Starling House (preorder)

(preorder—to be published in late 2024/early 2025)

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Rovina Cai.

Starling House is Alix E. Harrow's contribution to the long tradition of haunted house novels. Our edition includes 9 full-page illustrations, plus endsheets, a chapter head illustration, and dust jacket by Rovina Cai.

The people of Eden, Kentucky, a dying coal town, agree that the decrepit Starling House mansion—with its gothic facade and beast-covered gates—is best avoided. But Opal has never much cared what the people of Eden think. She’s always felt drawn to the place. When she cuts her hand on those gates and its owner, the brooding Arthur Starling, tells her to run and not come back, she doesn’t listen to that either.

Opal holds a long-time fascination with The Underland, a book filled with monstrous creatures written by the reclusive children’s author E. Starling—who once lived in the mansion and then disappeared, a hundred years ago. And Opal’s only goal is to get her brother Jasper the hell out of Eden. So when Arthur ends up offering her a lucrative job at Starling House, she takes it.

But as the mysteries of the house—and Eden itself—begin to reveal themselves, and her attraction to Arthur grows, Opal may just be in for the fight of her life…

An instant New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick, Starling House is a dazzling and dark modern gothic from beloved fantasy author Alix E. Harrow. Step inside these pages if you dare.

Our edition of Starling House:

• Is printed in two colors throughout.
• Features illustrated endsheets, with a different image on the front and back;
• Includes the five illustrations from the trade hardcover edition, reimagined as duotones;
• Is augmented by four full-page illustrations printed in full-color to highlight their richness and contrast;
• Includes the bonus chapter and epilogue previously available only in the BN.com edition;
• Sports a chapter head illustration repeated throughout the book.

For the first time ever, Subterranean Press will be printing some of the art onto cloth for the limited edition.

The lettered edition will feature:

• A quarter leather binding in goatskin leather;
• The paper on the boards is a unique botanical contact-print on Arches Text Wove paper commissioned from the artist Velma Bolyard;
• The traycase will have a rounded spine, with a faded Starling House historical plaque foil stamped on the front;
• The interior left side of the traycase will include a blind impression of the key to Starling House.

Lettered: 26 signed, specially bound copies, housed in a custom traycase

Limited: 750 signed numbered hardcover copies

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“Harrow’s prose cuts straight to the heart as she melds a story of family legacy and historical oppression with a stirring call to speak the truth. Readers will be left chewing on this tale long after the last page, and Starling House will no doubt take its place alongside fiction’s most memorable haunted houses.”

From Booklist:

“Starling House is a brilliant book; Harrow’s world building and writing style speak to her authorial experience and love of the story she writes. It is at once fantasy and reality, tied up in an inextricable knot that speaks truth about the things we need and the things we want, what we wish we could do to those who try to make us feel less than, and what reality calls for.”

From Library Journal (Starred Review):

“Harrow’s captivating prose centers her flawed, cynical protagonists in a haunting plot of horrible actions, fog-hidden beasts, and moving connections between family, friends, and lovers. Fans of Shirley Jackson and Catriona Ward should pick this up.”