An excellent, fascinating and highly entertaining collection of stories that kept me hooked.
I loved the style of writing, the world building and the storytelling.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was not the typical read for me. I haven't been into fantastical, magical, or otherwise fairy tale type stories since I was a young child, but I did actually enjoy Tales from the Hinterland! The writing was simple, but I enjoyed the style, and the stories themselves were rich and dark, and I found myself very engaged while reading. This was the first book I've read by Melissa Albert, but I would be interested in reading some of her other work after this sample. I would recommend this book to anyone who loved fairy tales and fables growing up and is looking for a dark and twisty escape.

Overall rating: 3 stars

I've waited so long for this book, and it didn't disappoint!! This is a book within a book and each story was extraordinary.

"Tales From the Hinterland" was a gorgeous collection of dark, delicious fairy tales and was un-put-downable. Stories of girls who create portals between life and death with human blood, of young women who are sold off to mysterious grooms for fortune and wealth and never seen again, of vengeful twice-killed witches, of stolen skins comprise this eerie collection of tales from the Hinterland.

Even if you haven't read "The Hazel Wood," you'll enjoy this dark volume full of unexpected twists and turns.

I think the most interesting thing about The Hazel Wood series was the different stories and fairy tales. I'm glad we got this companion book to read the stories in their entirety. These are definitely dark tales and would be a good read around Halloween. Overall, I liked the stories. I wanted some to last longer then others especially Elsa's story.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great title for fans of Melissa Albert and her worldbuilding, but like similar books from other fantasy series authors, it feels a little light. I get giving readers a little something extra between big books, but these collections can feel like a money-grab to feed the endless hunger for "merch."

"There was a girl who spoke to the moon. That isn't enough to make a tale, but to her the moon spoke back."

When I read The Hazel Wood back in 2019 I liked it, but what I really wanted was to read the collection of fairytale-like stories that were repeatedly referenced. I know I wasn't alone in that thought, so it was so exciting when Melissa Albert announced she was publishing the entire collection. Some of the stories were ones I remembered from the first book, but others were entirely new to me.

If you have enjoyed things like Leigh Bardugo's The Language of Thorns, this is along the same vein. They are told like fairytales, but not the happy, romantic, Disney type. They are dark and gritty- think the original Grimms brothers.

As expected, I liked some stories over others. Some of my favourites included The Door that Wasn't There, The Skinned Maiden and Ilsa Waits. Some I felt more meh about were The House Under the Stairwell, The Sea Cellar and The Mother and the Dagger.

Should you read The Hazel Wood and its sequel before this? Short answer, no but maybe. If you have no interest in the plot of the novels or even didn't really enjoy them, you can definitely still pick this up and enjoy it the same. However, if you know that you want to read the other stories, I would recommend at least reading the first book and then this one, like I did. I think the stories are much more impactful when hearing them for the first time in The Hazel Wood, and think that impact could be diminished if you already knew them.

Overall, if you are looking for a short, dark and original collection of stories for a rainy day, this is perfect. I have heard the finished copy will include full colour illustrations, which are sure to be stunning. Personally, I felt that the stories didn't hit as hard as when they were told throughout The Hazel Wood, but I have heard other reviewers saying the opposite, so definitely still give it a go!

Thank you to Flatiron Books for this ARC

Release Date: 12 January 2021

I did the unthinkable and requested an eARC of Tales From the Hinterland before even reading any of the "full" installments from the Hazel Wood series... but if your blurb implies a short story about romancing Death, you can't expect me to act reasonably. My ARC unfortunately did not include any illustrations, so I can't prattle away about my love of art, but I can definitely say that even taken out of context, this short story collection is 100% readable and - above all - enjoyable. Melissa Albert invented 12 macabre fairytales / horror stories not unlike Tanith Lee's or (dare I say it) Angela Carter's dark retellings. Just a warning: almost none of them have a happy ending. A piece of literature from in-universe is always a great idea for a companion book, and this one only made me more curious to read the main works.

Tales from the Hinterland is a perfect companion to The Hazel Wood and The Night Country, two books about the adventures of Alice and her friend Atticus Finch as she explores the world of her grandmother, the author of Tales from the Hinterland. In The Hazel Wood we learn that all the copies of Tales from the Hinterland have disappeared and Atticus Finch is the one person Alice encounters who has read the stories. So much of those two books connect to the lost fairy tales, it is a delight to read the original stories.

Albert does an incredible job of witing fairy tales. Historically, fairy tales are grim and fraught with murder and jeopardy. They usually exploit the common fears of children, loss of a parent, parental indifference, and parental cruelty. They also often feature women whose romantic options are limited but who seek, somehow, to find agency in a world controlled by men. Albert’s fairy tales do the same. She also creates a new mythology with the Sun, Moon, Stars, and the Tides forming a pantheon that appears in more than one story. The stories are stark, violent, and frightening, just as a fairy tale should be.

