Written by Hugo Award–winning author Alix E. Harrow in 2023, Starling House is a Southern Gothic work of speculative fiction about finding a place to call home. The story focuses on Opal, an impoverished woman struggling to free herself and her brother from their prejudiced small town. When she accepts a job as a housekeeper at the mysterious Starling House, she begins to fall for its equally mysterious inhabitant, Arthur Starling, as the property’s deeper secrets begin to reveal themselves. Exploring themes of truth, power, and choice, Harrow uses the novel to examine how the very act of storytelling can be used to grapple with the effects of the past.

This study guide refers to the Tor Macmillan Kindle edition of the text.

Content Warning: This text features discussions of enslavement, sexual assault, suicide, self-harm, domestic abuse, racism, sexism, classism, anti-gay bias, alcohol abuse, and violence.

Plot Summary

In the small town of Eden, Kentucky, rumors and legends surround the supposedly haunted property of Starling House and its enigmatic former residents. With the exception of Opal, the citizens of Eden are also fearful of the Starling land and its current inhabitant, Arthur Starling. Struggling to support herself and her younger brother, Jasper, Opal feels like an outsider in the community and frequently dreams of Starling House. One day, feeling physically drawn to the house, she approaches the gates and meets Arthur, who tells her to run away.

Despite this warning, however, Opal continues to feel drawn to Starling House and eventually takes on the position of housekeeper for the dilapidated property. She quickly learns that Starling House and its owner are just as mysterious as the people of Eden believe, but despite the ominous air of mystery that surrounds the place, Opal starts to feel at home there. Though she tells no one about her new job, Opal actively studies the local lore and learns about the life and literary endeavors of Eleanor Starling, the first owner of the house and the well-known author of a children’s book called The Underland, which is one of Opal’s favorite books. Eleanor is also rumored to have killed her husband, John Gravely, and his two brothers. Since her mysterious death, Starling House has been continually inhabited by unique yet unrelated characters whose activities have raised suspicions that cultish elements of witchcraft and Satanism must be present amongst the residents of Eden.

After a few weeks at Starling House, Opal is approached by a woman named Elizabeth who claims to be helping the local power company, Gravely Power, to research unspecified anomalies connected to the house. In response to Elizabeth’s threats against her safety, Opal is coerced into taking pictures and making notes on the house. In the process, she begins to notice elements of Starling House that seem to be magical, and although she begins to fall in love with Arthur Starling himself, she still knows little about him and is often perturbed by his disturbing drawings of mythical beasts, which distinctly resemble those featured in The Underland.

Opal continues to hear different legends about the Starlings and the Gravelys, including stories about the Gravely family’s history with enslavement and abuse. One night, Opal dreams that Starling House and Arthur are under attack. Rushing to the property, she discovers one of the beasts from The Underland and kills it, then forces Arthur to tell her everything he knows about the house. Arthur tells her that Eleanor Starling believed the Underland and its beasts to be real. Proceeding on her conviction that Starling House served as an entrance to the Underland itself, Eleanor tried to fight against these beasts and claimed to be the Warden of Starling House. After her death, other Wardens were drawn to serve the same purpose. Arthur declares that he is determined to be the last Warden of Starling House, for he does not want anyone else to have to fight the beasts and risk being killed by them, as his parents were.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth continues to threaten Opal and Jasper. Opal also learns that she and Jasper are descended from the Gravelys and that the accident that killed her mother was inadvertently caused by Arthur and the beasts. She and Arthur individually contemplate Eleanor’s dedication of The Underland, which suggested that her readers should “befriend” the deadly creatures. In an attempt to protect Eden from the beasts, Arthur goes into the Underland. Opal follows, knowing that she will need to save him. Once there, Opal meets Eleanor Starling herself, who tells Opal the truth about the legends that surround her. As Eleanor’s own version of events unfolds, the narrative reveals that Eleanor was the daughter of one of the Gravely brothers, all of whom mistreated her. The beasts of the Underland were created from her dreams and would later cause the deaths of the Gravelys.

Reassuring Eleanor that she believes her story, Opal helps Eleanor to reconcile with her past and also does the same for Arthur, who struggles with his own nightmares of the Underland and the deaths of his parents. Ultimately, the two return to the real Starling House less haunted by the past and less fearful of the future. Though rumors still circulate around the two residents of Starling House, the town of Eden comes to accept them and begins to grapple with the horrors of its past.