Hilari Bell has written ten or twelve books, and they generally seem to be popular. I hadn’t read any prior to this, and it’s mostly because I’m shallow. No, that’s the truth: I saw “Hilari Bell” and my brain translated it to “Hilary Duff”. Of course, after having read The Goblin Wood, I went to Bell’s website and found out that she’s an almost-fifty-year-old former children’s librarian who lives with her mother, brother, and sister-in-law. Not exactly what I’d pictured. Now, in order to rectify my egregious mistake, I’ll be purchasing and reading more of her books.

The story is told in alternating chapters, between Makenna, a hedgewitch, and Tobin, a disgraced knight. Makenna’s mother was killed by religious fundamentalists who decided that hedgewitches were minions of The Dark One, and now she does not trust humans. Luckily, there are goblins — short, semi-magical beings with human levels of intelligence. Makenna and the goblins team up to try to keep the humans out of the northern part of the forest. Five years later, they are so successful that the church decides to send a knight after her to neutralize her threat.

Makenna is a strong character with a strong grudge at the beginning of the book; she starts out at the age of twelve, but she had to run in order not to watch her mother die. Tobin has his own grudge: he’s been mistaken for his brother and was convicted of conspiracy. If he manages to capture or kill Makenna, he might get his name and honor back. The two humans are very dynamic; the situations change and they change with them. Obviously they start at odds, but each has or develops enough sympathy that they can change their minds. The goblins change less, but each has its own personality.

The writing style, plot, and characterizations were all pretty standard for YA/children’s fantasy. They rang true; I believed in the characters and their settings. The originality, however, wasn’t so much in those elements but the tone. Somehow she managed to lighten what was essentially a depressing plot into something with depth and gravity but enough humor to make it appropriate for YAs. She handled the balance very well; not just of the tone, but the balance between the two main characters, and the balance between philoshophy and story.

There was a fair amount of philosophizing; some might even say there’s a message of tolerance regarding race and the idea of independent, personal decisions around religion. I didn’t regard it as particularly heavy-handed, though; certainly on par with most messages in children’s novels. I also had the advantage of agreeing with her suppositions before I read the book, so many of the ideas were not only not new, but definitely welcomed.

It’s hopefully a book to make people think about religious and racial tolerance; that’s not a message that can be repeated too much. On top of that, it’s a good story, and it will draw in readers of many ages. The book is recommended on Amazon for 9-12 year-olds, but I’d perhaps push it a little older than nine. Still, I’ll give it 4.5/5 stars and send it along its way.