First off - Kudos to the illustrator who created the cover! It's beautiful! Inside of that beautiful cover is the story of The Hazel Wood. It starts off interesting... The book follows a seventeen year old girl named Alice. She and her mother, Ella, have been running away from bad luck that's tied to Alice's grandmother. Her grandma gained notoriety from authoring a collection of short stories. Alice never met her grandmother and was often curious about her estate and the book she created. During this time, Alice remains curious about this 'father figure' type of person that kidnapped her as a child. All in all, the story should have been interesting. However, this was not my cup of tea. The book felt very slow and just could not hold my attention.

I love this book. The characters are so unique and yet VERY relatable. The writing is just wonderful. I was sucked in from the very first sentence and couldn't put the book down!

In this wonderfully dark fantasy, 17-year-old Alice and her mother have lived on the run from the bad luck that always seems to follow them. Her grandmother, Althea Proserpine, author of Tales from the Hinterland, a book of dark fairy tales that achieved cult status, has passed away, allowing Alice's mother, Ella, to believe they're finally free. Not likely. Ella is kidnapped and Alice turns to her friend, Finch, a Proserpine fan, to help her find her way into the very real Hinterland, to save her. But the Hinterland has plans for Alice, too; she's yearned to know her grandmother for her whole life, but what she may find out will change her life and the lives of everyone around her forever.

This is an unputdownable book from the get-go. Alice lives in the shadow of her mythic grandmother, who she's never had a relationship with; her mother, Ella, is her only attachment in life, as they run from the misfortune that dogs them. Ella will never talk about her mother, and information about Althea is scarce; her book is even more difficult to track down. Alice is a conflicted protagonist, with anger issues and a general disdain for the wealthy, vapid people around her at war with the desire for a stable family life and a relationship with her famous grandmother. As Alice starts unraveling secrets kept by her mother, shadowy figures start making their way into her world: our world. Melissa Albert brings two worlds together and has readers keeping a white-knuckled grip on her book as we try to hold them apart. Rich with world building and main character development, The Hazel Wood left me thoroughly unsettled and wishing that we'd get some more Stories wandering out of the Hinterland. Fantastic for anyone bulking up their summer reading collections, and perfect for anyone looking for a good, creeptastic read.

This book didn't really draw me in by the title as books usually do but it bewitched me with the story. I wish it would have moved along a little faster but all in all, it was good. I love the stories of the Hinterland intermixed into the story. I wanted more Fitch he seems like a really interesting character. Maybe book two? This book surprised me with how good it was.

A solid read, would recommend to readers of all ages.

I wanted to like this book so much! It was dark and creepy and had a fabulous plot but the character development was lacking. I wished the editing and pacing of it had been better as well. The plot engaged me enough to finish, but the middle of the book dragged on and on but the last 50 pages packed in so much that I found myself getting confused and having to go back and re-read portions. It felt rushed towards the end which left me feeling disappointed when I finally finished. Ultimately, I purchased this book for our collection because it has potential and I think teens will like the creepiness of it, but I won't be recommending it if a teen asks for something to read.

Can't say enough good things about this gorgeous book: excellent world building and beautiful prose.

If you are a true reader, you have loved reading since you were a child. Being read fairy-tales where I was swept into a land of make believe was always better than the real world. This blending of the two is just what I always wanted. Well maybe not exactly but I always wanted to meet the people in my books. I still jump into the worlds authors have created and was thrilled with the way Melissa Albert created in her novel. Thank you and please hurry with the second book.

I started out really enjoying this one. I loved the mystery with a touch of fantasy, but then it just got too wild for my taste. Too much was going on I think. It was definitely beautifully written and I loved the descriptions and language, but I also got confused at parts and felt frustrated with the characters.

So I ended up with very mixed opinions on the book. The cover is gorgeous. The idea behind the story is fascinating. I loved the two actual tales told in the book. If there is ever a actual "Tales of the Hinterland" I would totally be all over it. They were dark and creepy and explore the consequences and revenge.

