It’s something about the way the shadows fell in Eden, after Eleanor died. It’s the way everything soured: the river ran darker and the clouds hung lower; rich coal seams went dry and healthy children sickened; good luck went bad and sweet dreams spoiled. [p. 49]
When Opal's mother died, Opal lied her way into becoming her brother Jasper's legal guardian. In the decade since then, she's been working hard at awful jobs to try to raise enough money for him to go to a decent school. She's haunted by dreams of the car crash that killed her mother, and by half-forgotten fragments of the book she loved as a child: 'The Underland', by Eleanor Starling. And she's strangely drawn to Starling House, the Gothic mansion on the edge of town. 'Town', in this instance, is Eden, Kentucky: a down-on-its-luck, working-class town, blighted by the pollution from the local power plant, and suffering a statistically-unlikely number of accidental deaths.
When Opal encounters the reclusive occupant of Starling House, brooding Goth-styled Arthur Starling, he offers her the perfect job: cleaning and caring for the house. The money will pay for Jasper's education and Opal will get to explore the house that's fascinated her for years. But there's more to the house, and to Arthur, than meets the eye.
Opal is not a reliable narrator, but slowly her story -- and that of her family -- comes together. In parallel there's the story of Eleanor Starling and the house which bears her name. And the house ('a foolish old house with ambitions of sentience', according to Arthur) is wakening under Opal's ministrations, letting in the light. Like Hill House, it dreams, but its dreams are rather more pleasant. Opal isn't the only one who's interested in Starling House, though. Elizabeth Baine, who claims to be from Gravely Power (the company that runs the power plant) encourages Opal to spy and steal. She claims the house is an 'anomalous aperture'.
This is a story about stories: about the variations on a theme of Eleanor Starling, and about the Gravely family, and about dreams, and about homes. Every time Opal discovers another variation on the history of Eleanor and of Eden, her perceptions shift. As well as the obvious fairytale elements ('Beauty and the Beast', though who's who?) there are elements of Greek mythology: the rivers of the underworld, the prohibition on looking back. And there are simpler, uglier stories: 'Once there was a bad woman who ruined a good man. Once there was a witch who cursed a village. Once there was an odd, ugly girl whom everyone hated, because it was safe to hate her. [p. 275].
I am awed by Harrow's ability to make place into character. Starling House is as much a character in the novel as Baines, or Jasper, or Arthur himself. Eden, too, has an ugly kind of personhood to it. The prose is vivid and engaging, and though the focus is mostly on Opal and Arthur, there are some intriguing subplots.
Note that Amazon helpfully tells you that you've finished the ebook before you get to 'SEVEN YEARS LATER: A bonus short story set after the events of Starling House'.
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