by Melissa Albert
♦publisher: Flatiron Books
♦released: January 30th, 2018
♦hardcover, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Hazel Wood, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review
Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic 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 away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”
Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.
{Amy's Thoughts}
A story that reads like lost pages from Grimm’s Fairy Tales,
The Hazel Wood mixes dark fairy tales
with fantasy, and mystique. With its own suspenseful tempo that builds as the
story grows, its unpredictable settings, and complex characters make a
beautiful and captivating read. Melissa
Albert gets right into the heart of her characters, making them not
predictable, or even likable at times, but keeps them strong and unique, which
is a refreshing change of tempo.
For fans of Netflix’s Stranger
Things, this dark, beautiful read dances between two worlds, one of fairy
tales and one of the current world, where only a thin veil divides. Dark and
gripping, The Hazel Wood gets under
your skin in a good way, winding its tale like ice in your veins, and then
thaws you like a warm fire.
Debut author, Melissa Albert captivates her reading audience
within the very first line, teasing and taunting you to delve deeper into the
story. With tidbits from the book within
the book, you will be left begging for a copy of Tales from the Hinderland with all of its creepy and delightfully,
disturbing tales. Hopefully, Tales From
The Hinderland is in the works to be added to this series, which would add
to the overall experience. Not to give away too much of the story, or ruin any
of the many twists and turns, I am still not sure how I feel about how the
overall love interest ( or what I thought might be a love interest) turned out,
but I will say I loved the charactes and the strong-willed determination
of Alice.
•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•
Melissa Albert is the founding editor of the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog and the managing editor of BN.com. She has written for McSweeney’s, Time Out Chicago, MTV, and more. Melissa is from Illinois and lives in Brooklyn. The Hazel Wood is her first novel.
Purchase the book: Indiebound • BookDepository • Amazon
