DNF Review- The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: April 15, 2003
ISBN-13: 978-0060513719
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Goblin Wood series
Source: eGalley through NetGalley.com
Rating: 2/5 stars

“One terrible day, Makenna, a young hedgewitch, witnesses her mother’s murder at the hands of their own neighbors. Striken with grief and rage, Makenna flees the village that has been her home. In the wilds of the forest, she forms an unexpected alliance. Leading an army of clever goblins, Makenna skillfully attacks the humans, now their shared enemy.

What she doesn’t realize is that the ruling Hierarchy is determined to rid the land of all magical creatures, and they believe Makenna is their ultimate threat – so they have sent a young knight named Tobin into the Goblin Wood to entrap her.”

I have had this book on my TBR pile for awhile and was excited to read this. I ended up reading the first 200 pages of this book and just couldn’t get into the story, so I stopped. It was written in a very simple style and ended up being very boring. No matter where or when I read this book I kept falling asleep and I rarely fall asleep while reading.

The story bounces back and forth between a young hedgewitch named Makenna and a young knight. Makenna has befriended the goblins in the woods and is harassing the ruling kingdom with her goblin army. The young knight is sent to find her and lead a group of church sorcerers to stop Makenna’s rebellion.

I struggled with the stark writing style and how slow the story moved. I didn’t find the characters, the storyline or the world-building to be all that interesting or engaging.

Overall I didn’t like this book and stopped reading it after the first couple hundred pages. I won’t be continuing with the series, this was just not for me.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge