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mxsallybend's review
4.0
"Scraping noises filled his ears. Nail on bone. He knew it was the creature’s claws raking against the inside of his wife’s skull, cleaning it out and wanting every last morsel..."
If passages like that turn your face green and make you want to drop the book like it's covered in goblin slime, then you're likely not the right audience for this. If, however, such details make you hungry for more, then David Bernstein has put together a damn fine meal for you to enjoy with Goblins.
History buffs and mystery buffs will remember the story of the Lost Roanoke Colony very well. In 1590, just 3 years after arriving on the island, the entire colony of 115 settlers disappeared without a trace. The only clues left behind were the words Croatoan carved into a gatepost, and Cro carved into a tree. Popular theories blame it on either disease or natural disaster, but Bernstein has a better explanation.
Goblins. More specifically, the legendary Goblin King himself.
This is a fun read with a great blend of supernatural horror and very human sorrow. Bernstein is a man who knows how to get under the skin and pull on the readers emotional strings, especially when dealing with children. We can all imagine the pain a family must endure when a child goes missing, but we can't even begin got imagine the horror of seeing that child come back . . . changed . . . and interested only in tearing you to pieces and devouring your flesh. I loved the way the kids sort of rippled, allowing their parents to glimpse the goblin beneath, just before confusion gives way to terror.
Lest you think I've spoiled the entire novel, that's really just the set-up. While Bernstein could have settled for a creepy, unexplained monster tale, he instead delves deep to the history of the island and the mythology of the Goblin King to create something deeper. There's almost an urban fantasy feel to this, in terms of how/why the town has come under siege once again, and there's are a few very real-life sort of tragedies involving children that haunt the main characters, but all of that is draped in the bloody, slime-encrusted, rotten flesh-curtains of pure horror.
Goblins is grim, it's gruesome, and it's great reading.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
If passages like that turn your face green and make you want to drop the book like it's covered in goblin slime, then you're likely not the right audience for this. If, however, such details make you hungry for more, then David Bernstein has put together a damn fine meal for you to enjoy with Goblins.
History buffs and mystery buffs will remember the story of the Lost Roanoke Colony very well. In 1590, just 3 years after arriving on the island, the entire colony of 115 settlers disappeared without a trace. The only clues left behind were the words Croatoan carved into a gatepost, and Cro carved into a tree. Popular theories blame it on either disease or natural disaster, but Bernstein has a better explanation.
Goblins. More specifically, the legendary Goblin King himself.
This is a fun read with a great blend of supernatural horror and very human sorrow. Bernstein is a man who knows how to get under the skin and pull on the readers emotional strings, especially when dealing with children. We can all imagine the pain a family must endure when a child goes missing, but we can't even begin got imagine the horror of seeing that child come back . . . changed . . . and interested only in tearing you to pieces and devouring your flesh. I loved the way the kids sort of rippled, allowing their parents to glimpse the goblin beneath, just before confusion gives way to terror.
Lest you think I've spoiled the entire novel, that's really just the set-up. While Bernstein could have settled for a creepy, unexplained monster tale, he instead delves deep to the history of the island and the mythology of the Goblin King to create something deeper. There's almost an urban fantasy feel to this, in terms of how/why the town has come under siege once again, and there's are a few very real-life sort of tragedies involving children that haunt the main characters, but all of that is draped in the bloody, slime-encrusted, rotten flesh-curtains of pure horror.
Goblins is grim, it's gruesome, and it's great reading.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
lucasm12333's review
4.0
Gruesome Grimm's Tale
If you are looking for one sick and twisted riff on fairy tales, take a look here. This was the first book by this author that I'd read and I look forward to reading more from him. I do wish that the goblin world would have been more fleshed out or more time spent on their attack on Roanoke, but these are minor quibbles. Hats off to the cover artist. Yeesh.
If you are looking for one sick and twisted riff on fairy tales, take a look here. This was the first book by this author that I'd read and I look forward to reading more from him. I do wish that the goblin world would have been more fleshed out or more time spent on their attack on Roanoke, but these are minor quibbles. Hats off to the cover artist. Yeesh.
charshorrorcorner's review
4.0
Horror After Dark is currently giving away a copy of Goblins here:
http://www.horrorafterdark.com/2015/08/giveaway-goblins-by-david-bernstein/
And my friend and colleague, Paul, reviewed it here:
http://www.horrorafterdark.com/2015/08/review-goblins-by-david-bernstein/
This book was a lot of fun! Just looking at that cover, you know you're going to be in for a good time. The goblins in the book are a LOT scarier than that rather tame fellow you're looking at now.
