Again, yet another book by Josh Malerman that could not hold my interest. I wish it did. I thoroughly enjoyed BIRD BOX and had high hopes for Malerman's other books. Not this one. I did not like how it was written at all.

I was so very excited to get a josh malerman book to review. It looked so spooky and interesting but honestly it just left me flat. I couldn't get into it and found myself trying to skip ahead. For the most part I was bored through the story. slow pace and not much interest for me.

I hated this book and I hate that I hated this book. Bird Box was one of the more frightening books I've ever read, and The House at the Bottom of the Lake was a genuinely intriguing, original novella. I was excited to pick up this new offering from their author, and it sounded so good--six (well, seven or eight, depending on how you categorize the Prologue and Epilogue) interconnected novellas set in the town of Goblin, where it never stops raining, unspeakable things dwell in the woods, and there's something very, very wrong with the local police officers.

The problem was, the plots were so predictable that I kept guessing the endings only a few pages in. And the writing . . . plodded. There was no sense of creeping terror, no sense of mounting dread. I didn't care about the characters' fates, and I thought the author did a strangely poor job on Goblin itself; a town that should have been a character in its own right just fell flat to me. The stories are interconnected, in the sense that they're all set in Goblin and every once in a while a character shows up or is mentioned in multiple stories, but I thought they'd be a bit more interconnected. By which I mean: each of these basically stands alone, Prologue/Epilogue aside, and I thought that kind of defeated the point of the whole 'interconnected novellas' thing. Part of the fun in reading interconnected stories is spotting bits and pieces carrying over from one story to the next, and while there was a bit of that, I thought it was a far, far too small bit.

Of all the stories here, "A Mix-Up At the Zoo" was the only one that even moderately held my attention, and even that only came in flickers. These stories were, in a word, bland. And I doubt the author intended that, but . . . I think it boils down to this: these stories spent way too much time dwelling on things that didn't scare me, and far too little time on things that did. That's death to a horror novel.

The scariest thing about this book was seeing how much of it I still had to read. It's rare for me to give a book 1 star, but reading this was a chore and I know for a fact the author can do better.

Not recommended.

Ya’ll, this book was spooky. Like, actually scared me a little bit and made me regret reading this in the dark.

This book contains a collection of short stories all set in the fictional, creepy town of Goblin. The intensity amps up in every story and they all tie together which was brilliant. It was twisty, riveting, and so creative. The characters were so well developed, the writing style was amazing (as always), and the atmosphere of each story just gave me the chills. Each story was so intense, suspenseful, and super creepy. Josh Malerman’s writing style is so good, it was like I was seeing, smelling, and tasting everything the characters were which added so much to the story. Perfect spooky read with an awesome cover.

*Many thanks to Del Rey Books for the gifted copy for my honest review!*

While I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of this book, some of the short stories just fell flat to me. I thought the overall tone was very cohesive which is not something I always see in a short story collection but it still wasn’t a great collection. I would love to see this author do more short story collections in the future because I do feel like there was potential.

I really wanted to love this book but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I normally love this kind of "weirdness" but this time around it didn't make any sense and didn't keep me intrigued. I found myself trying to race through the stories just to finish the book. The thought of picking this back up made me miserable which is why it took me ages to actually get through it. I just wasn't the right reader for Goblin unfortunately. I will continue to pick up other books by the author.

The idea of seven short stories set in the same town is so great! However some of the stories were just boring. The cover art is amazing though and definitely made me want to read it.

Did not finish. I could not connect with Goblin by Josh Malerman. I will not be reading/finishing this one. Thank you, netgalley and publisher for the early copy!

I didn’t realize that this would be more of a group of stories rather than one fluid novel, so I think that’s important to know before going into this one. The stories were interesting, but wish they’d had even more connection with one another. I’ll still read anything Malerman writes!

This was the best Malerman I've read--more horror and less existential mess. I'll probably pick up new Malermans in the future, but not an autobuy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is an anthology of short stories based around a town called Goblin. I found the beginning to be really interesting and creepy. After the prologue, the stories get weirder and a little bit hard to get through. I wasn't as engaged in the stories and by the end I was really bored. It took a lot for me to push through and I wanted to DNF it many times. I don't know if it's just the author's writing style or this book itself, but something about it wasn't jiving with me.

Although I can see how people would love this but it just was a little disappointing for me.

2/5

There's no doubt that Josh Malerman is a talented storyteller and Goblin is another great example of that. Consisting of short stories woven together with a link to the town of Goblin. Some of the stores worked for me and some didn't but that's true of any collection. It was an interesting premise having them all linked and Goblin is certainly a creepy little town. I enjoyed the read, though I still love A House At The Bottom of A Lake most out of all his writings.

Josh Malerman has the delightful habit of taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. He can make the mundane creepy (I'm never not going to be *terrified* of pigs after PEARL), the unusual harrowing, and he does it all through characters that are consistently relatable and authentic. Now, who wants to visit Goblin?

Another great read from Mr. Malerman, I always enjoy his horror novels and was glad I was able to read this book. It had what I've come to expect from Mr. Malerman and I had a great time reading this.

This is one of those short story books that took me by surprise. I started reading the prologue and was like "wait, what? you're just going to leave me hanging like that?!" It was a little bit of an abrupt ending and just started right into the other spooky tales of this town called Goblin. But we'll come back to that...

I definitely liked some stories more than others ( think that is like any short story collection right?) - but what I really loved - which I thought was really unique - is how you would read on to the next and gain a little bit more with each story that tied them together. And every single one was a total creep-fest atmosphere and you felt as if you were actually sitting in the North Woods in Goblin, in the dark, reading with a flashlight - and totally chilled to the both with every tale.

The culminating story 'The Hedges' (the story depicted on the cover) was my absolute favorite. Maybe because I had lived this whole life and met so many of the Goblin residents that it felt like a culmination of sorts? But either way it was so fun and clever and I really enjoyed it!

And back to the abruptly ended prologue... I got my epilogue and my creepy spooky heart was satisfied and very sad to see the town of Goblin go. I think a full length book of this town and it's residents would be so amazing!

The novellas start innocently but continues on into a story or ending that I did not expect.The novellas are creepy, surprising and definitely horror. The one thing that connects them is the rain in the town of Goblin. Maybe it’s all that rain Goblin gets —. It gets more than the towns around it. Goblin also has secrets you would never expect. One of the best filled suspenseful horror books I have read. Horror fans will love it!

I was very excited to dig into a "new to me" Malerman book. I loved Bird Box and Malorie. I think, perhaps, I am more suited for his novels, because it was hard for me to connect with most of the stories here. I dug the first one and then was hard pressed to find another I really enjoyed. My "official" rating is 2.5 but rounded up to 3. I know others have enjoyed this book, but it missed for me.

I had a hard time reading this one--not because it wasn't wonderfully written, and not because it wasn't incredibly creepy (it is) but because the imagery and the stories stuck with me for a long time afterward. I was genuinely disturbed by some of the stories in this one, and I'm a huge fan of horror fiction in general. Enter at your own risk, but if you're into scary stories, this might be right up your alley.

Creepy, fun, atmospheric. I like how all these stories put you directly into this town. Would love to see some of these stories expanded upon. Highly recommended for October especially.

Creepy town policemen. Graveyards where all the clients are buried standing up. Rain nearly all day every day. This is the town of Goblin and why anyone would want to live there is beyond me.