Goblin by Josh Malerman is a collection of 6 novellas all featured in the town of Goblin. The town of Goblin is a little different with police that look and sound the same, the dead are buried standing up, and a witch live in the forbidden North woods. The stories are interesting and barely intertwined for it being in the same town. The most interesting things the police, the dead buried standing up, and the witch, are barely explored. The book focuses on the history of the town which is just okay but not nearly as interesting as the other things I had mentioned. The novellas are okay, there was only one really good one, one really predictable and the rest fall into the good category. I wanted the stories to come together more. The writing does some clever things but the pacing, and focus on the history of the town will try the patience of the reader. This is my 3 Josh Malerman book, I loved Bird Box and A House at the Bottom of the Lake, and I had the same problem with Inspection that I did with Goblin, pacing and focusing on the wrong things that make the story interesting. I think Malerman is still great at thinking outside of the box and creating good story ideas, the execution of those ideas doesn't always land for me. Thanks to Netgally and Del Rey publishing for giving me this ARC. Goblin is published on May 18th 2021.

The Plots and Rankings:
The Prelude: which is a story a bout a man from another town having to deliver a package to Goblin, with a very specific instructions, if you hear any noise don't stop, if you fail to deliver at the exact time destroy package. The driver doesn't follow all the orders, a good introduction to a creepy town of Goblin 4 out of 5

Man in Slices is about a guys creepy best friend, who gets a creepy girlfriend who wants him to show love like Vincent Van Gough, by cutting off body parts. Friendship is put to its limits. The story was okay but the twist ending was really rushed, I gave this story 4 out of 5 stars.

Kamp is a story of a man that fears a haunting so bad he knows it will kill him. His whole family has been haunted, and he's the last one left. I liked the bits about the history of Goblin the town. The story itself was not all that interesting and I knew how it was going to end. I did like the art work, that seems right out of Tales from the Crypt. I rate Kamp 2 out of 5 stars.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUNTER! was a good story about a hunter's birthday party. The greatest Hunter in Goblin wants to hunt what hasn't been hunted before a great owl, who lives in the forest that is forbidden. The ending was a great one filled with irony. the history of the owls and how they came to Goblin was interesting. I rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

Presto is about a magician that can do the impossible, move object with his mind. is it a trick or something more. I liked this story the most so far. really interesting backstory and intriguing present day story. The ending twist was pretty good. This story had the best flow and was always interesting. I rated it 5 out of 5

A Mix-up at the Zoo is exactly like the title a lonely man works at the Zoo which he loves and at a slaughter house, you can't blame him if he gets mix -up from time to time. This story had the most potential, but the pace was sometimes to slow. The dreams which were interesting overstayed there welcome and lasted too long. The ending you see coming, but it was good. I rated it 4 out of 5

Te Hedges is about a big hedge maze that can not be beat, only until a young 8 year old solves what is at the center of the maze, and is horrified by her findings. She confronts the maze maker this heads to the police. I liked parts of this story a lot, the thing the little girl was horrified at was pretty lame, which was a bummer, because I was all about this story until that point. This story has the best pacing but really failed to deliver on the mystery. I rated The Hedges 4 out of 5.

What I Liked: Presto is my favorite story hands down it has a mystery that leads to the hype, and has a killer ending as well. The Hedges made you feel every dizzying turn in the maze with the little girl until she reaches the center. The Mix Up at the Zoo was probably the scariest because you see it coming, and you fear for what is going to happen when the mix up happens. The Idea for the Man in Slices is my favorite, that story had the most potential. Happy Birthday Hunter had the better ending, it wasn't flashy but I thought it worked on a psychological level.

What I Disliked: I wanted to see a lot more connectivity in stories. I thought the town could have been a lot creepier. I fell like the police and the buried standing up are the most interesting things and they are not explored at all. the pacing could have been better in a lot of these stories.

Recommendation: I'm barely going to recommend this collection, Presto is the highlight, read that story before you give up. I've seen real mixed reviews and mine is pretty mixed as well, there's good and there's bad i this collection I feel the good out weighs the bad. If you don't like the novellas you do have to admit that the stories are really clever. I rated Goblin by Josh Malerman 3 out of 5. I struggled on the rating more of a 3.5 than a 3, when I am so torn I rate it lower on Goodreads then higher on Amazon splitting the difference. I will continue to read Josh Malerman and will read Malorie the sequel to Bird Box next.

