Initial thoughts. Coming back to edit. 

This was good but I felt like there were three different focuses: opal and her character, the sentient house, and the local legend and mythology. 

The first chunk of the book is about opal and sets the stage for her meeting the sentient house. 

Next is the house and the world building surrounding it. Last is the local legend. 

These three things could have been woven together a bit more tightly, but instead felt more separate. 

I wish the the storybook that was an important part of the local legend was threaded through the stores more consistently. A couple great examples of this are One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig and The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert. The books and songs are referenced and repeated from the start so that when we get to the final reveal it feels complete. 

Here the book was referenced once in the beginning and then ends up being pivotal in the plot resolution which felt like a twist. It made sense, but also felt disruptive. 

And the house, this great character that’s built up for a third of the book is not really involved in the resolution? Sad! I mean the book is titled Starling House!

Overall, I loved our characters: opal, Arthur, and the house! But I wasn’t crazy about the resolution.