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The Darkest Part Of The Forest (2000)

by Holly Black(Favorite Author)

4.1 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0316213071 (ISBN13: 9780316213073)

languge

English

genre

Romance

review 1: This is my first novel from Holly Black – although I have heard good things about “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” – and I loved it. A beautifully twisted fairy tale, easily readable and intriguing for the young and old alike (not THAT young, this is not for children!) and the author has a beautiful turn of phrase and descriptive way of writing that draws you in.I really liked how it was seemingly set in the modern world, although that is not specific, yet feels like you are in some far off land where everything is magical. In a lot of ways Ben and Hazel live a mundane life but there is nothing mundane about the place in which they live, nor, upon closer inspection, are they your standard teenagers. The drawing of a line between typical teenage behaviour (kissing boy... mores, parties, school and friends) and the external pressure that comes with living in Fairfold (the boy in the casket in the woods, the need to be careful what you wish for) is so cleverly written that the whole thing feels as real as you like.In a lot of ways it is a story about growing up and the responsibilites this brings, set in a world where normal behaviour can have abnormal consequences – it is very well drawn, all the characters are elegantly written, the tale weaves itself out of the various myths and legends that surround us, I really did find it highly enjoyable on every level.Overall then a terrific book – it has certainly encouraged me to try more from Holly Black and I would recommend it for Young Adults and Adults who have a love of the mythological.Happy Reading Folks!
review 2: This is the first for-fun book I've been able to sit down and read straight through for a while. Holly Black is hit or miss for me, but this one was definitely a hit.1. THE ATMOSPHERE. Oh my. Perfect, creepy, and lots of fun.2. I liked Hazel! A lot! She was a badass but not JUST a badass. She had all these problems and insecurities and fuck-ups and I was just really on board with it.3. I like fun books with lots of handsome men okay. Deal with it.4. I felt a nice undercurrent of social commentary throughout the book -- pointed, but not too preachy or heavy-handed. It played a role in the story without BECOMING the story. A+ Holly Black.5. Related to #4: "After all, in Fairfold, the Folk only hurt tourists, so if you got hurt, you must be acting like a tourist, right? You must have done something wrong. Someone must have done something wrong. So long as there was someone else to blame, no one ever had to admit how powerless they were."6. Gay people! Straight people! Bisexual people! People of color! People who fall in love hard and fast like a fairytale! People who are prickly and struggle against it the whole goddamn way! People who suck and get better, or suck and don't get better, or are just sort of okay, or kind of hobble along doing the best they can but still fuck up a lot! 7. Summary of #6: Holly Black wrote well-rounded characters and not caricatures! This story was populated with PEOPLE. Like, real people. Not a weird freakishly homogenous society.8. This story had two of my favorite things: villains who really are just bad-to-the-core terrible people who you can feel free to hate as much as you want AND sympathetic villains who are just struggling against the things that have been done to them and do terrible things because of it.All in all an entertaining, engaging story that really tugs you into the world Holly Black has created here. less

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