Once, there was a girl who vowed she would save everyone in the world, but forgot herself.
The Darkest Part of the Forest (set in Fairfold, tangentially connected to Holly Black's other faerie novels)
Holly Black
Summary: 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?
My Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest is a delicious, dark, fairytale, with a mystery at its center. Hazel and Ben are a set of siblings I can fully support, and there were sections of this book that had my heart pounding. If you’ve read The Cruel Prince trilogy, read this one too (cameos of Ben and Hazel happen in The Wicked King!) or if you’ve been dying to read a Holly Black book and just don’t know where to start, I highly recommend this as a primer. It can stand alone, but also intersects with others if you know where to look.
Recommended age: 13+ (some thematic elements)
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