I feel like this was almost two separate books joined together in the middle. It really confused me with a sudden change in tone and atmosphere. I thought the book was generally enjoyable, though, but I think it had some major problems.

This book was probably the one I was most excited to receive from NetGalley, yet I have to admit it kind of let me down: it had such a tangible grasp on world-building and atmosphere at the beginning of the story, but it started to lose focus around 60% when the Hazel Wood was actually introduced, and it ended on a pretty abrupt note for me.

However, I did greatly enjoy the dynamic between Alice and Finch. They have a trusting yet highly tempestuous relationship as they're both looking for people to rely on, and this book does a great job showing how these initial notions of "love" might've been hastily conceived. Not to mention, this book is more about family love (something I always appreciate), so I thought these dynamics were ultimately well-fleshed out.

The writing was very crisp as well. The author shows a knack for flowery yet raw and straightforward prose, particularly in the chapters where Finch was chronicling certain fairy tales from Alice's grandmother's book: these excerpts evoked a deliciously creepy, dangerous, and unhinged vibe that really demonstrated the author's writing prowess, and it was by far the most intriguing and well-developed aspect of the book.

Unfortunately, this writing prowess did not translate into the Hazel Wood portion of the book. This titular setting feels tantalizingly blurry at its edges, but because Alice's observations and visceral reactions to it felt less-than-tangible, it made it difficult for me to gauge the full depth of this world. Not to mention, the plot started to accelerate around this point, so the atmosphere didn't have much time to be done justice either.

Oh, and the ending felt strangely abrupt. I won't say I was too bummed by this book simply because it ends on such a poignant note, but I was rather conflicted by what it was trying to say: Alice's adventures in the Hazel Wood were rushed, brief, and murky, so the message of this book being about Alice seemingly having gone through a life-changing experience felt disconnected from the story I'd actually read.

Bottom line, all the elements for a terrific finale were there (characters, setup, intrigue), but because the author never fully committed to a bold twist or moral at the climax, it felt like the book had skipped over a really important event, and it thus left me feeling rather thirsty and unfulfilled in the end.

This book was probably the one I was most excited to receive from NetGalley, yet I have to admit it kind of let me down: it had such a tangible grasp on world-building and atmosphere at the beginning of the story, but it started to lose focus around 60% when the Hazel Wood was actually introduced, and it ended on a pretty abrupt note for me.

However, I did greatly enjoy the dynamic between Alice and Finch. They have a trusting yet highly tempestuous relationship as they're both looking for people to rely on, and this book does a great job showing how these initial notions of "love" might've been hastily conceived. Not to mention, this book is more about family love (something I always appreciate), so I thought these dynamics were ultimately well-fleshed out.

As for the writing, it was very crisp. The author shows a knack for flowery yet raw and straightforward prose, particularly in the chapters where Finch was chronicling certain fairy tales from Alice's grandmother's book: these excerpts are deliciously creepy and by far the best aspect of the book as it evoked a raw, unhinged vibe that really demonstrated the author's writing prowess, and it hooked me right from the start.

Unfortunately, this writing prowess did not translate into the Hazel Wood portion of the book. This titular setting feels tantalizingly blurry at its edges, but because Alice's observations and visceral reactions to it felt less-than-tangible, it made it difficult for me to gauge the full depth of this world. Not to mention, the plot started to accelerate around this point, so the atmosphere didn't have much time to be done justice either.

Oh, and the ending felt strangely abrupt. I won't say I was too bummed out by this book simply because it ends on such a poignant note, but I was rather conflicted by what it was trying to say: Alice's adventures in the Hazel Wood were rushed, brief, and murky, so the message of this book being about Alice seemingly having gone through a life-changing experience felt rather disconnected from the story I'd actually read.

Bottom line, all the elements for a terrific finale were there (characters, setup, intrigue), but because the author never fully commits to a bold twist or moral at the climax, it ultimately felt like the book had skipped over really something important, and it left me feeling thirsty and unfulfilled in the end.

