**SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**
I was excited to read this book. A story about stories? Gorgeous cover? Check and check. I'm there. I have to give it credit for keeping me reading. But now that I am finished, I feel this vague sense of dissatisfaction with it. For one thing, the main character is really hard to like, and we never get to know other characters well enough to care about them either. I also had a really hard time buying the plot. There are a lot of things going on that make no sense. I mean, really. Characters who show up and conveniently give our protagonist important junk (and really, it's junk) that coincidentally and inexplicably will help later in the book. Why does the junk work? We don't ever really find out. How is a certain character able to meet our protagonist in the "real" world, even though he is trapped elsewhere? Never explained. Things just seem to "happen" in this book, without the main character really doing any serious work to accomplish her goal.

Finally, I am not quite sure what audience is right for this book. It's aimed at YA, but it's the darkest and creepiest YA I've ever read. It's not just bump in the night stuff or gory horror--we've got references to a leering teacher, vague but mature sexual references, and at one point, characters hand one of the main protagonists a knife and exhort her to "Kill yourself." Spoiler: she defies the command, and her purpose in the book is clearly to fight for the right to live her life the way she wants to, but still…. I actually gasped aloud reading that page. I'm not even sure where I would put this in my library, frankly. I've got 12 year-olds borrowing from our YA section, and there is no innocence in this book, IMO. I really enjoy books that twist fairytales or play with folklore, and I do like my fair share of dark and creepy books. But this book just did not make it for me. In my personal opinion, I felt that Seanan McGuire's excellently eerie Wayward Children series was a more enjoyable sinister twist on fairytales. Other ideas: Hunted by Meagan Spooner, or even the wonderful Thursday Next series from Jasper Fforde. (less)

The Hazel Wood was one of my top anticipated reads of 2018, and is perhaps one of my five fave reads so far. The writing is fluid and flows smoothly. It went really fast for me which takes a lot because it’s hard for me to focus on reading after work. This book sucked me in with its first person narration and personable MC. It’s amazingly well done. The world in this book is fantastically developed, it has depth, and the characters are well rounded. I love how witty the MC is and how real she seems. How down to earth.

I found the story deliciously dark and is that which would make the Grimm brothers smile with pride.

I also liked the parallels to The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman. Not sure if the “fictional world from cult classic book turns out to be real” premise was intentional, but this was a point in its favor as I am a fan of The Magicians.

I loved the look at mother-daughter relationships and family relationships in this book and how our MC is willing to do what it takes to rescue her mom. There’s some old scars here that really add depth and a sense of realism to the story.

I highly recommend this book. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC and the chance to live in this world.

In wasn’t sure what to expect as I’ve never been a fairy tale type of person, but you really don’t have to be with this book. The hinterland stories are really dark and creepy and have more in common with Brothers Grimm stories than traditional fairy tales. It was fast paced and I couldn’t wait to get to the next chapter.

OH MY GOODNESS. I requested to review this based SOLEY on the fact that it was all over my feed and my goodness am I thankful I did. This was an absolutely breathtaking read.



The world that you dive into while reading this is truly a fairytale. It is a novel unlike any novel that I have ever read. What would you say if you found out fairytales were real? What if you found out that you life is not at all what you have been taught to think?

When Alice begins to hunt down her Mother and all paths lead back to The Hazel Wood, things take a turn for the tale. The Fairy Tale kind.

UGH. This book is full of spoilers and I am trying REALLY hard to to yell about them.

Seamless storytelling and multi faced characters that  you completely become enamored with. This is a story about adventure and finding the truth. Fighting for freedom.

I can't wait for the next book. Heck, I can't wait to reread this book in preparation for the next novel.

HUGE GIANT stars for The Hazel Wood.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert was a superb debut! The story was full of mystery and wonder. It was impossible not to be captivated from the first page. It reminded me of paranormal/slightly fairytale-ish books I read and loved back when they were all the rage. I’m happy to see these sorts of stories coming back.

The first quarter of the book was somewhat creepy and the entire book was darker than I was expecting. I loved those aspects! Melissa Albert’s writing was really striking. I would not have assumed this was debut at all. The Hinterland and fairy-tales within real life were so creative. I also really enjoyed the stories within a story. I was really intrigued by Alice’s grandmother and her cult following.

