The Darkest Part of the Forest in Into the Forest

Jan 14, 2015 Katie J Schwartz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: suspend-reality, young-adult-lit, mythology-folklore, library, fairy-tales, lgbt-plus, kickass-ladies, fey-creatures, spooky, multiple-povs

The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black, paints a picture of a backwoods town called Fairfold, and all its inhabitants. In any other story, Fairfold might have been an inconsequential place, but this town has a unique selling point for tourism: fae live in the wild forests that surround the town, and they're active. When the Fair Folk become too active for everyone's comfort (and safety), brother/sister team Hazel and Ben must revisit their childhood "game" of hunting fae in order to put The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black, paints a picture of a backwoods town called Fairfold, and all its inhabitants. In any other story, Fairfold might have been an inconsequential place, but this town has a unique selling point for tourism: fae live in the wild forests that surround the town, and they're active. When the Fair Folk become too active for everyone's comfort (and safety), brother/sister team Hazel and Ben must revisit their childhood "game" of hunting fae in order to put things right.

What I Liked:
- Hazel and Ben, both together and separately. For me, it was a very realistic portrayal of a sibling relationship, and that can be difficult to come by.
- The Fae are so very dark, my dear, so deliciously dark.
- The general set-up of the story: it was mostly linear, but occasionally (and appropriately) jumped back to Hazel and Ben's childhood. There was also some folklore mixed in, and I always appreciate that.
- I felt like I should have been annoyed by the constant descriptions of Hazel's outfits, but I actually drank it up. I like clothes, sue me.
- The cast of characters was pretty diverse, which is made even better by A) the fact that's so easy to use "well it's a small town!" as an excuse to not be diverse, and B) it managed to do so without jumping up and down and waving its arms shouting, LOOK AT ME I'M SO DIVERSE.
- Jack's entire story. Yes, please, give it to me.

What I Didn't Like:
- Hazel and Ben's refusal to communicate with each other for most of the book was irritating. Don't get me wrong, it was totally necessary to the plot AND true to their characters (especially Hazel). Still irritating.
- I didn't entirely love that (view spoiler)
- I kinda wished that Hazel and/or Ben would have confronted their parents about how shitty their childhood actually was, but since that wasn't the point of the story, I guess I can't really complain. ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Sally Felt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, favorites, magical-realism

Holly Black did a brilliant job of giving us flawed, real characters who keep secrets, often for the most loving reasons. And she reveals those secrets at a masterful pace.

I especially loved our hero, Hazel, with her desire to be a knight and save her strange, fairy-plagued town. Another author might have made her gifted/tormented brother the center of the story, but instead, we get someone easy to relate to, someone who doesn't feel special, who has no magic other than the love that makes her l ...more

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Oct 01, 2015 Adriel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: seba, ya, fantasy

This book was so delightfully creepy. Creepy is not usually my genre, but this book pulled it off without too much focus on the horror parts of the story(and there were some). I thought the characters were interesting and the romance balanced nicely to not overtake the story, but present enough to be nice.

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