The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The Darkest Part of the Forest Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

The Darkest Part of the Forest is my second Holly Black audiobook. I didn’t know a lot about it, but after the success in 2013 of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, I was pretty sure I’d like it. Plus, Lauren Fortgang is a narrator I’ve enjoyed before so I thought I was in safe hands.

I gather from friends of mine who have read her entire backlist, that Ms. Black specialises in writing dark YA horror/fantasy/urban fantasy stories and that they tend to be unusual for the genre. That has certainly been my experience so far. Her take on vampires (in The Coldest Girl in Coldtown) was really different (and not at all sparkly) and this book, with a faerie tale vibe, was different again.

16-year-old Hazel Evans lives in Fairfield, a small town somewhere in today’s USA. It seems that everything and everyone outside Fairfield is according to the world as we know it but Fairfield is unusual. Here, fae creatures dwell in the forest and there is a horned boy in an unbreakable glass-like casket, apparently asleep, who is regularly visited by the youth of Fairfield. The residents of the town made some kind of agreement the fae years ago (for what currency I do not know): the fae could not prey upon them – they must restrict their dealings to tourists (who flock to see the horned boy) and to those passing through town. For some reason, the high number of missing persons in Fairfield is not a cause for comment or investigation elsewhere.

Hazel’s older brother Ben (who I gather is 17 or 18) was blessed/cursed with a musical gift by a fae woman when he was a toddler. When they were tweens, Hazel found a sword and after, she and Ben became “knights”, slaying monsters in the forest; she with the sword and he with his music. However, Ben became fearful at his lack of control of his gift and wished to quit their adventuring. Hazel did not.

Both Ben and Hazel have told all manner of secrets to the horned boy in the forest, visiting him almost daily over the years, or at least, whenever they could. Ben is gay and Hazel doesn’t think it terribly strange they both have a little crush (okay, maybe more than a crush) on the boy in the casket.

Ben’s best friend is Jack and Jack’s brother, Carter, make up their group of friends. Jack is a changeling. When the real Carter was stolen at birth and replaced with new-Carter (aka Jack), Carter’s mother knew immediately. She burned the baby with hot iron, thus summoning his true mother and demanded real Carter be returned. However, she did not trust any woman who could so easily give up her own child and decided to keep Jack as well. The boys were raised as brothers. Hazel has an even bigger crush on Jack than the horned boy (the latter is “safer” to crush on) but believes Jack could never like her that way.

Hazel has a reputation for kissing a lot of boys at parties. She doesn’t date or have boyfriends, but there is no shortage of willing boys who will distract her with kisses, and perhaps a little more, if she expresses any interest. The root of this behaviour lays in a bargain Hazel made with the Alder King and about which she has told no-one.

One morning, Hazel wakes up in bed, dirty and muddy and with shards of glass in her fingers but with no memory of what had happened the night before. Later that morning, she finds out that the horned boy has awoken, after his casket was finally (and surprisingly) smashed open the night before.

Shortly after that, the monster from the heart of the forest comes to Fairfield to wreak destruction and death.

Ben and the horned boy, Severin (who is a prince of faerie) and Hazel and Jack then scramble to find out why Fairfield is under attack after decades of peace with the fae, and then try and save the people and their town without sacrificing any of those close to them.

It’s a dark and twisty tale. No character is completely good and noble and kind and most of the evil characters are not completely evil either.

There are also two smallish romances intertwined in the story and the tale has a happy hopeful ending, although it does not end in marriage and babies and HEA for all concerned (understandable given their ages and the other paranormal circumstances in which they find themselves.)

Hazel is front and centre to the novel but Jack, Ben and even Severin have prominent parts to play. I appreciated the diversity in the story – Jack and Carter are described as having “brown skin” and Ben is gay (as are other secondary characters). Neither the ethnicity or sexual orientation of the characters was a big deal in the book and this was something I appreciated as well. There are some stories which are about diversity. This is a book which includes diversity as a matter of course.

The narration is excellent. Ms. Fortgang imbues the entire book with an air of mystery and menace. I’m sure it’s present in the text but she highlighted it even more with her performance. The fae characters are clearly not-human and both the narration and the narrative make it clear it would be a mistake to be lulled into thinking they are “just like us”. Severin is given an “other” voice which is at times creepy and it kept me guessing as to whether he wore a white hat or a black one (broadly speaking at least). I think this only added to the mystery and vibe of the story; it was neither frustrating or disingenuous.

Hazel is a likeable heroine without being remotely perfect. She sounded her age and I thought Ms. Fortgang did a particularly good job conveying Hazel’s hesitation and fear about risking her heart on a romance with either Jack or Severin.

The Darkest Part of the Forest is a dark faerie tale with twists and turns which surprised me and held my attention. The narration is a perfect match for the text and only added to the mysterious and occasionally disturbing atmosphere of the book.

Kaetrin


Narration: A

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: You can play it out loud

Violence Rating: Fighting

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Hachette Audio

The Darkest Part of the Forest was provided to AudioGals by Hachette Audio for a review.

 

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3 thoughts on “The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

  1. I listened to The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and loved it. Great review for The Darkest Part of the Forest. This will definitely be added to my extremely long audiobook list. :-)

  2. I listened to/loved The Coldest Girl in Cold Town, too. Loved it, too. Listened to this one. Loved it. If you haven’t already, go grab The Cold Prince. So damned good. That Holly Black knows how to write a book. ;-)

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