It’s Totally Worth Getting Lost in Holly Black’s The Darkest Part of the Forest!

So let’s be honest here: who doesn’t love fairy tales? Anyone out there truly, honest to pick-your-deity not secretly at least kind of a fan? I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about them that continues to get me–something that at once grips the imagination, then holds on tight, until the bitter end. Having just spent the better part of a semester thinking about, studying and writing these tales, my appreciation for the amount of effort that goes into trying to come up with a truly unique spin on these classic stories is amazing. I mean, while I do love a good fairy tale, what I don’t want is to read the exact same story over and over again, right? Or to plow through only a thinly-veiled version of one I’ve already worked my way through. Which is why Holly Black’s The Darkest Part of the Forest did just exactly what I want every fairy tale to do: it captured my attention and refused to let go for the entire ride.

A fairy tale, as I’ve learned this semester, is not a simple tale. It is actually a complex one, rife with otherwise cliche premises, characters and ideas. It is a balance of the child and the adult lurking around the corner. It is dark and light blended together in a way that keeps you from knowing which one is prevalent at every turn. It is easy to fall in love with or easy to hate. It is a journey of conventions that are needed because, despite the timeless love for these tales, part of what we love (whether we realize it or not) is the necessary and repetitive conventions. Indeed, I would argue that without these cliches and conventions, the tale would cease to be a fairy tale and would be a young adult story.

So when I read the blurb on Holly Black’s tale–filled with fairies, mythical creatures, a quest, a brother and sister fae-fighting duo, and the search for love, I had to get my hands on it. Thanks to Audible, I was successfully able to distract myself from writing final papers for a few days at least as I flew through this tale about fairy knight and fearless killer Hazel and her brother Ben on their journey through young adulthood. Through their adventures, we learn about the random tourist bump in the road town they’ve grown up in called Fairfold, where the people can’t exist unless they live in partnership with the magical world around them. Where changelings and halflings and horns and wings all have a place; where kids are raised knowing all those old wives tales that have been forgotten over time and where strangers go for quaint potions, pictures and picnics, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the other-worldly that that lurk in shadows and on the other side of twilight. What they don’t expect is the danger–who thinks bad thoughts at the possibility of fairies, anyway?–or of the constant risk that comes with living there. Or of how to keep the bad in the fae world at bay?

Hazel and Ben started fighting the bad when they were just kids on a conquest: Ben’s music hypnotized them, and Hazel would kill them. But only the bad ones. And despite growing up in this town and under these circumstances and with the knowledge of the magical and all their falseness, Hazel still makes a deal with them, one that she is forced to spend the better part of the book questioning and revisiting, as she and her brother search out the boy from the glass coffin with horns, who’s now awake and on the loose; as they learn what’s killing people with vines and mold; as they try to figure out how to make things right again, in only the way that a fairy tale can. And while it sounds wicked hokey to say that here and now, let me tell you: Ms. Black writes quite a set of characters. Hazel strikes me as a cross between Karou from Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series and Izzy from Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments books. With maybe a little Nasty from Cate Tiernan’s Immortal Beloved series, for good measure. And perhaps a light fight, a la Lex from Gina Damico’s Croak Series. She’s part bad ass, part flirt, part lost girl, part deviant, part warrior. This blend makes for an interesting protagonist, but her juxtaposition with the other males–her stylish, gay brother; her brother’s handsome changeling best friend; the ethereally beautiful boy with the horns–serves to underscore her uniqueness.

What I Liked About It:

1. It’s fun. As in, SUPER fun. As in, you won’t be able to stop yourself from occasionally laughing out loud/smiling along the way fun, and you certainly won’t want to close the book.

2. The protagonist was pretty darn cool. She’s not perfect, and she’s no innocent princess waiting to be rescued, either. She’s got a personality, conflicts, issues. She’s not secretly perfect or perfectly secret. She’s made mistakes, needs help and deals accordingly. And she’s unapologetic about it all.

3. There are parents, but they’re terrible. Not terrible as in the author used that as an out to not talk about them, but terrible as in they’re addressed and talked about and they just really suck as parents, but that’s part of the story.

4. The fairy tale aspects of the story are neatly interwoven in the text. It doesn’t feel like you’re stuck in one, waiting to rescue a princess or anything. But the fairy tale vibe is alive and well, and there are rescues and there is a monarchy, but it’s a different spin on the whole thing.