What I didn't like was everything else. I didn't like Alice. I didn't like Ella, (really really didn't like Ella). I didn't like Ellery Finich. Although he grew on me and then when I wanted more of him, he wasn't there. I grew bored with the beginning and super frustrated with Alice being willfully blind. There is a point where she talks about having a fairytale obsession, so she should know how they work. And she keeps being surprised. Althea was like this specter for most of the book and I was a little disappointed in how much we got of her. I did like the last third, with all the fairytale stuff, but it took forever to get there.

So Overall I liked it but didn't love it.

Perhaps it is because I so recently read another book about the fae, but this book just didn't grab me as quickly as I had hoped. I needed the action to start sooner with the back story woven throughout, instead of feeling like I was getting an info-dump in the first chapters.

I have to admit something rather shameful... I didn't finish this book. It just wasn't for me. The idea behind the story was interesting, I loved the tie in to a once famous author and mysterious book, but the characters were off-putting and the first half of the novel dragged for me. I put this down and didn't pick it back up, the feelings of guilt linger but I think I'll live.

This was near the top of my TBR pile for the beginning of 2018 and I had such high hopes for it, but unfortunately I wanted more from this book than I got. That’s not to say that this was bad, but I found it to be a lot emptier and slower than I had anticipated.
It started off strong and I was flying through the pages. Things were set up pretty well and when I was sure things were about to get interesting, it just dragged. I think I was about 1/2 of the way through before I started skipping pages.
Pacing and timing aside, I honestly liked writing itself. The tone was eerie and somewhat dreamlike at times, and it worked for the story!
I actually liked Alice’s quirks and personality. Throughout the novel she learns her own strength and forges her own story. She’s sarcastic, sardonic, and prone to quips and snide remarks. And while sometimes I felt like her reactions could get a little tedious, I still liked her as a character. Though she’s not an overly likeable, it didn’t take long her me to warm up to Alice. I liked that she was a bit of a gritty, hot headed character.
I wish I could say the same for any of the other characters. There was no one else in the story that I connected with or was invested in. I was disappointed that the storybook characters, which were one of the more intriguing aspects of the book, weren’t more fleshed out.
Between the synopsis and the first few chapters I was geared up and ready to go, but I felt like this book didn’t take me very far.
TL;DR
This is unfortunately turned out to be one of those that I wanted to like more than I did. I enjoyed Hazel Wood and its imaginative world, but ultimately it left me wanting more. There was a lot of potential, but ultimately the book dragged and I wish some of the characters had been more fleshed out.

This wasn't the book for me. The writing is just not my cup of tea. I am an avid fan fairy tale retellings/dark/moody stories, but I couldn't get past the over abundance of wordiness and concentration on prose and world building over character development or plot...
A big thank you to the publishers for the ARC!!

Perhaps it’s because I’m watching Westworld now (for the first time), but The Hazel Wood reminded me a bit of the HBO show. There’s a fairy tale world (similar to the tv show’s western theme) and all is not right there (just like the tv show.) It might be a stretch, but both are excellent.

I loved the art and the fairy tale world that were created in The Hazel Wood. I enjoyed the sense of adventure and horror. The fact that romance wasn’t the focus helped make it all the more enjoyable. I can’t wait to read the next book!

The concept was interesting but it just didn’t come together for me.

The Hazel Wood is a story about fairy tales. Yet these are not the fairy tales we know. There are no happily ever afters here. Sounds awesome right?! And it is...mostly. Well maybe it's more accurate to say the fairy tales themselves are fantastic. Too bad this is not a book of Hinterland fairy tales and is instead a story of a girl encountering the Hinterlands and some of it's stories are plopped into the middle of her story.

The Hinterlands
The concept of an alternate 'dimension' that is a fairy tale land is very close to that of the TV show "Once Upon a Time". That didn't bother me in the least as Melissa Albert takes the idea and runs in a different direction. Instead of using fairy tales we all know and love, she created a world called the Hinterlands and made up new stories with no happy endings. I'm sure Disney could reign them in like they did The Little Mermaid but they would loose something. My absolute favourite part of The Hazel Wood is that the fairy tales are so dark and foreboding. The book containing all the Hinterland fairy tales described in The Hazel Wood is one I am desperate to own. Too bad The Hazel Wood isn't this book that is sought after in our main story.

