This was my second book by Tori Bovalino and it was so close to a 4.5! It was so creepy and interesting. It wasn't the usual goblin book, it was definitely its own thing. The atmosphere of the market was absolutely amazing. It was gross and creepy and so easy to picture even when I didn't want to.
We almost immediately get a missing person mystery which really caught my attention. Lou's aunt Neela (who is almost her age and her best friend) leaves her a strange message on her phone. She needs Lou's help. And then a voice she has never heard comes on the line telling her to come find Neela. She lives an ocean away and Lou's mom does not want her to go but she won't tell her why.
Obviously from the synopsis Neela ends up in the goblin market. Lou's mom and other aunt May have a long history with the goblin market Lou has never heard about. Lou is determined to save Neela no matter how hard it is to get in and out of the goblin market, especially with her family's history.
We get 2 different timelines in this book. Lou (present) and May (18 years earlier). I really liked Lou and her determination to save Neela. I also really enjoyed May's story. Everything ends up weaving together perfectly and it just makes sense.
If you are looking for a creepy goblin horror story, look no further. Put this one on your TBR!

Ultimately I DNF’d this one because I couldn’t quite connect with the story. I absolutely love “The Goblin Market” and loved that it was getting a retelling. I thought Bovalino’s horror and gore was appropriate for this tale

Even if you didn't like this author's debut novel you should still pick this one up. It brought everything I hoped for when I found out this was set within a goblin market. It's dark, it's eery, it's gory, and I enjoyed the entire experience.

I was swept away with this story! Now one of my most favorite books hitting the shelves!

Tori Bovalino is a master at creating lush and fully-consuming atmospheres.
I loved the world she created here! Absolutely loved it.
Not Good for Maidens is a heart-pounding, magical, adventurous novel I couldn't get enough of. This was one of those I didn't want it to ever end.
Full of words that drown you in their depths and an evocative fantasy atmosphere, Bovalino has ruined me for life. Because this book has it all.
From the writing to the characters, it's stunning. I was captivated from the start.
I genuinely can't recommend Not Good for Maidens enough.
It's an incredible novel that now holds a special place in my heart.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Page Street Kids, 😘
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

If I could give more than 5 stars, I would. It’s not often I’m knocked over by how much I love a book, but this is one of them. For starters, retelling of Goblin Market?? Absolutely. One of my favorites, and has inspired other favorites (Labyrinth, Pan’s Labyrinth), but this is actually why this could have gone south, because I love Goblin Market’s inspiration so much. It had such an opportunity to fail simply because of how much I love the premise, but the book never took a turn for the worse and it just kept getting better for me. Tori Bovalino accomplished the utter creepiness of what Goblin Market should be in a novelized version, pulling no punches with the horrors of the market and what it is at its core. Beyond that, an asexual main character? Absolutely yes. This is a dual narrative in different time periods, so the other MC’s story is a sapphic Romeo and Juliet type love with a goblin which was just absolutely amazing for me. Normally love interests are boring, overdone, unrealistic, or cringey (especially in YA, for me) but this was nothing like that.

I ended up getting an audiobook ARC of this (the format is much easier for me) after this was approved, but I switched back and forth to finish while I was at work. I ordered this for my library (and myself!) and would absolutely recommend this to teens who love horror, retellings, or LGBTQ+ stories. Thank you for this ARC!

Not Good for Maidens unfortunately fell short for me. I was disappointed with the world building and how much was lacking in terms of description. Things that seemed very important were not explored as well as they could have been, primarily the magic. We hardly ever got to see magic being performed when that’s an integral part of the plot. In addition, I found that the main character fixated on things that didn’t add to the storyline which annoyed me at times. The most disappointing aspect was that I really wasn’t emotionally invested in any of the characters. The most enjoyable part was the alternating timelines-it was well done and I didn’t find it hard to keep up with. This book is not for everyone but some certainly will enjoy it!

I really wanted to love this book. It has such a promising premise. However, the book dragged far too much for my tastes. It felt like a short story (or *maybe* a novella) plot stretched into book length. I had a hard time understanding the main romance--namely, why the two characters were drawn to one another in the first place. I wanted to love the pairing, but I didn't feel any connection between them. As for the goblin market, it is written with a beautiful sort of viciousness. Unfortunately, but by the end of the book, I found myself bored by the repetition of grotesque imagery. I wish I had connected with this story more, but in the end, it wasn't for me.

