The Goblin Crown by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, a review

Like Guy Gavriel Kay’s FIONAVAR TAPESTRY and Suzanne Collins’ wonderful UNDERLAND CHRONICLES or C.S. Lewis’ CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, Robert Hewitt Wolfe’s THE GOBLIN CROWN, is a story of ordinary people suddenly thrust into an extraordinary, magical world. We know up front that this world is a dangerous place and that the stakes—whatever they are—will be real and that actions will have consequences for Billy, Lexi, and Kurt, as well as all they meet.

Billy, our hero, is an outsider, a kid who has NEVER felt he fit in anywhere and who certainly doesn’t expect that his high school experience is going to be any different. Billy is, a familiar enough character, but Wolfe nails him, bringing him to vivid life on the page. But pretty Filipina Lexi—who really isn’t very good at minding her own business—and bullying jock Kurt are also three-dimensional and believable people. These characters are grounded—no, rooted—in reality and we believe they act in a way that has context. (There’s a lovely, magical moment when Billy meets all the freckle-faced, redheaded men who came before him and takes courage from the encounter.