2019/104: The Darkest Part of the Forest -- Holly Black

It was too much. But there was no one else, so it couldn’t be too much. It had to be exactly enough. It had to be what she could handle, and she had to handle it. [p. 189]

The small town of Fairfold is unique: it borders on the territory of the Folk, and features a glass coffin containing a sleeping elven prince. Hazel Evans and her brother Ben were both in love with him as children: Ben dreamt of saving the prince with his music, while Hazel wanted to be a knight. Left to their own devices by affectionate but feckless parents, the two hunted and slew the nastier faeries (the Folk regard tourists as fair game, though -- strangely -- there are no warnings, no travel advisories) and ran wild in the woods. And then Hazel made a bargain ...

There are some excellent characters in this novel, especially Jack, the changeling of Hazel and Ben's friend Carter. Carter's mother realised her baby had been swapped for a faerie child; did the traditional thing with hot iron until a faerie woman showed up with Carter; and then declared that she'd keep them both. Jack is one of the crowd, a part of Fairfold life; but Saint John's Wort makes him itch, and so does cold-shaped iron.

Hazel is interesting because she is profoundly damaged and doesn't recognise it. As children sometimes do, she accepts the monstrous as normal: her memories of killing monsters -- and of seeing them kill -- are all the more unsettling because they happened when she was very young. Before she made that half-remembered bargain with the Fae.

But things are changing. One morning the townsfolk discover the wreckage of the glass coffin; and a monster has emerged from the heart of the forest to threaten Fairfold in broad daylight.

There's a lot about memory in this novel, and about monsters. There is romance, and horror, and more than one dysfunctional family. There are people of colour, queer characters and a backstory that's only slowly revealed. But at the heart of it is Hazel, coming to terms with the promises she's made, her own desires and the notion that perhaps she doesn't have to save the whole world by herself.