Rating: 2 out of 5

Genre: Fantasy, YA 

Reasons to read it: You like faeries?

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I tried it again my friends.

But…

I’m officially giving up. 

Faerie books just aren’t for me. 

Holly Black was supposed to be the one that sucked me in. Her book, The Darkest Part of the Forest, was recommended by a very trusted source. So here I went again, dipping my toe in a trope that I’ve said over and over isn’t for me. If I can’t love my friend’s suggestion, then I think I’m just going to have to throw in the towel. 

Maybe… 

I tend to keep coming back. *she says while staring up at the Cruel Prince trilogy on her bookshelf.*

At some point, I’ll have to try that series again.

There is only one faerie book that I love, An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson. The lore made sense to me. Humans and faeries existed in a world outside of ours, not shoved in as an afterthought. There wasn’t some weird reason that suddenly allowed a faerie to fall in love with a human (because humans are just that great). Maybe it was also because I just love Rogerson’s writing. 

I saw none of these great points in The Darkest Part of the Forest.

What’s with the name? I kind of get the reference, but it’s a passing mention, not the whole premise of the book. Unless it has something to do with the tourists and the lore of the darkest part of the forest? I guess I’ll never know unless I get to meet Black one day.

But my numero uno complaint is about the third-person POV. I’m not a fan. Really, I’m never a fan. I’ve said this on the podcast and to all of my friends – third person creates distance between the reader and the story. It takes one hell of a writer to pull it off and when I’m already struggling with the content, that distance is going to have me putting the book down, never to be picked up again. If you want a good example of a third-person POV, I would check out V. E. Schwab’s Gallant. Don’t ask me why… she just creates magic with her words. 

This blog will most definitely come back to haunt me because my current WIP is third-person. *cringing*

Now with that third-person POV Black chose, comes a whole bunch of moments where I was lost. The timeline tended to jump around a lot. Black would foreshadow some things, leaving others to pop up out of nowhere. I can see how she had preplanned most of it, but can I just say The Darkest Part of the Forest felt like a pantsed book? 

To my writing friends… you know, you know. 

Faeries exist in our world. They live in the dark part of the forest. They’re a tourist attraction for the town. And yet there’s this weird unspoken rule that they don’t mess with the townspeople. Why? How? Because there were two kids running around chopping faeries’ heads off at one point. How does that not come back to haunt anyone? It seemed to not be a part of the plot aside from Hazel being in love with swords. 

And why is she really kissing anyone????

Ben getting his musical talent was the only part that made sense to me. 

I liked it better when faeries were stuck in the fantasy realm. 

Yet, with all of these complaints, I still found myself picking up the book and pushing through. I was honestly thinking about it when I wasn’t reading. Maybe I wanted to know how it ended. Maybe I have a tiny faeries itch. I’m still not reaching for Cruel Prince. Or it’s all because I don’t like to be left on the sidelines.

Don’t even get me started on A Court of Thorns and Roses. 

You’ll have to make your own decision on this one. Are you a faerie girly? Do you think that the lore makes sense? It seems weird to me that we keep writing these love stories with a very emotionally lacking species. And how does everyone agree on the rules? I know we have rules for vampires and such, but I don’t see the writing manual for the faeries. And who was the person that started this trope? 

Send help for a very confused girly…

Until next time my friends. 

Kait