This was the dark faerie story I wanted! It was deliciously dark, with the kind of Fae that will trick you and kill you for no other reason than it brings them pleasure. I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this book and guessing what would happen next.

I loved the relationship between Laura and Eitra. This is how paranormal romance should be done. The Goblin being so Other and dark that Laura doesn't know whether to trust her or not and Eitra being just sympathetic enough to think that maybe she might be different, leaving you questioning who's side she's really on.

I did think that Lou was rushing in to the market without a plan a bit too much. Especially the first time. She went in with no idea how to find Neela and somehow that was okay? There's not knowing what to expect and there's going in completely blind and just hoping it would turn out okay.

But even with this, I absolutely loved this book. I hope Tori Bovalino does more fae stuff in the future.

Unfortunately this book was not for me, it was a bit slower than I would like and it just didn't hold my attention. I am sure other people will love it!

The perfect spooky season read for gothic fantasy lovers - a queer retelling of the goblin market with some witchy magic thrown in.

I’ve seen some reviewers dub this scary or petrifying, I’m the kind of girl that would be put off by that so I want to start by saying I didn’t find it too frightening, just slightly gorey in sections and gothic horroresque!

I couldn’t have predicted the direction this book would take, but I wholeheartedly believe it ended in the most perfect way.

I loved every second. The atmosphere, the goblins, the main characters, the timeline switches. It was all so good, made even more enjoyable by the fact I was in York at the start of the month and so I could picture the setting from my own memory, which was fun (but also, I’m really gonna be wary of the Shambles next time in in York 👀😂)

I enjoyed Tori Bovalino’s previous book last year, so decided to give Not Good for Maidens a try, and I’m so glad I did.
A creepy, horror-fantasy retelling of the Goblin Market, Not Good for Maidens is told across two timelines as two generations run afoul of the goblin market.

May has been raised a witch in York and knows that she must grow up to take over the responsibility of protecting the town (as much as she can) from the goblin market every summer. On the last night before her powers are unbound and she is banned from the market forever, she follows a goblin girl down to see what it is that has decided her future.
Lou is her niece, raised in the states far from the dangers of the goblin market, her best friend Neela has come to stay every summer - until the one she doesn’t, and when Lou receives several alarming voicemails they prompt her to travel to York and discover why her mother fled to America to begin with.

I loved Not Good for Maidens. It was tense, creepy, and mild horror (If you don’t usually enjoy horror - I don’t either.)
I like books where we learn with the characters, and therefore really enjoyed learning along with both Lou and May as the truth of the goblin market was revealed.

I read this book in pretty much one sitting, the book definitely sped up towards the end, but I didn’t find it particularly slow to begin with.

I thoroughly enjoyed Not Good for Maidens. A great fantasy-horror standalone.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.

This is a delightfully creepy, entertaining, and gripping retelling of Christina Rossetti's The Goblin Market.
There's a lot to love in this book: the diverse characters, the storytelling, and the well plotted story.
The Goblin Market is an allegoric poems and this retelling is one of the possible way of looking at it.
I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I've seen a few reviews for Not Good For Maidens that calls it a retelling of the Christina Rosetti poem Goblin Market, and I don't really see it. Other than the fact that both stories feature a market where goblins gather and that they try to temp humans in, it's completely different. The characters, the setting, the plot, everything about it stands on its own; and I think it really does Not Good For Maidens justice to call it a retelling when it's very clearly its own entity. It would be like referring to Superman as a retelling of Moses; they may share some basic similarities, but they're clearly different things.

Not Good For Maidens tells the story of Lou, a teenage girl who's grown up living with her mother, Laura, and her aunt, May, in the US. Her mother and aunt moved to America almost two decades before, fleeing something in the UK; though they won't tell her what it was. When Lou gets a frantic voicemail from her teenage aunt, Neela, who lives in York, it becomes clear that something terrible has happened to her. When Laura heads to England to try and hep Neela, Lou is left questions as to what is going on.

Convincing May to take her to York after her mother, Lou discovers a world of magic and horror that she could never have imagines. York is home to the Goblin Market, a place that exists beneath the twisting city streets, where goblins tempt humans to enter. As long as you follow the rules you're safe, but if you don't you can end up hurt, or dead. A coven of witches, which May and Laura used to be part of, protect the people of York from the goblins; but Neela, who will one day become a witch, has been taken into the goblin market and hasn't returned. Now Lou must try to find a way to help save her family from the horrors beneath, even as family secrets reveal some shocking revelations.

