I wasn't expecting this book to turn out how it did. I did enjoy the plot and it moved along at a good pace, but I was expecting a more realistic storyline. I could see this being made into a movie. The author described the worlds very well and I was able to imagine how things looked. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy and wants a darker book.

Alice's mother has gone missing. The bad luck following her and her mother around has finally caught up with them, and now she must undertake a journey to find her. Alice knows that the answers she seeks likely resides in The Hazel Wood, the home of her grandmother and author of the infamous book of fairy tales: The Hinterland.

This is an amazing atmospheric novel full of dark and twisted fairy tales. Interspersed with Alice's story are some of the fairy tales recorded in The Hinterland. These fairy tales are not the fairy tales Disney told though, they are full of decapitation, blood and murder. 

It's an enjoyable read, with a few nice twists. I loved every minute of the gritty and dark journey that Alice and Finch set out on. Albert's writing was superb and she perfectly captures the creepy and haunting setting of the woods.

Melissa Albert’s tale is filled with dark and vivid writing, and its reliance on the power of stories is something that drew me into this book. It grabbed hold of me and never let me go. A page turner with twist and turns every which way, it has become one of my all-time favorite reads this year. Filled with Original Fairy Tales, A frightening adventure, and one young girls fantastical journey into the heart of story itself, The Hazel Wood is destined to become a classic in fantasy literature that will leave an impression for generations to come.

Alice and her mom it seems have always been plagued by bad luck no matter where they go. One day when Alice’s mom disappears she and a friend set out on a journey to find her. This journey, they soon discover takes them on an adventure to a place called the Hinterland. Its a place which she has only read about in her grandmother’s stories; a reclusive authoress with a cult following, who published a volume a pitch-dark fairy tales and then quietly disappeared along with most of her books. This place she soon discovers is also much more than meets the eye. It’s a place where fairytales are real, fantastical and frightening monsters roam freely, and stories are woven into the fabric of its reality.

The Hazel Wood blew my mind. I read a lot and it's very rare that a book surprises me. This kept me on my toes the whole time. I love fairy tales and Albert's writing encapsulates the beautiful darkness inherent in the originals. I wish I could read this again for the first time.

I went into this book knowing nothing, and I highly recommend that if you decide to pick it up you do the same. It made the story unfold in a much more mysterious way.

This book is atmospheric, emotional, unpredictable, and very well-written. My favorite aspect of it was the setting - every new place we went was described exquisitely but didn’t info-dump or bore me with too many details. It really just took me away every time I picked it up, I was so completely transported. It reminded me a lot of Narnia, or Fillory from The Magicians. Very fairy-tale like and magical. I truly was taken on a journey in this and that made me connect with the main character Alice so much more.

Speaking of Alice, she was the one aspect of the book I felt was a bit lacking (ultimately not lacking enough to stop me from giving the book a full 5 stars, you’ll notice). While I got to know her background and history very well - she tells so many stories of her life when she was young and growing up on the road with her mom - I don’t think her personality was as fleshed out as it could have been. But because she’s on the go all the time and this book is pretty non-stop, I didn’t really pause to think about her character traits very much while I was reading. And I think that’s the point; this book is about Alice’s journey and decisions, and there isn’t much room for character dissection along the way. So in the end i’m okay with her character.

Like I said before, this book was unpredictable. There were a couple of things that happened that I for sure never thought the author would do. I was pleasantly surprised. There are two specific events that are actually quite dark, and that just made me all the more riveted.

Overall this book is fantastic, vivid, surprisingly haunting in places, and oh-so creative. I HIGHLY recommend you get it when it comes out in January!

Spook factor was just right for this time of the year.

Alice is the granddaughter of the famous Hitherland Fairy Tales author Althea Proserpine. We enter into Alice's life as she and her mom Ella are finally trying to settle into a normal life after putting a string of bad luck behind them. Ella has recently married a wealthy man and Alice is trying to assimilate to life at a fancy NY elite private school after growing up as a nomad for the past 17 years.

That is.. until one day Alice comes home from school to find her house reeking of rot and her Mother and step-family no where to be found.

I really liked the world-building and narrative that Albert created for Alice. The imagery was grim, the characters vivid, the style reminiscent of tales I heard as a child long ago.

