Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Page/Format: 323, Advance Reader’s Copy
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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?
CARRY ON, THERE ARE NO SPOILERS AHEAD
I picked up an ARC of The Darkest Part of the Forest at ALA ’14.
I have to admit that while I have read Holly Black before, I have not read any of her fairy stuff. Things involving fairies are always touching and go with me. I either really love them or I really hate them, there is no in-between. This is one that I did like.
The Darkest Part of the Forest is like no book (with fairies) that I have read before. It’s a breath of fresh air to this subject. I feel like most fairy books out there are either about someone ending up with a fairy king or trying to get someone back from the fairies. This is far different.
Since Hazel, Ben, and the boy with horns are the only people mentioned in the synopsis, they’ll be the only ones I comment on. There’s another character, that I really liked, but I’ll leave that a mystery. I’m actually really jealous of Hazel, she’s a very strong female character and I wish I could be a bit more like her. Her brother, Ben, is unlike Hazel in many ways and I can’t think of anything else to say about him without spoiling something. Sorry. The only thing I’ll say about the horned boy is that I really wish I was better at drawing because I would love to draw him.
This book is full of mysteries, adventures, and young people finding themselves.
While the book is really good, like really good, I just couldn’t connect well with the characters. There were things I liked about them, but it’s not like I wanted to be fictional friends with them. Everything else was perfect, giving this a 4/5 from me. (:
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