I loved Tales from the Hinterland. I did not expect Albert to produce fairy tales as grim as Grimm and as fantastical as Hans Christian Andersen. These stories felt as though they were written long before Disney got their bowdlerizing hands on children’s fiction. Not only do the stories feel like authentic children’s folklore, they are beautifully written with gorgeous descriptions of the landscape. I loved this from the first page to the last.

I received an e-galley of Tales from the Hinterland from the publisher via NetGalley.

Tales from the Hinterland at Flatiron Books | Macmillan
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
The Night Country by Melissa Albert
Melissa Albert on Twitter

If you are a fan of Melissa's world then definately don't miss this release!
I really enjoyed it!

I was provided an advanced digital copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes, all opinions are my own.

A collection of delightfully dark and twisty original fairy tales with women as the central characters both delights and disturbs in a good way. Looking forward to seeing the artwork in the print book. (Read as an ebook ARC)

Melissa Albert's Hazel Wood universe expands with twelve tales straight from the Hinterland.

As someone who enjoyed The Hazel Wood, I wanted more information on the tales from the Hinterland and this book satisfied that need. I have always enjoyed fairy tales and as I grew up found myself drawn to the darker, original versions.

Albert's Hinterland tales draw on that tradition and fit right in. As you read, you see parallels between much loved fairy tales and these new tales. It was also fun to read along side The Night Country which depends pretty heavily on some of these tales.

I hope Albert sticks around in the Hinterland universe for awhile.

I love fairytales, retellings, and The Hazel Wood. I was so thrilled when she announced she would be making Tales from the Hinterland! I couldn't wait to hear more about some of the fairytale characters we met in the first book (I haven't read the second yet).

This collection of dark fairytales was so good! Everything I wanted. Creepy, spooky, stories you probably want to read in the daytime.

Even better, you don't HAVE to read the other two books to enjoy this one! It could be a modern fairytale book to add to your collection. Also, the cover is beautiful so that is always a plus.

Thank you to Melissa Albert, Flatiron Books, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I read the first story in this collection I knew this was going to be good. It was captivating, dark, and reminiscent of childhood fairy tales (except for the dark part). The stories are classic - someone wants something really really bad, and they have to give something up without thinking about the consequences; a girl is tricked into marrying something that is not from the living world; a kid doesn't listen to their parents and has to pay a dire price, etc. All of these tales feature a woman or a girl. Some end up with happy endings (if you can call them that), some teach a lesson, some just end with a bang - like the first story of revenge. I needed this little distraction with powerful girls, who stand against the rules that were created to control them.

I really appreciated how they all kind of connected, not just being set in the same dark world of Hinterland but also mentioning of a character in a different story. Like they all have heard of each cautionary tales that your grandparents mights have told you. Because what is a fairy tale, if not somewhat based on a real story, that over time turns into a myth.

Melissa Albert is no stranger to darkness, her previous novels The Hazel Wood and The Night Country steeped in grim reality, though alight with the magic of the Hinterland, a world hidden just beyond trees of an estate in upstate New York. Plumbing the depths of the Hinterland itself, Albert delves into the bone-sharp brutality of the world – a story within a story, a world just beyond reach in the same vein as Lev Grossman’s Fillory – in twelve fairy tales that coalesce to form the backbone of her previous novels.

Brimming with darkness and melodic beauty, Albert pulls you the brittle world of magic, a thing of mischief and pain beginning with “The Door that Wasn’t There”, solidifying, early on, that there are no happy endings. Magic may be real, but it is not a saving grace, nor balm. Magic is death incarnate, ice-cold, violent, and unforgiving, a phenomenon that sweeps over her characters, many of which are familiar, in waves of revenge, isolation, and crippling loneliness.

From absent, grieving mothers, and kidnapped brides, intent on vengeance, to restless daughters some pampered yet rotten, others neglected, women fill the pages of the collection in a tone that pairs macabre with red-hot anger. Though each one finds a voice, overcoming the odds placed against her, whether by fate, or force, or choice, only two succeed in moving beyond the cruelty of the world, their endings open-ended.

Delightfully dark and gruesome, Albert breathes life into the unknown in the whispering of the sea and rustling of the leaves; in rotten apple blossoms and chips of brittle, iridescent ice; in long-forgotten traditions, muffled by time; and in life-bending sorcerers, bone chimes, and siren song – each tale startlingly unique, yet familiar. Though the vengeance of mothers and daughters bleed together, making it difficult to pinpoint tales by name as the collection grows, Albert defies expectation in strong women who overcome what life throws at them, no matter the cost. Hope is not a given, but vengeance is and a number of tales shine, including: “Hansa the Traveler”, “The Skinned Maiden”, “Isla Waits”, and “The Mother and the Dagger.”

