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A review by dtaylorbooks
The Goat Children by Jordan Elizabeth
2.0
Let’s start with the title: it just rubs me the wrong way. It’s relevant to the story, but it’s just downright unappealing to the eye and to the ear. Linking it back to the story, I don’t know why they’re actually called goat children. Goats are not at all involved. So really off-putting title.
And the cover: c’mon, CHBB. I’ve seen some of your covers. They’re downright gorgeous. Is there a reason this one got the nondescript stock image with the bevel/emboss/drop shadow title on the front made in Microsoft Paint? It’s just awful. No, I shouldn’t say that. I’ve seen AWFUL. This is just lazy and a total disservice to CHBB, Jordan, and the book. I’ve created better covers for Wattpad using an iPad app. There is no reason for something like this, especially when other authors with the same publisher have come out with higher quality, and higher concept, covers.
As for the story, I think it could have had the potential to be a really powerful story but it’s precipitated by a major contrivance that I just couldn’t get over. Keziah volunteers to go live with her grandmother who’s slipping into the wastelands of dementia and of the four adults involved in her life, two of which live only minutes away from said grandmother, all four were like “Yeah, this is a good idea. I don’t see why a seventeen-year-old can’t take care of a sick relative while we all go along with our lives.” DCF takes minors out of homes for things like this.
So as she gets more resentful of her situation I can’t help but be like THIS WOULD NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPEN. I just cannot believe that not one adult in this situation wouldn’t be a voice of reason here. Instead her feet are held to the fire with little to no help. The relatives who are closest treat her like a burden and get all huffy when she asks for help and her parents live too far away and basically write her off. When something does go wrong they’re like, ‘Keziah, what is wrong with you? You can’t have a life! You have to watch your grandmother!’ Meanwhile I’m sitting there going WTF NO. It is such an unbelievable situation that I ultimately felt nothing for the story.
The concept of the goat children isn’t really developed. It comes in at the end but for the majority of the book it’s this mythical thing that probably isn’t real but an instance or two show that it could potentially be real. And I have no idea why they’re called goat children. Like I said before they have nothing to do with goats. They ride pegasii and fight unseen things. It just felt like an idea that wasn’t fully mature. Or it’s a mature idea thrown onto a story that ended up watering it down.
Keziah was a brat. She volunteered for this and then held it against everyone, mostly the people in her class. She’s also rather socially inept, very steadfast in her beliefs and she didn’t even want to be around people who didn’t have the same views as her. She went to dinner with a group of girls from school and basically didn’t want to hang around them because they were eating meat and just wanted to know why she didn’t. She thought less of them because they drank and she just really had her nose in the air about everyone around her. She bemoaned people for not accepting her for who she was but in the same breath refused to accept other people if they weren’t like her. It did not make her a likable character at all. She had her issues thrown back in her face at the end by a classmate in a similar situation and I really liked that. As a character she needed that perspective. It didn’t make me like her any more, though.
THE GOAT CHILDREN just felt like a really unpolished book. The catalyst is poorly conceived and it really taints the rest of the story for me. Keziah as a character is unlikable, and at times inconsistent, and the family around her are negligent to a criminal degree. There are other issues thrown on top of the overarching ‘taking care of a sick family member’ that I felt were really tacked on and didn’t add anything other than unnecessary drama to the story. I’ve read a fair amount of Jordan’s work and this is definitely not her best showing. Coupled with the wince-worthy title and despicable cover this product just does not appear to be publishing-ready. The story itself is not fatally flawed and like I said before, it has the potential to be really powerful and I felt that at the end. But I think it’s still pretty far away from being at its greatest potential.
2
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
And the cover: c’mon, CHBB. I’ve seen some of your covers. They’re downright gorgeous. Is there a reason this one got the nondescript stock image with the bevel/emboss/drop shadow title on the front made in Microsoft Paint? It’s just awful. No, I shouldn’t say that. I’ve seen AWFUL. This is just lazy and a total disservice to CHBB, Jordan, and the book. I’ve created better covers for Wattpad using an iPad app. There is no reason for something like this, especially when other authors with the same publisher have come out with higher quality, and higher concept, covers.
As for the story, I think it could have had the potential to be a really powerful story but it’s precipitated by a major contrivance that I just couldn’t get over. Keziah volunteers to go live with her grandmother who’s slipping into the wastelands of dementia and of the four adults involved in her life, two of which live only minutes away from said grandmother, all four were like “Yeah, this is a good idea. I don’t see why a seventeen-year-old can’t take care of a sick relative while we all go along with our lives.” DCF takes minors out of homes for things like this.
So as she gets more resentful of her situation I can’t help but be like THIS WOULD NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPEN. I just cannot believe that not one adult in this situation wouldn’t be a voice of reason here. Instead her feet are held to the fire with little to no help. The relatives who are closest treat her like a burden and get all huffy when she asks for help and her parents live too far away and basically write her off. When something does go wrong they’re like, ‘Keziah, what is wrong with you? You can’t have a life! You have to watch your grandmother!’ Meanwhile I’m sitting there going WTF NO. It is such an unbelievable situation that I ultimately felt nothing for the story.
The concept of the goat children isn’t really developed. It comes in at the end but for the majority of the book it’s this mythical thing that probably isn’t real but an instance or two show that it could potentially be real. And I have no idea why they’re called goat children. Like I said before they have nothing to do with goats. They ride pegasii and fight unseen things. It just felt like an idea that wasn’t fully mature. Or it’s a mature idea thrown onto a story that ended up watering it down.
Keziah was a brat. She volunteered for this and then held it against everyone, mostly the people in her class. She’s also rather socially inept, very steadfast in her beliefs and she didn’t even want to be around people who didn’t have the same views as her. She went to dinner with a group of girls from school and basically didn’t want to hang around them because they were eating meat and just wanted to know why she didn’t. She thought less of them because they drank and she just really had her nose in the air about everyone around her. She bemoaned people for not accepting her for who she was but in the same breath refused to accept other people if they weren’t like her. It did not make her a likable character at all. She had her issues thrown back in her face at the end by a classmate in a similar situation and I really liked that. As a character she needed that perspective. It didn’t make me like her any more, though.
THE GOAT CHILDREN just felt like a really unpolished book. The catalyst is poorly conceived and it really taints the rest of the story for me. Keziah as a character is unlikable, and at times inconsistent, and the family around her are negligent to a criminal degree. There are other issues thrown on top of the overarching ‘taking care of a sick family member’ that I felt were really tacked on and didn’t add anything other than unnecessary drama to the story. I’ve read a fair amount of Jordan’s work and this is definitely not her best showing. Coupled with the wince-worthy title and despicable cover this product just does not appear to be publishing-ready. The story itself is not fatally flawed and like I said before, it has the potential to be really powerful and I felt that at the end. But I think it’s still pretty far away from being at its greatest potential.
2
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.