Alyssa > Recent Status Updates

"When I said I wanted you entire, I meant it.”
“What part of me have I not given you?”
He smiled into my hair. “You know what it is, Elisabeth.” He hummed a bit of a melody.
My music.

Honestly I have no idea what is going on with her music at this point.

Goblin: BTW don't listen to the mermaids' songs or lean over the side of the boat or you will die.
Liesl, the literal moment she is on the water: [leans over the side and tries to touch the mermaids and almost dies]

I ran out of space for all her wishes but here's the rest:

- Something to wear (a literal magic wish)
- Something to eat (a literal magic wish)
- Something else to wear and eat (a literal magic wish)
- A door for herself (a literal magic wish)
- For someone to bring her flute (a literal magic wish)

"Don’t you ever make any wishes for yourself, Elisabeth?"

wishes Liesl has made to date:
- Time to compose
- Favors from the handsomest man in the village
- No shame/judgment
- Love (both "sacred and profane")
- For Josef to play her music
- For notes to sound the way she wanted them to
- Wantonness
- To visit the Goblin King (a literal magic wish)
- Her music (?? the stuff she burned? unclear)

"Dead to the world above. I thought of Papa, Mother, Constanze, Hans, and, with a painful twinge, Josef. In many ways, I was already dead."

Settle down.

It was at this point I began to think the author just didn't understand how to do escalating tension. The game this entire time has been get Kathe, get out. Liesl thinks she's done it but then realizes they're still underground. Goblin King admits they're not quite out of time yet. Liesl asks him to play a game. He hides Kathe as says Liesl has to find her and get out. Am I... am I the one having memory problems?

"I had forgotten my sister's existence."

Wouldn't be the first time.

"Curiosity had returned along with my wits. Something—someone was playing the violin, and the music was closer than ever."

Liesl has been repeatedly getting into and out of traps from the Goblin King. I'm glad that she has her wits about her now and won't get tricked ag--nope, she's spending precious time ogling him through a crack.

Convenient that Kathe becomes strong enough to keep Liesl from burying herself alive, when a few minutes ago Kathe wasn't strong (in will or body) enough to guide herself through the tunnels.

Glad to see Liesl is using her time well to make a map and convince her sister to--oh no, she's just scribbling some music.

Glad to see Liesl learned her lesson at the first goblin ball--oh wait she's drunk again.

Ah if the Goblin King doesn't have a bride, the world will be plunged into endless winter. I'm sure Liesl will take this to heart and give it consideration as she moves forward.

Goblin: [warns Liesl about the consequences of wishes--all magic has a price]
Liesl: Oh geez maybe I've been a little frivolous with my wishes.
Liesl, not five minutes late: [wishes for a door]

Liesl is clearly into the Goblin King and he makes her the offer to swap the sisters and have Liesl for his bride. I do not understand why she doesn't just take him up on it here.

Also we're given another deadline here for stakes. I'm sure Liesl will proceed with all the urgency the time limit requires.

Liesl: I had given him my music; I had given him my all.
Me: [stares into camera a la Jim]

Oh look, another old warning from grandma. Never use the words "I wish." I'm sure Liesl will make use of this information.

"I took stock of myself, running a trembling hand over my body. Aside from the headache, I was unharmed. Intact. Untumbled. I did not know whether to be relieved or disappointed."

EXCUSE ME? You got black-out drunk and you're upset someone *didn't* take advantage of you?????

The wine scene makes me too infuriated. We're told a thousand times that Liesl is the responsible one, but even with an alcoholic father and a clearly currently intoxicated sister she decides to get wasted at a goblin ball. I get that characters have flaws, but there's a flawed person and then there's an idiot.

“Your sister,” he said, nodding toward Käthe in the crowd, “would prefer pretty enchantments to the stark ugliness of reality, I think.”

I could write an essay about how Kathe is sexualized as an object by *everyone* in this book, including her sister, and about how the Goblin King and Liesl sneer at Kathe's make-believe world. But GK *enchanted* and *kidnapped* her--maybe her brain's just trying to protect her!

Liesl is very clearly Not Like Other Girls, but even she forgets all her foreboding at the promise of a makeover!

Two goblins: (talking over Liesl)
Liesl, turning dramatically into the shadows: And even here, I am invisible.

Just a thought but maybe:
- Your parents didn't notice you because they were making out and assumed their child would not stick around for that
- The townsperson did not ask you to play because they were literally there to hear your brother
- The goblins are just rude

Liesl, laughing bitterly: "I thought a few tunes would be enough. But I was wrong. So very wrong. He wanted more. He wanted my soul."

What this means: Liesl will use her scrawl of miscellaneous music notes to make a fire.

Look, just... can we all calm down?

I thought giving up her music would mean losing her musical ear, forgetting how to play. Nope. Burning her juvenilia. Queue my smallest violin.

Liesl finds the flute the stranger gave her. She had, of course, forgotten it. Object permanence seems really difficult in this world.

The first of many times Liesl figures out she's going to have to "sacrifice" her music.

Nothing sexier than finding out your romantic interest also hit on your grandma when she was young, before abandoning her.

Good to know the music master is also into underage tween boys. Glad you're sending your brother off with him.

Love it when we use a protagonist's lack of motivation or interest in anything outside themselves to create artificial tension by pushing them closer to a deadline when all will be lost.

"There was utter clarity." Less than a page later: "The clarity was gone."

This would have more of a dramatic impact if it wasn't happening every ten minutes.

Aww poor Liesl, she likes to be the center of attention. Of course she decides to pretend this alternate reality is real and leave her sister to die alone at the goblins' hands. What a hero.