The book I elected to read this week was Holly Black’s The darkest part of the forest, published in January 2015. I chose it firstly because it was the most accessible book to me on this week’s list. I love fantasy–if only for the escapism–and I was particularly excited for this unit, but at the same time, I wanted to read something that was not solely rooted in fantasy.
The darkest part of the forest uses fantasy to extract things that are decidedly “real” and relevant to teens, such as sexuality, secrecy and sibling rivalry. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about this book is that Black has not written a sequel yet. The real and magical worlds she has presented us with are far too compelling to just leave it at that. Likewise, Black leaves us with the notion that the characters are not done growing yet, not by a long shot. She leaves us wondering how Hazel, the protagonist who finds herself an unwilling magical soldier, will unravel the trauma her own fantasies have heaped upon her. This is an excellent introduction to fantasy for young adult readers who are weary of the genre as a whole.
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The book I am presenting in tandem is Terry Pratchett’s I shall wear midnight, which I read as a teen myself. I noticed similarities to it as I was reading The darkest part of the forest and was excited to find that NoveList Plus lists them as read-alike selections as well. It’s interesting that NoveList does not identify I shall wear midnight as a “world-building” novel too, since it is part of Pratchett’s extensive Discworld series and is the second-to-last book in the mini-series about the young witch Tiffany Aching.
Both books feature a strong female lead with a capacity for magic and have intricate, leisurely paced plots. However, Pratchett’s writing by nature is more heavily steeped in the mythos of his own world.
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Black, H. (2016). The darkest part of the forest. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Pratchett, T. (2017). I shall wear midnight. London: Corgi Books.
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