Some stellar art that just oozes fantasy charm from a lush, magical forest to a laid-in-waste ruin. This story is your typical fantastical revenge story, our hero faces a great tragedy at the hands of a foe and goes on a quest to make himself stronger to take his revenge. There are bumps and lessons along the way and our hero ultimately decides what is best for them which path to take. I like the framing of this as a goblin story, as traditionally goblins tend to be the nasties in this kind of tale, but I wish the story kind of leaned more into subverting that narrative, whether through telling stories of other goblins or how those preconceptions of goblins warp people's perceptions or expectations.

Our foe doesn't really have much depth to him, he's just an obstacle that our hero must rail against to relieve himself of some grief. On the whole, the story could have just used more explanation and exploration of certain characters to really have some messages land home.

It's okay for a quick read and to introduce kids to your quintessential quest/hero's journey, but it's nothing that will shake up the genre.