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.

This is a collection of novellas which all take place in the town of Goblin, except the opening piece where the driver is on his way to Goblin. Some of these tales overlap each other, but combined they come together to paint a picture of Goblin and its often awful history. I've listed the stories I liked the most but to be honest, I liked all of them

PRESTO tells the story of an up and coming magician and what he has to do to make a name for himself in the field of prestidigitation.

A MIX UP AT THE ZOO broke my damn heart. I've had dark days where I go about my business on autopilot. I've never done anything like this though.

THE HEDGES spoke to me because I was attracted to the young girl who was supremely confident at first, but slowly became uncomfortable and afraid.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUNTER spoke to me in a different way. In a way that made me want to hurt these characters physically. I really wanted to punch a couple of them right in their ugly faces. In this story a lot of Goblin's history is related and some of its secrets revealed.

Not all of secrets though! What is up with the creepy cops, Mr. Malerman? Why are these people, (Goblinites?), buried standing up? Do you have any intentions of making this right with your readers? Because I think you need to rectify this, stat! (Please.)

I deducted half a star because I thought these important questions would be answered. Sue me. ;)

*Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the eARC of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest feedback. In case you couldn't tell, I loved it!*

A very imaginative, intertwining collection of macabre stories about the fictional town of Goblin, Michigan. The opening certainly sets the stage, when a driver is tasked with delivering an enormously heavy, mysterious crate to an address in Goblin that includes some strange, detailed instructions that just guarantee something awful is going to happen. It doesn't help that Goblin has more than it's fair share of rain, just adding to the gloom and doom that surrounds every page.

Like many others, I read Bird Box by Josh Malerman and was drawn in right away with this world he created so I was excited to be approved for this ARC. I’ll start off by saying that I don’t normally enjoy novellas because if they’re good, they end too quickly and I want more. The first story in this book drew me in right away and I wanted to know what the heck was in that container. The second story was a bit far fetched but still had me wanting to keep going to see how it ended. The stories after the first two were just…not good. They were a bit all over the place and hard to picture.


Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in extraordinary my honest review.

So full disclosure, I am not very much into horror, but I needed to read this book based off of the cover alone (the new cover, not the old one). Goblin is told in 6 novellas and by the end the stories come together and the reader understands the town of Goblin. For me, this book started out super strong. I loved the prologue and the first story, “A Man in Slices”. I started to get bored during the other stories though, but at the epilogue, seeing everything came together made the middle not as boring anymore. I thought the writing was good, and all the stories definitely had a creepy element. I would recommend if you are into that sort of thing!

It's sort of incredible to think that Josh Malerman has officially pulled off every format of horror novel that one could possibly do, flawlessly. This book kept me up for three nights, trembling but unable to put it down.

Goblin by Josh Malerman is a beautiful terrorizing story broken into 6 parts about a small town with a lot of history. Malerman does a good job of explaining that the past of Goblin is just as thrilling and important as its present. Rarely do these 6 stories slow down as Malerman takes you through tales of ghosts, magic, animals , and other unnerving creatures. This book does what Malerman does best which is taking something that should be normal and twisting it until it leaves you unsettled and terrified. Each one of these short stories left me both satisfied and wanting more. At times I couldn’t wait for them to end because I was disturbed by what could possibly happen next but at the same time I craved more about these characters and the town.
What a thrilling piece of work Malerman has created, this book could easily go down as a classic short story collection. The last of the short stories, the one about the hedges is the perfect send off to this collection, each paragraph is filled with such suspense and terror as he brings elements of the other stories together to make the ending stick just that much harder.
This book is a must have for all horror readers.

love anything that Josh Malerman writes. This book is no exception.
I was mesmerized by the creepy town of goblin. The sample audio hooked me.
The first story about a strange delivery with demanding instructions . A package to be delivered to a very strange dark forboding town.
Thank you Netgally for providing an advanced copy of this book.
I liked it so much I bought the audiobook when it came out.

May 18, 2021
Malerman has written a series of messed up stories here. Fans of his that are used to the big in your face surprises will not be disappointed. The prologue was even entertaining!

