Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” has always been one of my favorite poems, so when I saw there was a new YA fantasy novel that takes this poem as its premise, I had to pick it up. Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino, which came out last spring, tells the story of two generations of young women who face down the temptations of the infamous goblin market.
Lou has never never quite understood her mother’s and Aunt May’s superstitious behavior—why they have bits of iron by all the doors and windows and bundles of herbs all over the place, and are constantly humming tunes from old folk songs. She also doesn’t understand why they left England for America and never talk about their past. She’s never even been to their hometown of York, and her only ties to it are frequent visits from her aunt Neela, who—at only a year older than Lou—feels more like a sister. But when Neela goes missing and leaves an ominous voicemail on Lou’s phone about a “market,” it’s time to finally get some answers. Lou rushes over to York and discovers a whole hidden world of magic—including the deadly goblin market that appears beneath the streets of the town for two months out of every year and the group of witches tasked with protecting the townspeople from it … or at least healing those who manage to get out with their lives. With only a couple of days to try to replicate the lifetime of training the rest of her family was given, Lou must prepare to enter the goblin market herself in order to rescue Neela. Along the way, she’ll finally learn the tragic tale of what happened to her mother and May in the market eighteen years earlier.
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you already know that I’m a sucker for retellings. One of the most beautiful things about retelling a short work like a poem is that it gives the author an opportunity to really build out the world, and Bovalino does this beautifully in Not Good for Maidens—especially with her depiction of the goblin market itself. In the book, the goblin market is an underground realm that appears for just the summer months, with hidden entrances all throughout the town. One can enter with the help of a goblin coin, a goblin escort, certain herbs, or the use of folk songs such as “Scarborough Fair.” Once you enter, you should not trust any of your senses—goblin glamor can disguise the most repellent elements of the market to make it more enticing. The characters have different experiences of the market each time they enter, seeing more and more of the violence and gore as the season goes on and the goblins care less about scaring them off. There are also different physical layers of the market, with the first level being the place where goods are actually bought and sold. Most humans—or at least most of the ones who make it out alive—only ever venture this far. But as you go deeper and deeper underground, the market gets more dangerous, and more of the goblins’ ruthless bloodthirst is on display. This depiction of the goblin market combines traditional tales of the fae with the classic narrative of a hero’s journey to the underworld.
Though the setting was perhaps my favorite aspect of this book, the characters were a close second. Told through dual narratives in different timelines, the book essentially has two protagonists: Lou and May. Between these two characters, we have some great queer representation for both asexuality and bisexuality. But even more importantly, we have an example of ace and bi characters existing in a story that doesn’t center on romance. While it does contain one romantic subplot, Not Good for Maidens is ultimately a story about familial relationships. Rossetti’s original poem, in which Lizzie braves the goblins to save her sister Laura, ends with a moral about the importance of sisterly love: “For there is no friend like a sister.” Similarly, Not Good for Maidens is about family members who rescue each other. It is also about Lou finding her own place within her family, learning how to assert her own identity while maintaining close familial ties, and reconnecting with parts of her family she never knew.
If you love retellings, normalized queer rep, or heartfelt family stories, you should definitely check out Not Good for Maidens. You can find it on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or purchase a copy online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve already read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments!