The Darkest Part of the Forest
A girl makes a secret sacrifice to the faerie king in this lush New York Times bestselling fantasy by author Holly Black In the woods is a glass coffin. It rests 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. 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. The Darkest Part of the Forest is bestselling author Holly Black's triumphant return to the opulent, enchanting faerie tales that launched her YA career.
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Community Reviews
I read this book coming off on my cruel prince high. While it’s similar, it’s no where near as addictive. It wasn’t a bad read, but it did take me about 200 pages before I was even vaguely invested. Also I didn’t love the random chapter from Ben’s POV. I think if I had read this like 3 years in the future, I might be more here for it, but reading it right after my folk of the air high was a bad idea.
Humans and Fae live alongside each other, and in Fairfold, things are quite out of the ordinary. Many tourists see the boy sleeping in the glass coffin, but Hazel and her brother dream up stories of the day he wakes up when one day he does…
Black’s writing will always be a lovely friend to return to, but I wasn’t quite expecting this, not after the Folk of the Air. The teenage drama bits sometimes put me off, and the miscommunication trope is the most infuriating thing on this planet. However, I still love Black’s world of Fae, and I still had a wonderful time getting thrown back into her world.
Hazel constantly thinking about boys and kissing was annoying. Perhaps this is the young adult part of the book that I have grown out of liking. Also, Hazel was honestly an idiot, and that put me off.
Half of the conflict is due to Hazel and Ben not telling each other important, pivotal things, which is the most annoying trope I know. Otherwise, the storyline itself is lovely. Understanding Ben, Hazel, and Jack by coming to know their families and how they grew up together pulled everything together about how they all interacted with other and how they understood the world around them.
To start, I had such a hard time imagining Severin as a grown-ass man who has been alive for decades. Hazel and Ben constantly refer to him as the boy in the glass coffin, and being connected to them makes it hard to imagine him as anything other than a teenager. However, every line he said just reminded me how much older he was and how wise. And how hot. Severin was pretty hot.
Also, the fact that Severin could hear everything and remembered everything that was said to him while he was asleep? 10/10. Loved It. I loved how it contributed to the story, but at the same time, that poor, poor man. Imagine listening to people dance, drink, scream, shout, talk, and stare around you anytime. It’s a wonder he didn’t go insane. I’m glad he had Ben and Hazel, who respected him and thought of him as a living being (for the most part).
Jack. Jack, Jack, Jack. He deserves the entire fucking world, and if I could, I would give it to him. This poor boy lives around others who don’t fully accept him except five people, and he is constantly surrounded by people who actively try to ward those like him off. Honestly, the fact that he only snapped at one kid in his entire school history is a mystery to me. Humans are scared of him, but he has more self-control than most of them will ever have. He was a teenager, but he had an older sense of wisdom about him that I just loved. I loved his outlook on everything. He deserves the entire world and people who love him without any expectations. I feel for him when he has to return to his faerie mother, where he is treated like owned property.
Black’s writing will always be a lovely friend to return to, but I wasn’t quite expecting this, not after the Folk of the Air. The teenage drama bits sometimes put me off, and the miscommunication trope is the most infuriating thing on this planet. However, I still love Black’s world of Fae, and I still had a wonderful time getting thrown back into her world.
Hazel constantly thinking about boys and kissing was annoying. Perhaps this is the young adult part of the book that I have grown out of liking. Also, Hazel was honestly an idiot, and that put me off.
Half of the conflict is due to Hazel and Ben not telling each other important, pivotal things, which is the most annoying trope I know. Otherwise, the storyline itself is lovely. Understanding Ben, Hazel, and Jack by coming to know their families and how they grew up together pulled everything together about how they all interacted with other and how they understood the world around them.
To start, I had such a hard time imagining Severin as a grown-ass man who has been alive for decades. Hazel and Ben constantly refer to him as the boy in the glass coffin, and being connected to them makes it hard to imagine him as anything other than a teenager. However, every line he said just reminded me how much older he was and how wise. And how hot. Severin was pretty hot.
Also, the fact that Severin could hear everything and remembered everything that was said to him while he was asleep? 10/10. Loved It. I loved how it contributed to the story, but at the same time, that poor, poor man. Imagine listening to people dance, drink, scream, shout, talk, and stare around you anytime. It’s a wonder he didn’t go insane. I’m glad he had Ben and Hazel, who respected him and thought of him as a living being (for the most part).
Jack. Jack, Jack, Jack. He deserves the entire fucking world, and if I could, I would give it to him. This poor boy lives around others who don’t fully accept him except five people, and he is constantly surrounded by people who actively try to ward those like him off. Honestly, the fact that he only snapped at one kid in his entire school history is a mystery to me. Humans are scared of him, but he has more self-control than most of them will ever have. He was a teenager, but he had an older sense of wisdom about him that I just loved. I loved his outlook on everything. He deserves the entire world and people who love him without any expectations. I feel for him when he has to return to his faerie mother, where he is treated like owned property.
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