I generally love stories with goblins but sometimes they are written for children, which I think is the case with this one.

However, what I really didn't like is Alan. I haven't hated a character this much in a long time and I found him insufferable. For me, he spoiled the story.

I read this book aloud to my son. He’s not much of a reader, and prefers screens to books. The reading aloud was a last ditch effort to convert him into a reader, and it worked. He hung on to the narration, and I can say, with due modesty, that I did a pretty good job of the reading, fancying myself an audio book narrator.



In 1841, the Springwood, sailing along Cook’s Strait, New Zealand, encounters a raging storm. Once the storm dies, the captain and another officer witness a terrible sight that the captain logs in his journals.

In the present day, Alan Dwyer, a loving husband to wife, Julie, and an affectionate Dad to kids, Matt and Leigh, decides to take his kids on a short vacation to New Zealand, while Julie takes care of her ailing mother. Before the vacation begins, Alan, a notorious prankster, promises his wife that he will not prank them ever again.

Once he reaches New Zealand, however, Alan cannot resist pranking the kids one final time before he turns over a new leaf. But the Goblin Forest is no place for jokes. So when Alan unleashes his last prank, disaster strikes, and Matt and Leigh are abducted by goblins. Now Alan, with the help of a park ranger, and a guild of Maori goblin hunters, has only four days to rescue his children and kill the goblin king, Harbin, or else his children will become goblins forever. Humanity will be lost forever as the goblins take over the world.





The action scenes, the characterisation, the setting, everything was well done. Even though this book was brimming with characters, the author succeeded in making each of them, even the goblins, appear as individuals with unique personalities.



The action beats were timed to perfection. At one point, I was worried about the fate of the children, but my sweet boy assured me that no harm would come to children in a children's book.



Just as I was hoping for a meatier role for the mother, the author managed to rope her into the story in a manner that felt natural.

The only criticism I can think of is that the book needed to be proofread better.

I'd probably say that this feels like a novella despite its 250 pages. I think the tension could have been stretched out a little more to make it genuinely gripping if there was a bit more leeway with regard to timing. Having to make a plan to get the kids back in only 4 days left very little time for the sense of danger to grow and for us to be really attached to the characters.
That said I really liked the characters themselves. The dad's pranks seemed on the harmless side but it was his attitude after that needed some work. It's ok to laugh when you make the kids jump but ridiculing them afterwards was what put him into the douche category.
The kids were very well-rounded without becoming irritating stereotypes and I liked their sibling interactions- they made for a great team.
I think I would have liked more of the goblin threat to really round out the terror but overall it was really solid story that I enjoyed.
I will say that I nearly didn't pick it up as the cover felt a little too basic. A change to the font and style of the title could make a world of difference.

This story captured my attention from the start to the end! I really enjoyed this story. I felt The background and the characters as if being real. There were a lot of great moment inside of its story.

I'd like to start off by saying I went into this book a little confused. I did not see anywhere that it was a children's or YA book. Within the first half hour I was thinking to myself, "This has got to be a children's book." It really read like an R.L. Stine book. Not quite as young as his Goosebumps series, but more like Fear Street. Unfortunately, this left me in a quandary. Do I read and review this book like it was written for middle schoolers or adults? The cover certainly suggests middle school. After finishing the book, I went back and looked at the summary on NetGalley and lo and behold it has Teens/YA under the publishing date. I don't know how I missed that before. While I do read some YA and I read children's books to my own kids, I don't typically read much of it for myself.

Alan is a married father of two tweens. An 11 year old named Leigh and her older brother Matt. (I couldn't find any mention of his age and just assumed he was older given the way he interacts with his sister.) Alan loves to play pranks on his children. As they have gotten older his pranks have become more mean spirited. He finally takes it too far one night and his wife Julie lays down the law. There will be no more pranks.

Julie is called away on family matters and Alan decides to take the kids on a week long trip to New Zealand. Even though he promised no more pranks, he sees a brochure for the Goblin Forest and decides he'll have one last hurrah. Little does Alan know he and his children might not survive this prank.

The start of the story has a good hook. 1841, Cook Straight, New Zealand. A ship at sea in a terrible storm. The captain and crew are on the precipice of disaster. They are working doggedly to keep the ship from sinking. The Captain's cabin boy is preparing some tea for him when the boy suddenly disappears. Praying he wasn't washed overboard the Captain goes in search of the boy only to find that their whaler (a type of boat) is somehow out to sea. The monster storm is miraculously disappearing at the same time. When the Captain and first mate use a spyglass to see what is going on with the whaler, they witness something of tremendous horror on board the boat. It is so awful the Captain abandons the search for his cabin boy, tells the sailors to forget about the whaler and the repairs to ship. They are getting as far away from the straight as possible.

Personally I am terrified of the ocean and boats. It was written well enough that I had high hopes. Then we jump to the present day.

It begins with a prank. Alan and Matt tricking Leigh again. The prank is so juvenile it is hard to believe that Alan is an adult. Leigh's reaction is so over the top I thought that she was 5 instead of 11. This is most definitely giving off strong "Goosebumps" vibes. This really sets the tone and maturity level of the writing for the rest of the book. Some of the dialogue leans more towards a slightly older audience. Not to say it is written better, but there is some cursing and what not.

