The Hazel Wood is unique and sinister, but imperfect. The first 150 pages drag, and while the story digs deep into the psyche of the main character, the supporting characters--especially Alice's mother, Ella--were enigmas. That being said, I did appreciate it for its occasional unsettling scenes, and would definitely consider it a pick for readers of scary fairy tales like Vassa in the Night.

A very well written dark fairytale urban fantasy novel. Albert is creative and detailed in her writing. There were some things about the book that didn't make a ton of sense, but that is to be expected to a degree, with fairytale worlds. I really loved how a-typical the "romance" was, in that there was almost none and no HEA. I liked Alice for being a difficult female character. It's refreshing. Would definitely recommend.

Everybody is talking about this book, so of course I was a bit skeptical by the time I started reading it. I kept putting it off because I didn't think it'd live up to the hype and I'm typically on the fence about fairytale stories. But I was sooooo wrong. This book is amazing. Albert's writing is astounding and she's created a whole other world that's entirely its own while still falling firmly in the world of fairy tales. Alice gets to go on her own adventure on her own terms and then (most importantly!) does NOT end up in a relationship. In fact, there's no relationship at any point in the book. Alice's main love was for her mother and she didn't let anything get in the way of it, even when she was told about her mother's true relationship to her. And I really love that Alice didn't stress out over her relationship with Ella. Ella is her mother and even when people tried to get in the way she just stuck to her feelings rather than having a dramatic rejection of the woman who raised her.

Overall, I loved this book and can't wait to recommend it to everyone.

This is quite possibly one of the best books I've read this year. Beautiful writing, interesting characters, dark fairy tales...I couldn't ask for more.

Bad luck follows Alice and her mother, Ella. Alice isn’t totally sure why, but she knows it has something to do with her grandmother, who wrote a book of seriously dark fairytales that developed a cult following. After said grandmother dies and leaves her equally cult-famous estate, the Hazel Wood, to Ella, Ella thinks that the bad luck will stop coming, and they settle in Brooklyn, New York. But Ella was wrong. One day, Alice comes home from school to find that her mother’s been kidnapped, and the maloderous trail left along with a note from her mother (“Stay away from the Hazel Wood”) leads Alice to believe that the kidnapper was someone from the Hinterlands – the fictional world where her grandmother’s stories were set. And so Alice sets off to do exactly what her mother warned against. She’s going to find Hazel Wood.

This book was almost great. It was definitely quite chilling and I really enjoy creepy books when done well. This was done well. In fact, I actually put the book down for a few days after one character (who I didn’t even like!) is brutally murdered by another character in a nonchalant fashion. A few of Alice’s grandmother’s fairy tales are told in the book, and they are disturbing in the best way. In addition to the creepiness factor, Alice is a well drawn if not entirely likable character, though there are reasons behind her unlikability that unfold deliciously slowly. Most of the secondary and tertiary characters get little in the way of development and as a result, I didn’t care much for or about them. There are definitely some awesome feminist overtones (the women in this story rescue themselves), and I liked the added element of questioning what it means to be part of a story. The writing itself was excellent – spare at times, expressive at others.

While I obviously liked the book, there were a couple of huge problems for me(warning: there are a few very mild spoilers here). First, Alice spends the first half of the book trying to find the Hazel Wood, and that part could have been about 50% shorter, especially as it is pretty clear from the beginning that Alice will eventually end up there. As a result, the second (and far superior) part of the book felt really rushed. There were also a few premise things that required massive suspension of disbelief. For example, when Ella does decide to settle down, she does it pretty close to the Hazel Wood. This makes no sense as she has basically spent her entire adult life trying to keep Alice away from the estate. There are a few other illogical things like that which really hampered my enjoyment of the book.

For me, the first half of the book was just ok, but I loved the second half. If you’ve read Roses and Rot by Kat Howard and enjoyed it, pick this one up. If you are in the mood for a very dark fairy tale inspired story, you won’t go wrong here. If you are just looking for something a bit disturbing, this is your book. In other words, despite its issues, it’s worth a read. I’ll definitely be trying this author’s next book. 3 stars – I liked it.
Thanks to Dutton Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for the eARC.

Note: Two weeks from the publication date, I'll post this review on Goodreads and our staff review page: https://ppld.org/book-reviews/staff

Self-rescuing princess for the win. And not in a frilly pink princess way- but a dark goth princess that can kick butt. It was so dark and twisty and is for sure a one sitting read. I love fairy tales and it compares to the original Grimm Tales in scariness. I read this as a DRC, but I'll be buying it when it is published.

