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A review by fern_mollett
Goblin: A Novel in Six Novellas by Josh Malerman
2.0
TL;DR: In a book about the creepy town of Goblin, which has many scary elements (a witch, a haunted woods, monsters, zombie police force) we focus instead on random, flat characters on one rainy night. Bad endings, predictable, full of tropes, with tons of unanswered (really interesting) questions.
This book is like if Stephen King (the master of bad endings) tried writing some Twilight Zone episodes. A quick, easy read focusing on the events of one very rainy night in the town of Goblin. This collection is full of tropes, bad endings, and relying on mental illness to convey horror. For experienced horror readers this collection is predictable at best, trite at worst.
My biggest grief with this book is that the stories focused on the wrong things. Throughout the book we got snippets of other, far more interesting sounding stories: the zombie police department, the witch in the haunted North Woods, the original 60 and the Indigenous people that feared the land, the key to the city and why not having it in place threw Goblin out of balance, the Great Owls, whatever was in the back of the truck ... Instead we got stories of regular people on a rainy night: A mentally ill man who murdered his friend, a mentally ill man who Chekhov's gun-ed himself to death, a mentally ill man who got his friends killed so he could get what he wanted, a magician who sold his soul for real magic, another mentally ill man who killed his friend, and a grieving widow.
Instead of writing a collection of stories about Goblin, a town its own entity, we got random, confusing stories about the flat characters that live there (or are passing thru it, or leaving it).
Prologue + Epilogue ☆☆
Started out the book with building atmosphere, scary monsters and ended the book with another confusing ending that lead nowhere.
A Man in Slices ☆
This story is splatter punk adjacent thriller. The horror part is that the character is mentally ill and violent (a real theme in this collection). There was such a good buildup to such a random, not-that-scary confession. The ending was predictable and very sudden.
Kamp ☆☆
This story is a psychological horror full of classic tropes, that once again, relies on mental illness to convey the horror. Classic "is it mental illness or is it ghosts?" Great example of Chekhov's gun. A great example of how NOT to write fat characters. Every mention of Walter's movements came with adjectives like plump, huge, thick, big, heavy set. The ending was predictable, but very WTF? in its specific details. Like a poorly executed Twilight Zone.
Happy Birthday, Hunter ☆☆☆
A fine, atmospheric, landscape and animal based horror story focusing on the haunted North Woods and the terrifying creatures that inhabit it (probably). There were a few scary scenes in the woods, some gore, and some ghosts. The end was not very satisfying and left me going, "ok?" and with many more questions about Goblin then it cared to answer.
Presto ☆☆☆
The bits concerning Roman Emperor were interesting, but the filler about the kid who was his fan was boring. The ending (one which had to be puzzled together) came too soon and didn't make a lot of sense to me, logistically. How was Roman going city to city disappearing multiple people into empty graves and no one became suspicious?
A Mix Up at the Zoo ☆
Kind of boring, predictable. The main character fell flat, as once again, the author relied on mental illness to provide all the horrors and twists.
The Hedges ☆☆
A thriller that raised way more questions than it answered.
This book is like if Stephen King (the master of bad endings) tried writing some Twilight Zone episodes. A quick, easy read focusing on the events of one very rainy night in the town of Goblin. This collection is full of tropes, bad endings, and relying on mental illness to convey horror. For experienced horror readers this collection is predictable at best, trite at worst.
My biggest grief with this book is that the stories focused on the wrong things. Throughout the book we got snippets of other, far more interesting sounding stories: the zombie police department, the witch in the haunted North Woods, the original 60 and the Indigenous people that feared the land, the key to the city and why not having it in place threw Goblin out of balance, the Great Owls, whatever was in the back of the truck ... Instead we got stories of regular people on a rainy night: A mentally ill man who murdered his friend, a mentally ill man who Chekhov's gun-ed himself to death, a mentally ill man who got his friends killed so he could get what he wanted, a magician who sold his soul for real magic, another mentally ill man who killed his friend, and a grieving widow.
Instead of writing a collection of stories about Goblin, a town its own entity, we got random, confusing stories about the flat characters that live there (or are passing thru it, or leaving it).
Prologue + Epilogue ☆☆
Started out the book with building atmosphere, scary monsters and ended the book with another confusing ending that lead nowhere.
A Man in Slices ☆
This story is splatter punk adjacent thriller. The horror part is that the character is mentally ill and violent (a real theme in this collection). There was such a good buildup to such a random, not-that-scary confession. The ending was predictable and very sudden.
Kamp ☆☆
This story is a psychological horror full of classic tropes, that once again, relies on mental illness to convey the horror. Classic "is it mental illness or is it ghosts?" Great example of Chekhov's gun. A great example of how NOT to write fat characters. Every mention of Walter's movements came with adjectives like plump, huge, thick, big, heavy set. The ending was predictable, but very WTF? in its specific details. Like a poorly executed Twilight Zone.
Happy Birthday, Hunter ☆☆☆
A fine, atmospheric, landscape and animal based horror story focusing on the haunted North Woods and the terrifying creatures that inhabit it (probably). There were a few scary scenes in the woods, some gore, and some ghosts. The end was not very satisfying and left me going, "ok?" and with many more questions about Goblin then it cared to answer.
Presto ☆☆☆
The bits concerning Roman Emperor were interesting, but the filler about the kid who was his fan was boring. The ending (one which had to be puzzled together) came too soon and didn't make a lot of sense to me, logistically. How was Roman going city to city disappearing multiple people into empty graves and no one became suspicious?
A Mix Up at the Zoo ☆
Kind of boring, predictable. The main character fell flat, as once again, the author relied on mental illness to provide all the horrors and twists.
The Hedges ☆☆
A thriller that raised way more questions than it answered.