The Darkest Part of the Forest

By: Holly Black

Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang

A girl makes a secret sacrifice to the faerie king in this lush New York Times best-selling fantasy by author Holly Black.

In the woods is a glass coffin. It rests on the ground, and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives...

Hazel and her brother, Ben, live in Fairfold, where humans and the Folk exist side by side. Since they were children, Hazel and Ben have been telling each other stories about the boy in the glass coffin, that he is a prince and they are valiant knights, pretending their prince would be different from the other faeries, the ones who made cruel bargains, lurked in the shadows of trees, and doomed tourists. But as Hazel grows up, she puts aside those stories. Hazel knows the horned boy will never wake.

Until one day, he does...

As the world turns upside down, Hazel has to become the knight she once pretended to be.

The Darkest Part of the Forest is best-selling author Holly Black's triumphant return to the opulent, enchanting faerie tales that launched her YA career.

©2015 Holly Black (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Teens with a yen for dark, futuristic novels, and maybe even a few Anne Rice readers, will find this a refreshing take on vampire lit. As always, Black's writing is quick paced and thought-provoking. A must-have for any teen collection." (School Library Journal)

"With rapid-fire dialogue, lavish details, and a wildly imagined world, this will enthrall Black's fans from start to finish and leave them hoping for another bone-chilling vicarious tour of Coldtown." (Booklist)

"You may be ready to put a stake in vampire lit, but read this first: It's dark and dangerous, bloody, and brilliant." (Kirkus)

Beautiful

This is my favorite book of all time. I reread it every year. Highly recommended!!

UGH!!

Okay, so I only discovered the author because of my friend, but I love how she writes.

I didn't want to read this book because it didn't really relate to Carden and Jude, but I am glad I did. I feel as if this needs a second book to help explain a bit more about Jack...

Amaizing Book

This was a great book. Holly Black never ceases to amaze me and this work was no exception.

My favorite dark fairytale

The story is unique, and I loved every piece of it, the narration on audible is so grand I want the narrator to read to me any story every night.

This is Faerie, and the humans who live with it.

Of all the contemporary SF writers who tackle Faerie, Holly Black seems to me to be the one who *gets* it. Her Faerie is beautiful and frightening, dark and wild, its inhabitants neither good nor evil but amoral, alien, dangerous, and mesmerizing. No other writer I know of has managed to evoke the appalling draw of glamour, the irresistible undertow-strong pull of a desire that is impossible to fight - even when everything sane inside a person screams that it is stupid and fatal and unwanted - because it's impossible to get the brain and body to line up and even try to fight at all. She is all the more extraordinary for having found ways to blend the Faerie of ballads and fables with the largely unconnected old and dark versions of fairy-tales, to weave a world which is all the more alien because it is so well known.

The Darkest Part of the Forest is all of that and more, because Black layers this incredibly rich and vivid Faerie with an equally evocative - though more sparing - depiction of life in a very strange and yet very recognizable small town largely dependent on its tourists, and again with a truly complex and troubling depiction of an unusual family and two siblings' childhoods in it, alternately glorious (or perhaps the word should be *glamorous*) and damagingly neglectful. (And, in a world filled with formulaic romances, predictable from page 3, let us stop for a moment to consider with respect a story in which - although there is indeed romance - the central, pivotal, close, flawed but unbelievably powerful relationship is between brother and sister.)

That layering, where every part reflects back on every other, and where the individual characters are just as vividly filled out as the world they inhabit and the dialogue is almost startlingly believable, combine with a truly gripping, fast-paced, complex but never overly complicated plot to make this a book I am going to read - or listen to - over and over again.

Lauren Fortgang's reading, while not quite up to the full scope of the novel, is still more than good enough to allow the novel to shine through, and provide a companion aspect to it. At times her intonation has overtones of Kate Reading, and at times Anne Hathaway in the Princess Diaries, and often is very much her own. A good reading is one which not only doesn't get in the way of the text but adds a dimension to it, and Fortgang achieves this mark with room to spare.

Delightfully wondrous

Enthralling and lively, with unexpected twists and turns. A young adult novel utterly enjoyable for any age. Narration on point as well.

Good story, Same sounding male characters.

Other than the fact that all of the narrator's men's voices sounded exactly the same so it was difficult to tell one voice from the others, it wasn't a horrible performance. The story was very enjoyable and I love stand alone books.

A personal favorite!

This audiobook is amazing! The story paired with the performance makes it all come to life.

Pleasantly Surprised!

I picked this one on a whim while it was on sale. I do love fantasy, but am not usually drawn to stories about fairies. The first chapter was rough, it was hard to keep up with all the characters being introduced, but as I stuck with it I really enjoyed the story. The narrator did a phenomenal job giving voice and individuality to numerous characters. My favorite part of this book is that I had an assumption of how the story would go, but I was so wrong! I will definitely be checking out more from this author!

Great Story for Teens

I think teens would enjoy this story of fantasy and love, and parents would approve. I enjoyed it. Thank you.