The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black Publisher: Little Brown Books (2015)
Hardcover (324 pages)
Rating:
Also by this author: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, The Queen of Nothing
Reading Challenges: Read 2015
Synopsis
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?
Find the book: Goodreads
My Review
I love the world Holly Black created in this story. Fairfold is a town where its residents still coexist with the faerie folk of legends. The town even has its own glass coffin with a sleeping horned-boy who cannot be awakened.
Ben and Hazel grew up in Fairfold. As children they hunted the faeries they believed did bad things. They saw themselves as the ones to protect the world from the evil faeries. They also told themselves stories about the horned-boy in the glass coffin. He was their prince.
When one morning comes where Hazel is covered in mud and the horned-boy is missing, things get interesting. Hazel can’t remember what happened. The horned-boy needs something from Hazel. Ben and his best friend Jack are trying to protect her. Hazel doesn’t know what is going on.
This book took a little bit to get into but I am glad I stuck through the first few chapters. The novel kept me interested and wanting to know more. It is an intriguing story set in a wonderfully detailed setting. I can say that I loved the story but would never, ever want to live in Fairfold.
Which Reading Challenges?
- You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
Yes, living in Fairfield would be scary!! I think I’ll stay in my nice non-faery world, thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed this book – I loved the way Black weaved the fae world with our own!
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It was a very good read and I am so glad that I read it. It is a pretty awesome idea to think that the fae world could fit so easily into a town in the human world.
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