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mariadavid 's review for:
Greta and the Goblin King
by Chloe Jacobs
I love a good book (or movie—I’m talking about you, Jareth) about goblins. I was excited to give this a try. Greta is a human girl who, while trying to protect her brothers four years ago, accidentally landed up in Mylena, a world inhabited by goblins, ghouls, and ogres, where humans like Greta are the enemy.
The biggest problem is the pacing. It’s obvious from the title of the book that Greta is supposed to end up with the goblin king. The book starts two weeks after Greta and the goblin king, Isaac, met. Their meeting and the events from the last two weeks are hinted at through a series of flashbacks. The book should have started at least two weeks earlier and not told the meeting through flashbacks.
Periodically, goblins transform into grotesque, menacing creatures. Almost from the beginning of the book, Isaac tells Greta he will transform soon. So much time is spent building up to the transformation. Then it begins, a mere 50 pages before the end. Again, too much time was spend on build up and not enough on the final confrontation with the villain, Agramon, and the transformed Isaac. And as for Agramon, he is a meh villain.
Then, in typical YA fashion, an awkward love triangle was thrown in for no apparent reason. Although I know I was supposed to root for Greta and Isaac, without seeing their initial meeting, I was totally indifferent to any relationship between them. Instead, I much preferred Wyatt, who we met partway through the book and actually got to see him interact with Greta.
At the end of the day, this book has a thoroughly intriguing concept and had much potential to create an interesting world, but the promise falls short with the novel’s average execution.
The biggest problem is the pacing. It’s obvious from the title of the book that Greta is supposed to end up with the goblin king. The book starts two weeks after Greta and the goblin king, Isaac, met. Their meeting and the events from the last two weeks are hinted at through a series of flashbacks. The book should have started at least two weeks earlier and not told the meeting through flashbacks.
Periodically, goblins transform into grotesque, menacing creatures. Almost from the beginning of the book, Isaac tells Greta he will transform soon. So much time is spent building up to the transformation. Then it begins, a mere 50 pages before the end. Again, too much time was spend on build up and not enough on the final confrontation with the villain, Agramon, and the transformed Isaac. And as for Agramon, he is a meh villain.
Then, in typical YA fashion, an awkward love triangle was thrown in for no apparent reason. Although I know I was supposed to root for Greta and Isaac, without seeing their initial meeting, I was totally indifferent to any relationship between them. Instead, I much preferred Wyatt, who we met partway through the book and actually got to see him interact with Greta.
At the end of the day, this book has a thoroughly intriguing concept and had much potential to create an interesting world, but the promise falls short with the novel’s average execution.