I had a very interesting experience with The Hazel Wood. I had a very specific vision for how I thought that the book would go and feel like, before I read the first page. I’m not sure what created this impression for me, except for maybe the synopsis, and my previous experiences with other books? And the writing style just encouraged my assumption about the book … at first. But as I continued reading, I realized that the story would go and feel different (which is not a bad thing!)

I can say, with certainty, that this was one of the most unique stories I have ever read. The writing was lyrical, and raw all at once, and just overall satisfying for me to read. It felt very fresh for me, because I have not come across a style quite like it in any of the other books that I’ve read (and much less in YA.) The Hazel Wood was dark, and ominous, and magical. The characters were great, and very well-developed. And I could even appreciate the characters who we were supposed to dislike in the story! I also really liked the main character and narrator of The Hazel Wood, Alice, despite her being very angry, cold, abrupt, and mean. I understood her frustration, and really rooted for her, and hoped that things would turn out well for her in the end.

As for the story, it was very interesting and unpredictable. I also think it’s funny that most of this book did not go or feel as I had initially expected, but that once I got used to its feel and style, everything changed, and it did turn out feeling more like I had expected. I’m sorry if that sounds very cryptic! This is what happens when I try to explain things while also trying to avoid writing spoilers, haha. What I can say, though, is that I absolutely loved the fairytales in this book, because they were unique, while also reminding me of the dark Romanian / Eastern European fairytales that I grew up on. The stories in The Hazel Wood are dark, chilling, and nothing like the fairytales that I came into contact with once we moved out of Eastern Europe.

This book was quite enjoyable to read, as Alice took me with her on quite the adventure. I love Albert’s imagination, and that she shared this story with us, and I greatly look forward to the next book to come in the series (2019), as well as the companion novel or novella that has also been listed on Goodreads (2020). I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy urban fantasy, as well as dark fairytales!

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this novel but whatever it was, was meh.

While I enjoyed this book, it was hard to get through, the pacing was slow until near the end but by the time I got there I was pretty much over it.

The story starts with the main character who is difficult to relate to, living with her family while reminiscing about how she used to move around with her mom a lot because they were constantly followed by "bad luck". Turns out (Spoiler alert) the bad luck are actually characters from a world built on stories come to life following them around.

The characters, weren't fully flushed out, and the story line felt out of step. Too much focus on the first 2/3 of the novel setting everything up and trying to build this intensive mystery feel. While the last third of the book was quickly rushed and thrown together.

I think fans of YA horror may enjoy this, but it really wasn't for me. Also this review isn't really my best but I just struggle to write anything other than "meh" over and over again.

I could not get into this book and it was a DNF for me. I found the mother-daughter relationship toxic and abusive. It only got worse when her mother married because it was insinuated that the step-father was abusive as well. The book was not interesting enough for me to overlook these toxic relationships.

The Hazel Wood to most would seem a typical hidden away house in a forest. For others though, those that really know what it is, the house is something else. The Hazel Wood is a bargaining chip, a gateway, a broken whisper of a story once told and held in reverie on one tongue, a forgotten sigh on another.

 

Mostly though the Hazel Wood is the story of Alice and how the Hazel Wood comes to be far more present in her life after her mother is notified of her grandmother’s death. Alice and her mother Ella are constantly on the move thanks to the fact that Ella’s mother is Althea Prosperpine, a writer that is as much as a recluse as she is a mystery. Upon hearing of Althea’s death, Ella is relieved and proclaims that they are finally free. Free from the bad luck and the Tales of Hinterland that seem to plague the pair considering it’s near cult like devotees. However, they aren’t as quite as free as they anticipated from Hinterland when Hinterland comes to find them. Ella is captured and upon her mother’s kidnapping, Alice discovers that her life is about to be turned upside down.

