The Darkest Part of the Forest

The Darkest Part of the Forest is a brand new Faerie tale from the one of few literary gods, Holly Black. So new that it won't be hitting shelves until early 2015 but I can guarantee you it will be worth the wait. Black's writing style is even more haunting and beautiful in this new novel, the atmosphere of the fairy folk adding that whimsical air to the already entrancing words.
Phrases like, "snagged like silk on a branch" and "beings of dawn and dusk" are never more at home than within the pages of this wondrous world.

We start in Fairfold. Fairfold is weird. Fairfold is full of fairies, magic and monsters. Locals are used to the weirdness, the tourists, not so much. They come to see the haunting wild forest and even try their luck with the faeries. But there aren't the sugar-coated faeries of times gone by.
The folk of Fairfold are mischievous, sneaky and as sour milk left out in the sun for days.
The residents of the town have been at peace with the folk for some time, and yet people disappear, lose their minds from faerie food and even age overnight.
But things are about to get a hell of a lot worse.

Deep in the woods lies a glass coffin. Inside the glass coffin is the Horned Boy. Silent and beautiful in his slumber, he is immovable and unreachable for the glass coffin never shatters, as countless drunken wagers have proved. His existence is what draws the tourists to Fairfold, who foolishly pose for photos with the horned boy. You'd think the locals would be bored of the whole thing by now, but no. The horned boy is at the heart of every man, woman and child who resides there. But no one loves the horned boy more than our two protagonists.

Hazel and Ben are as wild as the forest, spending much of their childhood taking care of each other as their parents were irresponsible party-goers and aspiring yet hairbrained artists who cared little for babysitting. So they played in the darker reaches of forest and beyond, walking the paths less travelled and chancing encounters with fae who do not wish to be encountered.
They very much saw themselves as heroes, a brother and sister fighting the monsters and the darkness, saving stupid people from peculiar ends in service to their long lost faerie prince in his glass casket. One can only dream!

But as they grow older, their dream of being knights quickly becomes overshadowed when Ben's entrancing music fails to save Hazel's life.
Distraught at the possibility of never being a knight again, Hazel strikes a deal with the folk to help her brother hone his skills so that they may continue their adventures. The price? Seven years of her life. Although she doesn't understand how this would work(and trust me, she speculates a LOT through the book), she accepts, for her brother.

The pair swiftly become teenagers, Hazel - the local heartbreaker, stealing kisses from strangers without really meaning too and Ben - the socially awkward who struggles to find love or stop playing music. Typical teenage problems compounded with even more dramatic events. Faeries start to attack both tourist and local alike. Rumours of a great hulking beast of vines and moss spreads through town like a weed and the glass coffin is mysteriously shattered and the Horned Boy... is gone.

Amidst this madness, the Alderking calls to collect(through a scrawled message inside a walnut) and it is time for Hazel to pay back her debt. Hazel panics and falls into a troubled sleep only to wake covered in mud, leaves in her hair and her old sword is missing. A cryptic message is scrawled on the wall by the window, adding to the weirdness of a night that she cannot remember.

After not much coaxing, Hazel and Ben decide to search for their missing Prince, to become knights again and find out what is happening in the town and at least for Hazel, what on earth is happening to her. Around the same time, Jack - a changeling in the town -  begins to rejoin his 'people', sneaking out after dark to join the Alderking's revels and feasts. Will he betray them? Was he working for the faeries all along?
Loyalties come into question and even the dreamy prince isn't exactly how Hazel and Ben had imagined him. Reserved, beautiful and admittedly, intriguingly attractive due to such facts(sorry) but he is deeply troubled and apparently the target of numerous different parties in and around Fairfold.

The story unfolds mainly through Hazel's eyes but both Ben and Jack drop in where needed to give us perspective of scenes which would otherwise go untold from Hazel's POV, they give us that extra bit of detail so that we're not left completely clueless at each big reveal.
Initially, I saw Hazel as incredibly unlikable, due to her careless free attitude to guys and kissing but when we flashback to hers and Ben's childhood, the gaps fill in and I realised just how much she has sacrificed for her brother and how incredibly loyal she is, not only to him but to what he wants from life too.

The book covers all angles, short and snappy backstory, mysterious fair folk, mysterious Horned Prince and an even more mysterious beast lurking in the shadows. My only hang up is the beautiful Hansel and Gretel style relationship between Hazel and Ben being slightly ruined if not overshadowed by two romances which didn't exactly add to the substance of the story, as much as I did love one romance and felt extremely happy for both characters involved, the other seemed too much of a 'just so everyone's happy' move.

The best part of the book by far is the atmospheric back story and 'wild child' period that Hazel and Ben grow up through, by midpoint when the plot finally starts to emerge, it seems strained and deflated when compared to the nostalgia of the past. The ending picks up but doesn't peak at the same level as the beginning, leaving you wanting more and if you're like me, a bit disappointed by the cliché fairy tale ending.

Do I love it? Do I hate it?
I possibly would have said somewhere in the middle if not for my immediate after-read 'Stardust'(which I'll be reviewing next)
There are just some stories that seem to be told in the right way, and some that are not. Fortunately for Holly Black, I loved this story over Gaiman's Stardust which I struggled for more than a week and a half to read despite its pathetic size!

Overall, the blending reality of both modern and faerie worlds is beautifully poetic and haunting, much like a glittery Grimm's fairy tale.
This book is a must have read for those who love dark forests, mischievous fairies and things that lurk in the dark.