Yup. Heavy prose has its place, but the detailed upbringing of a child who, despite his unusual circumstances, is still not really doing anything of interest, is not it. There was nothing much told in these 20+ pages that we didn't already know (Goblin was always around as a doppelganger no one else could see, Goblin is capable of learning, Goblin speaks to Quinn mentally) or that, if it was at all relevant (which much of it was not) couldn't have been summed up much more succinctly, such as that "My family tolerated the idea of Goblin as my imaginary friend for awhile but when I got a little older, they started to get worried about my mental health." would have done just as well than recounting multiple specific instances from ages three to nine about their increasing concern. Anne Rice has the opposite problem of many writers here----she actually shows TOO much when telling would suffice and actually maybe be better.

Omigosh, you're right, there's no instance of him learning math at all! And since he was so exact about all the words he learned to write and at what age (seriously, who remembers that? I sure as hell don't and what's more, I don't think it's relevant to my life story) I can't imagine he'd have left math out if he did learn it. Great, now he's gonna wreck the whole farm when he inherits it because he can't manage the accounts and the people he pays to do that will take advantage of him. I downright HOPE this happens.