Hilda and the Stone Forest is the fifth entry in Luke Pearson's Hilda series. It was published on September 1, 2016, by Flying Eye Books.
After her mother grounds Hilda over her lashing out and having one too many unsupervised adventures, Hilda attempts to use Nowhere Space to get to Frida's house. However, things take a turn for the worse after her mum catches her in the act and attempts to stop her, which causes the two of them and Twig to accidentally land in the mysterious and dangerous Stone Forest, the home of the trolls.
With the stakes higher than ever, it's up to the two to work together and get out of the forest and back home safe and sound, all while coming to learn that trolls may not be the monsters they grew up knowing.
The entirety of the comic would be adapted in Season 2 with a heavy dose of Adaptation Expansion, with the majority of the story being adapted into the finale of the second season.
The comic would be followed up by Hilda and the Mountain King in 2019, which acts as a direct sequel.
Hilda and the Stone Forest provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The entirety of the Stone Forest storyline was adapted for the entirety of season 2 of the animated series, with foreshadowing events of people questioning about the troll fires on the mountain. Some of the adventures from Hilda's adventure montage in the book are adapted into new stories of the season. The storyline continues into the movie special, which is an adaptation of "The Mountain King".
- All Animals Are Dogs: The creature that looks like a patch of land with legs act just likes a dog.
- All Trolls Are Different: This story shows that Trolls come in a much greater variety of shapes and sizes than the ones we saw so far in previous stories. The main antagonist is a two-headed troll.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Longing for absolute freedom after her confrontation with her mother, Hilda wished that she was a Troll. Unfortunately, this is ultimately what happened to Hilda by the end of the story.
- Call-Back: Hilda's mum reuses the "Because I Said So" card on Hilda in this story after previously using it in The Bird Parade.
- Darker and Edgier: The overall story is more somber in tone. With the relationship between Hilda and her mother becoming strained, and both of them worried about if they'll even survive their journey through the Stone Forest. Not to mention the cliffhanger at the end.
- Disapproving Look: A "precious stone" vendor gives one to Hilda when she just grabs a rock from the ground.
- Door Slam of Rage: When Hilda is told by her mother that she is grounded, she leaves the table in tearful anger and slams her bedroom door offscreen, much to Johanna’s frustration.
- Enemy Civil War: Trolls don’t always get along and are shown to fight each other several times. In particular the two-headed troll.
- Enemy Mine: It is strongly implied the mother troll mainly helps Hilda and Johanna since she too hates the Two-Headed Troll that was chasing them.
- Forced Transformation: The comic ends with Hilda transformed into a Troll, and Baba herself was turned into a human.
- Go to Your Room!: Johanna says this to Hilda after the latter throws a tantrum over not being allowed to go to Frida's house.
- Good-Times Montage: Early in the story, there 3 pages showing Hilda going on various adventures without her mom knowing.
- Horrifying the Horror: The rock-chewing slugs terrify even the dreaded two-headed troll. And that goes double for the gigantic slug.
- Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: The Two-Headed Troll is finally stopped for good when Hilda and Johanna reach the exit of the caves, and the troll is going too fast to stop before he too runs outside, where the sun instantly petrifies him.
- Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: At the beginning of the book, Hilda is seen going on so many adventures that eventually she can't think of any more excuses. One evening when she comes home covered in slime, she just tells her mum: "Whatever you're thinking, it's not that".
- Shout-Out: There's a train in this page◊ that distinctly looks like an inanimate version of Edward from Thomas & Friends.
- So Much for Stealth: Zig-zagged, for laughs. When trying to escape the cave of the two-headed troll, Johanna accidentally knocks down a shelf, but the noise fails to wake up the sleeping troll. Then he wakes up when a bird he keeps in a cage starts whistling.
- Teleporter Accident: The plot is kicked off by Johanna interrupting Hilda and Twig entering Nowhere Space, which results in all of them ending up within the titular forest.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Hilda sports one in this story.
- The Stinger: After the main events of the story, Hilda's mum discovers that Hilda has been replaced with a changeling when she tries to wake her up in the morning. Meanwhile, Hilda wakes up to discover that for some reason she's in a troll cave and has been transformed into a troll child.
- You Are Grounded!: Played for Drama when Hilda's mum grounds Hilda for A) having one too many unsupervised adventures and B) her hurtful outburst.
