Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest by Matt Haig

just as she was about to clutch hold of the white cotton, it escaped her, as it responded again to the call of the wind.
    Aunt Eda ran a few more steps forward, awkwardly holding the bundle of dry washing, but then stopped suddenly as the sheet disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
    Martha watched as her aunt stood facing the trees.
    Aunt Eda was either unable or unwilling to step forward and retrieve any item of washing that made it beyond the giant trunks in front of her. And it was right then, at the moment Martha was reminded of the dreaded fear that the forest seemed to inspire in her aunt, that the ten-year-old girl at the window started to become interested in what she was watching. As her aunt began to walk back, toward the empty basket and the washing line, Martha’s eyes stayed rooted on the darkness between the trees.
    It seemed beautiful.
    Beautiful, and strangely inviting. She became fascinated by it, as she stood there, at the window. It seemed so different from the pointless smiles and pointless words she had been surrounded by since her parents died.
    Something about the black spaces between the trees seemed to speak directly to her, drawing her in—the darkness as irresistible in a world of false smiles as a cool pool of water on a hot summer’s day.

    As Martha stared out of the window, Samuel was a floor above her, opening The Creatures of Shadow Forest. He turned to the first page and began to read:
    There is a place you must never enter. It is a place where evil has many faces, and where creatures of myth and legend live and breathe. And kill. It is a place beyond dreams or nightmares—a place that has so far been too feared to be called anything at all. Now, in this book, I will explain the unexplained, and give fear a name that suits it well. That name shall be Shadow Forest, and it will plant terror in your hearts.
    Samuel gulped, and sweat moistened his palms. Then he flicked to the next page and began to read about the creatures of his nightmares.
    The Huldre-folk
    The huldre-folk are human-sized creatures who spend most of their lives underground. They have very bony bodies and long tails and claws instead of fingernails. They have scrunchedup noses and their eyes are set wide apart, and never blink or cry. They only come above ground in the dark—to hunt for caloosh, to catch creatures trying to escape and to escort doomed prisoners to the clearing in the forest where the Changemaker lives. The Changemaker is the fearsome overlord of Shadow Forest and he is loved and worshipped by the huldre-folk.
    Years of living underground have had a very negative effect on the huldres, leading to a profound jealousy and hatred of creatures who live freely in the forest.
    Their natural cruelty was one of the reasons the Changemaker chose them to be his prison guards, stopping all humans from entering and leaving the forest.
    Most creatures in the forest speak Hekron, a universal language that everyone—even humans—can understand. The huldre-folk are the exception. They hate being understood almost as much as they hate the sunshine and so they invented their own language called Okokkkbjdkzokk, a language which sounds almost as cruel and sinister as the huldres actually are.
    Weakness: Their flesh evaporates if exposed to daylight.
    Samuel turned over the page, and he read as fast as he could about another kind of creature— trolls:
    Trolls
    Trolls are the most terrible creatures in the whole of Shadow Forest. These are the creatures a human should be most scared of meeting, as they are horrible right down to their bones. Not only do they steal people’s goats, but they also kill any humans they can get their hands on. They come out when it is dark and can smell human blood from a great distance away, and are drawn to it like bees to pollen.
    They are generally very strong, and use their strength to drag people back to their homes, where they cook them alive in a giant