I don't typically read or enjoy short stories, because they always leave me wanting more. But I really liked this set and how, even though they were each their own story, they still intertwined in some ways. I would definitely recommend!

Horror is my go-to genre when I want to get myself out of a reading slump. While I haven't always connected with Josh Malerman's books, I enjoyed the hell out of Goblin. A novel told through six interconnected novellas, this was a fun ride from start to finish. The characters and the atmosphere throughout were a highlight for me, and the plots of each story were unique and genuinely unsettling. A fun collection and it has made me excited about Malerman as a horror writer again.

GOBLIN: A Novel in Six Novellas
Josh Malerman
Del Rey Books
ISBN-13: 978- 0593237809
Hardcover
Horror/Dark Fantasy

GOBLIN is a dark, modern-day version of Sherwood Anderson’s WINESBURG, OHIO for horror aficionados. Author Josh Malerman has demonstrated time and again his masterful ability to craft atmospheric tales with unforgettable characters (sympathetic and otherwise) but, as with the best of authors, tops himself with this nightmarish account of a small, quirky, and quietly terrifying town where the rain seemingly never stops.

GOBLIN, as the subtitle indicates, is composed of six novellas loosely connected by location and character references to the town of Goblin. Malerman is deliberately vague as to Goblin’s location and the time frame of the stories, which I would place somewhere in the latter quarter of the Twentieth Century. There is also, as a bit of lagniappe, a short story divided into a Prologue (“Welcome”) and Epilogue (“Make Yourself at Home”). This story concerns the delivery of a mysterious box and extremely specific instructions with regard to transport and dropoff. What could go wrong? Malerman’s cinematic prose provides a blueprint for any filmmaker wanting to make this work an installment of a Netflix anthology series while simultaneously making such a project superfluous to the source material. The six novellas have a bit more room for exploration and none of it is wasted. “A Man in Slices” concerns a friendship between Richard and Charles, two residents of
Goblin who first met when Charles’ family moved to the city. Charles was and is the odd duck who Richard took under his wing during their childhood. Richard functions as a supportive sounding board for Charles, a role with which they both seem comfortable. Things begin to go off-kilter when Charles begins a long-distance relationship with a young woman who begins making sinister requests for him to prove her love. He acquiesces, but uses deception to do so, much to Richard’s ultimate dismay. “Kamp” is an oddly unsettling tale about a man who is afraid of ghosts in general. He is in the right place to feed that fear as he transforms his living quarters and everything else to guard against the invasion which is ultimately of his own doing. We then meet Neal Nash in “Happy Birthday, Hunter!” The occasion is Nash’s sixtieth birthday party, an evening in wretched excess hosted by his wife Barbara. Nash is determined to celebrate his birthday by being the first to acquire as a trophy one of the mysterious and menacing owls that occupy Goblin’s local woods. He enlists two of his hunting pals to assist him in this endeavor but an unexpected gatecrasher spoils the party. “Presto” follows. It is perhaps my favorite novella in GOBLIN. “Presto” is a story which proceeds on twin tracks, one involving the evolution of the career of a magician traveling on the Spell Circuit who performs under the name of “Roman Emperor” and the other concerning Pete, a middle school student in Goblin who aspires to be a magician and who idolizes the enigmatic Emperor. The manner and skill with which Emperor performs his magic come at a price --- Goblin’s unique cemetery comes into play here --- but while the interaction between Pete and Emperor is brief but memorable it is the ending to this story that ultimately makes it the stunner it is. “A Mix-Up at the Zoo” is hallucinatory and surreal. It involves a custodian at the Goblin Zoo who becomes a tour guide there by both accident and design but who continues working both jobs while working at a rendering plant on the weekends, with ultimately disastrous results. It is somewhat unsettling and will undoubtedly echo in your memory the next time you visit an animal collective of any sort. The last story introduces Wayne Sherman, who is frequently mentioned in the other stories in GOBLIN. Shorter put GOBLIN on the map with his hedge sculpting tributes to famous citizens of Goblin, as well as a seemingly impossible hedge maze that has become a tourist attraction for the city. Things begin to unravel, and badly, when a young girl with keen instinct and observation solves the maze quite easily, something that causes a chain reaction of events that brings the exposure of Sherman’s past and present life to the pleasure of no one.

