This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. This event takes place at the Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur, GA 30030.

Charis and the Georgia Center for the Book welcome Alix E. Harrow in conversation with Kira Apple for a celebration of Starling House, a gorgeously modern gothic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY.

About the book:

I dream sometimes about a house I’ve never seen….

Opal is a lot of things--orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier--but above all, she's a determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago.

All she left behind were dark rumors--and her home. Everyone agrees that it’s best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur . Almost everyone, anyway.

I should be scared, but in the dream I don’t hesitate.

Opal has been obsessed with The Underland since she was a child. When she gets the change to step inside Starling House--and make some extra cash for her brother's escape fund--she can't resist.

But sinister forces are digging deeper into the buried secrets of Starling House, and Arthur’s own nightmares have become far too real. As Eden itself seems to be drowning in its own ghosts, Opal realizes that she might finally have found a reason to stick around.

In my dream, I’m home.

And now she’ll have to fight.

Welcome to Starling House: enter, if you dare.

About the speakers:

Alix E. Harrow is the NYT bestselling and Hugo Award winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, and various short fiction. Her Fractured Fables series, beginning with the novella A Spindle Splintered, has been praised for its refreshing twist on familiar fairy tales. A former academic and adjunct, Harrow lives in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids.

Kira Apple (she/her) is a full-time bookseller at Charis Books and More and co-facilitator of Charis's Queer Romance Book Club. Originally from Eastern Pennsylvania, she received her Bachelor's and Master's in English from Kutztown University. A lifelong lover of fantasy, sci-fi, and romance literature and media, she can also be found playing video games and TTRPGs, writing, and wrangling her three cats. You can find her on Twitter @keekrbeekr and Instagram @kiapple

The Georgia Center for the Book is committed to a safe environment. For the safety of their invited speakers, staff, and all attendees, we respectfully request that masks be worn in the venue for the duration of the event. We are currently limiting the capacity of the Auditorium to promote social distancing, so registration is required.