 

Alice along with her classmate Finch began the arduous trek to find the Hazel Wood and during their journey they find more then they anticipated. It isn’t just the Hazel Wood that Alice finds, but Hinterland itself for Hinterland and  the fairytale creatures are very much alive and very much real and they all are seeking Alice. It probably doesn’t help that her somewhat friend and classmate Finch is a devoted superfan of Hinterland seeking his own escape. Upon their discovery of Hinterland, Alice begins to realize that maybe her own story wasn’t written exactly as she thought and another story begins… a story of self-discovery and truth.

 

For fans of fairytales the Hazel Wood is a win. Albert writes with the dark beauty of a true Grimm’s fairytale world. There is no fluff or pretty happy endings in the world of Hinterland. Instead there is rage, there is Death, there is beauty, and there is revenge. Albert plays true to the captivating darkness of fairytales. This is not your book of Disney children’s tales but instead a book with crowns, barbs, blood, and thorns. Hinterland is savage, raw, beautiful and undeniably real. Anyone that ever speaks of true adoration for fairytales would be in sound mind to add this dark beauty to their collection. It deserves to grace your other fairytales with its haunting presence, why not add a little darkness to the happy ever after light. Until next time, enjoy the shadows and crimson of a fairytale world that is far more savage then it is sweet.

There are so many fantasy and fairy tale inspired novels out there it can be easy for a book to get lost in the shuffle. Albert does a pretty good job of distinguishing The Hazel Wood from the pack. She's exploring the darker side of fairy tales, of the world of fae. Murderous children, incest, the utter absence of love. Alice is a compelling protagonist. She's complex.
A lovely read.

While I don’t read much YA, there is something that I am a complete sucker for- fairy tales. I love everything about them: the love stories, the wicked villains and the magical realism. So, when #cjsreads discussed adding The Hazel Wood, the fantasy, twisted fairy tale novel by Melissa Albert, to our January choices, I knew I needed this book in my life.

The novel follows Alice, a seventeen-year girl who is no stranger to life on the road, and her mother Ella. When Alice’s grandmother, a famous novelist and author of the cult classic book of dark fairy tales (The Hinterland), passes away, Alice is drawn to the Hazel Wood (her grandmother’s reclusive home) in search of her mother. To retrieve her mother, Alice enlists the help of Hinterland super fan Ellery Finch to navigate this cruel, supernatural world that Alice’s grandmother created.

Now, like I said The Hazel Wood is much different from what I normally am drawn to but I was really intrigued by the synopsis. I loved the concept and the characters. By the time I was finished the first chapter I was completely hooked. I sucked into this strange, dark world and, during the first half of the book, I found myself desperate to navigate this story. Almost like an allegorical quest story, I rooted for Alice. I felt like Albert’s prose was beautiful; there is no doubt that this novel is well written.

One feature of the novel I enjoyed the most was how dark it was. The bits and pieces of the fairy tale stories that were revealed had me so intrigued. I wish there was a companion piece to this novel where I could read every story from The Hinterland! I would love that: hint, hint Melissa Albert!

I don’t want to give anything away, but I did find that I got a little bit lost during the second half of the novel. It sort of start blending genre lines and moving more into a sci-fi, fantasy, magical type of text that I struggled to navigate. However, I did feel like this ended in an interesting twist, which I appreciated.

Overall, an intriguing, dark story that will start a discussion! If you want a novel that will push you out of your comfort zone, pick up The Hazel Wood, you will not regret reading this phenomenally written story.

I absolutely adore dark fairy tales and so my expectations were high for The Hazel Wood. This book somehow surpassed them. It was an absolute delight to read and I loved how it subverted my expectations at every turn. Here are five reasons why you should read this wonderfully dark modern take on fairy tales.

