The Goat Children

By: Jordan Elizabeth

Narrated by: Melinda Jarmulak

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

When Keziah’s grandmother, Oma, is diagnosed with dementia, Keziah faces two choices: Leave her family and move to New Winchester to care for Oma, or stay in New York City and allow her grandmother to live in a nursing home miles away.

The dementia causes Oma to be rude and paranoid, nothing like the woman Keziah remembers. Each day becomes a greater weight and love a harsher burden. Keziah must keep Oma from wandering off or falling, and try to convince her grandmother to see a doctor as her eyesight and hearing fail, but Oma refuses to believe anything is wrong. Resentful of her hardships in New Winchester, Keziah finds herself drawn to Oma’s ramblings about the Goat Children, a mythical warrior class. These fighters ride winged horses, locating people in need, while attempting to destroy evil in the world. Oma sees the Goat Children everywhere, and as Keziah reads the stories Oma wrote about them, she begins to question if they really exist.

©2016 Jordan Elizabeth Hallak (P)2020 Jordan Elizabeth Hallak

Interesting Story

When Keziah’s grandmother is diagnosed with dementia, she has no choice but to move in with her to take care of her. Along with the troubles of a typical teenager, Keziah must also dive into the world of the Goat Children.

As always with Jordan Elizabeth, her books always have two dimensions to them. A realistic storyline and one of the supernatural. I loved the way she handled the topic of dementia and how hard it can be on the family. I had a grandma who suffered from dementia and found the portrayal to be painfully accurate.

Keziah was an interesting main character. She was brave, but sometimes, she felt a little young and naïve. Still, I loved the way she face every challenge with her head high. Even when things got difficult, between her grandmother and the world of the goat children, she kept going.

Narration was soft and easy to listen to.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Great story line, great characters

I absolutely loved listening to this book. The storyline was great, and the character-building along the way was great too. Elizabeth did great advancing the story. I especially loved Oma's character and Keziah's challenges and frustrations. I honestly can't wait to read or hear the next books in the series (if there are going to be any).
When Keziah and her family discover that her grandmother, Oma has been diagnosed with dementia, Keziah moves in with her Oma, where she is faced with challenges and frustrations with Oma's condition. At the same time, she is faced with typical teenager challenges - other popular girls and of course boys!
The author does a great job depicting those family and teenager challenges. I enjoyed reading Oma's character and Keziah's responses to her.
The story was built great too, and can't wait for book 2.
Narrator review: Melinda did a decent job narrating the book. She did great voicing different characters, however, her expressions for Keziah were always the same- very monotonous, no anger, no frustration just the same tone. Though, that will not deter me from listening to the next book narrated by her.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

An accurate story of adolescence and bravery

*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review*

I see this book as a contemporary with elements taken from magical realism that are, at the same time, principal and secondary.

On the one hand, the main topic is Cassaiah's grandmother as well as her journey and her family's ordeal through her dementia. On this topic, there are also deep and interesting points of view as to how different people would face such an illness in a loved one.

On the other hand, there's the supernatural story of the goat children, which is also supposed to link our main character and her grandmother closer together until the end of our story.

However, I found myself getting easily distracted at times, especially when Cassaiah remembered previous moments in her life that, in some occasions, I found somehow unrelated.

The narrator was great and played all characters masterfully. But the main character had a relatively plain voice tone.

I definitely recommend to give this book a go!

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Great Read

The Goat Children was a good read by Jordan Elizabeth. Seventeen-year-old Keziah de Forest’s grandmother is diagnosed with dementia. She makes the decision to leave her family and move in to take care of Oma. Each day becomes harder and leads to greater weight on Keziah. Keziah finds herself drawn to Oma’s ramblings about the Goat Children. They are a mythical warrior class who rides winged horses and locates people in need, they also try to destroy evil in the world. I enjoyed reading this book and cant wait to read more by the author.