Alice was a strong main character. I liked that she never batted an eye at all the strange happenings. She was so determined to find her mother. I admired that a lot as I would feel the same way. I was a tiny bit disappointed at the amount of romance in this one. I was just expecting more, I guess. I suppose that’s fine since I never really connected with the male lead anyway.

The best thing about The Hazel Wood for me was definitely the Hinterland/fairy tale aspects. I loved getting the little snippets of some of the tales and then seeing them appear in Alice’s life. I do feel like the search for the Hinterland and answers was more interesting than actually getting there. The story kind of dropped off for me there. I still enjoyed it but not as much as the first quarter of the book.

The Hazel Wood was a dark and twisty debut. I was captivated throughout! If you’re a fan of fairy tales or miss those dark paranormal YA reads of several years ago definitely pick this one up!

I loved this book! I love fairytale adaptations, and this one was very twisted and original.

The writing was amazing. Alice had a unique and mature voice. I really enjoyed her narrative. Some of the fairytales from Alice’s grandmother’s book were also in the story. They were super creepy. I had to stop reading it one night and switch to a lighter book so I didn’t have nightmares. But the stories were so good!

The concept of the fairytales coming to life was so creepy. This story reminded me of the Percy Jackson series in that way. Percy learned his family secrets, which brought him into the world of Greek mythology, just as Alice learns her family history in the world of her grandmother’s fairytales.

I really hope a book of Alice’s grandmother’s fairytales is published. It would be awesome to read them all. The physical book was described in the story, so it could be a beautiful book as well.

I loved this story! I recommend it for fans of fairytale adaptations.

The main character, Alice, has a famous author for a Grandmother. She has a cult following and a rare, hard to find book called The Hinterland. It is a book of fairy tales, sort of. Alice, however, has never met her. She and her mother move from place to place running from their bad luck. Alice's world and her Grandmother's world collide in this unique tale. The plot is unusual and fanciful creating a story that is hard to put down.

Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood turned out to be everything I've been hoping for lately in recent YA fantasy. Dark fairy tales, believable characters, and all of those twists and turns to keep you glued to the page. This is a fairy tale about a mother-daughter bond and the strange, wild lengths one goes for family and truth. The major issue I had with this, though, was the pacing. The first half is a little slower-paced, allowing for us as the reader to get to know Alice and the world in which she leaves and the world she was told to avoid, but the last half had so much going on in it that I felt a lack of development for the Hinterlands. Knowing now that this is the first in a series, I'm hoping we get to see more of the Hinterlands in later stories because I wanted to know more! This is going to be perfect if true-to-the-source dark fairy tales are your thing and for those who enjoy a well-crafted YA fantasy.

Lovers of dark fairy tales (think Labyrinth) & unsettling investigations (ala Night Film) will find much to love in The Hazel Wood Melissa Albert's YA debut which is creating so much buzz that even the inhabitants of The Hinterland must have taken notice!
When Alice's mother disappears, she discovers that her estranged grandmothers infamous book of twisted fairy tales might have connections to a dark world that is slipping into our reality.
Love the concept, the cover, and the ending. Wishes I loved the middle of the book more, but I completely understand why EVERYONE I know is raving about this book.
I have to admit I'm super excited that The Hazel Wood will live on- this world needs more exploration.

The Hazel Wood is a creepy, slippery, read-with-the-lights-on book. The plot is fluid and twisty and travels in unexpected directions. Some readers will find the elusive, dreamy writing frustrating, but it adds to the Hinterland atmosphere.

This book is not what I expected. At. All.

It is darker. It is stranger.

If you like contemporary fantasies and darker fairy tales—this is for you. I’ll be thinking about it for weeks.

I’m not sure how much I liked Alice and I honestly can’t guess where the second book will go, but I’ll read whatever Albert writes next. This book was interesting and unique.

And have you seen a copy in person?? It’s gorgeous.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

I have been not so patiently waiting to read this book, psyched by all the positive reviews that I’ve seen. Having completed it, it was totally awesome but not so great.

