Goblin Market. Diane Zahler. 2022. [August] 256 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: Market day was Lizzie's favorite day of the week. Not because she loved going to the market--the few times she'd been there, she'd hated it. There were so many people she didn't know, from villages and farms clear on the other side of Elza. So much noise, such constant comings and goings, so many smells and colors! It was overwhelming, terrifying.
First Impressions: I requested Goblin Market by Diane Zahler because I love, love, love, crazy love the original poem Goblin Market. This one is described as "one sister must save the other from the goblin prince in this rich, spooky, and delightfully dark fantasy!" The cover, well, the cover doesn't scream out read me, read me--but everything else about this one said it would be a good choice for me.
Premise/plot: Lizzie and Minka are sisters. Minka, Lizzie's younger sister, is the one who goes weekly to market. But one market day, well, Minka meets someone different--a young man named Emil who sells fruit in the market. And their lives--the whole family--are changed forever. For once Minka has had a taste of that fruit, well, there's no going back to the way things were before...
It may be up to Lizzie to solve the mystery of her sister's grave illness. (The cost couldn't be higher--if Lizzie fails to find a cure in time, her sister will undoubtedly die. She wouldn't be the first to do so.) But she won't have to do it all alone. Lizzie teams up with a neighboring farm boy, Jakob, and together they will brainstorm a solution.
My thoughts: It was definitely a fantasy with horror elements. The goblins--or zduszes--are certainly spooky and scary. The action is intense. It kept me turning pages. I can certainly see elements from the original that were retained in this retelling.
My favorite character was Lizzie. I adored her. I admired her. My favorite quote describes Lizzie, "You're a plucky girl, I've always known. It's far braver to overcome a fear than not to feel fear at all."
It also reminded me of The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier one of my all time favorite, favorite, favorite books.
Quotes:
Her worries marched around in her head, a tiny army of waspy thoughts, stinging her awake every time her eyes began to close.
What he promised--it sounded like...freedom. To do what I wanted to do. To be who I wanted to be. He knew I wanted more than I had. He saw that right away....I would have married him...
© 2022 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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