great!