Wednesday, April 15, 2020

The Princess and the Goblin Review


Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald is a children’s fantasy story. I classify this book as Christian fiction as George MacDonald was a Christian. It follows the adventures of 8-year-old Princess Irene and the goblins that live in the mountains by her home.



I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. I love the writing style. It gives me the same feeling as original fairytales. The plot was smooth and interesting, if a bit slow (but not distractingly so). The ending is solid, but with the clear message that there is more to come (presumably in his book The Princess and Curdie).

The characters were quite varied, being funny and cute and sweet and fascinating. The princess did feel a bit “too good”, but it worked here. The goblins were over the top horrible (both in looks and deeds) but I liked that for the fairytale aspect. I liked seeing the development of the Princess and Curdie (as people) in how they grew and learned through their experiences.

There are some wonderful lessons taught through the story that I felt were very well done. They were clear enough to understand the importance of the issue as well as showing how to properly handle it. At the same time, they weren’t directly stated like ‘this lesson is what you should get out of the story’. I feel it was written in such a way as to open dialogue about the issue between parents and children.

Overall, it is a lovely children’s story and I look forward to reading it with my children.

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