The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

from goodreads

3 stars

What a lovely day. The weather is warm the sun is out and the market was not super busy. Nothing is more icky then when the market is jammed packed with people and you can't find a parking spot! It was so leisurely. I bought some honey and beautiful tulips. (I gave the tulips to my friend, she just had a baby #4 and I wasn't sure what else to get her.)

They had a fire going there to help warm people up from the wind. Though, I didn't find the wind cold. It was really quite delicious. As I sit typing this I can still smell the a faint whiff of the smoke in my hair and on my sweater. Lovely. Don't you love it when days turn out so great!

Synopsis

Fairfold is a town that is full of faeries and wood folk. The mortals who live there have charms and leave offerings to appease the folk. In the woods there is a boy in a glass coffin. He has been there for a very long time. One day he wakes up and the town fears what will happen next.

My Thoughts

I found this book baffling. There was so much in it that was awesome and yet so much that just left me scratching my head. In the acknowledgements even the author said it was a hard and sometimes confusing book to write... well to me, it shows.

The protaganist is a girl named Hazel. The Hazel we are introduced to in the beginning of the book doesn't seem to be the same Hazel that we are left with at the end. The book covers only a few days worth of time so a complete character metamorphosis can't really happen. At the beginning she seems more or a partier and moody and apathetic teen. Really it turns out she is a warrior with a heart of gold. It was really confusing and hard to get to know her. It was kind of like that for all the characters.

There was also a lot of flashbacks and set ups so that what happens near the end of the books made sense. This made the beginning and middle parts rather boring and dull. The story just didn't move as well. That said, once the action started to pick up it got really good and interesting. The story almost moved too well and the book was over a bit too quickly.

While this is a stand alone book I could see these characters being part of a series, and I think the second book would go a lot smoother and be more action driven as all the explanations had already been done.

So, while there were parts that I found confusing and hard to get, it was still an interesting read. I think the faerie loving teen in your life will like this book.