The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

 

Yesterday, I finished reading The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black. This fantasy novel is about siblings, Hazel and Ben, who live in the town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist together. Hazel has always wanted to be a knight while Ben has always wanted to fall in love. In the woods by Fairfold, there is a glass coffin with a horned boy who has been sleeping there for generations. One day, the glass coffin is found destroyed and the boy is gone. As a monster from the forest comes to attack the residents of Fairfold, Hazel must remember her years pretending to be a knight and figure out her connection to what happened the night the horned boy, with whom she and Ben have been in love since they were children, disappeared.

I have wanted to read this book ever since I finished the Folk of the Air trilogy because it takes place in the same universe and I enjoyed it just as much as I thought I would. It was definitely interesting to learn about the origin of Severin, who was an ally of Jude Duarte and Cardan Greenbrier. Hazel and Ben were definitely the stars of the book, though. I loved how determined Hazel was to protect and help Ben, even if she made some mistakes along the way, and it made me happy how Ben's dream was to fall in love like he read in fairy tales. I thought it was pretty cool how he was musically inclined, too. The romance in this book was sweet and the action scenes were full of suspense. If you like faerie-based fantasy, I would definitely recommend The Darkest Part of the Forest.