With its many uncanny elements of hauntings, secret histories, and hidden crimes, Starling House represents a prime example of the subgenre of Southern Gothic literature. The broader Gothic genre first emerged in 18th-century British literature and is characterized by its gloomy tone, heightened emotions, and dark aesthetics, as well as its fixation upon supernatural beings, dilapidated settings, and intensely melodramatic portrayal of mystery and fear. Once transplanted to the United States, these typical Gothic elements blended with the local culture and landscape to give rise to the Southern Gothic subgenre. Early examples of this new trend became prominent during the 19th century, when social and political tensions between the North and South were on the rise. True to form, both the Gothic and Southern Gothic genres tend to deal with themes of terror, otherness, and the underlying fear of change; in Southern Gothic literature, such themes are often tied to the South’s fraught history with enslavement and the changes that came after its abolition. Many marginalized writers, particularly women, have used the Southern Gothic genre to express elements of rage, fear, and longing that are otherwise concealed beneath a veneer of civilized behavior.