The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison

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⭐ 8.5/10

(Originally written by Rebecca)

It's hard to rate this book because I loved the latter half, but the first half was quite slow and often confusing. Maggie read it to me over 2 and a half weeks, and the first week or so I was just interested enough to continue, and then by the end I was really invested.

It's a very political story about a half-goblin who suddenly becomes the emperor of the elves after the sudden and mysterious death of his father and half-brothers, and the way he struggles to be a good emperor when he never wanted to be. Not super gripping, and definitely not my usual thing, but you just want him to do well so badly! And make friends! And get a good night's sleep! All of the names and fantasy words were super confusing, and I had to stop and get clarification and consult our character list pretty often. But for the most part it was manageable, and we read the final quarter of the book all in basically one sitting. I really loved the ending, and I got really attached to a lot of the characters. Glad we ended up reading this one.

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