Published: November 17, 2020
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Series: Permafrost #2
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 320 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 2.0/5.0
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
In this stunning sequel to White Stag, Janneke must find how far she’s willing to go to save her world from destruction–even if it means sacrificing everything she’s fought for.
The Hunt is over but the War has just begun.
Against all odds, Janneke has survived the Hunt for the Stag–but all good things come with a cost. Lydian might be dead, but he took the Stag with him. Janneke now holds the mantle, while Soren, now her equal in every way, has become the new Erlking. Janneke’s powers as the new Stag has brought along haunting visions of a world thrown into chaos and the ghost of Lydian taunts her with the riddles he spoke of when he was alive.
When Janneke discovers the truth of Lydian and his madness, she’s forced to see her tormentor in a different light for the first time. The world they know is dying and Lydian may have been the only person with the key to saving it.
Goblin King is the follow up to The White Stag, a book I very much enjoyed for its atmosphere and the budding romance between Janneke and Soren. This was quite an action packed book and it took a vastly different turn than I would have expected. I must admit, I was not entirely a fan of it, though it was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end.
Janneke is struggling with the powers she inherited as the new Stag and Soren is trying to settle into his role as the new Erlking. Both are failing admirably. Soren has a hot temper for one so cold and Janneke is almost entirely unable to make use of the Stag’s powers she should have inherited. She’s also (literally) haunted by Lydian, Soren’s bastard of an uncle that she killed in the previous book. This installment reveals that Lydian was in fact cursed to be all knowing and it drove him a bit mad. They need him back from the land of the dead so that they can stop Ragnarok from beginning and this leads our merry band of goblins on a chase through several realms from Norse mythology.
This book can really bring on the atmosphere of a dank, frigid underworld. I swear, winter was the perfect time to read this because the characters spend at least half the book cold and wet. I had no trouble picturing their surroundings, but what this book had in that regard it lacked in others. The dialogue was cheesy and the romance overly dramatic. I suppose my tastes have changed somewhat since my excitement for the first book seems to have dulled in regard to the sequel.
Overall, this was entertaining and a fairly quick read. I don’t regret picking it up, but I can say that I won’t be continuing with any future books in the series. From what I’ve heard, these were originally published on Wattpad and I believe the first three may still be available to read on that site if you’re interested. Not a bad book, just definitely not for me at this age – teenage me would have probably loved it!
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