The Darkest Part of the Forest

November 3, 2014
Fairfold is a contemporary American town long beset by fairies. This isn’t a secret—rather it’s a tourist attraction that provides the citizens with a healthy source of income (although the visitors do occasionally get eaten by the more dangerous fairies). Hazel, a local high school student, is in love with the town’s biggest tourist attraction, a fairy prince who has slept for generations in a glass coffin in the forest. In this, she has a friendly rivalry going with her gay brother, Ben, who also loves the sleeping prince. Things have been unbalanced in Fairfold ever since a mortal woman refused to
return a changeling—who grew up to be Hazel and Ben’s friend Jack—to the fairies. Now even Fairfold natives are being attacked, and after someone frees the sleeping prince, Hazel rediscovers her
secret debt to the fairies. Close in tone
to some of Charles de Lint’s work, it’s an enjoyable read with well-developed characters and genuine chills, though perhaps not as original as Black’s earlier supernatural excursions. Ages 12–up Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary.

October 15, 2014
Black returns to her faerie roots with a fantasy set in our very recognizable modern world. Hazel lives in Fairfold, a small town in a haunted forest full of the Folk. Brother Ben's best friend is a changeling; local kids party by the glass coffin containing a horned boy who has slept for generations. Ben himself has magical musical powers, and he and Hazel used to hunt bad Folk when they were kids. But that was before they grew apart and started keeping secrets, before Hazel kissed Ben's first boyfriend (and lots of boys since). Now a monster menaces the town, and the horned boy is awake. Black clearly knows her lore, and the broad strokes intrigue, but somehow the pieces never jell. Hazel is a series of cliches dressed in outfits described with a little too much precision, a broken girl making out with boys to dull the pain, dreaming of heroics. But there's no depth; the parental neglect and secrets are so past tense that they lack urgency (and the parents, mysteriously, are now fine). When it turns out Hazel is indeed special, too many plot threads are flying for her journey to carry the novel. In the end, Black's latest seems to mirror Hazel's fears about herself-"as normal and average as any child ever born"-but like Hazel, it's not without charm. (Fantasy. 13 & up)

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October 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-Fairfold is no ordinary town. Its citizens live in uneasy detente with the surrounding forest's magical Folk. Like most residents, siblings Hazel and Ben fear and desire the magic that hovers just out of reach. The Fae gifted Ben with a supernatural musical ability that he cannot control. Hazel's own bargain with the Folk causes her many sleepless nights. Fairfold's fragile equilibrium tips when Hazel frees imprisoned Prince Severin, setting in motion a war with Severin's father, the Faerie king. Hazel and Ben will have to confront long-buried secrets if they want their town to survive. Once again, Black examines the intersection between self-reliance and guilt. Neither Hazel nor Ben nor Hazel's love interest, Jack, can combat the Faerie attack until they reveal their secret desires, often transformed and augmented by Folk magic. Black deeply embeds these conflicts in her story, but anecdotes and flashbacks pull readers away from present action, curiously slowing the pacing into a dreamlike holding pattern. Action scenes pepper the story, but the author's detailed world-building continually restrains the pace. Lush settings juxtapose the wild, alien nature of Faerie against the normalcy of mortal existence. Familiar tropes like Hazel's romance with changeling Jack and her conflict with the Faerie king will not surprise readers much, although Ben's crush on Prince Severin provides interest. While not Black's best, it is still better than most teen fantasy. Pair with the faster-paced "Modern Faerie Tales" (S. & S.), or, for a satisfying slow build and dense setting, try Robin McKinley's novels.-Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 Magic lives in Fairfold, but the fantastical creatures rarely bother the human residents of the town, reserving their sometimes cruel attention for the tourists who arrive every year, mostly to snap photos of the horned prince in a glass casket. Hazel and her brother have spent their childhood visiting the prince, making up stories and telling him secrets, imagining that he will wake and save Fairfold from the monster in the woods. And one day, he does. The same day, Hazel wakes up with shards of crystal in her palms and mud caked on her feet, and a sorrowful monster, whose presence sets everyone to weeping, begins stalking the town and putting unlucky Fairfoldians into a coma-like sleep. Expertly weaving fairy-tale magic into a contemporary setting, Black slowly reveals Hazel's mysterious involvement with the fairy court and her heroic role in setting the prince free. Though there's enough backstory that this dark fantasy occasionally feels like a sequel, Black's stark, eerie tone; propulsive pacing; and fulsome world building will certainly delight her legion of fans. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Black has a long list of hits, and this grim fairy tale should add to it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

April 27, 2015
Fairfold is a contemporary American town long beset by fairies. This isn’t a secret—it’s a tourist attraction that provides the citizens with a healthy source of income (although the visitors do occasionally get eaten by the more dangerous fairies). Hazel, a local high school student, is in love with the town’s biggest tourist attraction, a fairy prince who has slept for generations in a glass coffin in the forest, as is Ben, her older brother. Meanwhile, things have been unbalanced in Fairfold ever since a mortal woman refused to return a changeling—who grew up to be Hazel and Ben’s friend Jack—to the fairies. Fortgang reads with a smooth, calm voice that guides listeners through the jumble of characters and landscapes in Black’s supernatural tale. Still, listeners are likely to be confused by the content. The modern references (to the show Mad Men, social media, and cellphones, for examples) seem out of place and jolt, reminding us that the story takes place in the present, antithetical to what we are feeling from the mishmash of different literary genres and techniques employed. Without Fortgang’s confident and
expressive voice, it would be a much
more exhausting effort to follow Black’s
progression into the many rabbit holes making up the bulk of this saga. Ages
12–up. A Little, Brown hardcover.

January 1, 2015
The people of Fairfold live beside the fairy folk with scant worry and not a little smugness. After all, only foolish tourists, lured to town by legend and the beautiful horned prince in the unbreakable glass coffin, risk bringing harm to themselves by offending the fae. Hazel and Ben Evans, growing up in the woods and left to themselves through the benign neglect of their bohemian parents, know differently. As children they stumbled upon a corpse and afterwards began hunting the monsters of the forest, Ben stunning the creatures with his enchanting music and Hazel wielding the powerful sword she discovered. Five years later, wounded by heartache, sixteen-year-old Hazel barely recognizes her childhood self; now she kisses too many boys in an attempt to repress painful memories, while Ben kisses boys in a desperate search for requited love. When the glass coffin is discovered shattered and empty, Hazel's memories start breaking open, too, as she confronts secrets kept, bargains made, and her feelings for Ben's best friend, Jack, a changeling boy. Author Black blends magic with the ordinary world deftly and believably; intoxicated teens dance on the horned boy's coffin in the woods as tinny music plays from their iPods. Her empathetic protagonists are familiar in their vulnerability but compelling in their bravery. Rich descriptions of beautiful but terrible creatures and the thorny briar circling a fairy mound draw readers in to the vividly conjured world. Like a true fairy tale, Black's story weds blinding romance and dark terrors, but her worthy heroes are up to the challenge of both. lauren adams

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)