“When stories were âSubmitted for approval by the Midnight Society,â did they ever not get approval? I donât remember any episodes like that, but itâd be a convenient way out of a jam as a writer for that show. âYeah, this story isnât very good ON PURPOSE!â
If Josh Malerman sat by the fire and threw the magic dust on it and told these stories, Iâd probably vote him in, but with some things to work on. The stories in Goblin had really detailed character sketches, and then by the end of the story the characters were gone and you had to repeat the getting to know you process for each story. So it felt a little slow as a result.
Have you seen Death Proof? You know how Tarantino makes like a short movie, then the entire thing resets and we see the same movie again but with a different outcome? It feels a little like that here and there in Goblin, and so when weâre getting to the long setup of a kid magician and then another magician and what his childhood was like, and when I suspected I wasnât gonna hear from either of these characters shortly after getting their backstory, I tapped out. I just didnât get into the rhythm of reset, new story, lay it out, character details, story ramps up and concludes, resetâ¦
This is my first Malerman, and Iâd give him another try on something a little more focused. This one just didnât do it for me.
Also, characters didnât make a big enough deal about the town being called Goblin. That shitâs hilarious. Also, built-in mascot for everything.
2022 Update: I tried this again where I left off, finished the magician story, started in on the next one, decided I’d made the right choice the first time.
Two whacks at this one, same result. When will I learn…”