The first part of the book was so deliciously suspenseful. I was too spooked to read on but just couldn’t put it down. But then Alice started getting to me. She was really kind of a “B” and was really mean to Finch.... who she also had a crush on? That made no sense at all (yet it actually does after you learn more about her). What bothered me most was that the two settings made the book reads like two separate stories. Both were compelling, but neither quite complete. I definitely wanted more about the Hollow wood/ Hazel wood.

The most interesting thing was the stories from the hazel wood book. We got a taste of two of them recounted by Finch. I’m dying to read them and I hope the author writes them all in the next book.

Hinterland reminds me an awful lot of Wonderland. Readers will find similar characters, moments, and nods to Wonderland. The story is full of metaphors and hidden meanings. The story starts off slow and seems to drag on before picking up halfway through. Stick with it. It does get better. The fairytales within the book were dark and fantastic. There is one person of color in the book that the main character continually calls unattractive. He tries to explain the issues of racial profiling, but is ignored. This is not okay for a book published so recently to have a negative attitude about people of color.

This book was absolutely fantastic!
I can't wait to get a hard cover copy in my upcoming subscription book box.

I loved the story behind it, the characters were so well done. Can't wait to read more!

3.5/5 Stars

Finding fairy tales fascinating made Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood immediately pop up on my radar. Who wouldn't be pulled in with the promise of creepy stories and quests? While Alice's adventure provides an interesting arc with ominous threats at every turn, plenty of tension, and the magic of storytelling, there was a disconnect between book and reader that I just couldn't get over.

The most impressive part of this book was the absolutely gripping atmospheric setting Albert created. It was this strange mix of real and imaginary that left even the most regular NYC moments utterly uncomfortable. In the best possible way of course. Darkness seemed to seep through the world and the magic of the stories needed no explanation.

Alice is standoffish, angry, and a loner. The only person she's ever been close with is her mother and she has a hard time trusting people. Alice treats those around her with disdain and only lets her guard down when she's in need of something. Ellery Finch though was slightly more endearing with a dreadful past and willingness to help. He made a great foil for Alice.

It's clear Albert can write, penning an incredibly detailed and weird narrative that seeped into my bones. Unfortunately I did have a hard time fulling immersing myself in this tale. It was slow to start and some of the transitions felt disjointed. I never truly connected with the characters, leaving me an outsider looking in. I just wanted more from it all.

Overall The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert turned out to be a delightfully disturbing debut. It reflected on the power that words and stories hold in our lives as well as delved into magic in a unique way. For me though the characters felt incredibly flat which hindered my reading experience considerably. I'd recommend this one to fans of fairy tales that don't shy away from the gritty darkness.

Alice has spent most of her life on the road with her mom, Ella, whom she (Alice) calls Ella, which I think is weird, since most people refer to their mom as “mom.” And Alice does call Ella “mom” in dialog but in her narration she always refers to her as Ella, not “mom.” Anyway, Alice and Ella have spent a long time drifting from place to place, always avoiding the bad luck that seems to follow them no matter where they go. After the death of Ella’s mother, Althea, a reclusive author of a famous almost-impossible-to-find collection of fairy tales, Alice and Ella end up settling in New York City.

Then shit starts to get weird.

Weird in that Ella is kidnapped. By people from the world Althea wrote about in her book. Because – surprise! – Everything in Grandma’s book is actually real and it’s bleeding over into our world.

Determined to save her mom, Alice teams up with Ellery Finch, a classmate who has actually read Althea’s book. Together, they search for Althea’s mysteriously estate, The Hazel Wood, hoping to find answers and, hopefully, Ella.

You wouldn’t think it would be possible for shit to get weirder than that, but it does. And it’s awesome. There are a few quirks in the writing that weirded me out (like Alice always referring to Ella as Ella, or how at one point Alice insists that you’d have to be “dumber than Persephone to drink anything in fairyland” even though she drank from a fairyland creek like, five minutes prior…) but in all, The Hazel Wood is a fun, dark YA fairy tale read, definitely worth blowing off that homework that costs you thousands of dollars for the chance to do it.