I received a copy of this novel from netgalley in return for an honest review


This book was fucking brilliant and amazing. I loved everything about it. I thought the characters were flawed but relate-able and they learned lessons and grew.

The world building was creepy, dark and flawless. The plot line drew me in and didn't want to let me go. I found myself thinking about this book for days after reading it and have already recommended it to friends.

As much as I enjoyed this book I enjoyed the book inside the book more. What I wouldn't give for the author to published Tales from the Hinterland and all the awful fairy tales inside like Alice-three-times-three or Twice Dead Katherine.

There's no love story in this book except for the love shown between mother and daughter; which was cruel and touching.

I am so glad I was able to get an ARC copy of this, as it doesn't come out till 2018 and now I will have to buy a physical version.

I read an ARC of THE HAZEL WOOD and was blown away. Melissa Albert is a master of voice and I was absolutely 100% drawn into Alice’s twisted journey. THW is a story that manages to weave strange, and beautiful, and haunting, together in a way that left me feeling dizzy--and very much like I was experiencing all the mysteries right alongside Alice. Definitely add this one to your TBR. You won't be disappointed!

I loved this book! Alice was a fascinating character. Don’t want to give away too much but I really love the world Melissa Albert created. It was amazing and it was really hard up put down this book.

Yes I would definitely recommend this book. A great read

I'm so sick of books about rich, white New Yorkers with eccentricities. I stopped reading this. I would have liked this more if the MC didn't have a billionaire teenager at her side and it was set somewhere more interesting - how about Arkansas?!

Imagine a life where fairy tale world has a bridge to our world. Now imagine that you are a Story stolen from that world. This is the life of Alice. Her infamous grandmother wrote a book about stories from Hinterland. Alice's mother, Ella, hated those stories and runs away with Alice but the stories are always close behind them.

When Alice's mother is kidnapped by Twice-Killed Katherine she must find a way to Hinterland to save her. But everything is not what Alice believes it to be.and must confront who she is and who she wants to be.

The Hazel Wood is a story about stories. It follows Alice and her nomadic mother who travel around the country never staying on one place very long. Alice's grandmother (that she has never met) is the author of a forgotten book of fairy tales that was popular decades ago. The book follows Alice as she struggles to find out the truth behind her grandmother's stories.
I enjoyed this book, it was magical and intriguing. It was a bit angst-y, and wasn't the most mature writing, but it was an enjoyable and quick read!

There’s no doubt that Ms. Albert knows how to write. The best part of this novel is the writing, the voice with which the author creates the kind of vivid images that can truly take a novel to the next level. There is poetry in her writing. Which is why I’m somewhat disappointed in the novel, as a whole.

I have a few qualms with the plot, including the choice of the characters’ last name: Proserpine. Anyone who knows their mythology will know that Proserpina is the Roman name for Persephone, which brings certain ideas of where the plot will lead. These never materialize and they were obviously never meant to, which is kind of a red herring that harms the narrative. Perhaps the author had in mind a vague sense of the Underworld, using the idea of Persephone returning to Hades every six months to signify Alice’s return or even Althea’s exit from the Hinterland, but if so, then she could have done a better job on making this clearer. I may be nitpicking, but if you are going to use such an unusual last name and one that has its own story with trailing behind it, you should make concrete use of it.

The other concern I had with the plot was that it felt unevenly paced. The beginning has just the right amount of tension and action, infused with some gorgeously creepy fairy-tales, but the last quarter of the book is much faster. Too fast. There is too much going on, too many characters added, too many plot points to follow. By the time we get to the end, we don’t get the kind of impact that the conclusion should have because too much has happened in thirty pages or so. It almost feels like the story would have benefited from a sequel that begins when Alice enters the Hinterland, instead of trying to cram everything in one book.

It’s a shame really, because the book started off beautifully, the kind of story that you do not want to put down.

This book was like the fairy tale re-telling of no fairy tale I've ever read. It was almost a take on alice in wonderland but so so much better.
In this book we follow Alice and her mother. Alice's grandmother is a famous author of a book of fairy tales that Alice has never been allowed to read. Then one day Alice and her mother getting a letter telling them that her grandmother has died and it seems like their life is going to be normal. It is so not normal.
The beginning of the book was a little slow, but not unbearably so, but once it picked up holy cow I just couldn't put it down at all. I will say that I don't feel closure with the ending of the book, so I am hoping for a sequel.