1) The characters were stellar, I particularly loved Alice and Ellery.
2) The mystery was beautifully plotted and was beautifully intertwined with the fairy tales.
3) Melissa Albert's writing was gorgeous, I loved how clearly I could see the Hazel Wood and New York while reading. Both of the settings really came alive through her words.
4) It was very creepy and dark without being too much. Albert did an excellent job of walking that line.
5) The ending was absolutely perfect. I can understand why some people won't be happy with it but I adore this type of ending, particularly since I don't seen them that often.

I would highly recommend if you like darker fantasy stories! I was absolutely enchanted by The Hazel Wood and I can't wait to read this one again.

Originally posted on Forever Young Adult on 2018 January 30

BOOK REPORT for The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1) by Melissa Albert

Cover Story: Classic
BFF Charm: Caution
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Talky Talk: Burning Brightly
Bonus Factor: Story Within A Story
Relationship Status: Happily (N)Ever After

Cover Story: Classic

This cover is gorgeous. I love that it looks like a classic tome of fairy tales, but with a modern twist: the skyscrapers and the spilled coffee. All of the elements of the cover are elements of the story, too. It’s intriguing before you read the book, and purposeful once you finish. More of this, please, publishers!

The Deal:

Alice is the granddaughter of a famous fairy-tale author: Althea Proserpine, a one-book-wonder who disappeared into obscurity, along with copies of her book. Despite a cult following that persists even today, Alice has never met her grandmother. Instead, she has to gather scraps of information about the mysterious woman from the internet, old articles, and the occasional fan.

Alice and her mother Ella have spent Alice’s entire life on the run, drifting from town to town to outrun bad luck that might have been straight out of Althea’s stories. One day, Ella gets word that Althea has died—and now, perhaps, the bad luck will end. They can finally settle down.

That is, until Ella is kidnapped and taken to the Hazel Wood—and Alice, along with her classmate Ellery Finch, is determined to rescue her mother from a fairy-tale fate.

BFF Charm: Caution

I quite liked Alice, who can be a total jerk and whose rage simmers just underneath the surface, but I’m not so sure she’d be the best friend to have. First of all, all that bad luck following her around doesn’t just affect her. Second, her temper and single-minded focus make her prickly—but a terribly compelling character.

She’s not without self-awareness, though. I loved this quote: “The feeling of knowing you’re being an asshole is as bad as feeling wronged, but without the satisfaction.” The whole book is full of observations that seem so obvious and true once she points them out.

Swoonworthy Scale: 3

Romance takes a back seat to other relationships in this book, particularly mother/daughter. Although Finch is an adorable boy, the possibility of romantic love is far less intriguing than the love between story and subject.

Talky Talk: Burning Brightly

Melissa Albert’s writing is a thing of wonder. Never have I highlighted so many passages. She expertly combines the dark, lush descriptions of displaced fairy tales with sharp-tongued, dry humor. Alice’s voice is angry, but in an understandable way—like the way you’d nod at a raging teenager and think, “Yeah, I feel you.”

But don’t take my word for it—take hers.



“The light in our apartment was all the colors of metal—blinding platinum in the morning, gold in the afternoon, bronze from the streetlights at night.”

“She spoke only to other children, mostly to make them cry.”
“My head pulsed with a three a.m. black coffee feeling.”

“Everyone is supposed to be a combination of nature and nurture, their true selves shaped by years of friends and fights and parents and dreams and things you did too young and things you overheard that you shouldn’t have and secrets you kept or couldn’t and regrets and victories and quiet prides, all the packed-together detritus that becomes what you call your life.”


To say I love Albert’s way with words is a gross understatement.

Bonus Factor: Story Within A Story

Modern fairy tale stories often have stories within stories, which, when done well, are one of my favorite things to read. Althea’s stories are creepy and dark, and I was delighted to see that Albert appears to be publishing them in a companion volume sometime in 2020.

Even better: although this is the first book in a series, the story ends in a way that will satisfy your need for closure.

