The Darkest Part of the Forest

by Holly Black

[Stephanie]

I listened to this on audio, so I'm not really sure if I would have liked it more if I read it instead. There was nothing wrong with the audio, I actually really liked the narrator and all the different voices she had for the character, so that keeps me from thinking I would have liked it any better if I did read it.

This book has a really fascinating premise. Fairfold is a town where humans and faeries exist together, where a faerie prince sleeps in a casket in the middle of the woods. This prince is awaken one night by someone breaking his glass casket, but no one knows who it was and now the town and it's people are threatened by the fae. We follow Hazel and her brother Ben as they try to figure out what's going on and how to save the town.

At least, that's the base of the story. I felt like that story line got pushed aside a lot to make room for the romance, which wasn't terrible, it just wasn't that interesting, mostly because it was predictable. We also find out that Hazel made a bargain with the faerie king (I think he had a different name, but I don't remember) when she was 11, and I was very interested in learning more about that, but again, it's pushed aside a lot of the time. We find out later on in the story what the repercussions were for her bargain, but we are never shown, we're just told, and that left me wanting more.

So, my biggest problem was that a lot of the things I found interesting weren't the main focus of the book, which made me not care. The book also came off as a little silly, at times. Like the author tried to make the weird things happening seem dark and scary and mysterious, but I found myself rolling my eyes at some of it.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this. This book had so much potential, but to me, it felt like the author focused on all the wrong plot points. This was my third Holly Black book, and so far I have not been impressed with any. The Coldest Girl in Cold Town (which I also listened to) was the one I liked the best, but I even struggled through that a little, and I hated White Cat, so I don't know if I'll continue to try Holly Black's books. They're just not for me.