The Hazel Wood (Hazel Wood, #1)

by Melissa Albert

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One of The Observer's Best Children's Books of 2018!

Fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and The Children of Blood and Bone have been getting lost in The Hazel Wood...

"The Hazel Wood kept me up all night. I had every light burning and the covers pulled tight around me as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years". -Jennifer Niven, author of All The Bright Places

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Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the strange bad luck biting at their heels.

But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate - the Hazel Wood - Alice learns how bad her luck can really get.

Her mother is stolen, by a figure who claims to come from the cruel supernatural world from her grandmother's stories.

Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: STAY AWAY FROM THE HAZEL WOOD.

To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began . . .

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"This book will be your next obsession. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure - it's not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave." - Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval

"Realism and fantasy blue in this strange and bewitching tale" The Observer

Melissa Albert has created a world as dark, twisted and magical as Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter. Will you escape the Hazel Wood?

• ISBN10: 0141388668
• ISBN13: 9780141388663
• Publish Date: 8 February 2018 (first published 30 January 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jo]

Quick fire review:

Trigger and content warnings are under spoiler tags.

(show spoiler)[Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, abduction, being held at gun point, insidious threat of sexual violence, violence against women, and murder.] (hide spoiler)

- When I first heard of The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert, I didn't think it was going to be my bag. I think I associated the Hinterland with a world of fae, and I really don't like stories about the fae. But when I read author Katrina Leno recommended it to readers who enjoyed her own book Horrid, I decided to give it a go. And I loved it!
- I loved the way Albert seamlessly manages to combine the contemporary with the fantasy/fairy tale in The Hazel Wood! It reminded me a little of The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees in that regard, but Albert pulled it off better.
- Albert's writing style is very atmospheric, perfect for the fairy tale aspect of the story, especially when we get to the Hinterland, but it blends perfectly with the contemporary element. It's storytelling at it's best.
- I adored the world Albert created with the Hinterland. It's so imaginative! A fairy tale world where stories exist, like plays happening in front of you, but with characters who have no choice in their actions - despite not realising it. The story must play out. It was quite dark and distubing, and I loved how Albert showed us the reality of fairy tales, what they actually look like, how they affect the characters in the story, the disparaity to how fairy tales are told, and what the characters are going through.
- The Hazel Wood was absolutely gripping! Sinister, dark, but magical and beautiful, and completely brilliant!

[Quirky Cat]

The Hazel Wood is the start of a new (to me) series by Melissa Albert. It's one that has been talked about so highly, and now I can understand why.

When all else failed, Alice always had her mother. In fact, that was about all she had. She was constantly having her life picked up and packed up, shipped here and there and everywhere. The only constant in her life was her mother.

She had no other family to talk with, though she knew that there was a grandmother out there somewhere in the world. One day, Alice watched as her mother was kidnapped by something that was not human, forcing her to go on a new series of adventures.

All of which forced an understanding of who she is, and what her grandmother had done, and the price she was paying for her mother's choices. It's a series of events that changed her life forever, and there are those that know that better than she.

“She talked like a woman who knew more books than people.”

In many ways, The Hazel Wood truly reads like a story that popped straight out of a fairytale. Not one of the pretty and bubbly fairytales, mind you. But the raw and terrifying fairytales, as they were originally meant to be told.

That made for a thrilling and compelling read, as poor Alice tried to find a way to navigate to and through this world. All in the hopes of bringing her mother back by her side. It's a harrowing story, but it also felt like a coming of age story, in certain ways.

By Alice's side was a quirky young man by the name of Finch. If I'm going to be completely honest here (and I do try to always be just that), I adored Finch. I don't think I would have loved the novel nearly so much without his inclusion. In fact, I sincerely hope that the next novel, The Night Country, is all about him (I haven't checked yet, as I wanted to avoid spoilers).

I think this is a story that many who adore twisted and fractured fairytales will enjoy. At least, I certainly know that this was the case for me, and I simply can't get enough of those broken tales. Here's looking forward to my next adventure!


The Boy Who Didn't Come Home

The Boy Who Didn't Come Home, by Melissa Albert, is a short story found at the end of The Hazel Wood.

Ellery Finch, aka Finch, was always a boy fascinated by an imaginary world. By a fairyland spoken on in one exclusive and hard to find collection of short stories. The Hinterland. One day, Finch learned that the world was more real than he could ever have imagined.

In that moment, he knew that he was never going to go home. He had found his place in the world, and it wasn't in his world at all. But rather, another world full of fairytales, folklore, and so much more.

As somebody who really enjoyed Finch's plot arc in The Hazel Wood, I was so thrilled by the inclusion of The Boy Who Didn't Come Home. This story is short and sweet, and simply allows for a stronger feeling of closure about Finch and the decisions he made.

Bonus points for providing more insight on the world he chose, and for making me all the more excited to read The Night Country.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Nessa Luna]

Once more I wish I could give half-star ratings on Goodreads. Because this book doesn't quite feel like a 3-star book, but I also don't think it should get 2 stars. I didn't like this book too much, and I think that if I had been reading it physically, I probably would have either put it down or DNF-ed it. I didn't like Alice as the main character, but I did like Finch a lot. It also just felt way too whimsical for me, which is something I just don't like at all. I do own the sequel, but I don't know if I'm going to read it (maybe if the audiobook is on Scribd).