Not Good For Maidens is a wonderful mixture of YA fantasy, with some very dark and twisted horror. The goblin market is a dangerous, twisted place that's filled with some pretty awful things; and if you're something of a squeamish reader this might not be the best book for you. From jewellery made from human teeth, to eyeballs in jars, to rooms where the bodies of those people who didn't follow the rules are butchered to feed the goblins, there are a fair few moments that will make you pause and question how the visiting humans don't flee the market the second they see these things.

But despite the gore and body horror, this book doesn't revel in the moments that make your skin crawl. Instead, its a story about this family and the things that happen to them over two different periods. The narrative is split across two different times, with the main bulk of the book following Lou in the modern day as she tries to save her family, and the secondary narrative going back in time eighteen years to show us what happened to May, and the reason why she and Laura were banished from York.

The dual narratives work well together, and whilst we only occasionally dip in and out of May's story, it adds more flavour to the main narrative. Lou arrives in York and thinks about how overwhelming it feels, how the streets confuse her; so we get a flashback to May, who grew up there, and see how easily she navigated that life. Lou questions how anyone could possibly be tempted to go into the goblin market, especially if they knew the dangers; so we go back and see the reason why May entered it, even after growing up knowing what happens to humans there. May's story adds details that we'd otherwise lose out on in the main narrative; and it saves Tori Bovalino having to add chunks of exposition or have characters explain stuff. We get to experience it instead, and it makes the experience much more enjoyable.

The incorporation of May's narrative also means that when certain things happen in the present day we, the reader, get to understand their significance, we get to be excited, or shocked, when Lou has no idea what the things happening around her mean. There are some points in the modern timeline where you learn things that reveal some of what is going to happen in the flashbacks too, and whilst it means that you're not left wondering if a character survives, or if something terrible will happen to someone you care about, it just adds more tension because now you know what's coming, and you start to dread waiting for it to happen.

Both of the narratives have strong, young female leads, both of whom feel distinct and separate from the other. They're capable young women who both feel like there's something missing in their lives, or who want something different to what's been planned out for them, and we get to see them both grow, make mistakes, and forge a new path for themselves; even when those around them are telling them not to. It's also wonderful that both of them are queer, and that we get two LGBTQ+ leads in two different times. May is bi, and Lou is ace, and we also get other queer characters that feature around them too. There's also a queer star-crossed lovers narrative that weaves throughout the book that's a joy to read. So if you're looking for some good LGBTQ+ rep in a YA novel, this is one to certainly pay attention to.

Not Good For Maidens is very dark at ties, and isn't afraid to shock its reader with something twisted and gruesome; but it's also a wonderfully written story about very believable young women in these fantastical situations. The book has some great characters, and some super interesting world-building that happens that made it a delight to read. I hope that this isn't the last we see of these characters and this world, but if it is, it was a brilliant time all on its own.

NOT GOOD FOR MAIDENS is a brilliant second books from Tori Bovalino, a creepy read about deceptions and cruel goblins, and trying to protect those you love.

The book is split over two timelines, Lou's (the main one) and then 18 years ago as we follow what happened to her aunt May when she tangled with the market. I really liked that as it helped give an insight into the market long before we find ourselves in York, let alone the market. Plus there's a mystery in exactly went so horribly wrong that balance out the "save Neela" storyline so well.

A book largely set in York!!! Having ended my time there are few months ago, it was so nice to see it in a book, and by someone clearly very familiar with it. York is a gorgeous old city with so much history and it suited the creepy atmosphere of the visiting market so well.

Also an ace lead? We get it very soon on in the book and then there's no mention of relationships in the book, which I really liked. We get to see that it's just a part of the character, not part of the story, not a tension with a partner, just a part of who Lou is. And I really appreciated that. Aceness usually only comes up to create a tension with a partner.

I can't say I've ever read Christina Rosetti's The Goblin Market, which this book is somewhat based on (I believe.) However the epigraphs at the start of the two halves help at least let someone as unfamiliar as I understand the basic elements being retold.

Stars!

