How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and child abuse.

Black grew up in New Jersey and lives in New England with her husband and son. While she has written a variety of fantasy works and in subgenres—about vampires and con artists, for instance—her specialty is urban fantasy and dark fairy tales. She collaborated with artist Tony DiTerlizzi to create the best-selling children’s series The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was later adapted into a 2008 film and a 2024 TV show. In this series, a family moves into an old Victorian-style home and finds secret rooms, hidden passageways, and a world of fairies, many of which are not interested in helping humans.

Similar elements also appear in Black’s dark fairy novels for young adults. Her first novel, Tithe (2002), part of the Modern Faerie Tale series, also incorporates hidden passageways and complicated political intrigue. It cautions readers to be careful what they wish for—very few of the Folk are friendly. The Folk of the Air series continues to explore this theme and features a human girl falling in love with a faerie of import and being sucked into faerie Court politics with drastic consequences. 

The Modern Faerie Tale books focus more on the gritty or urban part of the urban fantasy subgenre, including elements of the human world.