Buddy Read Goblin by Josh Malerman

[inciminci]

Hey, this is Emilie and me buddy reading Goblin, welcome to join!

[inciminci]

So I have finished the first chapter The Sliced Man, and I thought it was OK. Mainly because I was expecting Charles, the weird friend, to do something weird and violent from his own self and not (view spoiler)[ some girl asking him to do those things (hide spoiler)]. Like there are supposed to be a darkness in him, so I expected that darkness to show in more radical ways. I like the constant descriptions of those roadside topiaries and I hope they will feature later on.

[Emilie]

I'm at the same point as inciminci, and I didn't know where the story was going. But I agree, Charles was supposed to be this psychotic friend, so in my opinion, (view spoiler)[ he should have been the sliced man; I was not expecting it to be Richard, so in that sense it was a twisty kind of ending, but it would have been better if it had been Charles. And yes, I agree, it being this weird random girl asking Charles to do these things just didn't play into Malerman's characterization of Charles. (hide spoiler)] I did overall still enjoy the story, I just think different choices would have been better. And yes, those roadside topiaries better have a feature later on, otherwise I have no idea what he was doing there.

[inciminci]

Finished story 2, Kamp, and I'm convinced this would make a smashing stage play with the two characters lurking around, huffing and puffing and fearing and listening in in their repective bedrooms. I did enjoy it, and I'm glad it gave some background /historical info on why Goblin is so cursed. I'm getting more and more curious about the weird and eerie police of Goblin with their gray hands 😬

[Emilie]

I love your visual of a screenplay inciminci! That’s perfect for the second story. Yeah, I could tell this story was placed as a background to set up the rest of the stories is my guess.

[Emilie]

I finished Happy Birthday, Hunter! last night and it wasn’t my favorite. This is probably due to the fact I have no personal experiences with hunting. The ending was a bit comical for me though.

[inciminci]

Yeah I agree it's not my favorite either. The ending was comical indeed and something I enjoyed reading since I also really disliked Neal Hunter, a schadenfreude story, hehehe.
But the idea of human/flesh eating owls is really scary because they are kind of creepy anyway with their huge eyes and agile necks. But they can be cute too.

[Emilie]

Nice $10 word- definitely had to look up schadenfreude-but it is for sure. Yep- those owls sound terrifying.

[inciminci]

And I learned what a ten dollar word is, we both win.

[inciminci]

I finished Presto and for me, it was the weakest story so far. It was way too over-explained and I really would have appreciated it if many things about Roman and Maggie were left to be guessed.

[Emilie]

inciminci wrote: "I finished Presto and for me, it was the weakest story so far. It was way too over-explained and I really would have appreciated it if many things about Roman and Maggie were left to be guessed."

I agree with your last phrase- Roman and Maggie were way too explained. Up until the reveal of their parts I liked the story. I guess the author felt that our guess (view spoiler)[ on who the audience member was going to be, but that wasn't even really a guess as we got Pete's story the whole time, and it'll obviously be him. (hide spoiler)]

[Emilie]

Just finished a Mix-Up at the Zoo. And while I did enjoy the story, (view spoiler)[ the twist at the end wasn't a twist at all for me, because as soon as it was mentioned that he worked for both the Zoo and the Slaughterhouse, I knew how the story was going to end due to the title and that information. (hide spoiler)] However, I did like the dream sequences, even though I was a bit confused when they came up (one downfall with listening over eye-reading)

[Emilie]

I couldn't help myself, I finished the book today. The last novella was about The Hedges, and it captured me. It was a good wrap up story. (view spoiler)[ I did want a lot more about the witch. Maybe I missed something in the earlier stories.... does it explain why there is a witch in the north woods? (hide spoiler)]

The epilogue left me wanting more. (view spoiler)[ I actually wish the thing in the box was an actual goblin or something. I was underwhelmed with it being a corpse of a Blackwood. (hide spoiler)]

Overall I enjoyed the story, some more than others, but there was quite a few improvements I would have suggested to the author had I had the chance.

[inciminci]

Sorry I'm lagging behind with my reading, I'm still at the Zoo story and intrigued, with most stories I have the impression that the idea of them are really good but they're not really great. I think I'll finish up today and let you know.

[inciminci]

Hey, just finished now!
Mix Up At the Zoo - you're absolutely right (view spoiler)[ I actually had forgotten the title, so there was a little hope in me still that he killed the right animal but it was crashed by the end of the story... 😥 (hide spoiler)]

The Hedges - I was really happy their creation was explained, and also happy the creepy policemen are also further described (view spoiler)[ but neither the witch nor the policemen are explained, not now, not earlier in the book. I was also wondering why the witch has 8 fingers? Here it says something like "she raised her eight fingered hand", and I was like huh? (hide spoiler)]

Epilogue - (view spoiler)[ A goblin in the box? Totally!!! Why didn't that happen? (hide spoiler)]

As I said above, I think the stories are good, but not really great and I would prefer more horror (but that's personal taste).

Thank you so much, Emilie, for reading it with me and your patience 😃

[Emilie]

No problem- we should do it again sometime!

[inciminci]

Yes, I'd love to!