Unique and imaginative story that is rather unpredictable.
For me it struggled a little in the middle, but overall a fab read that leaves you wanting more.

The Hazel Wood is a story of Alice, a young girl who always finds herself quick to anger. Alice has traveled with her mother her whole life, never staying in one place long for fear of the bad luck that seems to find them wherever they go. Alice's grandmother is the author of a cult classic type of dark fairytale book who has been a recluse living on her faraway home, The Hazel Wood. Alice has never met her grandmother but has always wondered about her. One day, Alice's mother is taken by creatures who claim to be from the mysterious fairy land from her grandmother's stories, Hinterland. Alice now must go to extreme lengths to find her mother and along the way, find out who she really is.

I absolutely loved this book. The fairytales are dark and scary and genuinely brutal, there is no good moral that comes from any of these stories and I kind of love that. The atmosphere of the whole book was very scary and I was happy to be in the world and feeling that impending sense of fear. I really liked Alice because she was angry and not your typical YA protagonist. We learn more about Alice and her mother and the reveal was so much fun. Once the reveal comes it isn't much of a surprise because it just makes so much sense but that isn't to say that I saw it coming from the start. I just learned it along with Alice and that whole section of finding Hinterland was great fun. Hinterland itself is such a scary place! I cannot wait to find the final copy when it is published in January!

Also, reading the fairytales from Alice's grandmother's book were some of my favorite parts. I almost wish we got a full copy of each one of the fairytales because the few we got to see were fantastically dark.

The Hazel Wood is a book about a girl named Alice who finds out her grandmother wrote her famous fairytales based off an actual real place called the Hinterland, which is apparently located somewhere in upstate New York and can only be reached by supernatural means. Now at an upscale private academy in New York and living with her mother and new stepfather and stepsister Alice begins to notice the "bad luck" that has always plagued her getting worse and strange people from her past following her around. Then her mother disappears and Alice becomes determined to find a copy of her grandmother's book as she believes this make-believe story is coming to life around her and the clue to rescuing her mother is in the stories. I flew through the first 40% but unfortunately after this mark I felt like the book lost me. I really enjoyed Alice and Ella's relationship and found their nomadic life together really fun and different. Parts of the atmosphere felt very creepy and I was really anticipating more of the creepiness to come through as the novel progressed and Alice really got into the Hinterland. But I didn't get that. Instead I felt like the author was trying too hard to make the Hinterland like a more dangerous version of Wonderland, but the descriptions weren't described well enough for me to visualize what should have been a really fantastical other land. I could never get a feel of what the Hinterland or the Hazel Wood house was like. The reveal of who Alice really is was fascinating, though and I appreciated that this wasn't just another YA book with a predictable romance. This was a story about a mother and a daughter and that part I absolutely loved. I also loved the fairytales told within the story and often found the story within the story more compelling than the main plot. In some ways I felt this would work more with younger teens, but the language is more suitable for the older crowd. Will still recommend this to my teen patrons who love dark fairytales and gorgeous book covers. Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

At seventeen Alice had never known what it was like to have a real home, she and her mother were always on the move as far back as she can remember. Alice knew that somewhere out there she had a grandmother that lived on her estate, the Hazel Wood, although Alice had never been to meet or visit her. Her grandmother though was famous from writing a book that Alice had never been able to read, a book of fairy tales of Hinterland.

One day Alice catches her mother with a letter that she finds out has news of her grandmother’s passing. Immediately Alice thinks they will finally visit Hazel Wood but her mother immediately refuses. Before Alice knows it she finds that her mother has gone missing and with the help of a boy who had been a huge fan of her grandmother’s stories Alice finds herself finally learning the truth of Hinterland.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is a young adult fantasy read that takes the reader into the darker world of fairy tales. Alice Crewe and her mother have obviously been on the run from something for years and when her mother gets taken Alice finds herself heading straight into the world within the pages of her grandmother’s book. These tales are quite creepy and are sure to keep a reader engaged and on the edge of their seat while reading.

My one complaint with this really came with the time it took to get to the creepier section of the story. There was quite a lot build up until that point and I would have preferred a quicker jump into this side of the story. Otherwise I found the book to be quite compelling with great writing and interesting characters and story line. I think fans of young adult fantasy reads with a darker vibe to them should certainly enjoy this one.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.