A good, if slightly gross, time - there's no need to overthink the atmosphere of the novella, we know what we signed up for with that cover and the St. Ives series a a whole. I wasn't really swept up in this one, and I think that's my issue as the graphicness just didn't do me a solid, in this instance and with this particular storyline. I'll continue with the St. Ives series but I don't think this is one of my faves.

Author #James P. Blaylock has delighted readers for more thirty years.And with this stay at home not lifting he’s a plus parents for the coming school year. You get Enjoy the books and follow the kids ( Or rather young adults). They feature Langdon St. Ives, adventurer, man of science, Victorian gentlemen.
The story begins with a inheritance.Following a protracted legal battle, Alice his wife has come into full possession of Seaward, the house left to her by her uncle. A man with a number of bizarre proclivities.Upon possession things will spin out of control...
What follows, is in a sense a tale of two houses.The first of course is Sesward and the next is #Gobblin Manor home base of the #The Gobblin Society. A culinary establishment that is dark. Known for smuggling,kidnapping, and mesmerizing.

Thank you,
#Netgalley, #James P. Blaylock and #Suterranean Press

Nick and Nora Charles, with a Gothic Twist

Blaylock is a productive and wildly inventive writer, but surely one of his most beloved series is that featuring Langdon St. Ives and Langdon's wife Alice. Langdon is a gentleman, scientist, and adventurer, with a knack for getting into and out of spectacular and fantastic scrapes. His wife Alice is as resourceful and witty as he, and the two of them make a fine team. Langdon may get top billing in reviews and on book covers, but Alice often turns out to be made out of smarter and sterner stuff. (Not unlike the Nick and Nora of "Thin Man" fame.)

Not to belabor the point, or spoil the plot, but it should be clear from the blurbs, and from the apostrophe after "Gobblin'", that this book is built around an epicurean eating Society whose members definitely know whether humans taste of chicken. I tired of the rather extended and detailed descriptions of the club's practices, but that is the heart of the book, the mystery, and most of the action, so there wasn't much to be done about that.

Luckily, the whole is fast paced, extravagantly written, and cleverly narrated. The book is populated by a varied and engaging collection of good guys and an appropriately evil set of bad guys. Langdon and Alice are equally adept at delivering either a quip or a left hook, so they carry on nicely.

The upshot was that this was about the most fun I could expect to extract from cannibalism, and isn't that a good thing to know. A nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

The Gobblin' Society was such a delightfully creepy and entertaining treat. I had a fantastic time reading this and loved every minute of it. Blaylock really knows how to tell a story that both shocks, excites, intrigues, and that also has some truly beautiful writing and entertaining dialogue. Highly recommended.

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I didn't initially to write this one as a mini-review, but when I started writing my review I realized it was a lot like Hearts of Oak by Eddie Robson where I didn't want to get too detailed about anything. I was really pleasantly surprised by this novella and it has definitely encourage me to check out more from James P. Blaylock. When I first read this book, there were only a few other reviews, all of which also gave the book similar high ratings to me, but now that I've just recently look I noticed it's, er, taken a bit of a nosedive due to a couple reviews, which is surprising to me! That being said, let's dive into my thoughts on this book.

What I liked: This was such a delightfully creepy and entertaining treat! Blaylock really knows how to tell a story that both shocks, excites, intrigues, and also contains some beautiful writing and entertaining dialogue. It's perfectly atmospheric, compelling, and has such a twisted sense of humor to it that I loved. The content is a little bit on the gruesome side due to subject matter and a few, uh, interesting scenes involving an unconventional source of food, and I just found the way the plot was created with this narrative was so well-done and definitely had me hooked. The characters were also surprisingly compelling and I found myself enjoying their personalities and the fact that they were all fairly intelligent about everything and actually questioned some of the strange goings-on.

What I disliked: Not a lot! There were a few spaces where the narrative was slightly dry and dragged, but this was such a minimal issue that it didn't really bother me much at all. I think a certain type of humor is needed to enjoy a book like this, and although I really enjoyed it, I'm including this in this 'dislike' are because it seems like something that might bother a lot of people and seems to be behind a few of the more negative reviews.

Overall, I gave this five stars!

The Gobblin' Society is a new novella in the Langdon St. Ives series (Narbondo) written by James P. Blaylock. Released March 2020 by Subterranean Press, it's 176 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a very well written short novel/novella (I couldn't find a word count, but it's something of a hybrid between the two forms). The author is popular and talented and this book is full of his atmospheric storytelling. The book starts with a graphic depiction of epicurean cannibalism (a la Hannibal Lecter) which continues more or less unabated for the next 150 pages. For previous fans of the series, this entry (whilst more grisly) is much the same. For hardcore fans of horror, this might be a good choice. It works well enough as a standalone for new readers.

I would call this straight Gothic horror. I didn't find much in the way of humor in this installment and found it hard going. The author is undeniably very talented, but the graphic horror aspect was a bit too graphic and horrifying to sit very well with me, however well written.

