REVIEW: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

 

In the woods is a glass coffin.

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 her brother, Ben, live in Fairfold, where humans and the Folk exist side by side. Tourists drive in to see the lush wonders of Faerie and, most wonderful of all, the horned boy. But visitors fail to see the danger.

Since they were children, Hazel and Ben have been telling each other stories about the boy in the glass coffin, that he is a prince and they are valiant knights, pretending their prince would be different from the other faeries, the ones who made cruel bargains, lurked in the shadows of trees, and doomed tourists. But as Hazel grows up, she puts aside those stories. Hazel knows the horned boy will never wake.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel has to become the knight she once pretended to be. But as she’s swept up in new love, with shifting loyalties and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

Holly Black has done it again. Obviously, Black is one of my most dearly beloved and adored authors. I have cherished every one of her books, and I love how she always finds a way to mesh together the modern and the ancient with just a pinch of the gothic. The Darkest Part of the Forest is no different.

Now, you remember when you were a kid and you thought you could be anything in the world? This story, to me, is those dreams incarnate. I, of course, loved everything about this book. I loved the slight play on gender roles by making Hazel the strong knight and her brother, Ben, the beautiful siren. It was a great twist that played well into the later twist in Hazel’s bargain.

This story did a great job of weaving the past with the present and everything that was brought up about the past played a very important role in the present. The characters were also beautifully developed. I could tell the exact motives behind every character’s actions, and that’s hard to write! This book was just so amazingly composed and achingly gorgeous.

My favorite character would have to be Hazel, though Sorrow comes in a very close second, because of her strength and her torn desire between helping and being greedy. It was a flaw within a good trait and I thought that was a very intriguing way of putting those together. Hazel wanted to be a knight and save tourists and her town, but it was all because she wanted to be the hero. Her desires made her greedy even though they were for a good cause. This sort of battle of Hazel’s is shown in multiple instances throughout the story, and then at the very end she has to face the consequences when the Alderking opens her eyes.

The relationships between the characters were also amazing. I loved seeing Hazel and Ben together because they were a brilliant team. They weren’t your normal bickering siblings because they weren’t from a normal family, which I loved (Mason jars and kale snacks? Yes, please). It was just all very interesting how it everything tied together. So many little things working together, and that is one of the most brilliant things about Black’s writing. Like the cogs to a giant machine.

I honestly cannot say that there was anything I disliked in the book. It was astoundingly dark, modern and sleek. I would say it’s Black’s best yet, but I’m just going to end now before I start gushing even more and start giving away spoilers.

XOXO Tia