The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Ever since I read The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, I’ve been hankering for more of Holly Black’s magical and scary stories. I love this new tale about Hazel and her brother and the town of Fairfold.
“Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.”
“Down a path worn into the woods, past a stream and a hollowed-out log full of pill bugs and termites, was a glass coffin. It rested right on the ground, and in it slept a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives.”
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
I love anthologies, especially when they are by all one author. Gaiman builds upon his themes of seemingly unrelated short stories that draw you in and capture the imagination you had when you were a child. Up late telling spooky stories.
Among my favorites in this go ’round are: “A Lunar Labyrinth”, “The Thing About Cassandra”, “The Sleeper and the Spindle” and “A Calendar of Tales” (of which the ideas for each story was given to him from suggestions via Twitter).
But lets get down to the reason why we all really bought the book:
“Black Dog”
The final short story of the anthology reunites us with Shadow from American Gods. Still tramping around Europe and further south now in the U.K than when he checked in during “Monarch of the Glen.” He spends a few days in a seemingly idyllic village at the house of a seemingly charming couple. Old places have old Gods, old ways and many secrets.
“The old religion is what gets the crops up and keeps your c*ck hard and makes sure that nobody builds a bloody great motorway through an area of outstanding natural beauty. The Gateway stands, and the hill stands, and the place stands. It’s well, well over two thousand years old. You don’t go mucking about with anything that powerful.”
Dude really needs to shy away from quaint villages for a while. I’m just saying…
Recently Gaiman commented on Tumblr that Shadow is headed for London next and after that back to the U.S. for another American Gods book.
(internal fan-girl squeeing)
Kathleen Rear 