Samuel Blink and the Runaway Troll - Matt Haig

Samuel and his sister Martha are living with their aunt and uncle in Norway as a result of the death of their parents. In this book, the second in a series, Samuel finds that one of the creatures in Shadow Forest (where all the mythical creatures live) sees him as a hero or role model. Because he has a bad house life, Troll-son decides to run away to live with Samuel.


This book seems to be written merely to entertain through humor and adventure. Even though this seems ok, there are also several parts of the book that present untruthful ‘truths’. A couple of these are listed below with some counterpoints.

“He [troll-father] silently prayed for his son’s safety, and tried to feel a bit more hopeful.”

Just an example of minor details; there are two in this sentence. The first one is: who is troll-father praying to? Our God, or some troll being? If the author says he is praying to our God, he needs to consider the fact that trolls don’t exist, and that Jesus came to save humans. He would have to add fiction to the gospel, which is never wise. If he were praying to some troll-god (which is more likely because he mentions troll-heaven later on), the Bible says that there is only one God, and this doesn’t fit in.

Also, it says he tried to feel a bit more hopeful, but it fails to mention what his hope and trust is in. Is it in just hope? What use would that be? The Bible says that we should put our trust in Jesus, our Lord. Hoping in hope is hopeless. Our God is powerful, and if we trust in him and ask him to do something, he will give us what is best for us.

“If the present contents of this room [empty] were the contents of the entire world. There would be no point to a life like that, he realized. It would be like a world existing without a language. It would have no meaning. Without other people, he realized, you could never truly exist.”

The author says through the thoughts of a character basically there would be no point to life if there were nobody to show off to, to impress, to share thoughts with. There would be a point to a life like that. The point would be to worship our Lord. Without other people, true, you couldn’t coexist with other people, but you could live for God.

“Yes, to make it through a horrible time you need someone to believe in you, just as an onion needs pickle to preserve it, and so she knew she had to believe in Samuel and Martha.”

First of all, there’s a fault with the illustration. Sure, an onion needs pickle to preserve it, but it doesn’t need to believe in the pickle to be preserved, neither does the pickle need to believe it will preserve the onion, just as Jesus will love us and care for us, even if we neglect him, he will do what is best for us. Belief itself is useless. It depends on what you believe in. If you believe in belief, that is useless. But if you believe in Jesus, and trust in him, and more importantly have faith that he will do what is best, then that is good, and what is best in his eyes will happen.

“Because hope is always there, shining smaller than the thinnest sliver of light through a door crack. And sometimes–just sometimes–hope decides to listen, and give its believers one last chance.”

There is something else that is always there–Jesus. And he doesn’t shine smaller than the thinnest sliver of light through a door crack. In fact, the Bible says he is the light of the world, much brighter than a sliver of light. Jesus always listens to us, even if he doesn’t always respond in the way that we want him to. He gives everybody anything they truly need, not just one last chance.

As stated before, I think that this book’s main purpose is to entertain, but through the cracks on the surface, there is a lot to be wary of. Even the idea of magic, if not used carefully, can be dangerous. I don’t like this book because it is so full of falseness, that I am not certain of the author’s motives for writing. The author is very skilled, but some of the things that he presents are not anything to just pass over without giving them a thought. If you read this book with discernment, and if you are ready (literally) to challenge every chapter, than be my guest. If you decide to read it, I suggest that you read Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest first. But especially with this book, you can’t accept everything as the unconditional truth. I, myself, don’t recommend it.