It is very difficult to get the stories of GOBLIN, singly and collectively, out of one’s head once they have been digested. I sense that Malerman has by design left spaces in between each tale that may be filled at a later date. My impression, based on this collection, is that one familiar with the city might be hesitant to read more but would find doing so to be impossible to resist, which might also explain why the residents of Goblin never leave. You won’t either, without finishing these stories in one sitting. Recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2021, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

‘These six novellas tell the story of a place where the rain is always falling, nighttime is always near, and your darkest fears and desires await. Welcome to Goblin. . . . ‘

I enjoyed reading GOBLIN, a town that I hope to revisit in future works by Malerman, a place that incorporates the right amount of Dark and Creepy Goodness that has this reader yearning for more.

The following are my favorites, some with snippets and my immediate reaction after reading each:

‘Prologue: Welcome’/ ‘Epilogue: Make Yourself At Home’

‘If Tom hadn’t left his sweater in his locker, if he hadn’t gone back to get it, and if he hadn’t passed the main office on the way, the whole dark night might’ve been avoided.’

‘A Man Of Slices’ – That was Creepy Good – Richard and Charles are childhood friends, and let’s just say Charles is a little. . .off.

‘Kamp’ – That was good!

The next Gobliner in line. Maude used to say it was in the water. And it always made Mrs. Doris laugh because she knew her sister wasn’t talking about the tap. She was referring, of course, to the endless rainfall outside and the fact that nobody ought to be tasked with maintaining their sanity forever in a city that never stopped crying.

‘Happy Birthday, Hunter!’ – Hahaha, LOVE the ending!

‘Neal Nash was, as the invitation for his party proudly boasted, the most celebrated big-game hunter in the history of Goblin.’

‘Once upon a time, a fabled hunter tracked the one thing he was not allowed to have …’

‘Presto’ – Love this one!

‘Roman Emperor was a fixture on the Spell Circuit, and all his peers considered him a threat … His show was electrifying. It was dangerous. He did things with weapons so frightening audience members would leave an Emperor show with a sense of having survived it.’

Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey Publishing (Random House), for loaning me an eGalley of GOBLIN in the request for an honest review.

Goblin, from Josh Malerman, is a set of novellas about the happenings in the town of Goblin. All of the stories intersect on the night of a torrential rainfall.

A man who will do anything to prove his love - a man worried about being scared to death - a big game hunter wanting the one trophy he shouldn't have - a magician dabbling in dirty magic - a tour guide at the zoo - a prize at the center of the famous hedges - and a mysterious package

All of these show the creepiness of the town of Goblin. Malerman makes you look for the things that aren't anywhere but in your mind. It's horror that your mind fills in.

My favorites are the scenes in the North Woods with the Black Owls and the story of the Hedges.

Malerman does a great job tieing the stories together. As a reader you should listen for the connections - some are very subtle.

Great collection from Malerman.

Goblin - Josh Malerman


Have you read any books by Josh Malerman? Any favorites?

I just finished reading Malerman’s his latest release, a book with six interconnecting novellas. Each story is connected by occurring in the small rainy town of Goblin, which is also the name of the book.

“Welcome to the town of Goblin. May your night there be wet with rain, adventure and filled with fright….”

The prologue tenses things for the reader and pulls them in. There is a very important delivery for Dean Crawford. The package, which is wrapped in secrecy, includes a number of stipulations that must be delivered between midnight and 12:30 A.M. I really would of liked the prologue to continue and honestly it could have been an entire book.

The six novellas include:

1. “A Man in Slices” teaches us a bit about Goblin, such as they bury their dead standing upright. In this novella, Richard has been burdened by recent news from his childhood friend Charles who he feels indebted to and feels the responsibility to protect. Malerman transports the reader to the backstory that started their friendship. This is a story about a man who wants to prove his love to a long distance girlfriend.
2. “Kamp” is about a man, Walter Kamp, who is scared of ghosts. His fear and anxiety has turned his apartment into a prison. Kamp removes all the doors from his apartment and pushes all the furniture against the wall so a ghost cannot sneak up on him.
3. “Happy Birthday Hunter” is one of my favorite novellas because I felt that it tied together the previous stories and gives us clues for what may lie ahead.
4. “Presto” is a dark atmospheric story about an infamous magician called Roman Empire who will be giving a one night performance in Goblin. A young boy learns about this performance while flipping through the pages of Presto magic magazine.
5. “A mix up at the Zoo” is about Dirk Rogers, a beloved fixture in Goblin Zoo by day who also works in the Goblin Slaughterhouse by night.
6. “Hedges” is where we find out more behind the hedges in Goblin, which has had brief appearances throughout the book.