Maybe more like 2 or 2 1/2. indecisive at this point. Not the best way to start the new year unfortunately. I honestly couldn't care less about the characters - there was absolutely nothing drawing me to them. They just felt *there*. It was really only the fairytale stories that kept me going and my interest in Althea's story (I guess like the cult following of her book). However, even that began to wane. It wasn't until the last 80 pages or so that I became invested again. Despite this, I doubt I'll continue the series. I will say that I felt that the plot was unique and the Hinterland story/background incredibly intriguing. Also, the author is a good writer, if sometimes a bit too whimsical for me. I'm usually one for dark fairytales, but this one definitely missed the mark.

[Kelsey D]

I'm not gonna lie - this was a great beginning, meh middle, and eeehhh ending. Not quite sure how I feel about it honestly.

[Artemis]

I wanted to love The Hazel Wood, which has been on my to-read list since Fall 2017. When I finally got around to reading it, I could hardly believe how the modern fairy tale genre could fail me. The synopsis was so great, and my hands were literally itching to own a copy.

My fairy-tale tag on GoodReads is filled with both good and bad attempts at mixing modern elements with fairy-tales, and I hate to admit that this falls in that latter category. The writing, while good but not great, really failed to assist in imagining this world. This should not have been a problem for even new, or re-imagined fairy-tales — they have familiar enough elements that the audience should have no time picturing what the world is like.

The main characters of Alice and Finch are not interesting enough. There were a lot of things that just didn’t make sense about them, and for not knowing characters that well there were many moments where it felt like they were acting out of character. Perhaps I just wasn’t following along as closely because I was not interested in most of the story.

Overall, a great idea but poor execution. I didn’t want to rate this so low but what I can do but be honest.

[jeannamichel]

This one was so much fun! If you love reading fairytales, The Hazel Wood is definitely a book you should pick up. Melissa Albert takes fairytales and flips them upside down. This concept is so unique and clever.

The Hazel Wood does feel like a standalone though. And as much as I am so excited to see what the second one holds, I felt that Albert tied up all the loose ends.

[dragononabook]

I stayed up much too late reading this book, but it was the perfect balance between 'just creepy enough to keep me reading' and 'this is too creepy, abort mission'. At times the plot felt a little bit clumsy or the writing didn't flow as well, but overall it was an interesting take on fairytales being brought to life, especially since we know as much about them as Alice does, which is to say, not very much.

[alisoninbookland]

😳😞😳

Well, that was really weird.

Let's start with the good. I really liked the ~idea~ of the book. Grandmother writes about fairy tales. The stories aren't just stories. Alice's mother is stolen and she must rescue her. All of that? I love those elements in books and they really worked for this story. I even liked that a few of the stories are shared in book.

What I didn't like was simply how dark and twisted the stories (and the novel) was. I know fairy tales have some pretty gruesome roots and this book really acknowledges those roots. Everything about the book was rough and abrasive for my taste.

I had no idea where this journey would take me. That was pretty pleasant surprise as many books are fairly predictable. This book took me on an adventure and I never knew what would happen next.

It's definitely not a book for everyone. If you like dark and twisted stories, give The Hazel Wood a try!

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

The Hazel Wood has its ups and down, so I'd forgive those who didn't enjoy it - there are a lot of aspects of this one that felt rushed or unfinished.

The story started with potential: a girl and her mom constantly on the move, and a mysterious grandmother who wrote an impossible to find set or dark fairytales that have become cult favorites. A lot of this book is set in NYC, with the Hinterland not coming into play until about three-quarters through.

As far as world building goes, I thought Albert did a fantastic job. Her debut novel has all the thrill and magical realism of Cornelia Funke's [b:Inkheart|28194|Inkheart (Inkworld, #1)|Cornelia Funke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328866790s/28194.jpg|2628323] in its world. I'm a lost cause when it comes to the real world blending with fairytale. Her Hinterland, too, is well written. It takes place in Stories, and definitely leaves the reader wanting more.

On the other hand, the characters all have a lot of wasted potential. Our lead, Alice, is flat and unconvincing. Ellery Finch's execution (literally and figuratively) did not impress, and by the time we meet Althea Prosperpine she falls short of expectations. Character writing does not seem to be a strength of Albert's - we get a lot of talk, but not a lot of action.

Additionally, the pacing at the end of the book is weird. There's a comfortable, established pace in the NYC scenes and it works perfectly... or would have if the entire book maintained that rhythm. Instead, the pace rapidly picks up and we are rushed through the scenes in the Hinterland and definitely left wanting. It's a really fascinating world, so it's a shame we don't get to spend much time there.

As a debut with a strong foundation, I give The Hazel Wood a little slack - it's not perfect, but there's potential. This book ended really well, but it looks like there's another story in the works. I hope that Albert's character's grow a bit more, and she continues to immerse the reader in these intricate dark fairytale worlds. All my stars go to the world building - I found it so rich and compelling that I lost myself in the descriptions of the places, rather than the unfolding adventure.