Relationship Status: Happily (N)Ever After

Book, I’d heard so much about you from the rumor mill, so I was nervous that you couldn’t possibly live up to my expectations…and yet, our date was positively, well, magical. You made me laugh and sigh and nod in understanding as you said things I’d been thinking forever, but much more eloquently. I’ll be waiting by the phone for you to ask me out again, although I suspect I might have a bit of a wait. Can you put a spell on me so the time passes more quickly?

An updated version of "Alice in Wonderland" where Alice gets sucked into the Hinterland with Finch by her side. Alice grew up with her mother running from something. Alice's mother, Ella, would not talk about what happened and why they ran. When Ella disappears one day, Alice sets out to find her with the help of Finch. After being sucked into fantasy land through a wooded portal, destiny prevails as Alice sets out to finish her story and find her mother. There are many twists and turns in the story and the ending is almost like "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy wakes up.

At this time this book is a DNF and I will not be posting a review until I attempt to read it again. I found this book grating and I completely struggled with the kidnapping sequence we got at the beginning. While I can see partially how it's normal to rationalize kidnapping, I felt like the author instead romanticized it. I didn't get very far before my frustration overwhelmed me.

At this time I'm unwilling to read more of this author's work.

An interesting read, though I am not sure the description of the book really says what the book is about and caused some confused when first starting it.

Great creepy fairy tale book. I found myself wanting to know all of the stories from the Hinterland. I hope future books cover other characters' tales.

It has taken me days upon days to get to a place where my thoughts on this book are anything other than simply "a;ljfaoiejfakldsajf omg so good."

I'm such a fan of The Hazel Wood! It starts out with delectable writing, the kind you want to just wrap up in a decadent chocolate cake and absolutely devour. It's a bit of a slow start to get to the adventure portion, but the ride is just the right mix of creepy and enticing to keep you reading until you enter The Halfway Wood, the Hazel Wood, the Hinterland...

Melissa Albert is not just a talented writer but also a gifted storyteller. This book is entrancing. Read it!

Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood is a young adult fantasy novel that twines familiar tropes of fairy tales and fantasies–princesses, magical objects, challenges, quests, and magic into something entirely new, exciting, and deeply dangerous. It is a thrilling, inventive, and highly original fantasy that takes place in the here and now.

Alice and her mother, Ella, have lived their lives on the road, moving once or twice a year, sleeping in cars, borrowed houses, and cheap motels, seemingly trailed by bad luck that always seems to find them with terrible consequences for people and places around them. However, shortly after learning that Althea, Ella’s mother died, Ella got married to a wealthy man and now Alice is living in a fancy upscale apartment with a stepsister named Audrey who is the same age. Things should be looking up, but then one day she sees a man who she is certain is the same man who kidnapped her years ago, claiming he was taking her to see her grandmother.

Alice’s grandmother was a famous author who wrote “Tales from the Hinterland” an electrifyingly original collection of fairy tales, grim and reportorial stories of magical beings that are scary and horrifying. Something happened in the past that drove Ella to take Alice on the road, on the run from her mother, so that Alice has no memory of ever knowing her. She’s also never read her mother’s famous book, a book that is oddly impossible to find, even with e-bay.

However, things seem to be coming to a head with the reappearance of her abductor who seems to have aged not at all, with cryptic clues in the form of pages torn from her grandmother’s book, and with a new friendship with Ellery Finch, a classmate who has read Althea’s books.



I loved The Hazel Wood. From the first page, I was enthralled, at first by what seemed a coming-of-age story of a unique and self-aware young woman whose life experiences are different from most–a traveling life of a reader. More than the events that happened, she remembers the places she lived by the books she read. I can see that.

I like how the magical elements of the story were slowly revealed, what seems coincidence crystallizing into magical interference. We are not thrust into the fantasy immediately. Alice has lived an unusual life, but there’s no reason to see anything fantastical. Lots of kids have grown up with peripatetic parents who drag them from school to school, living as perpetual “new kids” in school. She self-protective, prickly, a bit stand-offish and it all makes sense, she’s spent a lifetime losing friends. She feels rage and even that makes sense. We assume there must be some reason her mother fled with her.