The epilogue does a nice job of wrapping up our experience in this chilling town. 4 ⭐️

Goblin. The town is strange. Its residents are strange. So, of course, most of what happens there is strange. Creepy. Scary. Evil.

I enjoyed this journey to Goblin through six novellas. And the prologue about a delivery man hauling mysterious, dangerous cargo set the tone for the entire book. Very weird and entertaining! The only other Josh Malerman book I've read is Bird Box. I'm pleasantly surprised that this book is different, yet maintains that weird, off-kilter feeling I got when I read Bird Box. I like Malerman's writing style. His brand of horror just makes me feel...creeped out, slightly uncomfortable, and thoroughly entertained. It's like horror movies where I find myself trying to tell the characters not to go in the basement, split up the party, hide upstairs, pick up the hitchhiker -- and the excited, yet creeped out feeling I get when they do it anyway. I kept wanting to tell these characters DONT look in the truck, never try to trap ghosts, don't go in the woods..... They didn't listen. They did it anyway. They...... well, read the book to find out what happens!

I love the cover for this edition. It looks like the old weathered horror paperbacks I love to find with the supremely awesome creepy artwork on the front! It definitely fit the book!

Very entertaining! I'm definitely going to read more of his books. I've had A House at the Bottom of a Lake on my TBR list for a long time. I think it's time to finally read it!

Horror lovers who are in the mood for something a bit different will like this book. It's strange....creepily uncomfortable....and awesome!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Random House. All opinions expressed are entirely my own**

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up to a 3

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had never read anything from Josh Malerman before, I know everyone was really into Birdbox, but I never gave it a try. When I saw this collection of 6 novellas, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to see what his writing is like. I could test the waters a bit and see if I should pick up any of his more well known books.

I’m a big fan of short stories and novellas, I personally think when they are done right, they can be punchy and powerful.
However, the downside with these types of collections is that I usually don’t end up loving every single story. Some will stick out as winners, some will be middle of the road, and the rest will be forgettable.
I have to say that, unfortunately, this collection just wasn’t a real hit for me. I did have some stories I really got on with, but the rest were sort of disappointing.

A Man in Slices is the first story in the collection and I thought it was extremely well done and interesting. It had me really excited to read the rest of the stories that were coming next.

Kamp, the second story, was incredibly disappointing for me. I felt that the majority of the story was pretty boring and that I didn’t really understand what was trying to be achieved through it.

Happy Birthday, Hunter! was just a big nope for me. I’m not a fan of anything to do with hunting or anything with animals. I was left questioning what I was supposed to get from this story, what was I supposed to be feeling?

Presto wasn’t a bad story, but it wasn’t anything mind blowing for me either. I liked it enough, but I feel like I would probably end up not even remembering it existed later on.

A Mix-up at the Zoo was just weird. This one and Happy Birthday, Hunter! were my absolute least favorites by far.

The Hedges was a great closing story in my opinion. I felt the most invested in this one and I was sad that I had to wait until the end to get something so enjoyable as this one.

Overall, I wasn’t overly impressed by this collection. It just wasn’t for me and what I typically enjoy in the horror genre.

I love this type of book. Connected theme novellas. Intriguing premise and I enjoyed each one individually and as a part of the larger whole. Horrifying and yet playful, with a nice 'mysterious town' vibe.

Thank you to NetGalley and DelRay for an ARC of this book.
This was an interesting idea; a collection of novellas all set in 1 town. The stories were good, with many tie-ins and call-backs to previous stories and characters, which added to the enjoyment. Overall, a good collection of novellas.

Good ole Goblin. It's definitely a place you want to visit and raise a family.

Ok. Maybe that's a lie. It actually seems like a horrible place and it's somewhere I definitely don't want travel to.

There are, as the title says, six stories. They are all different but also connected because they take place in, you guessed it, Goblin.


I really enjoyed A man in slices, and Happy birthday, hunter.
There is a little bit for everyone with Goblin, just dont stay too long.