It is a short book and we quickly move on to the trip to New Zealand. I know this is a kids book, but that does not mean that it should lack description of the environment and characters, which it sorely does. I have no clue what anyone looks like, except that Leigh has long black hair. I assume all the Maori characters look Maori, but that is so general. I couldn't picture anyone or anything past gloomy twisted forest and Maori. Not even the goblins were given much description. How tall are they? Are they broad and muscled or scrawny? It is mentioned towards the middle that the kids start to have yellow eyes, green skin, and orange hair, but that could be a description of a raggedy Ann doll with mold. Not even the King of the Goblins is given any personalization. Did he have a short, fat, bulbous nose with warts? Or a long curving one, with boils? These little things would have made the story so much more enjoyable to read. Every goblin could be exchanged for another and I wouldn't know. All of their personalities are the same with the exception of one. I was never even sure if the "horde" was made of 10's of individuals or 100's.

It is not just the physical portrayals that are lacking. All of the humans are one dimensional card board cut outs. If their names weren't different I wouldn't have known who anyone was. Except Alan, because he is usually the one doing something really stupid. Likewise for the goblins. The only character that had some personality was Howelia.

I did like the Maori take on things, but I know next to nothing about their culture so I have no idea how accurate any of it was. If nothing else I would like to learn more about that subject now. I appreciated that there was no bashing of any religion. This is a fantasy book and the author managed to keep it respectful. That seems a tall order these days. Once again, I hope he did his due diligence with the Maori and kept to their beliefs and mythologies. There was some blending of European culture/myths so it's hard to say.

Towards the end of the story, things did pick up a little and I was able to breeze through it. I do have one major issue with the lore surrounding the goblins. In this story they can not be in sunlight. It will quickly burn and kill them. They are also very sensitive to regular lights. Why then did this group of warriors not go into the "caves" with some UV lights? Problem solved. Even some high powered flashlights seem like they would have been immensely helpful. Creatures designed to see in the dark would be blinded by bright lights. Also I can suspend disbelief enough to read about magic, goblins, elfin creatures and freak storms. What I could not suspend my disbelief for was when the group of 8 adults grab some shovels and manage to dig into a lava tube/cave from above. Even when Howliea's people decide to help out, it's still really dumb writing. These people can see the future, heal grievous wounds with magic, imbue weapons with mana, and call down hurricane force storms, but they have to resort to digging with shovels until their hands bleed? Without some ground penetrating radar they are not even finding a tunnel to dig into.

The overall story was not awful. It was leaning towards really bad until about halfway through. then things began to pick up. It's a simple fairytale and thank GOD there is nothing "woke", "PC", "SJW" (take your pick) about it. The male and female characters are equally strong and equally intelligent (except Alan). It stays on point and doesn't meander for the sake of adding pages. Since it is for kids, it wraps up nicely.

I did not want to be so critical of this book. The author is newly published and it's a tweens book. There are so many authors out there that write utter trash and win awards. Is this guy deserving of that kind of criticism? The answer to that is NO. So I didn't like the book. That doesn't mean it was really a bad story. It could have been much, much better, but maybe kids don't need that level of detail to really enjoy a story. I guess in the end it just wasn't for me. I think 10 year old me might have liked it. When I was a kid I read all the Stine and Pike books I could get my hands on, until I found Koontz and King at least. If you are reading this, please take it with more than a grain of salt. I'm almost 40 and most definitely not the target audience. The author and publisher were kind enough to allow me read the book before it even goes to print. 3.5 stars, would recommend for tweens that enjoy darker fairytales.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and most of all the author for allowing me to read and review "The Goblin Forest". All opinions and views are my own.

A jerk for a father keeps frightening his daughter but it all works out because a whole herd of Yodas show up. Wait a minute, it was a whole herd of gremlins who talk like Yoda, they did.

So, things are looking bad what with a battle going on between goblins, humans, and Yoda-wannabes but then the cavalry with John Wayne arrives, oh wait, I've got movies on my mind.

Here's what really happened. The gremlins sounded so much like Yoda that I pictured every one of them green with big ears and some kind of little monks' robes, wear they did. And then, just like in old Western films, a big group of warriors shows up. Instead of a bugle call, they honk a horn on a police car.

The Goblin Forest is a good story but it's not as well written as it could be. There's a crucial difference between a good story and well-written story. A good story can become a great story with some extra revisions and some more editing. Because the plot is engaging, I think it could be an excellent novel if an agent or a few more beta readers took a look at it.

The characters don't have to grin on every page. Attributes don't have to look like a thesaurus was on hand. It's okay to use the word said as an attribute. It's a great plot but could use some more polishing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author, Mark Stary, for allowing me to read and review an eARC of The Goblin Forest.

This story kept my attention from the first page to the last! I guessed some things, but I was really impressed by the details, especially in terms of the setting and the culture. I really enjoyed this story. It had a "Hook" the movie vibe to it, but was its own, fun adventure! I highly recommend it!

Had a fun time reading this, felt like an actual relationship between all the characters and they all seemed like this are real people that would be parents or the children of said parents.

The Goblin Forest by Mark Stary.
Alan Dwyer is a loving husband and father, but also a terrible prankster. The main focus of his pranks are his long suffering children, Matt and Leigh. He goes too far one day with his tomfoolery and scares his daughter with a particularly mean trick. His wife Julie has had enough and has a heart to heart talk with Alan on ending the pranks, which he reluctantly agrees to.
A really good read. Gripping. Lots of action. 4*.