Holly Black was an author I hit hard in 2018. Not as hard as Stephen King or Bill Bryson, but still pretty hard for me (3 books).
This was the second Holly Black book I listened to, again, mostly at the gym.
I will say that it was under the Stephen King umbrella of supernatural/fantasy/horror, although this book was definitely less horror and more fantasy.
This was my favorite of Black’s books. Hazel and Ben, her brother, live in a town where the humans and fae live in close proximity. In the woods is a glass coffin where a boy with horns has been asleep for as long as anyone can remember. Then he wakes up.
Black has a knack for capturing the tumultuous inner lives of teenagers, and anyone who does a decent job of making teenagers anything other than just angsty whiners is a hero in my opinion. I’ve just read so much teenage angsty garbage that when I find characters that do more than this, I really appreciate it.
The story is a complex mix of fairy magic and a damsel-in-distress-with-a-twist story. Hazel’s relationships with her brother Ben, and another teenager named Jack, and with herself are basically the defining narratives here, that all combine to solve the mystery of what’s terrifying the people in town and how to stop it.
I liked Hazel, although she was a bit of a sociopath. Kids killing creatures – even non-human creatures – with delight always freaks me out a little. That said, children’s sense of justice is frequently much more black and white than an adult’s.
To illustrate: when I was a very small child in playgroup, a girl bit me. I was wearing a thick sweater, and still had teeth marks and a huge bruise on my arm. Also there were apparently no just consequences for this in my little mind. The girl wasn’t really “punished” (and again we were about two years old). My parents did as parents do – parenting. They tried to explain that sometimes kids do things wrong and it’s not nice to bite and the girl didn’t mean to hurt me, and I should forgive her etc… apparently I spent the time until the next playgroup saying “Not nice to bite?” and my parents would say “Yes, not not nice to bite.” Then, at the next playgroup, I apparently waited on a chair for that girl to run by, pulled her up by her hair, shook her around and yelled “NOT NICE TO BITE!” at her.
I don’t remember any of this, but I know myself well enough now to know that sounds like something Toddler!Kristine would do. VENGEANCE.
I didn’t love Black’s technique of going between the past and the present to reveal Hazel’s character. It felt a bit contrived, something to draw out the plot and prevent the reader from getting these pieces of the puzzle too soon, but without a real reason for doing it.
The story, though, was fun and well paced and there were some twists to keep me guessing, even if there was a bit of teenage angst that slowed things down here and there.
Overall, I liked The Darkest Part of the Forest. Would recommend.
words in scarlet ink 