I thought Alice and Finch's relationship struggled a bit, it didn't feel natural but then again nothing surrounding Alice ever really did. I found Finch interesting, if there was a spin off or this was turned into a series, I hope he would be the focus of it. Additionally, I wanted more from the ending. I think it wrapped up to neat and nicely, for a morbid fairy tale the ending just didn't fit which is why this gets 4 stars instead 5.

The first 40% of The Hazel Wood was amazing. I was sucked into this creepy story right away. But once I got about halfway, my excitement for this book waned. I can't pinpoint what exactly happened but I just found myself not caring about the characters or their situation. I skimmed the rest to find out what the heck was going on and while the ending was interesting, it wasn't enough to convince me to go back to read the middle. I'm sure a lot of readers will love this, unfortunately I didn't.

The Hazel Wood was a very fast and easy read for me. Took about a few hours. I truly enjoyed this almost retelling of Pinocchio. Alice was a great main character to root for. I creepy tale, but it captivated my attention from the moment I started. I will definitely buy The Hazel Wood when it comes out. And I'll definitely recommend it to Barnes and Noble customers!!!

This was an amazingly creepy and creative story that I fell in love with! The description sounded like an Alice in Wonderland kind of story and it did not disappoint! I loved the adventure and suspense and already want to read it again! This would be a great book for your young adult readers that love fantasy and loved books such as ''The Darkest Part of the Forest' by Holly Black.

Hauntingly beautiful. Every time I thought to take a break after one more page, I was sucked in for another relentless hour of reading until the very end. A dark, yet captivating take on fairytales as we thought we knew them, The Hazel Wood had me at the edge of my seat and my eyes locked onto every glorious word.

The Hazel Wood is genuinely the first book I read in 2017 that I'm excited to promote. This dark, original book of fairy tales spliced with a contemporary mystery hooked me and made for a satisfying standalone read. The fairy tales hit all the notes of an original Grimm or Perrault tale, the contemporary parts were compelling, and their mixture reminded me of the best Charles de Lint novels but with an original voice that I can't wait to read more from.

<i>The Hazel Wood</i> is a love letter to fairy tales, but of the grimmer-than-<i>Grimm</i> sort. Alice is the co-dependent daughter of Ella, and the two have lived a life on the move, to outrun Bad Luck and any influence from Ella's mother, Althea Prosperine. Althea was the reclusive author of a fairy tale book, and Alice's new school friend Ellery has read one of the few copies still in circulation, declaring it more like reporting from a warzone than the product of pure imagination. When Ella disappears, how far can Alice go to track her down? Who are these uncanny people who seem to be following her through the city? And how can Alice re-write her story, without losing her sense of self?

Melissa Albert has created a deeply haunting novel, one which draws on the heartlessness that often wars with love and family bonds in fairy tales . Her sentences are powerful, and she never took the expected route for her story, even in a world purposefully built on tropes and familiar beats. <i>The Hazel Wood</i> was refreshing and captivating, and may keep me looking out of the corner of my eye at what moves in the shadows for a long time to come.

I don’t usually gravitate toward the fantasy genre, but with this book, I’m glad I did. It’s actually a fantasy within a fantasy. Alice and her mother, Ella, are constantly on the move because bad luck seems to follow them. When Ella is forcibly taken from her apartment, Alice’s adventure begins and does not slow down. At this point, it’s difficult to put the book down. Alice desperately searches for her mother despite the dangers that she knows await her... she has been warned to stay away from the Hazel Wood. However, Alice is undeterred in her quest to save her mother from whatever evil that seems to be lurking along the way. The reader is then introduced to a myriad of characters: real and story book. There are some crazy, creepy, creative stories within this story like Alice -Three-Times and The Thief; they are definitely not your typical predictable fluffy fairytales. These fairytales have a darkness and edge to them that will pull you in and ignite your curiosity. This story is extremely well written and very visual. I highly recommend it, but not before bedtime…unless you want to experience some bizarre nightmares.

Excellent fantasy novel. I will highly recommend the book to my students.

Many thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this title for review.

This was SO GOOD and very different from what I have been reading recently. I loved it. Disregard how long it took me to finish this book; once I really started it I was done in less than 24 hours, even staying up past my bedtime to read more about Alice's adventures in the Hinterland, the place where dark and gruesome fairy tales originate.