I've been excited for this book since I found out it was a Tori Bovalino book, and it was a fantasy horror about a goblin market that is twisted and beautiful, selling gorgeous wears and spilling blood through the stalls. It sounded so incredible, and I was ready to be disturbed. Trigger warnings: blood, gore, body horror

Oh, I love this book.

Listen, I know I'm not supposed to want to go to the market. I know it's bad place where bad things happen and I would probably die a horrible death, but the way that Tori writes it, the way she creates the pull, the lure, it made me want to go. Me, who usually doesn't want to go anywhere. She totally and utterly captured the urge, the desire, to go to this place where danger lurks but it is oh so beautiful. I couldn't even fault those who did venture to the market, because I understood why they wanted to. I understood the temptation, and I understood why the ended up doing it even at the risk of their life.

This also brings me to mention that I freaking loved the market. Oh, was it horrifying. It is terrifying at it's very core, bloody and butchered and sinking into the earth. It's a place where pain lives, and it's written into every corner of it. It's freaking terrifying, and the way it is written is downright incredible.

I loved Lou. I loved May. I loved Laura. I loved all the characters, and even ones I did not expect to love, I ended up completely loving. There is a bond, a tangled type of love between them. The kind that tugs and hurts and is sometimes just weird. But it's a connection, a tie, and something to fight for.

It's a book about wanting to find your place, about feeling like there is no place you belong. And the market latches on to that and rips from the feeling not belonging anywhere. But something also grows from that, in a horrifying, but wonderful, way.

This book is also really freaking queer. There are murder sapphics, and the main character is also ace! It's wonderful.

Overall, I really, really loved this book. It is dark, but beauty mixed in with it, the illusion of grandeur, of priceless ware, to cover up the sight of bodies and human flesh being eaten. It captures the darkness inside of it so well, well enough that jaw dropped at times when the book does not hold back on the gore. It is that good. I also fell in love with the characters, their yearning, their desire to belong, their desire to go after the ones they love. I adore so much about this book, and it is so, so good.

I was a massive fan of The Devil Makes Three so I was very excited to dive into Not Good for Maidens. Tori Bovolino’s writing style is accessible and readable, and she has a distinct talent for pacing stories in a way that slowly unravels the plot while not lacking in action. As a relatively hesitant fan of contemporary fantasy, I surprisingly really enjoyed the modern York setting and the magical underbelly of the Goblin Market.

The family dynamics between Lou and her mum and aunt was my favourite part of the story, I loved seeing how their ancestral magic and family traditions wove into the plot. The dual POVs and timelines was an interesting choice, and while I found it difficult to fully get into each characters head, I did enjoy seeing the two plot lines slowly meld together into the present.

The setting of the Goblin Market made for a thrilling and unique backdrop, and I found the almost clinical nature the violence was described with to be jarring and somewhat unemotional. That brings me to my only major critique— I found it very difficult to truly invest in the characters. I’m not sure whether it was that the POVs were so separate or perhaps they weren’t as fleshed out as much as I would’ve liked, but by the end I wasn’t hugely invested in how their stories resolved. Compared to the more complex characters in The Devil Makes Three, The Goblin Market was a little more surface level. Overall, I did enjoy the book and think it will appeal to a wide readership and especially the YA bracket in particular:

This book was incredibly creative and haunting. Full of love, horror, and hope. I absolutely adored this book!

This is a great fit for readers looking for
- LGBTQ+ Rep
- Horror & Goblin Lore
- A Coming of Age story
- A "Romeo & Juliet" -esque love story
- Family bonding
- Witches!

Tori's writing is beautiful and easy to read. It's perfect for people who enjoy flowing prose and vivid descriptions that take you to a whole new world.

Intricate, enticing, compelling, intriguing, mysterious, dark and so much more.
I was so excited to read this early, so thanks for the e-arc because this book lived up to my hype !
The alternating timelines were well-done, and it's rather rare for me to be that interested into two timelines, usually I prefer one, but that was not the case here : I loved both ! I appreciated every character, I wanted more !
I'm so glad I read it, a great discovery !

Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Publishing for my digital ARC for 'Not Good for Maidens' which is expected to be published June 2022 - review will be posted on Goodreads closer to that date!

I LOVE anything that involves the worlds of the fair folk, and magic, so I was really looking forward to this dark fantasy novel!
Only initial issue I had with this book was the pacing of the first 14 chapters. It felt like there was a very slow start, and the information felt like it was a little repetitive. It wasn't after Chapter 15 where there were more detailed flashbacks with May at the Goblin Market, and Lou herself travels the Goblin Market, that I felt things were really getting interesting. Part 2 was phenomenal, and halfway though it I realized I was almost done, and started to wish that the book was longer!