It looks like The Hazel Wood is going to be the first in a series, which…come on why does everything have to be a series nowadays? Don’t make me wait for another book and then make me take time to read another book, I’ve got too much homework right now…

Uhm, I mean, The Hazel Wood does work great as standalone read, but if you’re good with the wait, then you’ll have future books to look forward to.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone in the mood for a dark, twisted, trope-busting fairy tale.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Non-YA fans, people who want only light-fun-happy fairy tales, people who want only standalone books.

This book was not what I expected...and yet it kind of was. Visually, it was very pleasing. The cover is gorgeous. The imagery was almost magical. But I never got lost in the story the way I wanted to. It felt intense and nonsensical, the way you'd expect an Alice retelling to feel, but the connection wasn't there. I had an ARC of this novel, but I kept putting it off until I was really in the mood for it. My bestie read it and absolutely adored it. And yet I continued to put it off. I briefly, briefly glanced at some reviews on GR just to gauge others' reactions, and I think that's what finally made me decide to wait for the audio. Because yes, there were those gushing over this book, but there were also just some mediocre receptions. And from the beginning, I'd feared I would be one of the latter, with lukewarm feelings toward this story...which is indeed how I feel. Even with the audiobook being narrated by Rebecca Soler.

THE HAZEL WOOD embraces the darker aspects of fairy tales. Alice Proserpine lives in the shadow of her grandmother’s novel Tales of the Hinterland, an adult take on fairy tales that created a cult following. Alice and her mother have spent their lives constantly moving, trying to stay one step ahead of the bad luck that seems to follow them. When her grandmother dies, Alice and her mother think they’re finally able to settle down.

When strange things start happening, Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a classmate who knows more about Alice’s grandmother than Alice does. Ellery was someone I expected to dislike or tire of quickly. He smart, rich, and has an obvious infatuation Alice. However, Ellery remained down to earth and completely sweet. He isn’t the ‘sad little rich boy’ trope. He acknowledges his own wealth and faults, just as he tries to get Alice to acknowledge her own privilege when her anger gets the better of her.

The book also shies away from romance. I loved that even though both of the characters liked each other, they remained cautious. It’s life or death stakes, there’s not a lot of time for canoodling. The ending of the novel is likely to be controversial; it’s unsatisfying, and answers are purposefully withheld. Alice never learns all the details of what happened and why. However, this was a type of ‘unsatisfying’ that worked perfectly. The whole novel is Alice searching for meaning, for explanations. To deny her this fits with the reality of the situation.

Although I loved the novel, I’m a little disappointed to see that it’ll be a series. The book stands on it’s own so strongly, I can’t imagine where else the plot can go. THE HAZEL WOOD is a gorgeous, fast-paced and creepy novel. Read this is you want more Grimm in your life.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book was a bit of an enigma for me, I finished it a few days ago and I'm still not sure what to think about it, or whether I even liked. I'm giving it a 4/5, because it was well written, and I think my disconnect with it was no real fault of the author, I just personally couldn't connect.

It starts off extremely slow, and it isn't until the halfway point that things really start going. I found it to be a bit of a slogging read, especially in the beginning, mostly due to the writing style- which I found to be trying to hard to be mysterious, elusive and deep. I know this style of raining down metaphors and similes and speaking in vague mysterious tones is incredibly popular, but it is not and never has been my "thing". Don't get me wrong, I love a good plot twist, but I really have no love for books that try to be deep. Depth should come from the story, and the connections the reader makes to it, not from overwrought prose. That is my personal opinion anyway.

The characters felt under developed. Even though it was written in the first person, I couldn't connect to Alice. I'm a little tired of the "push the world away angry protagonist", and wish I could have seen her long for connections a little more. Instead she only seems to truly care about one person- her mother, and everyone else matters very little to her, thus because of the first person perspective, they become under developed to the reader.

I liked the book a little more when she finally made it to the Hinterland, but I found the world building there to be a little anemic, the fabric of the world was there, but threadbare and faded. I wanted it to be more magical. That's not to say I wanted it to be less dark, I do enjoy a good dark fairy tale, but I found it to be empty and paper thin, dull where it should be gleaming with malice.

I enjoyed the Story Spinner, and the general concepts surrounding the Stories. The way the Hinterland acted to keep Stories on their path was well done, and I wish we could have seen more of that aspect.

