A review by emmaloho
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I couldn't tell you if this book was objectively good because it was so subjectively my taste I feel like I did drugs. I started lightly recommending it to people when I was maybe 20% through while making small talk about what we were all reading and by the time I got to about 75% plot was making me cry and I was wishing I could take it back because anyone who reads it now knows too much about me. irl friends if you're reading this please don't psychoanalyze me, my besties already read me to filth. It just really hits all those fantasies about someone good getting power, you know? Just a sad little guy but also everyone loves him bc he's actually a good person and therefore everything will work out in a way that was earnest enough to make me ache but not so obnoxious to ever make me cringe, although that threshold is of course different for everyone, and comes down to personal taste. For every emotional confrontation and conversation I was so right there along with the main character and his decisions, whereas normally I'm all but screaming at a book for someone to be say something else. Again, probably that's just me, or maybe Addison is just that good at writing compelling characters, but I'm the wrong person to ascertain the difference. The book was long but not dense, the narration captured my attention easily every time I picked it up, and the pacing never slouched, it never felt like a slog to get through a chapter and on to something more exciting. my only less emotional review was that all the names and titles were very hard to remember even with a good memory, so reading it on the ebook was great because I could search the characters name to see not only their blurb in the list of characters, but also where they've come up previously in the plot. 5/5 stars and I'm going back to therapy.