The Darkest Part of the Forest Book Review

The Darkest Part of the Forest

Holly Black

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

January 13 2015

4/5 Stars

 

       While I usually really like Holly Black books in general.  I found this book to be a bit wanting in a few cases.  Firstly, the dissonance between the real world and the pseudo-real world she created is jarring in a number of places.  Such as, when she is talking about the Folk killing "Tourists," and that it was OK as long as they didn't mess with any of the townsfolk.  Really?  So some 16 year old girl is going to think it's alright for the Folk to murder people as long as it isn't anyone she knows?  Really?  I could have probably swallowed this from an adult's perspective but not a teenager.
     On this note as well, it was hard to judge what time frame this takes place in and therefore made it even more puzzling when it came to things like grammar or slang.  I guess it probably took place in the 90s but its still impossible for me to be sure.
     The other thing I didn't like was a long scene about three quarters of the way through the book  that is nothing less than a blatant;"parents just don't understand" scene.  Which considering these people have all been living in this magical town for years makes so little sense; I had a hard time getting through it.  That was one YA trope that we could have done without in this case.
     Everything with the Folk and the main characters was incredible.  I really loved the idea of Hazel and Ben being monster hunters.  This was the magical and cool part of the book that kept me reading.  All in one sitting, in fact.  So thank you Holly Black for that.