Thanks to Netgalley, Melissa, and Flatiron for an ARC of this collection.

This is my second chance to read a Melissa Albert book early, which I really appreciate. I had made it known that I didn't really enjoy The Hazel Wood, but I enjoyed the ideas behind the story and just felt like the execution wasn't quite there. I request an ARC of The Night Country so that I could give her another chance, because as I said, great ideas rough execution. And I ended up enjoying The Night Country so much more, so I felt like as a writer, Melissa had grown and matured.

Those thoughts continue for the most part in this collection of fairy tales set in the Hinterland. Some of the stories were so incredibly chilling and jaw-dropping and others just kind of fell flat or left me a bit confused. It's always hard to rate a short story collection, so I've decided to break down the book by story and rate them that way.

I would rate the following stories 4 or 5 stars: The Clockwork Bride; Isla Waits; Alice Three Times; Jenny and the Night Women; The Mother and the Dagger; and The Skinned Maiden.

I don't want to go into summaries of each story solely because I think going into these blindly gives them an extra layer of enjoyment. They're sinister and tricky and uncomfortable.

What a delightfully twisted collection of tales and fables! From the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country comes the elusive treasury of stories which inspired the events in the series. These are not your mother’s fairy tales, and certainly not things you want to read before bed at night. Melissa Albert has delivered the dark feminist stories from your wildest dreams and most menacing nightmares.

Fans of The Hazel Wood series have long asked for Tales from the Hinterland, the book that Althea Proserpine had written before her daughter Ella and granddaughter Alice fled from her. The consequences of writing such a book were heavy, so Althea shut herself away as copies of the book disappeared from the public over the years. Readers have received snippets and summaries of these stories, a couple of extended passages as they applied to the plot at hand, but most of the contents have felt just out of reach—until now.

For that reason you may find some of these stories more familiar than others, especially if you’ve recently read the other two books. I haven’t read either in about a year, so there wasn’t any part that felt redundant for me. A few of the names and general tone I recognized, but I didn’t feel like I knew what was going to happen next based off of that. If I could start to guess how a story would end, it was probably because they all had similar themes. There’s usually a young girl or woman, she makes a choice and it has grim consequences. There are very few happy endings in Tales From the Hinterland, and even the ones that do usually have a sinister twist to them.

You don’t have to have read either of the previous novels in order to enjoy this one. Some people might enjoy those books more by reading this first, if they’re readers who hate to have information withheld. I’d recommend at least reading the Hazel Wood before this, though, so that you don’t lose any of the suspense in that one. Still, if you are just looking for some dark and a little bit murderous stories in a bite-sized package, then I would recommend Tales from the Hinterland.

Tales from the Hinterland is a wonderful complement to the Hazel Woods series. Readers of the series have been curious about the characters' origins and now we have their stories. Well written, engaging and delightfully creepy. This title will give an added dimension of interest to re-reads of the series.

These are my favorite sort of fairy tales. They have teeth; they bite and haunt and chill you. They are eerie and magical and strange and creepy and unsettling -- and they don't have happy endings. I haven't actually read the Hazelwood yet, but now I know I'm going to, because I love Melissa Albert's writing style. It flows beautifully and is full of unusual phrases that make you slow down and savor the words.

TALES FROM THE HINTERLAND is an enchanting, haunting, and deliciously creepy collection of fairytales. Completely new and unlike anything I have read before, this book is full of enchanting and macabre stories of loss, obsession, selfishness, and death. Each story stands on its own and is as twisted and compelling as the others. With some added illustrations that bring the magic to life, this dark collection is one that will stay with the reader after the last page is turned.

What I loved: I was completely pulled into this collection from the first story to the last. It is hard to identify which was my favorite of the twelve as they were all enchanting, haunting, and carried their own magic. There were so many sympathetic and spiteful characters, and each tale is artfully composed to immediately enthrall the reader. They are all unique as well, and I loved each in its own dark and haunting way. From the clockwork daughter promised to the toymaker before her birth, but who has her own desires and goals that don't fit into what he had desired for her to the girl who saw Death and allowed her warped vision to alter the lives around her to the sister who was devoted to learning what happened to her sister bride wed to the strange house to pay their father's debt, each story is fantastic and beautifully evocative and horrifically sinister.

Final verdict: TALES FROM THE HINTERLAND is enthralling, fantastic, and darkly haunting. Highly recommend for fans of powerful short stories, fairytales, and enchantment.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher. All opinions are my own.