Mundie Moms

Friday, January 9, 2015

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black, Book Review


By: Holly Black
Published by: Little Brown
To Be Released on: 1/13/15
Source: arc from publisher at BEA
Rating: 5 Stars - I Loved It
Pre-Order from:  AmazonBarnes & Noble
Add it to: Goodread

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?

This is my new favorite Holly Black book. This book has been on my 2015 Most Anticipated To Read Lists, and it definitely lived up to the hype I had hoped it would. The Darkest Part of the Forest is a story I loved. Holly Black's writing is engaging, and easily lured me into this enchanting, dark world where humans and fae exist. 

Holly Black and the fae world are a match made in YA awesomeness. No one can write fae like she can. She has this ability to make them alluring, but she doesn't go all Hollywood with them. Meaning she's doesn't overly glamorizing them. True to the tales about fae, they are just as beautiful, as they are creepy looking. Being creatures of the woods, Black describes them just as I had imagined they would look. I felt that I would have thought the same things about them, as Hazel did. There is more to them than just their looks. 

As Hazel finds out, the fae are also cunning, dangerous, and are known to have a way with words. Though they can't lie, there can be a double meaning in their words. Things may not be done as one perceives things to happen, as Hazel realizes. Once you make a deal with them, they uphold their end of the bargain and excerpt nothing less from Hazel. Though the fae are cunning, Hazel proves she can be just as cunning as they are. I loved what she does towards the end of the book. If you guessed that I am not going to say what that is, then you would be right. I'm keeping this a spoiler free review. I'll just say that Hazel proves she can hold her own with the Fae.

One of the things I like about Holly Black's characters, is that all of them are broken in some way. Which translates to, they're all relatable on some level. I like that they're flawed, and imperfect. It makes it easier for me to sympathize with them, and understand, at least on some level, why they make the decisions they do. I like seeing their weakness, and their strengths, and how they learn from their weaknesses. Black's characters are not victims of their weaknesses. They learn how to turn their weaknesses into strengths to accomplish their goal/destiny/purpose.

Oh the setting! I love a forest setting. This setting was perfect. It's one that is exciting, alluring, beautiful, dark, dangerous, and the perfect place for two young kids to set off on great adventures. I really enjoyed the flashbacks to the adventures that Hazel and Ben had when they were young. There's a lot that readers discover from these flashbacks, about the characters, and what's happening now with the fae posing such a huge danger to their human world. 

There are so many elements to this setting that I loved. Much of the story takes place in the forest. Black does a fabulous job in the way she tied each character to the setting. I'm not going to lie, if I lived in the same tiny town Hazel did, along the edge of the wood, I'd most likely have found myself wondering the woods with her, her brother Ben, and their friend Jack, when they were younger. I felt like the setting was it's own character in the story.

True to Holly Black's writing, one of the things I loved the most about this book, is everything is NOT what it seems. There are many layers with this book that Black beautiful unravels. With each unravel, she reveals another twist or turn within her plot. I really like how the story was written. Yes it has is dark. No, it's not as dark as some of her other YA books. I think this is one of her best books. I love that this is a stand alone, even though part of me wishes there was going to be a continuation of this story.

I think Holly Black fans will enjoy this. If you've not read a YA book by Holly Black, this is a great first book to pick up. *There is some very mild language and under age drinking in this story.


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