The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black Published by Little Brown BFYR on January 13, 2015
Genres: Faeries, Fantasy YA, Young Adult
Pages: 328
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bought it
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Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.
At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.
Until one day, he does…
As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?
I haven’t read too many books by Holly Black, but I’m very glad that THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST was one of my first ones because it was a great introduction (of sorts…I’ve listened to the audio of WHITE CAT, but that’s it) for me. The atmosphere, the tone, the relationships, the faeries–it was all gripping and emotionally satisfying, and had the perfect amount of danger. I wanted to be reading it when I wasn’t, and I didn’t want to put it down when I was. I can’t say much more complimentary things than that. Basically, I enjoyed the crap out of it.
THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST is the story of two siblings, Hazel and Ben, who live in a town called Fairfold. This town is pretty awesome because it’s completely aware of the fact that faeries live in the woods, and the only thing that keeps the townsfolk safe is a treaty preventing the fae from unleashing their worst on them, even though they still manage to capture a few unwitting souls. But there’s also something really odd about Fairfold (like, aside from the faeries): There’s a boy with horns encased in a glass casket in the woods. He’s sleeping and no one can wake him. His casket can’t be broken. Tourists come from all over to visit this strange town and to see the boy in the casket. Hazel and Ben, like their peers, have grown up knowing how to act to avoid attracting the fae, and they’re totally comfortable hanging out by this casket. Until one day, the casket is shattered and the boy is gone. WUTTTT. Then some REALLY weird things start happened and Hazel and Ben must revisit that time in their youth when they sought out dangerous fae in the woods, Ben luring them with his faerie-gifted musical talent and Hazel offing them with her sword. Suddenly, the fae and human worlds in Fairfold are mixing and things do not go well.
For a standalone, THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST has a lot of things going on. There’s the sibling relationship between Hazel and Ben; the sweet hesitant affection between Ben’s best friend and Fairfold’s resident faerie raised by humans, Jack, and Hazel; the mysterious things that seem to happen to Hazel while she sleeps; and, of course, the disappearance of the boy in the casket. I thought Holly Black did a great job weaving all of these things together. They came together nicely in the end, although it seemed a little rushed when all was said and done. (This is a pretty standard gripe I tend to have with standalones that aren’t contemporaries for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s because I want all fantasies to be more than one book, or if it’s because I always feel cheated out of more world-building or something.)
I thought one of the strengths of THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST was the relationships. There are a lot of them, and they all play off of one another and help to slowly unveil things about Hazel and the boy in the casket and Jack. Perhaps my only gripe about the relationships is that I think we were supposed to get the feeling that Hazel and Ben weren’t getting along as well as they used to on account of some long-standing secrets between them going back to Ben’s short time studying music at a school in Philadelphia. I didn’t necessarily get that vibe from them. I loved hearing about their childhood hunting faeries, though.
Hazel and Jack were also very sweet. They had a few swoony moments, and I liked that Ben, who has his own ADORBS crush but it’s maybe spoilery so I don’t want to talk about it too much, could’ve been way weirder about it than he was. Jack being a faerie plays a big role in THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST, especially as things progress, so that kept things just a little tense and interesting between him and Hazel. YAY!
One of my FAVORITE things about THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST, though, was Fairfold itself. How awesome is it that this whole community acknowledges the fae and their presence in their world? PRETTY DAMN COOL. It sounded like such an interesting town, with the horned boy in a casket that didn’t actually freak anyone out and the townspeople carrying salt and grave dirt in their pockets. If Fairfold was a real place, I’d go there in a second. But I’d also take SUPER careful notes about how NOT to act like a tourist so that the faeries didn’t get me.
Speaking of the faeries, they were perfect. Creepy and ominous and tricky. I wish the end, when the faeries are pretty prominent, was a little more fleshed out though. I loved seeing Hazel and Jack and Ben in the faerie realm, and there were a few occasions that were really great, but I would’ve loved MORE too. The end was fairly compact, but I wanted a little more room.
All in all, guys? THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST was pretty excellent. Hazel was truly a badass, Ben was tortured about his musical gifts but still so endearing, Jack was sweet and brave, and even the boy in the casket had his touching and creepy moments. They were wonderfully executed characters in this really great world. I sometimes struggle with faerie books, but I didn’t will Holly Black’s, so it goes without saying that I’ll be reading more of her work. Hopefully sooner rather than later!
I still haven’t read anything by Holly Black! But The Darkest Part of the Forest Sounds like a great place to start, as it seems atmospheric and imaginative based on your review 🙂
I’ve been waiting for my copy to come in forever it seems like and now I finally have this gem! I’m even more excited after reading your thoughts on it. The few books that I’ve read by Holly have all been filled with great atmosphere and intriguing characters and this sounds like another one in the same vein.
Thanks for the lovely review 🙂