And then when Alice has no choice but to go to her grandmother’s home and enter that magical world, it’s so new and different. Yes, the tropes of fairy tales are there, bits of verse with clues, anthropomorphic beasts, talking trees, and scary things. But it’s also beautiful and inhabited by other humans who have found their way there. It’s scary, deadly, terrifying and lovely, friendly, and somehow familiar and those contradictions are not the least bit false.

The Hazel Wood is completely original, utterly captivating, and puts its characters in real jeopardy so readers will feel real anxiety over the fate of its characters. There are no guarantees in this book and you can sense that from the first approaches toward the Hazel Wood. That uncertainty, not knowing what might happen in the end, makes this much much more thrilling.

I received an Advance Readers Copy of The Hazel Wood from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Hazel Wood at Flatiron Books | Macmillan
Melissa Albert on Twitter

Seventeen-year-old protagonist Alice Proserpine has never stayed in one place for long. Most of her childhood memories involve being on the road, staying with one family friend or another until her mother Ella decided that they had to move on. Ella never spoke of why they had to live this way, but Alice always felt the sense that her mother was trying to run away from something. But run away from what? Alice has no idea, though she can guess from Ella’s tight-lippedness about her past that it might have something to do with the Hazel Wood, a magnificent home nestled somewhere in the woods of upstate New York. The estate belonged to Alice’s grandmother Althea Proserpine, an author who achieved cult celebrity with her book of fairy tales titled “Tales from the Hinterland”. It was probably no coincidence that no sooner had they received news of Althea’s death, Ella finally decided that they could settle down in the city and start a normal life. She even marries Harold, a wealthy businessman, so that Alice has to start going to school at an exclusive academy for rich kids, where she feels like a fish out of water.

The only person closest to a friend is Ellery Finch, a somewhat geeky and awkward boy whose father is one of the richest people in New York City. Finch also happens to be an Althea Proserpine superfan, and has been fascinated with Alice ever since he found out that the author was her grandmother. Alice, however, is nettled to have to admit that she knows next to nothing about Althea, nor has she even ever read “Tales from the Hinterland”, for Ella had always forbidden her to seek out her grandmother or her work. Still, Alice had tried, and none of her efforts had ever borne fruit. Althea’s book has become very rare and hard to find, and it appears only a small circle of mega-enthusiasts know all the stories. Then one day, Alice comes home from school to find that her mother has been stolen away, and the only clue she left behind was a message: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.” Getting a sick feeling that this has everything to do with her grandmother and her fairy tales, Alice turns to Finch, the only person she can think of who might be able to help her rescue Ella.

If my usual blurb seems a bit more detailed than normal, it’s because The Hazel Wood is a novel filled with so much breathtaking allusion and tantalizing prose that it’s almost overwhelming to consider the amount of setup packed into the first few chapters. Although the fantasy aspect doesn’t come into play for quite a while, even from the start I could feel the aura of mystery and magic wrapped around everything despite the ordinary urban setting.

I was also pulled into the story right away, captivated by the power of Alice’s personality and voice. Granted, she’s not always the most pleasant person to be around, being prone to some truly disconcerting moments of anger as well as snide remarks. But given her itinerant upbringing and the darkness that is later revealed in her life, it makes perfect sense. She also has a dry sense of humor that I found strangely endearing, as well as those rare moments where we got to catch a glimpse of her true self through the cracks in her armor. Belying Alice’s fierce independence is in fact a frightened young girl whose nightmare scenario has just come to pass. Her mother has always been a constant presence in her life, and now she is gone. It is little wonder then that Alice ends up latching onto Finch, who became my favorite character the moment he came into the picture. I’ve always had this soft spot for the geeky type of guys in YA who might not be conventionally attractive but are nonetheless charming and cute in their own way.

