2015
WISE Score
Amazon
A sharp, thorny modern fairy tale where the girl carries the sword and the boy in the glass coffin is just the beginning of the trouble.
4.4
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This is Holly Black at her best. It’s atmospheric, a little bit dangerous, and avoids the 'brain rot' of more generic YA fantasy.
It treats its readers like they can handle a bit of darkness and moral ambiguity. If your teen is into 'Stranger Things' or dark academia vibes, this is an easy win. It’s not just a book about magic; it’s a book about the stories we tell ourselves to survive our own lives.
This is a sweet spot for 13 to 16-year-olds. It’s got enough edge to feel cool but enough heart to be meaningful. Adults who like 'The Cruel Prince' will also eat this up.
The core of the story is a fierce, protective bond between siblings Hazel and Ben. While the world is dark and the characters make questionable choices, their loyalty to each other is grounded and emotionally healthy.
Holly Black is a master of modern faerie lore. The concept of a town where tourists come to gawk at a horned boy in a glass coffin while locals ignore the monsters in the woods is incredibly evocative and original.
It's a YA novel with some 'teeth.' Expect some blood, faerie cruelty, and teen romance. It’s perfectly safe for the intended teen audience but might be too intense for younger kids sensitive to dark imagery or 'creepy' magic.
The book subverts traditional gender roles—Hazel is the knight, not the princess—and deals with the weight of secrets and the complexity of growing up in a place that wants to keep you small.
If your teen has already burned through the Folk of the Air series, they’ve probably already heard of Fairfold. But for the uninitiated, The Darkest Part of the Forest is the best place to start with Holly Black’s brand of mean magic.
Most YA fantasy spends the first hundred pages trying to convince the protagonist that magic is real. This book skips the denial. In the town of Fairfold, the residents know there is a horned boy in a glass coffin in the woods. They know the Folk live just past the tree line. They even know that tourists occasionally go missing or end up dead. It creates a specific, eerie atmosphere where the supernatural is treated with the same weary acceptance as a pothole on a main road.
The hook here is a gender-swapped fairy tale, but it’s handled with more grit than a standard Disney reimagining. Hazel isn't a "chosen one" who discovers she has secret powers. She’s a girl who decided to become a knight because she realized the monsters in her backyard were dangerous and someone needed to carry a sword.
The relationship between Hazel and her brother, Ben, is what actually anchors the story. Often in YA, parents are just "conveniently absent" to let the plot happen. Here, the parents are physically present but emotionally checked out, leaving the siblings to form a tight, protective, and sometimes codependent bond. If your kid is tired of the "lonely orphan" trope, they’ll appreciate how these two actually rely on each other to survive.
We see a lot of "Romantasy" these days that prioritizes the crush over the world-building. This isn't that. While there is romance, the stakes feel higher because the faeries in this world are genuinely terrifying. They aren't just humans with pointy ears; they are ancient, manipulative, and operate on a moral compass that doesn't align with ours.
According to Kirkus Reviews, the book succeeds because it blends the modern world with the "opulent, enchanting faerie tales" that Black is known for. It’s a great pick for kids who liked the vibe of Stranger Things but want more of a medieval, folkloric edge.
Perhaps the biggest selling point for a busy student is that this is a standalone novel. In a market where every book seems to be the first of a seven-part epic, there is something deeply satisfying about a story that actually ends. It’s a complete meal. It delivers a high-stakes mystery, a fully realized world, and a definitive conclusion without demanding a three-year commitment to a series.
If you have a reader who is starting to find middle-grade fantasy a bit too "kiddie" but isn't quite ready for the heavy-duty gore or explicit content of adult high fantasy, this is the sweet spot. It respects their intelligence without being nihilistic.
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