Synopsis: “The market, the market, the market”. Lou doesn’t believe in magic or the superstitions her mum and aunt abide by. But, when her close friend and aunt, Neela, is kidnapped by the Goblin Market, Lou must learn all she can about it and save her within three days.

CW/TW: Blood/Gore/Murder/Kidnapping/Manipulation/Imprisonment/Cannibalism/body horror/others may be present.

Rep: Asexual MC, Bisexual POV character, Pansexual side character, Sapphic side character (unspecified), POC characters. Terms are all used in the book!!

Note: So I was not actually aware that this book was a retelling of the original Goblin Market when I read it. However, from my understanding this book seems to subvert a lot of the tropes used in the original which are rooted in anti-semitism. But, as I am not a Jewish reader, my perspective on this is limited and so I would encourage you to read/find reviews from Jewish reviewers who have also read this book before you make any decisions regarding it. If you do find any reviews (or have written one yourself) then I’d love to check it out, so please feel free to comment/drop a link to the review in the comments!

Not Good For Maidens, by Tori Bovalino is, undoubtedly, an atmospheric read. Bovalino has taken the concept of the Goblin Market and leaned into the ideas of the fae/faeries – which I think worked particularly well for this book. Bovalinois excellent at creating the atmosphere they intended, the Market feels exactly as it is suppose to , the tension of the rules and the three day limit works perfectly to compliment the fear and desperation of our characters. The book is told from a dual POV: that of Lou, and May. There is also a dual timeline focused around May’s character. The dual POV worked well for this story, we get Lou’s inexperienced perspective of the Witches and the Market contrasted with May’s upbringing that revolved around the magic and the Market. This, combined with the dual timeline, worked incredibly well as we, in the present, see the effects of the Market on May, and in the past we get a slow build up as to why it has left her so traumatised. Both POV’s worked well to create and maintain tension.

The plot. So I really loved the concept of the Market, the magic and the rules both Goblins and Witches must abide by to ensure their safety. One of the strongest plot elements was that of the market and the rescue attempts of May and Neela (which is complimented and contrasted well through the POV/narrative structure). I also enjoyed the familial element of the plot, the desire to protect each other and risk everything for their family members but also the struggles of belonging. Finally, I enjoyed the sapphic romance we get between May and Eitra and how this tied into May’s story of the Market.

However, the story has a little trouble with pacing at times and while I loved the Market and it’s rules and the magic surrounding it, some parts felt a little flat. There were some parts where I was asking why and not getting a full reason behind some of the elements. Similarly, I liked the characters of May and Eitra and I enjoyed their romance but I wanted more from this – I needed more from this because the stakes in the story are so high. Moreover, I really loved Lou’s desperation and desire to save Neela but Lou’s narration felt a bit repetitive at times, a lot of blaming her mum (and family) for keeping secrets – which is understandable but the extent of this thought is a tad too much.

The characters are all quite interesting and there is quite a bit of queer rep with on page labels used. Lou is Ace, May is Bi, and Neela is Pansexual – all of which is outright said. Eitra is sapphic, but this is unspecified. I enjoyed the rep in the characters, it was naturally done and felt like part of the character, which was nice! And it was great to see some Ace rep in our MC. I liked the stubbornness of the central characters (Lou, May, Laura) and their desire to protect their loved ones. Lou’s character could have had a bit more depth compared to how much of May we get to see. But, overall I did like the characters and the relationships between them all. Eitra’s character was also incredibly interesting, I wish we had actually seen more of her development and her character. Overall, the characters are well crafted.

Overall, Not Good For Maidens, by Tori Bovalino is an intensely atmospheric read with an interesting concept and characters. I just feel it didn’t quite reach the potential it could have.

*I received an eARC via #Netgalley from #TitanBooks in exchange for an honest review – thank you! *

I’d like to start by thanking NetGalley and the publisher, Titan Books, for providing me with an ARC, in exchange for this honest review.

By all accounts, this should have been the book for me. Unfortunately, I was off to a rough start, which did spoil the experience for me. I nearly DNFed it, but ended up powering through, since I was nearing the 50% mark. The story certainly picked up its pace and improved, but it happened so late that the story and characters had already lost most of my interest by then.

A thing I enjoyed from start to finish was the dual POVs and timelines. I’m quite a big fan of this and I especially love how this was done, with the two storylines tying neatly together in the end. Whilst, leading up to this, offering you tiny puzzle pieces scattered throughout both.