The best way to describe this book is B-Movie fun. We've got our historical setting-Roanoke Island. (Best remembered for its colony of missing folk. Mr. Bernstein answers the age old question of whatever happened to them, and the answer is not pretty.) We have a group of children as targets. We have lots of gory, inventive deaths and a sheriff as a humble hero, just trying to save lives. All the B movie pieces are here, so let the fun begin!
My one problem with this story was the pacing. For the most part, we jumped from one gory scene to another, (which is fine,and what I expected and enjoyed most about the book, because these scenes were extremely creative and imaginative and I admire that!), but preceding just about every one of them was a bunch of background information. To me, this slowed down the action. I normally like well developed characters, but in a Creature Feature type of book, not so much. I felt like I was wasting time learning about them because they were just going to die anyway. Other than that rather small irritation, this book was a boatload of fun!
Recommended to fans of Creature Features and B Grade Movies!
*I received a free e-copy of Goblins in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*
http://www.horrorafterdark.com/2015/08/giveaway-goblins-by-david-bernstein/
And my friend and colleague, Paul, reviewed it here:
http://www.horrorafterdark.com/2015/08/review-goblins-by-david-bernstein/
This book was a lot of fun! Just looking at that cover, you know you're going to be in for a good time. The goblins in the book are a LOT scarier than that rather tame fellow you're looking at now.
The best way to describe this book is B-Movie fun. We've got our historical setting-Roanoke Island. (Best remembered for its colony of missing folk. Mr. Bernstein answers the age old question of whatever happened to them, and the answer is not pretty.) We have a group of children as targets. We have lots of gory, inventive deaths and a sheriff as a humble hero, just trying to save lives. All the B movie pieces are here, so let the fun begin!
My one problem with this story was the pacing. For the most part, we jumped from one gory scene to another, (which is fine,and what I expected and enjoyed most about the book, because these scenes were extremely creative and imaginative and I admire that!), but preceding just about every one of them was a bunch of background information. To me, this slowed down the action. I normally like well developed characters, but in a Creature Feature type of book, not so much. I felt like I was wasting time learning about them because they were just going to die anyway. Other than that rather small irritation, this book was a boatload of fun!
Recommended to fans of Creature Features and B Grade Movies!
*I received a free e-copy of Goblins in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*
loram's review
2.0
Jacob is an ordinary kid with nothing more important on his mind than how well he'll play in a local baseball game, until he runs into the woods to retrieve a ball. When he doesn't return, his coach goes to search and finds disturbing evidence of a struggle that leads him to bring in the police.
This was a predictable story and the author digressed into individual character back stories too much in the early chapters. The writing itself was engaging and kept the story moving forward despite the sidetracks. There is some pretty gross graphic violence and disturbing themes like dealing with kidnapped and murdered children.
The one thing that began to make me lose interest was the mixed mythology, equating the goblin world with Satan and Hell. If you want an evil goblin king, fine. If you want to write about Satan, fine. But they come from different cultural beliefs so mixing them just dilutes the horror. Goblin mythology leaves a lot of room for imagination so why fall back on common Hell tropes?
The violence goes well into the gratuitous at times and by the ninth chapter the believability was developing a serious wobble. It also became repetitive with the goblin attacks following the same pattern every time. It was fairly engaging in the early chapters, but became tedious as the pages moved on. The ending was a good twist though. I hope it's left as it is and not a jump off for a sequel.
This was a predictable story and the author digressed into individual character back stories too much in the early chapters. The writing itself was engaging and kept the story moving forward despite the sidetracks. There is some pretty gross graphic violence and disturbing themes like dealing with kidnapped and murdered children.
The one thing that began to make me lose interest was the mixed mythology, equating the goblin world with Satan and Hell. If you want an evil goblin king, fine. If you want to write about Satan, fine. But they come from different cultural beliefs so mixing them just dilutes the horror. Goblin mythology leaves a lot of room for imagination so why fall back on common Hell tropes?
The violence goes well into the gratuitous at times and by the ninth chapter the believability was developing a serious wobble. It also became repetitive with the goblin attacks following the same pattern every time. It was fairly engaging in the early chapters, but became tedious as the pages moved on. The ending was a good twist though. I hope it's left as it is and not a jump off for a sequel.
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