Dark and mysterious! I loved Lou's story of friendship and family--the asexual representation was also a fantastic surprise! I was impressed by the author's first novel, and this is an excellent follow up that does not disappoint!

Not Good for Maidens, by Terry Bovalino, is a magical fantasy about the women of the Wickett family, as they confront their storied and witchy pasts, and presents, with the Goblin Market.
I loved this book! It was such a rich and layered world, and the characters were just as developed as the dual-setting, which really worked for this novel.
I love the idea of the “Victims” of the Goblins Market having designated protectors, and The Goblin Market itself was just as creepy and interesting as one might expect. I hope that there are future novels from Terry Bovalino in which to visit this amazing world.
I would recommend this book to anyone into witches and magic in their literature, and give it a strong 4 ⭐️.
Thanks so much to Page Street Kids and NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy.

This has just about everything I could ever want in a book: queer romance, strong women characters, magic and mystery, just enough adventure and action, plenty of gross icky slightly gory bits, and a whole lot of flawed folks learning how to navigate their traumas. I will desperately await any sequels or prequels and subsequent tales from within this universe,

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

I cannot and will never ask for a better book than this one. It had everything I love and I cannot believe perfection like this even exists.

I am a huge fan of anything having to do with the Goblin Market, but this brings the creepiness in full force. Not to mention, the locations are the places I love most in the world.

Oh, I love this book so much!

The market itself is utterly horrifying. This book does not dance around gore and horror. I often have a hard time with reading horror not because I don't like it (I LOVE horror!) but because nothing really creeps me out anymore. Listen, I'm 40-years-old, I've seen every horror movie out there, so it takes a lot to get me scared and this one did the trick. The author's writing is utterly incredible in the way she describes the horrors and how Lou navigates them.

Overall, I enjoyed this book much that I will probably own multiple copies.

I was sucked in by that gorgeous cover, and the book did not disappoint. The alternating timelines were very well done, the worldbuilding was intricate and engaging, and the portrayal of the goblins was especially intriguing. I loved May & Eitra's romance and Lou's character growth. And even though I know the Goblin Market is full of human body parts, I still wanna visit!

NOT GOOD FOR MAIDENS was a really compelling read and I would love another book set in this world.

“Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy..
We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits"

The Labyrinth meets Wintersong in this dark retelling of the Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.

If you enjoy:
- Dark goblin stories.
- Hereditary witches.
- Sapphic romances.
- Blood and berry stained cobblestones

then you need to pick this one up.
I LOVED THIS STORY SO MUCH.

Not Good for Maidens is deliciously dark and does not shy away from gore and body horror. Consider yourself warned. Don't expect this story to be about the sort of goblins you read in PG fairytales. These goblins are manipulative, ruthless and dangerous to humans. What you can expect though is gorgeous dark fairytale vibes and beautiful writing. The world created by Tori feels so luscious and well thought out.

The dual timelines worked perfectly between the two main protagonists May and Lou and I found equal enjoyment in both stories. Sensitive content such as trauma is also explored which I always appreciate as it gives some additional depth to a story.

I am also infatuated with both covers of this book so basically I will need to buy both. It's not a want, it's a necessity.

Just know that I am OBSESSED with every part of this book.

Thank you to Page Street Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this novel to read and review in advance.

While this book had a bit of a slow start, by the end it absolutely blew me away. The intricacy of the world building combined with the very real horror of the Goblin Market make this a fantastic dark fairy tale with a gory edge. It seriously scratched just about every itch I had—realistic queer rep, female family bonds, witchcraft, and a very practical and relatable heroine. (I love pragmatic teen characters.)

The author did a fantastic job balancing the dual narratives, and even though the reader inherently knows the outcome of one of the storylines, this doesn't dampen the terror and trauma of what the characters are going through.

However, I did find the writing style a bit lacking at times. While the body horror and gore descriptions thrived on the page, there was a lack of emotionality that sometimes made it difficult to fully engage with the characters. This might not have been a problem if it hadn't made it remarkably frustrating to read May's sections. Her decisions regarding the market were all rooted in emotions that were not adequately relayed, and this made for a very irritating "don't go into the basement!" experience up until almost the very end. However, the contrast with Lou's own journey to and through the market was also strengthened by the extreme dichotomy in their approaches, so I guess it all boils down to opinion. In any case, Lou's character arc and overall story were strong enough to make me love the book regardless.