The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is the first book in a new YA fantasy series about evil fairy tales.
Alice and her mother, Ella, have lived a life on the road–running from the bad luck that seems to always be just a step behind them. But when they receive a mysterious letter telling them that Alice’s grandmother, a renowned and reclusive author of cultish fairy tales, has passed away, Ella decides it’s time to stop running.
Almost a year later with no accidents and the two finally feel safe, until Alice returns home one afternoon to find out that her mother has been kidnapped by the Hinterland–the setting for all her grandmother’s stories. Now Alice must rely on the help of Ellery Finch, an obsessed fan of her grandmothers, to track down her mother and steal her back from the nightmares they thought were only stories.
What will Alice do with this new knowledge of the world and will she be able to fight the unknowable to get her mother back?
Gosh, I love a good dark fairy tale–I like dark anything if I am being honest. The maidens who turn out to be the monsters, trees that bite and princes who do anything but save the day. The Hazel Wood is a book about what happens when those dark fairy tale creatures are set loose and what happens when you fall through a door onto a world that isn’t all pixie dust and rainbows.
I don’t want to give anything away but I really liked Alice’s storyline. For those who have read the book, it was unique and handled pretty well. You kind of fall into the fairy tale halfway through the book, which was kind of neat.
I’ve read a lot of really fantastic books lately that have sort of let me down in the end. This book really should have been 5 stars but I can only give it a 4 because of the disconnect between the pace in the beginning and the pace at the end. I just feel like the endings of the books I’ve been reading lately have been so rushed.
This is supposed to be the first book in a new series… I hope the series is about the world of the Hinterland and not necessarily following Alice’s story further. I felt like her story is done and now it is time to follow another. 4 stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-
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