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.

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.

Narrator Lauren Fortgang recounts, with equal parts whimsy and solemnity, the lore of Fairfold, a modern-day town where humans and fairies coexist. Through the eyes of teen resident Hazel, Fortgang describes the mysterious horned boy in the glass coffin, who has been asleep for as long as anyone can remember. When Hazel awakes one morning to find the coffin shattered and empty, she must defend her town with the help of her brother and her best friend, a changeling. Fortgang shifts effortlessly between Hazel's vulnerability and sarcasm but is at her best when voicing the fair folk. A sense of delight and terror is palpable and will keep listeners' attention through the action-packed climax. E.M.C. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine