Nobody Likes a Goblin

I don't understand this book. It's clearly a picture book, but it seems more aimed at adults who are into Dungeons and Dragons or related games or video games. I don't think most children would get it.

The main character is a goblin. He wakes up in the morning and goes through his day. He lives in a dungeon and his best friend is a skeleton who lives in the treasure room, and most of the day is just them hanging out together and playing with a crown. Then, adventurers storm the dungeon and the goblin hides. The adventures take everything, including Skeleton. He goes out to look for his friends. A troll warns him that, "Nobody likes a goblin," and he ends up getting chased through town. Eventually as he's being chased, he sees the adventurers with a cartload of spoils, Skeleton on top of the pile. He grabs Skeleton and they run into a cave and hide. The goblin says that the troll was right and nobody likes a goblin.

Skeleton responds, "Well, I like a goblin." And the cave they're hiding in turns out to be filled with goblins who state that they also like goblins. The main goblin still has the crown he was playing with earlier, although now he's wearing it, and the other goblins notice it and ask him if he is the goblin king, to which he says he is. The others defend him from the adventurers, who have caught up with them, and then all the goblins and the skeleton go back to their dungeon and hang out.

One weird thing is that there appears to be a human woman fighting on the side of the goblins and it's kind of unclear where she came from. Rereading the book, she is shown tied up in the cart of loot, and earlier when the goblin and Skeleton are playing in the treasure room, there is a bust that looks just like her. It doesn't mention her in the text at all. Maybe she is an animate form of the bust? It feels like she's part of some weird subplot that was forgotten.

It's pretty. It's fun to look at. It's kind of funny for someone who is into this kind of thing, but it seems like a small niche. It's got a storyline that kids can follow. It's not great, but it's okay. I tend to save high ratings for things that either have a great message to them or are just enjoyable experiences to read, and I didn't get either vibe from this book. It doesn't have much of a message at all. Children would have to be quite nerdy to get the references in this book, and by the time they got the references and got the more nuanced humor, they'd probably be too old for picture books. I think it's a mistargeted book. Also, what's with the weird phrasing of the title? Most English-speakers would say, "Nobody likes goblins."