Review will be up on my Instagram (@Kratist0) within the week.

Thanks to Titan Books, Netgalley and Tori Bovalino for the advanced copy of Not Good for Maidens in exchange for my honest review.

As a fan of The Devil Makes Three, I was really excited to read this - it didn't disappoint. A retelling of the poem The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, it tells the story of May and Lou, an aunt and neice. One has been raised knowing about the market, the other has not.

I loved the time jumping between Lou's present and May's past, and the fact that it has a beautifully written sapphic romance? I was sold.

I enjoyed Tori Bovalino’s previous book last year, so decided to give Not Good for Maidens a try, and I’m so glad I did.
A creepy, horror-fantasy retelling of the Goblin Market, Not Good for Maidens is told across two timelines as two generations run afoul of the goblin market.

May has been raised a witch in York and knows that she must grow up to take over the responsibility of protecting the town (as much as she can) from the goblin market every summer. On the last night before her powers are unbound and she is banned from the market forever, she follows a goblin girl down to see what it is that has decided her future.
Lou is her niece, raised in the states far from the dangers of the goblin market, her best friend Neela has come to stay every summer - until the one she doesn’t, and when Lou receives several alarming voicemails they prompt her to travel to York and discover why her mother fled to America to begin with.

I loved Not Good for Maidens. It was tense, creepy, and mild horror (If you don’t usually enjoy horror - I don’t either.)
I like books where we learn with the characters, and therefore really enjoyed learning along with both Lou and May as the truth of the goblin market was revealed.

I read this book in pretty much one sitting, the book definitely sped up towards the end, but I didn’t find it particularly slow to begin with.

I thoroughly enjoyed Not Good for Maidens. A great fantasy-horror standalone.

This horror-fantasy retelling of Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’ was as gruesome as it was interesting. I haven’t read the poem since doing my A Levels but, while I don’t feel that was a hindrance to my enjoyment or understanding, I imagine there’s references I might have missed.

Throughout the book, we alternate between a then-teenage May’s experience with the market 18 years ago and her niece Lou’s experience there in the present. I love May as a character and initially found her past and that storyline much more compelling, but as the action in the present picked up, family secrets were revealed, and Lou began to feel a sense of purpose and belonging, I really found that the present narrative grew on me. Especially when we got to see how their experiences crossed over (I hoped for one thing here and was thrilled to be right!)

There was a coven of witches, sapphic star-crossed lovers that made my heart ache, a cutthroat world hidden beneath York streets and the fierce bonds between women - both romantic and familial ones. I enjoyed Bovalino’s writing throughout and highlighted (probably far too many) passages I loved the phrasing of, but I particularly liked the expression of female desire here, both in the sense of having that craving for danger - to enter the market, to do what you shouldn’t or have ambitions beyond what’s laid out for you - but mostly in terms of having wants and feelings and learning not to be ashamed of them. Of enjoying them, even. Having that storyline of an earth-shattering first love, a forbidden love, and making it sapphic? SO exciting to me. But we also get an ace MC to follow, driven by familial ties that are just as powerful and just as important. I was a big fan of the queer rep here!

Please check out the CWs on this one and take care of yourself while reading.

Not for the faint of hearts or weak of knees, this is an incredibly visceral, brutal book.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an ARC copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Are you a fan of fairytale retellings? Amidst the popularity of A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Lunar Chronicles, we’re certainly seeing a rise in YA authors putting their own spin on old tales. However, Not Good For Maidens veers away from romantic retellings, standing apart as a bloody retelling of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”.

Set amongst the cobbled streets of York, this book follows two generations of girls who are seduced and subsequently destroyed by the Goblin Market. With brilliant queer representation, this book explores identity and its relation to sexuality, family and place… as well as its relation to witchy covens and underground goblin markets.

The best part? It’s crammed with strong female characters. There’s a very heavy family focus and I enjoyed Lou’s exploration of her identity. Casually queer, I loved Lou and Neela’s supportive relationship. Instead of predictable, Lou has an inevitable character development, although I feel the author could have pushed her eventual empowerment a bit more.

My other favourite thing was the magic. Not Good For Maidens has excellently researched and thought out lore, which I always love – with modern covens and modern witches. How cool is the idea that all the witches, all the police, all of York even, is banded together against the Goblin Market? If you’ve ever been to York, you’ll have felt the old magic in its old streets, and the supernatural underbelly of old English cities is perfectly encapsulated in this book. While Lou’s nationality appeals to American readers, Not Good For Maidens is rooted in England. If you’re a Northerner and enjoy YA fantasy, this is a must read.

"She didn’t want to feel the pull of the market. None of them did. May left the Witchery as the sun sank lower snd lower and dyed the sky red. She slipped into the twilight, into the hour that was not good for maidens, as the stars blinked and cluttered the night sky.”

– NOT GOOD FOR MAIDENS

However, my biggest issue was that despite being marketed as such, this isn’t horror. This isn’t horror because that implies tension – ‘Not Good For Maidens’ relies instead on gore. Rather than the lingering fear embedded in horror, this was a few seconds of blunt impact. Not for the faint of hearts or the weak of knees, this is an incredibly visceral, brutal book, but I would class it more as thriller or a gory fantasy book than horror. The writing falls on the ‘tell not show’ side, which does take away some of the suspense. Horror should be about the unknown.

I also wish the goblins had a more dominant characteristic. Like how Holly Black’s faeries are beautiful and cruel, or Cassandra Clare’s fae can’t lie. The goblins were compellingly written (Eitra and May are really vibrant and moving at points, as forbidden love always is) but I wanted something more. However the whole premise is pretty original and I haven’t seen goblin markets before in Young Adult books.

This is quite a simple book, but that’s not necessarily a fault. Not Good For Maidens isn’t the sort of book with elaborate plot twists – or any plot twists really. As there are two storylines alternating between the past and present, you can assume or have already been told exactly what will happen. But overall, it’s not a bad thing. The simplicity matches the overall feel of the book; the blunt writing and the archaic, brutal goblin magic.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Tori Bovalino's second novel is a multi-generational modern Goblin Market retelling. Louise has never been told of her family's history, how their family has protected the city of York from the annual season of the Goblin Market. When her Aunt/Best Friend vanishes all the family's secrets come out and suddenly Louise finds she has to fight and trick her way through very unfamiliar territory. The reader also gets to learn about the previous generation's scary adventures with 18 years before chapters.
Very much enjoyed this rather grisly YA fantasy

Tori Bovalino crafts a beautiful and exciting retelling of 'Goblin's Market', a concept that is original in and of itself. Bovalino isn't afraid to trust YA readers with dark concepts and explorations and that makes this story all the more profound. Perhaps we'll see this up-and-coming generation excited anew about nineteenth-century literature thanks to this book. A wonderful follow-up to Bovalino's debut - she just keeps getting better!

I really, really wanted to love this. I've always loved the creepiness of the original poem so was very excited to hear someone had written a book inspired by it. Sadly, the book was just... fine.

Part of the problem comes down to the dual timeline. May's POV was a thousand times more interesting than Lou's, but May's was in the past so lost some of its immediacy. Both timelines resolve in the present day, but unfortunately with the exact same mission (trying not to include spoilers!). And it was hard to *truly* care about Lou's attachment to Neela when we'd never had the experience of watching them in 'present' day interacting together, learning about their relationship through reflections on the past. The magical system (eg. what witches who didn't deal with the market did with their lives, what their powers were that differentiated them from other magical beings, etc.) wasn't super built out either, which was disappointing.

I was looking for a truly creepy, atmospheric, spooky read and sadly this wasn't that.

I really loved this book. I love books about magic and goblins and dark things. The book reminds me of the Shadowhunter books and the Practical Magic series. I liked the fact there are flashbacks to what happened 18 years ago when May almost lost herself to the Goblin Market and how the author gradually reveals the link between this and Neela being taken. It’s quite dark at times as the market is not a pretty place. I loved this book.

Themes come and go in the publishing world and it seems that right now stories based on the Goblin Market get their chance to shine. I personally didn't grow up with the story of the Goblin Market, but during my studies I learned the songs this book was inspired by and YA literature did the rest. I was therefore quite excited about this book when I found it on Netgalley and I'm really thankful that the publisher granted my request and gave me an arc.

What I love most about this book is the atmosphere and the suspense. Bovalino starts with a prologue that immediately grabbed all my attention, but it took a while before we actually got to see the Goblin Market. And by making us wait, making us grow more and more curious, making us more and more excited about its beauty and its darkness, it was also easy to understand how those girls, aware of the dangers and risks, still end up visiting the Market.

