Starling - by Isabel Strychacz (Paperback)

About the Book

Darling is a small isolated town, made up of small-town people who have small-town kids who rarely leave; it is the last place anyone would expect to find a visitor from another world, but that is what Starling Rust claims to be, and the town-folk, led by their corrupt mayor, are terrified--the Wilding sisters, Delta and Bee, are determined to protect Starling from the town's escalating xenophobia but the growing feelings between Starling and Delta may prove to be the greatest threat of all.

Book Synopsis

Edward Scissorhands meets When the Moon Was Ours in this "darkly whimsical...engrossing" (Kirkus Reviews) novel about two teen sisters who fight to protect the mysterious stranger who literally fell from the stars and into their backyard.

Strange things have always happened in the small town of Darling...

​​​Yet Delta Wilding and her sister Bee are familiar with the peculiar. Raised by an eccentric father always on the hunt for the spectacular, they're used to following weather patterns that twirl onto strange paths, a car that refuses to play any artist but one, and living in a sentient house with whims of its own. But when a mysterious boy falls from the stars into the woods behind the Wilding sisters' farmhouse, nothing can prepare them for the extraordinary turn their lives are about to take.

Extraordinary, and dangerous.

Starling Rust is not from this world and his presence in the Wilding home brings attention. As the terrified locals, Delta's ex-boyfriend, and the unscrupulous mayor descend onto their home, both Delta and her sister go to incredible lengths to protect their mystical visitor--especially as Delta's growing feelings for Starling could prove the greatest risk of all.

About the Author

Isabel Strychacz is from a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area. An alumna of Mills College with degrees in English and history, she is getting her MFA degree in creative writing from Manchester Metropolitan University. She currently lives in England with her husband and daughter where she works as a copywriter for a PR and communications agency. She's the author of the novel Starling and House of Thorns. You can find her online @IsabelStrychaczAuthor (Instagram, TikTok, and Threads), @IsabelStrychacz (X), and at IsabelStrychacz.com.