The Darkest Part of the Forest Review!

I read this as part of the 2015 Reading Challenge read-a-thon... well, finished it I should say. This was my choice for the book published this year. The cover is obviously gorgeous and the author has a name that draws people to her books so I was excited that this was going to be my first Holly Black book. It did not disappoint.

Firstly, can I just say that this was so refreshing. It is so nice to read a fantasy book that is a stand alone did such things even exist anymore? I swear they didn't everything needed to be a series to get the full story and yet somehow Black manages to show that you don't need to write 2000+ pages to finish a story. And I'd also like to slip in that she made reference to my two favourite Doctors near the beginning of the book so that was just a little extra going 'see? I'm fan-freaking-tastic!'

Moving on...

Synopsis:

For anyone who hasn't heard about this book yet here's the quick run down:
Hazel and her brother Ben live in the town of Fairfold, a town occupied by both human and faerie folk. For years the sides have lived in agreement, a fragile peace of sorts; the Fae leave the locals alone on the terms that tourists are free game. With a Glass coffin that has sat in the forest for generations, a peculiar boy with horns locked sleeping within the tourists don't just come, they flood.

Hazel and Ben, like many before them fall in love with the boy in the glass coffin, their childhood built on stories of the prince and his glorious lives. The Prince only true love can save, Hazel the knight, and Ben the Bard, but as the years pass so do their stories. That is until he woke.

Now Hazel and Ben must find the Prince and stop whatever destructive force is threatening the town before it's too late.

Review:

4.5/5

I loved how this book had a modern and yet very old time fairytale feel all at once. This fairytale world of knights and magic swords and a sleeping prince you would never expect to see in the same realm as selfies and partying teenagers and yet it's here and it happens, in some cases in the same sentences. Somehow Black makes it seem effortless, as if that was how it always naturally occurred. Her descriptions were vivid and beautiful - I didn't want to put this down.

The story itself progresses nicely, there isn't much down time there's always something happening and there's always a story being told, the past, the present, what this character was doing, what they did etc. I don't have much to say with regards to this as it was well done.

Character development for our main characters was good, Black providing plenty of history for them. There were some characters I would have liked to have had more on, I would have loved to learn a little more about Jack's life and not his history but his actual life and more of how he felt with the humans. I also would have liked to have learned a little more about the Alderking and Sorrel. Though enough back story was given to prove what was needed for the story.

All in all I would give this book a 4.5 out of 5 because I'm greedy and would have loved if it was a little longer.