The Darkest Part of the Forest Paperback – October 15, 2019

Hazel and Ben Evans live in Fairfold, an odd town that lies adjacent to a magical forest. This forest is populated with faeries and supernatural monsters that usually lurk around the corners of human civilization. Chance encounters happen sometimes usually resulting in a person's good luck or death. Hazel and Ben embraced the magical danger as children as they teamed up to battle the monster as a knight and a bard. They also both made up stories about the horned boy in the glass casket in the woods. Nothing awakens him and nothing can even scratch the glass, so he lays there year after year. When Hazel and Ben have quit their adventuring and they view such things as childhood fantasy, the horned boy escapes from his glass prison. Hazel's whole world is turned upside down as she discovers those forgotten or rationalized memories of fighting magical creatures are shockingly real. Can she remember enough of her past to be able to fight in the present?I've been a huge fan of Holly Black since reading White Cat and she has yet to disappoint me. The story immediately drew me in with the town that is both aware and in denial about the supernatural creatures and forces influencing the town in the periphery. I am a sucker for this concept. It brings to mind Sunnydale from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and New South Bend from Brenna Yovanoff's Fiendish. All of these works have a magnetic quality where the townspeople experience all this craziness, but rationalize it with normal causes. When confronted with the unbelievable reality, they tend to lash out and then go back to their comfortable, normal reality as soon as possible. Growing up in such a forest definitely affects the young people in the area while the adults seem pretty oblivious, only brought out of it by tragedy. The teens in the area are surprisingly normal despite the things they've experienced.Hazel and Ben are pretty normal. Hazel gets herself into trouble by kissing boy after boy and living life to the fullest despite the consequences. Ben is the angsty artists type because was blessed/cursed by a faerie as a baby to have an exceptional musical talent and feels great guilt over how he has let it get out of control in the past. They are so similar in other ways. Both are boy crazy in their own way and want to find lasting love. Both of them love each other fiercely, but also try to keep huge secrets to protect the other when it does the exact opposite. I loved reading these characters and their mistakes and blunders powered by their love. I forgave all of their sometimes frustrating mistakes because it came from a good place and they were only doing their best. I especially liked the way Ben was treated. His sexual orientation just was; no explanation or special treatment needed. No one in his life treated him any differently. The other character I loved was Jack, a changeling child all grown up and raised as human alongside the human boy he was meant to replace. The concept alone is amazing and one I haven't seen. Jack acts as the bridge between the two worlds and can't decide which one he belongs in. He has significant ties to both sides and either choice would be a betrayal.The book is organized in an odd way. The plot isn't really solidified until much later than expected in the novel. The beginning is just establishing the world and exploring into the lives of the main characters. The plot moves forward and then there's intermittent flashbacks to show why characters are the way they are or background on what's presently happening. If you hate stories jumping around, this wouldn't be for you, but I enjoyed it. Things became clear the more the flashbacks happened and it just shows Holly Black's writing skill. The revelations are doled out carefully and bring clarity to the story. I really enjoyed the journey and exploration through Holly Black's unique world. I hope another book is in the works in the same world (because I would be all over it), but it works very well as a stand alone novel. It's one of the best reads of the year so far.

I bought this book for my Kindle years ago when it first came out, and I kept putting off reading it (no idea why, honestly). I guess I was never really in the mood for a story of this sort until now – I’ve read other books that involve the fae before, and while I didn’t exactly dislike them, I didn’t really fall in love with them, either.Such is the case with The Darkest Part of the Forest.Now let me start by saying that I did find this book interesting, and beautifully written. Holly Black clearly has a wonderful talent for writing – the way she describes her settings, characters, and the plots are so amazingly well done. However, this is one of those books that I felt may have had too much emphasis on setting and lyrical writing that is out of this world lovely. Because when it comes down to it, I kind of got lost quite a few times, and felt that there was way too much energy put into making the writing sound beautiful and not actually describing the characters more.Now, this is the first book I have ever read by Holly Black. I really did like her style of writing, but for some reason, this book just didn’t really speak to me as something I absolutely would NEED to read again, it also wasn’t something that I felt the need to give up on halfway through, either.So why did I rate it four stars?I rated The Darkest Part of the Forest four stars because of how well written it was, how well thought out the plot was, how detailed the characters and settings were – it was just a beautiful book overall. I wasn’t bored even for a single second – it was quite fast-paced all the way through.“There’s a monster in our woodShe’ll get you if you’re not goodDrag you under leaves and sticksPunish you for all your tricksA nest of hair and gnawed boneYou are never, ever coming -“Hazel and her brother, Ben, have lived in Fairfold for most of their lives. They understand the relationship between the citizens and the fae, as well as how the fae felt about tourists. They always took precautions to keep to themselves and not mingle with the fae – or at least they tried.Hazel and Ben have also been known to hunt dangerous creatures – monsters – in their town. This started when the two of them were young children. Hazel always wanted to be a knight, and she felt that she was cut out to be one – but she also needed Ben’s musical gift to go along with it in order to properly hunt the monsters.“That was why Fairfold was special, because it was so close to magic. Dangerous magic, yes, but magic all the same.”Hazel and Ben both have a history with the fae. Each of their histories with them plays a critical part to the story, and it is vital to pay attention to every detail so that you don’t get lost later on.When a glass coffin containing a horned boy, whom Hazel and Ben have dubbed their prince, is broken, setting the boy free, the town is in an uproar. No one has been able to wake up the boy for many, many years – nor has anyone been able to break the glass. But it has happened, and he is wandering around Fairfold now.That’s not the only strange thing going on in Fairfold, either – Hazel has a late night encounter that she can’t quite explain, and there is a horrible monster in the town that is attacking adults and teenagers alike. Hazel and Ben are struggling to come to terms with what is going on, and they both insist that they can figure out the mystery and help the town.“Ben told stories. Hazel became those stories.”But Hazel has her own problems going on – from falling in love with a Changling boy in town to trying to uncover the mystery of what is going on with her and what ties she has to the Alderking. In order for Hazel to help Ben uncover what is going on around them, she must first figure out who she really is, and what is going on with her when the moon is in the sky.The Darkest Part of the Forest didn’t have a single dull moment in it. There was just so much going on all the time. And that’s what part of the problem of the book was for me, I think. There was no way I could slow down and catch my breath, no way for me to really keep track of what was going on without going back and re-reading several sections. I had a really difficult time keeping up with it.This isn’t really the author’s fault, though – I don’t exactly read a lot of book that deal with the fae, only a few here and there. However, I feel it is kind of important to note that The Darkest Part of the Forest doesn’t really give an introduction to the fae or anything – it feels as though the author already assumes the reader is going to know quite a bit about them before they start reading. So maybe that is my own fault in the end?Anyway, The Darkest Part of the Forest has a really great mystery going on, and it takes pretty much the entire length of the book to solve. I found myself wondering what the heck was supposed to be going on more than once – and it wasn’t until the end that I realized that I wasn’t supposed to know. It wasn’t that I was missing anything exactly, it was that the mysterious elements that the author included in the book were all to keep the reader guessing until the very end when everything is revealed.I liked that.It kept my on my toes, so to speak.While this wasn’t my favorite book of all time, let me say that I did enjoy it. It was something different, something that I wouldn’t normally read because it wasn’t a topic that I tend to go for. But it did introduce me to an author who is new to me, and it made me want to pick up more of her books, so I have to say it was definitely one that I would recommend, especially if you are fond of books that have a lot to do with interactions and relationships between humans and the fae.