The one character I was really interested in was Ellery Finch, and I think by the end he was done a great disservice by the author. I did not understand some of his choices at all in the last part of the book, and without going into specifics, I did not like the ending at all. If there was a sequel, I wouldn't pick it up.

I couldn't justify giving it less than a 4 though, because I can see that it would appeal to certain readers, it just didn't appeal to me. If I was rating it entirely on personal enjoyment, and not overall quality, it'd be a high 2 for me. It's not a book I have any desire to read again.

I wolfed this book down during a vacation. It's portal fantasy, but with a twist, and portal fantasies and fairy tales are my jam. It didn't feel especially YA to me, although I suppose there's no real reason it couldn't be marketed that way. The themes of regret and loss felt more adult to me. There's more Elizabeth Hand in this book than there is of "The Magicians", although there's a bit of that too.

Alice and her mom, Ella, have been on the move for all of Alice's life. When Alice was young, she was kidnapped. She's got the sense that her mom keeps them moving so that her kidnapper won't find them again, but also that it's more than that, somehow. Back in the day, Alice's grandmother wrote as series of short story/fairy tales set in the Hinterlands that brought her notoriety. Since the book came out, the grandmother has lived as a recluse in the Hazel Wood. Hiding? Lurking? Who knows?

I really enjoyed the writing craft in this book. Alice is an unhappy girl and she's not an especially nice person. I liked that about her! She wasn't sassy, she was damaged, and the difference is that between an overdone trope and an original character. I was interested in Alice instead of annoyed- and annoyed is an emotion I often get with YA main characters. There was more depth to her darkness.

I also really dropped into the descriptions. From the coffee shop where Alice works to her companion Ellery Finch's bedroom/library to a road trip to the boonies, everything felt real and lived-in. It felt beautiful and dark, which is how I like my fairy tales. The author managed to evoke a sense of foreignness and dread from small details.

Alice's grandmother's books are almost impossible to find. Alice herself has never been able to get her hands on a copy. Ellery Finch, though, is a big fan of the Hinterlands and has the stories memorized. Alice must pull the details she needs to survive from Finch's memory. The stories are dark and gothic, not really stories with morals but stories about survival. The moral of the stories, I suppose, is that whatever it takes to survive, you do.

Part of the point of the story is that the reality of a world and the romance of the idea of a world are not the same. You can't really be a tourist in Fairyland- Fairyland doesn't care if you're visiting for fun. I am so very guilty of wanting to fall into the books that I love and experience them firsthand. Despite all the warnings, I still want to fall into the world of the Hazel Wood and I'm looking forward to the next book that takes me there.

Thanks to Flatiron for the advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.

It's no secret that I enjoy fairytale retellings - especially when they're dark. Yes, we all grew up loving the fairytales with the "And they lived happily ever after" stories, but this one is not like that at all. If you've read the old school Grimm tales then that is what you can be expecting here.

Alice is 17 and her entire life has been traveling on the road with her mother. They've always barely been a couple steps ahead of bad luck chasing them. Well, as if their lives weren't riddled with enough bad luck, Alice learns that her grandmother has passed away in her estate known as the Hazel Wood. Her grandmother was known for her dark fairytales that had a huge cult following. These stories took place in a supernatural world called the Hinterland. While coming to terms with her grandmother's death, her mother Ella is taken from her into Hinterland. She leaves behind a note reading, "Stay away from the Hazel Wood."

Alice has made it her mission to stay far away from her grandmother's cultish fans, but she finds that she must team up with her fellow classmate. Ellery Finch is a longtime Hinterland superfan but are his intentions purely to help Alice find her mother? Together, they venture into the Hazel Wood and then further into Hinterland to try and save her mother, but what will she learn along the way?

If you love dark fairytales then this is one that needs to be on your list. It may start out a little slower for some readers at the beginning but you'll find yourself so intrigued and slowly pulled in that you won't want it to stop. Like my #CJSReads ladies, I need more Hinterland! I want to know more about this universe and other stories.

This was beautifully written and was a very easy read. Despite being categorized as a YA novel, this one didn't feel too YA, if that makes sense! If you want something dark with fantasy, then you should venture into the Hazel Wood.

I give this a solid 4/5 stars!