Alice has always known that bad luck follows her and her mother Ella. She is pretty sure this bad luck originated in some way with her grandmother Althea, the reclusive author of a collection of dark fairy tales about the Hinterland. Now, Althea is dead, her estate The Hazel Wood is falling apart, and the bad luck has found Alice and her mother again. When Ella is taken by fairy tale creatures, Alice knows she must find her way to The Hazel Wood. Armed with only a comb, a bone, and a feather, items left for her by the man who kidnapped her when she was young, Alice heads out on a quest to find her mother and learn the secrets of her past.

This story is dark, and twisty, and feministy and angsty. I loved the characters. I loved that it was a fairy tale set in today's world, but also a story of what happens when we let others write our stories. If you are a fan of Grimm's fairy tales and the original, bloody versions, this is for you. I cannot recommend it enough. For those looking to purchase for school libraries, there are a few curse words, but nothing outrageous. I would recommend this easily for grades 8 and up.

5 Stars 

There are not enough words to describe this gorgeously horrific fairy tale stole. If you think this is a fun, heartwarming fairy tale, you're very wrong. This was a book about a girl finding herself, an almost love, and deciding what really matters in the world. 

This book had the most delicious prose I've read in a long time. I was completely immersed in the world, so much so I swear I could taste the air sometimes. The background of New York made it even more magical. A city where anything and everything is possible. Where else would fairy tales occur? 

Ella and Alice's relationship was the main part of the book. A mother who would do anything for her daughter, whether moving across country overtime something turns bad or marrying a man she only slightly loves.

Alice is an angry girl who can't fit in wherever she goes, though she doesn't usually stay long enough to even try. She loves her mother more than anything in this world, and all the worlds she explores. Her mother is her person, her other half. It was so refreshing to see such a great relationship between mother and daughter. 

Ellery Finch is still a mystery to me. I'm not sure how I feel about this boy. But I did fall a bit in love with him and his kindness. He played more of a part in this story than I could of ever guessed. 

The Hazel Wood is a terrifying place of gritty, violent fairy tales that put Grimm's to shame. It's lush and her journey through felt like a horror story version of The Wizard of Oz. 

There's a casual mention and showing of a queer relationship between two women. It's not emphasized or made a big deal of. It just is. I nearly cried when I saw this. We need more of this in YA books, especially genres that aren't contemporary. Queer relationships don't have to be made a big deal of or exploited. They're just there and they're like any other relationship. 

I suggest reading this one with the lights on. And maybe you're pet nearby too. This book gets under your skin and stays there, terrifying and lush at the same time. You won't want to put it down.

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.- Goodreads

I cannot tell you enough how much this book pissed me off and was a disappointment. Alice is a crappy person. She is mean. She is selfish and she is ungrateful. Even at the end where there is some form of justification about why she is that way, it really is no excuse.

The majority of the book is Alice showing no interest in anything other than saving her mom and using people to get to that goal. She doesn't make an attempt to find information on her own but relies on someone else to do so. She screams and yells and wants to run into things blindly at the risk of others.

The overall story was slow and the best part of the book was the fairy tales written by her grandmother. I honestly would buy that book. They were creepy, didn't have a lesson to be learned (kind of) and were memorable. I loved them and wished that there was much more of it in the main story. Also the author did a pretty good job making the fairy tales real life. I think that their involvement with the modern world was short lived and there should have been more of it.

But let's get to the part of the book where I almost threw my kindle across the wall. So Finch is bi-racial and there is a scene, a powerful scene that showed how much of a scumbag Alice is. Was this scene necessary, no not really but I can see why the author added but there was almost no context before the incident and it was pretty much brushed aside after a page and Alice's BS excuse. You cannot add something like that and then do nothing with it. You really cannot.

After that I was completely discouraged to continue the book but I did keep going and Alice is still crap. But the author did something purely amazing when Alice got to Hazel Wood. Slightly predictable but some really good stuff comes out of that. I was disappointed in this book mainly because of Alice and there wasn't enough fairy tale aspects in this novel.

2 Pickles

The Hazel Wood is gorgeously written, a twisty dark fairy tale. I could rarely tell where it was going, but I was along for the ride. I loved it.

Absolutely gorgeous world building. Stunning characters. BRAVA! I LOVED IT!