BOOK NOOK; The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

"Hazel remembered everything at once, all the locks come undone, all the memories rising up from the deep, murky place where she'd buried them, all of herself crashing into herself.  Not just the memories that the Alderking had taken from her.  Faerie curses were more powerful than that.  She got back every memory she ever tried to lock away."

As the summer solstice draws ever closer, my reading habits become more whimsical and I tend to read more faerie fantasy in summer, than in the darker months.  Faerie-lore is the only aspect of summer that I actually enjoy, so finding lovely fey novels to dive into is my one consolation for the hotter weather and the dazzling sunny days that drain me.  

The Darkest Part of the Forest is a stand alone novel, full of rich descriptions of an enchanted forest and the horned Faerie Prince who lies in a cursed slumber in a crystal casket in the heart of the woods.  The town that lies on the edge of the forest is home to families who are fully aware that the faerie folk are real.  They leave out bowls of milk in libation and send their kids to school in clothes that are inside-out, to prevent them from being taken by the Fey.

There is an uneasy truce between the Fey-Folk and the townsfolk, but that truce is broken when a child is snatched and a changeling is left in its place.  The human child is returned, but the changeling remains in the human world, despite being immortal.  And this is just the very beginning of the story!

As the novel develops, someone breaks the casket to free the Faerie Prince and unleashes the curse on the whole town.  It is down to Hazel and her brother Ben, to liaise with the changeling and the Fey to prevent the town of Fairfold from being destroyed by the Alderking's wrath.   But each sibling has their own secrets to keep and they both have a crush on the Faerie Prince.

It is a convoluted tale of Fey glamour and faerie revels on full moon nights; of love and loyalty tested; of a greenwoman out for revenge and a changeling trying to find a place in the world; of magical faerie horses and a faerie knight who only comes out during the hours of darkness to complete a quest. 

Like many novels of the Fey, The Darkest Part of the Forest is full of mystery, trickery, deception, enchantment, glamour and music that casts a spell of entrancement.  It's difficult to review without giving away spoilers, because so much happens in this book, but if you enjoyed reading  books like The Treachery of Beautiful Things, Wintersong or In The Night Wood,  then you will probably like this novel too.  It's a fantastic summery read for any faerie lover and one to be read outdoors in the garden, with a picnic. I have a few more books by this author, so I'm looking forward to reading much more of her work this summertime. Enjoy!