As time goes on, the book starts going through a transformation, becoming darker and stranger until at the end, readers are faced full on with the magical fairy tale-like elements of the story. Ironically, I actually found myself less enamored of The Hazel Wood at this point, because the plot loses a lot of its uniqueness and instead plunges into territory that has been covered before in a plethora of other YA novels and re-imaginings with fairy tale themes or settings. Without doing into spoilers, I also did not like how the book ended. One could say this was a fitting way to wrap things up given the overall tone of the story, and, if I’m being completely honest, on some level I can even understand why the author decided to do it this way. Still, I was left pretty feeling pretty cheated and unsatisfied. It seemed a shame that we started things roaring but ended them on a whimper.

However, I am encouraged by the fact that a follow-up is already in the works. Rarely have I been this happy to find out that a book I’ve just finished is going to be part of a series. While I think The Hazel Wood will work perfectly fine as a standalone, if ever a book needed a sequel, it’s this one. Hopefully, the next chapter of Alice’s journey will reveal more answers and dispel the unsettled feelings I got from the ending. Above all, I’m also looking forward to reading more of Melissa Albert’s gorgeous writing. The Hazel Wood may have a few flaws, but overall it is an impressive debut.

"The Hinterland didn't tell nice tales. "

"This story had no allegiance to anything. It was winding and creepy and not even that bloody. There were no heroes, no wedding. No message."

I read a couple books in 2017 published by Flatiron books and absolutely loved them! You can read my review of Caraval and Girls Made of Snow and Glass if you'd like. So when I saw THE HAZEL WOOD show up on NetGalley, I knew I had to request a copy. I devoured this book in just a matter of days. I couldn't put it down. I took every spare moment I could to read just bit more, even if it was a page here or there. After finishing it, I basically insisted that all my friends pre-order immediately. THE HAZEL WOOD has already hit my top 10 reads of 2018 and the year has only just begun!

Some words I would use to describe THE HAZEL WOOD are: dark, mysterious, intriguing, captivating.

"If you've spent your whole life running, how do you learn to stand still?"

THE HAZEL WOOD is the story of Alice, the granddaughter of Althea a famous author of a collection of dark faerie tales. Alice and her mother have been on the run for as long as she can remember. Always followed by bad luck and trouble, they're constantly on the move. When her mother is mysteriously taken from her she finds an unlikely ally in a classmate, Ellery, a classmate who is obsessed with the world her grandmother created and is willing to do whatever it takes to help Alice find her mother and solve the mystery of her disappearance. Alice's mother left one message: to stay away!

"He liked to say names, I noticed. First or last or both at once. Maybe in real life it was meant to be friendly, but names were dangerous in a fairy tale."

I adored the writing in this book. I found myself immediately immersed in this world and its characters. I wanted to know more of the story and what would happen next. Melissa Albert did a superb job of creating a unique story. One that I didn't feel had already been told in a hundred different ways. It was dark and twisted with mystery and intrigue. I would classify THE HAZEL WOOD as magical realism. A story set in the modern world that includes fantasy or supernatural elements. I went into this book knowing that it was a standalone and finished reading it wishing I could have more, yet also feeling completely satisfied. I think this book was a ground breaking debut novel from Melissa Albert and I will be continuing to (demand) encourage EVERYONE I KNOW to read it!

"...the only way out is through. Through the woods, through the story, through the pain."

Not long after I finished reading THE HAZEL WOOD, I saw that Melissa Albert had signed a new contract with Flatiron books for 2 more titles set in this same world! Oh my goodness you guys, THE EXCITEMENT IS REAL!!!! I am over the moon excited to see we will be getting a collection of short stories called TALES FROM THE HINTERLAND and a second that will be a follow-up novel. I know what I hope this story is about, but only time will tell.

"Something in his face made me remember not everything was about me. Maybe Finch wasn't trying to be the sidekick in my story. Maybe he was trying to start one of his own."