Goblins! by Royce Buckingham

Title: Goblins!: An UnderEarth Adventure
Author: Royce Buckingham
Published: September 2008 by Putnam Juvenile

My Rating: 2 stars
Tags: YA/MG | Boys | Fantasy
Includes: Violence, Gore

First Lines: One hundred feet directly above the fortress wall, on the surface of the earth, Sam Hill loitered on the curb outside the Stop-n-Sip contemplating the most potentially exciting thing to happen in his tiny home town of Sumas, Washington, in the entire month of June.

Description from Amazon:
Sneaking out into the woods near the Canadian border, Sam and PJ come across what looks like a mutant gorilla with a bad attitude. But it’s no ape— it’s a goblin, and thousands more of them live under the earth, kept in check only by a small corps of human Guardians. Sam finds a tunnel below the surface, and in no time he’s in the goblins’ clutches. With goblin leaders Eww-Yuk and Slurp at odds, it will take all of PJ’s strength and ingenuity to get Sam back—but then again, how hard could it be to outsmart a goblin? Featuring high adventure and slapstick humor, Goblins! is a subterranean romp that will keep readers laughing as they race through the pages to see what happens next.

This book was unlike anything I have ever read before. Just looking at the cover, I was interested to read the summary on the book jacket to see what it was about. It was a quick read, and very easy to understand - due to the fact that it's written for kids in middle school.

I didn't find any deep meaning or "life lesson" by the end of the novel, but I have to give kudos to Buckingham for his originality. There were many small adventures that Sam and PJ lived through, that all added up to the climax, which was well-portrayed. I found it hard to visualize what was going on (which I always try to do while reading) because there weren't that many details and descriptions of the characters and setting.

Each chapter brought along a new problem that the teens had to face, however I just didn't like how short the chapters were. They were only about two to four pages long, and I just think that's too short. Whenever something really exciting was about to happen, a new chapter began, talking about something else. So even though it was sometimes a little annoying to have to wait and anticipate for that particular part of the story to pick back up again, the cliff hangers were great.

I wouldn't read this book again, just because it seems targeted for kids in middle school, and it wasn't that great. Even though I like satisfying and convincing endings of books, I feel like this one was a little too over the top. It was ultra-cheesy, and ended too soon. Overall, a pretty good book for male tweens who would like a quick-read adventure and gross book about kids vs. goblins.

Book Supplied by: Publisher for Review.