5. It’s a well-done stand alone book that does not necessitate a commitment to a thousand book world, or demand the reading of the follow up book to know what’s going to happen. Is there room for more? Definitely! Did I finish this one feeling that I needed it? No. And that’s a great thing.

What I Didn’t Really Love:

1. The Fairy King’s big badness felt kind of contrived. I don’t know why, to be honest. It just seemed like, with so many magical creatures running about, if everyone disliked him so much, why didn’t anyone other than Hazel do anything about it?

2. The series of clues left for Hazel were attenuated, at best. I don’t want to spoil this whole plot point so I’ll leave it at that, but despite all the fairy tale elements, it was this series of clues that clanged for me.

3. There were points at which I felt there was too much going on. Wait–she does what in her sleep? And for how long? And hasn’t noticed because apparently she’s the only human who doesn’t need to sleep ever? And who’s dating whom now? And how does this all work, again?

4. There are amazing details included in the story about the magic, myth and lore of the world of Fairfold. However, much of it didn’t really come to play in the plot–but it could have. I’m not 100% certain how to reconcile this, in light of the fact that I think the author did a great job researching fairy tales in putting this together and did a wonderful job of creating this world for us. It just felt like too too at times.

Overall:

Great read, perfect for summer! I had the pleasure of the Audible version, and thought the narration was fantastic and the book itself was a wonderful adventure.

So what do you think? Anyone out there enjoyed this one yet?

The Mortal Instruments City of Heavenly Fire: The End of an Era, A Comparison & A New Beginning

Cassandra Clare is a bad ass, in every sense of the name. She writes beautifully delicious tales designed to make the turning of pages a compulsion, not an option. Previously, I have written about the absurd talent she possesses in creating characters that seem to just jump off the pages and into the head of the reader. Her final book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Heavenly Fire, does just that–and somehow, miraculously, gives the impression of possible continuations/spin-offs of the series, while also presenting a well-stylized accounting of the greater themes of the series and providing some closure for a number of the characters.

I think I’m secretly in love with both Simon Lewis and Magnus Bane in this series, which is why I’m thrilled that her spin-off The Bane Chronicles, telling some of the many backstories of the legendary gay warlock, is currently cued on my Ipod. And why I kind of what to cry when it occurs to me that there is no more Clary, Jace, Izzy, Alec, Simon and Magnus . . . amongst many of the other widely ranging cast of characters (even Chairman Meow!!)

This final installment of the series takes the main characters to Idriss, hell, and beyond; it forces the downworlders to rethink their individual causes and desires and to at least try to create some semblance of unity; it presents death and destruction as a reality, but not an inevitability; and it requires honesty of the heart, mind and word of the Shadowhunters themselves. If you’re thinking so far that the series is pretty epic, well, you’re right.

Especially when comparing the ending of this series to that of other popular YA Lit series, this one is so much better structured and realistic! Although I also have a writer crush on Laini Taylor, this ending was much better focused, the ends better tied (or left loose, depending on the character) than what we saw in the Daughter of Smoke and Bones series. In many ways, it was reminiscent of the closure to Cate Tiernan’s Immortal Beloved series, wherein the main characters are given closure, but not everything is perfectly wrapped up. At the same time, Mortal Instruments has a much larger cast of characters than Immortal Beloved, so the semi-closure makes more sense with the wider cast. As a final series book, this was infinitely better than the final installment of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, as well, which I actually found to be inferior to the first two books in series. The ending also rang more true (and less sappy) than the final book of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Basically, we see the growth, change and development of the characters, and leave the story knowing that their lives are continuing on and, for most, we have some idea of the trajectory which those lives will see.

Even though I know I should be less biased, and if pressed could probably think of one or two issues that could be improved, overall this series is just totally worth reading. And I assume, too, that her next series–The Dark Artifices–will also be. This next series isn’t coming out until next year, but will build on the stories of (presumably) Emma and her best friend, Jules, at the LA Institute, both of whom played fairly prominently in City of Heavenly Fire.

I’m pretty psyched to see that the entire Mortal Instruments series is going to be redone as a tv series–which is probably a better setting for it, as the books are quite long and contain a lot of details. I greatly disliked the film take of the first book, and found it to be quite a juvenile retelling. (I know, I know–it’s YA Lit, but that doesn’t mean tween lit, right?) My hope with the tv series is that they are able to focus on all the different character plots, develop the characters as well as the action/story, and not waste a ton of time/money on special effects. We shall see. . .

Anyone out there have a chance to read this series? Have a favored character or ten? Thoughts on the upcoming series/tv series?