I do have to admit that I personally would have loved to see a little more of the beauty of the market. We got to see the horrors, quite detailed and quite sickening at times, but since all our heroines are so aware of the dangers and can't be tricked to really enjoy the market, we never get to experience the beauty, the reason why so many people end up hurt or killed in the end. Adding that, or giving us a side story showing us, would have made this book even more perfect!

Although there was some romance in the book I also really loved that the romance never dominated the story. This story wasn't about romance. It was about witchcraft and friendship. About the power of intelligence. It was about girls sticking up for each other and fighting for each other. And it didn't really matter if that was because they loved each other romantically or were simply friends. It showed us mostly how beautiful female friendships and sisterhood can be.

I somehow hope Bovalino returns to this world one day, so do me a favor: get the book and beg her to write more!

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

This was a short, atmospheric fantasy horror! I had some minor issues, though.

Not Good for Maidens is a retelling of the poem The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. It follows Lou, who finds out her family keeps some dark secrets: 18 years ago, her mother Laura and her aunt May escaped the Goblin Market. Now, the market wants its due and takes Lou's teenage aunt Neela. Determined to save Neela, Lou travels to York to uncover her family's dark past.

The plot here was two-fold: Lou's story in the present and her aunt May's story, eighteen years prior. For me, May's part of the story and how the Goblins lured her into the market was far more engaging and relatable. I found myself wondering why Lou's arc was there at all. May going to the Market and Laura rescuing her already made for a great story, with the romantic subplot as well. So Lou paled a bit in comparison, although her struggles were still understandable. The descriptions of the Goblin Market were vivid and atmospheric and the horror element of the story fit nicely here.

My major complaint was that the story was resolved too quickly. Once the characters entered the Goblin Market, it was all solved very easily. There were almost no obstacles in Lou's or May's path except for Goblins threatening to eat them. I would have liked there to be more challenges in the Market, or a deeper exploration of the Market. Moreover, the worldbuilding apart from the Market was threadbare. In conclusion, I wanted more from this story. Still, Not Good For Maidens was an enjoyable read and I gave it 3.5 stars.

The last time I read a horror that evoked boredom instead of fear was Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King back in 2017, so I guess it’s not unexpected that another one would arrive in my hands sooner or later. That said, Not Good for Maidens is one of the least horrifying fantasy horrors that I’ve read, even Sleeping Beauties was a smidge scarier than this.

This lack of horror in Not Good for Maidens is largely because of the story’s execution. Not only is the tension severely lacking because it takes forever (at 65%-70% of the book) before we get to the action, but the main plot for both timelines is the same thing: a rescue. Sure, there’s a lot of gore and goblins are pretty scary in general—even when they’re depicted like the fae, but that’s all. Nothing else about the story is here to scare or disgust.

Moreover, the dual timeline is well-interwoven but poorly utilised. Though I appreciate the side explorations of identity and wanting to belong or decide for oneself, the majority of Lou’s POV is a tedious read. She spends a lot of time asking questions no one wants to answer despite them all knowing that she will go and save her kidnapped teen aunt from the Goblin Market, equipped with knowledge or not. This lack of communication feels forced—like it’s just there to draw out Lou’s part of the story and act as fillers for the spaces before we get to May’s POV again. The lack of communication also drove me crazy because Lou’s just a teen and it’s the adults who are supposed to be more responsible that refuse to talk.

Anyway, the more interesting POV is May’s in the past where she’s entangled in a forbidden sapphic romance with a goblin. While I don’t enjoy insta-love, May’s side of the story also had higher stakes and a quicker pace which kept me hooked. I honestly think the book would’ve been better had the entirety of it had been in only May’s POV.

Other than that, the magic system is lacking. Aside from herbs, potions and songs/chants, what else is there for the witches? What can a witch do that a goblin or a normal person (since they can also use those herbs and potions) can’t? Outside of Goblin Market season, what do the witches do? Also, why is the Goblin Market so irresistible to people, even after they’re in it and haven’t eaten or drunk anything by the Goblins? So many questions but not enough answers.

Everything considered, Not Good for Maidens had a lot of potential to be a hair-raising rollercoaster ride of a horror, but it was far from what I expected from a Goblin Market retelling.