The Night Country: A Hazel Wood Novel (Hazel Wood, #2)

by Melissa Albert

Rebecca Soler (Narrator)

The New York Times bestselling sequel to Melissa Albert’s beloved The Hazel Wood!

In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors of The Hazel Wood. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.

With Finch’s help, Alice escaped the Hinterland and her reclusive grandmother’s dark legacy. Now she and the rest of the dregs of the fairy tale world have washed up in New York City, where Alice is trying to make a new, unmagical life. But something is stalking the Hinterland’s survivors―and she suspects their deaths may have a darker purpose. Meanwhile, in the winking out world of the Hinterland, Finch seeks his own adventure, and―if he can find it―a way back home...

• ISBN10: 1250246245
• ISBN13: 9781250246240
• Publish Date: 7 January 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 23 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 8 hours and 41 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jo]

Review to come.

[Artemis]

This will not be the last time I give the first novel in a series a less than stellar two stars and still continue to read the series. The Night Country is proof that things will not continue to get better no matter how on point the genre is for me. Throne of Glass is the most recent series that I continued to read after not loving the first two books as much as everyone else in the YA Fantasy world.

There were moments when it felt like the story could have gone in a mystical and haunting direction but the author veered constantly, yanking the opportunity for a truly beautiful story to unfold. The writing is better than The Hazel Wood, and there is a lot more going on that I enjoyed pockets of this story.

If you loved The Hazel Wood, you’ll probably love this book. Just one of those cases where this series just wasn’t for me.

[Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub]

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book, in exchange for my honest opinion. This book will be available on January 7th, 2020.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. Unfortunately, I can only muster a like. The thing that originally drew me to The Hazel Wood was the creepy, dark feel of the fairy tales (I’m still dying to know the story of Twice-Dead Katherine). This book didn’t have that feel for me. The sense of something lurking just outside of view wasn’t there. While there are some messed-up story characters, they were much more straight-forward, which lessened their impact for me.

The plot is interesting, continuing with a new threat to the Hinterland, and the ex-stories who have left the Hinterland behind. Alice is one of the few ex-stories who has managed to eke a normal human life for herself, and many others resent her for that. Also, there’s a small matter of some ritualistic-looking deaths, and no-one knows who is responsible, or who will be next.

If you have read my review of The Hazel Wood (which you can find here), you’ll know that my biggest complaint was that the relationship between Alice and Ellery felt a little one-note. Again, in this book, the relationships fell a little flat. I think that’s just a character development issue that will improve as Melissa Albert continues to write, which I hope she does. Even though I didn’t love this book, Melissa Albert is a creative voice and I look forward to seeing what else she comes up with.

[Stephanie]

ELLERY FINCH!!