Three stars for me, more for hardcore fans.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

"For more than thirty years, James P. Blaylock has enthralled and delighted readers with a series of stories, novels and novellas featuring Langdon St. Ives, adventurer, man of science, Victorian gentleman. The best of these, such as Beneath London, Lord Kelvin's Machine, and The Aylesford Skull are among the most stylish, consistently witty entertainments of recent years. The Gobblin' Society, the latest episode in St. Ives's colorful career, belongs very much in that company. The story begins with an inheritance. Following a protracted legal battle, Alice St. Ives, Langdon's wife, has come into full possession of Seaward, the house left to her by her late Uncle Godfrey, a man with a number of bizarre proclivities. Heartened by this good fortune, Alice, Langdon and their surrogate son Finn prepare to take possession of the house. From this point forward, events spin out of control, taking on a madcap logic of their own that is exhilarating and - in typical Blaylock fashion - often quite funny. What follows is, in a sense, a tale of two houses. The first, of course, is Seaward, a “rambling, eccentric old house” with it its history, its secrets, its priceless accumulation of volumes of arcane lore. The other is a neighboring house known, for good reasons, as “Gobblin' Manor,” home base of The Gobblin' Society, a “culinary establishment” with its own peculiar - and very dark - traditions. In the course of an event filled few days, St. Ives and his cohorts will encounter smuggling, mesmerism, kidnapping, cannibalism and murder. It is, in other words, a typical—and typically eccentric - Langdon St. Ives adventure. Like its predecessors, this latest extravaganza is fast-paced, unpredictable, and a thorough delight to read. Few novelists evoke the essence of Victorian England as successfully as Blaylock. Fewer still bring such wit, style, and propulsive narrative talents to the task. In The Gobblin' Society, Blaylock has given vibrant new life to one of his signature creations. The result is a gift both for Blaylock's longtime fans, and for newcomers lucky enough to come along for this astonishing - and thoroughly enjoyable - ride."

Is it wrong that I'm all in on this book because I want to live in that house of the cover, no matter what goes on there?

I think the fact that I didn't enjoy this book is purely my fault. I read a decent amount of horror and dark fiction, but this book was just too gruesome for me. I thought the concept was fascinating and that it was well-written, but it went a little too far for me on the cannibalism descriptions for me to actually enjoy. I think it's a very polarizing book, and that others might be fine with the detailed descriptions. If the plot sounds interesting to you and you have a tough stomach for reading these descriptions, go for it. If not, maybe skip this one.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I confess, I lost interest when I realized the Gobblin' Society was about gobbling people. Also, this book is one of a series, which I realized, but I think I would have been more willing to give more time to this book if I'd read the other books in the series and knew the continuing characters better.

This was OK. I'm not into zombies or gruesome stories, and this has elements of both. But if that's your thing, then this is for you. Although uneven at times, the author's talent shows thru as does his imagination. This is my first book by this author.

Thanks very much for ARC for review!!

The latest in the Langdon St. Ives series, this is great, graphic fun! An enticing set of characters both living and dead, a charming yet sinister setting on the English coast with appropriate weather conditions, and a diabolical plot. A seaside estate, long tied up in litigation, finally reverts to Alice St. Ives who decides to visit her new property, which she remembers fondly from childhood visits when she and her cousin ran wild on the shore. But the property is occupied, by a flashy gentleman named The Baron, who pushes to stay in residence longer. Denied, he leaves with false good humor.
The house is crammed with graphically gruesome paintings and books; the long-deceased owner was an abusive brute. While cleanup operations ensue, an exploration turns up a cache of gruesome objects in the cellar, which has sea access and floods with the tides..No spoilers here: we'll have to leave the enticing story with the caution that evil abounds, as does cannibalism, mesmerism, betrayal, theft, and murder.
The novel shows the strength of a long-accomplished author in its characters, description and plot, and richly deserves a five. Now...out to buy the rest of James P. Blalock's books!

Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Gobblin’ Society was a disappointing read for me, primarily since I felt the synopsis (at the time of this review) was misleading. As the eleventh addition to Blaylock’s Narbondo series, the author is talented at creating atmosphere with his prose and, for those interested, it can be read as a standalone.

However, I did not find this novella to be “often quite funny” or a “thorough delight to read” primarily because of the gruesome descriptions of cannibalism with little to no humor to balance the story. I thought I had thoroughly researched the previous books in this series before requesting this novella from NetGalley, but apparently the ‘off-screen’ violence mentioned in other reviews was not carried through to this tale.

Although I did not enjoy this novella, thank you again to NetGalley and Subterranean for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.

I'm afraid I had to DNF this one. It was fairly well-written but far too gruesome for me and not the sort of thing I like to read at all.

The narrative felt like a comfy, cozy story from the beginning. I enjoyed the author's voice and the story itself has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it started to drag to long without anything actually happening. Impatient readers will lose interest and move on, unless the pace moves along and things start to happen. It's a good book if you enjoy an old story type feel ,and a comfortable read with an occasional chill thrown in here and there.

The Gobblin Society by James Blaylock- A thoroughly enjoyable Langdon St.Ives Novella finds St.Ives and his wife, Alice journeying to her Uncle's estate, which she has just inherited. The house is located on the coast of Eastern Kent, England overlooking the channel. Along with them as is often the case the Frobisher's, Gilbert and Tubby and young Finn Conrad are attending. When they arrive they find that the ancestral home has been leased by an unscrupulous cousin of Alice, and living there is a strange man, who fancies capes and theatrical pose, named the Baron. The Baron tries almost desperately to stay for a few more days but is turned out. They will soon find out that the Baron had been using the manor for smuggling as it possessed a sea cave. This Baron has connection with the local Gobblin Society, a group of strange men with inhuman appetites and the ability to prolong animation in a body long after death. What they've been smuggling and what they've been eating becomes the horror of this dark tale. There is not much steampunk here as would be usual, but a dark stabbing bit of the macabre. Cannibals and zombies hurrah! Thanks to Netgalley and Subterranean Press for the digital review copy