Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black, is a fantasy YA with romance elements.

I am truly a huge Holly Black fan. I would this book, from one angle, as a frank and yet still genre/age-oriented exploration of post-traumatic stress, childhood neglect, emotional damage, and learning to be a whole person. It’s also a pleasurable and fast-paced faerie romp with monsters, knights, and a prince woken from a cursed slumber—so, there’s certainly a balance.

I like that this book is casually diverse. Hazel, the main protagonist of the book, is the physical fighter in the group even though she is female, definitely breaking stereotypes. Ben, Hazel's brother is gay and a sensitive artist. Jack, Ben's bestfriend, is black and is Hazel's love interest.

I also love the language, like this sentence: “She fell asleep like a flame being extinguished” or this one, in which Hazel describes being kissed: “Like he was a shark and I was blood in the water.”

Black delves across the difficult emotional spectrum of her characters. Just deeply enough to paint a serious picture of their experiences without losing track of the driving plot and rising action.

There’s a maintained air of action and movement throughout that does keep the narrative from spending as much time as it might on the interior worlds of the protagonists—siblings Hazel and Ben, but primarily Hazel—but I found that, at the end, I had enough knowledge of their inner states to fill in the blanks.

Another strength of the book is the atmosphere. However, I thought this book tried too hard to meld mundane reality with the world of faerie in ways that stretched credulity.

But just the same, I believe the atmosphere is fantastic in both senses of the word, with a great mix of unremarkable details and creepy imagery.

Some of the most horrifying moments involve the mundane. There was some background details about Hazel’s early life with parents who were more interested in partying than parenting that were absolutely heartbreaking.

Other more supernatural moments are scary in more violent ways, as in a terrifying scene in which young Hazel is attacked by a monster and their dog was killed.

As for the plot, it’s a good time. The typical opening does its job of grabbing the reader’s attention.

There’s a cursed prince in a glass coffin and a town on the edge of faerie; our protagonist kisses boys but doesn’t love them, and she kisses her brother’s best friend at a party; the love triangle is set.

Except the proceedings aren’t typical after all, because in the end the prince loves her brother and she ends up with the best friend.

Black plays with the tropes in terms of expectations. I thought there was going to be a struggle for the mortal girl between the two handsome faerie boys, but I should have known better. I was pleased to see it turn out the way it did, which also feels satisfying.

The mystery is a little obvious, perhaps, but it’s still a fun experience and a fast read. The action scenes can come across as a little long, and sometimes it seems as if the pacing is a bit too breakneck—that actions of the characters in the world at large feel a little overly telegraphed to move the story along—but overall, it’s a solid story and I appreciated reading it.

More for the thematic and emotional content, perhaps, but that’s the strong stuff at the heart of the adventurous fun; it’s what makes this a good book. I’d recommend it.

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