Greta and the Goblin King

By Chloe Jacobs

While trying to save her brother from the witch three years ago, Greta was thrown into the fire herself, falling through a portal to a dangerous world where humans are the enemy, and every ogre, goblin, and ghoul has a dark side that comes out with the full moon. To survive, 17-year-old Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young Goblin King, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her determination to escape. But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. The full moon is mere days away, and an ancient evil being knows she’s the key to opening the portal. If Greta fails, she and the boys she finds stranded in the woods will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back.

 

So, I read this thinking it would be a fun fantasy with a slight beauty and the beast feel (anyone who reads this blog knows how much I love beauty and the beast). Well…you can kinda see it. I’m not a fan of this book, it had too many things that felt rushed or just a ‘not enough’ feeling when I finished. For one thing, this book is pretty much a love story, the background stuff was interesting, but there wasn’t nearly enough explanation of the world of Mylena and how it related to Earth and even what all the creatures meant to each other and how they inter-related. They’re just there as a buffer to Greta’s humanness. As for Greta herself, she’s contradictory as a character and feisty. There was a lot of telling how she felt instead of letting the reader figure it out though. I also thought that her ‘disguise’ was pathetic. There needed to be more differences between the goblins and sprites and faerie creatures for me to even consider her as needing a disguise. Her relationship with Isaac is purely to have a romance for the main character. It’s typical of young adult literature nowadays to have a stalker-esque guy that is extra pushy and possessive, but apparently that is ‘sweet’. It irritates me. There is some address of how quickly their relationship grows; basically putting it to animal attraction and ‘destiny’. Greta herself asks Isaac why he loves her and he says it’s because she challenges him and makes him think differently. Sure, okay, but then there is no evidence in his character or their exchanges whatsoever. It’s very frustrating for a girl who likes a down-to-earth believable romance. This book is basically “I’ll throw myself into mortal peril, then we’ll meet in dreams, make-out some, then I’ll refuse to let you find me in real life for some flimsy reason or another”. It’s all enough to make me find a perpetual frown on my face as I read. Gah.

 

I give it a 2.25 out of 5