Long, for no reason
The Hazel Wood is not a long book. At ~368 pages, I'd say it's on par with the average fantasy teen book. I was surprised at one point that I was only halfway through the story as it felt like I had to be near the end; and yet I knew lots more probably happened. For some reason this is the slowest read ever. It just drags on and on. I have a few theories on why this is; I don't think it's any one thing. But what I do know is that I kept waiting for it to suck me in and have me flipping pages quickly. Not once did that ever happen which was a huge disappointment.

The Lead Gal
We are clearly supposed to feel sympathy at every turn for our leading gal and her sad life story. Except instead of inspiring sympathy in me she was just annoying. Yes, she's had a hard life. Yes, she's up against bad odds. Yes, she's been screwed over at every turn; but none of that makes her automatically endearing. A lot more thought and actual characterization is needed here in order for me to be on board with this girls thoughts and feelings. I felt the entire time like she was the vessel that was taking me on this story but not the reason why I was reading the story. She should have been the reason I cared (especially by the end) and so this changed how I felt about a lot of things that happen. With little empathy to give over to our cardboard cut-out of a lead gal I didn't really care what happened in the end and so it's impact was lost.

The Love Interest
Carrying on with poor characters, let's talk about the male love interest.
Here's what NOT to do in teenage fantasy story; don't introduce the lead guy as simply being unattractive. What does that even mean?! We all have different standards of attractive. So give me some details about him and maybe say something about our lead gal finding him average or boring; but to say unattractive is just insulting (to the fictional character and to the reader frankly).
To add insult to injury here the only other describer we get about this boy is that he is black. Um... okay; but that doesn't mean I have a picture in my head of what this guy looks like! It's like Albert thinks saying he's black means I will automatically have an image of what his guy must look like. It concerns me greatly that some minor characters got more description than our main guy. A skin colour is, of course, a descriptive element to a character, but it's far from being enough. And it concerns me that Albert thought skin colour might be enough of a description...

It's especially frustrating as this boy is the saving grace of The Hazel Wood! Without him near the beginning I may have given up. He gives the story some optimism and hope. And his way of loving the Hinterlands and being a 'fan boy' is just adorable. I loved every minute he was on the page. Too bad he's in maybe 30% of the book total. More of him might have actually saved us from the dreary main gal killing the pace. It couldn't have saved the book entirely but it would have maybe gotten it to the four star mark.

Convenience
I must rant about this every second book I read. Or so it seems. Let me be blunt; if your character didn't have to work for it at all then it's probably too easy. Few things in life are easy, one random happenstance I'll accept (as one day my husband found a $100 bill in a parking lot, so it does happen) but having things just show up when needed is obnoxious and lazy writing. I would much prefer our lead gal having to work for the 'items' needed. Also then I might have been able to remember: a) what the items were, b) what their significant might be, c) cared about how they fit into the story. Instead Alberta has some guy leaving them behind for our lead gal. This lacks creativity and left me with no impression of what these items are or could become. It makes their use later in the story feel convenient. In this case convenience begets convenience.

Plot
Here is one place where Albert does a great job. The actual plot of The Hazel Wood is brilliant. I love everything about what happens in the story overall and if provided with a broad plot summary would have been crazy excited about this book. Even after reading the story, I still think the plot is amazing and really creative. The plot is the primary reason why this is a 3 star review and not a 2. It's hard to have a unique or creative idea in fantasy books these days and here is Albert with a (mostly) original idea. Too bad she butchers the characters, flow and feel of the story. It's a damn tragedy.

Overall
I wanted to love this book so much. I was so enamoured by the tales of the Hinterlands and their twisted, unexpected outcomes. So here's what would make this book amazing. Let Melissa Albert write the fairy tales (as those that were told in full were quite good) and then give the main story and have someone else write it. In the hands of Bardugo, Sanderson, Meyer, etc. this could be a top-notch world and story.
It really is sad that Albert isn't at the level of many other writers in the teen fantasy genre. I'm hopeful however, as this is a debut novel, that she can improve. I'll happily revisit the Hinterlands again in the future with the hope that it's less convenient, characters are fleshed out more and that the writing moves along at a better pace. I don't want to give up on the Hinterlands yet, as I feel there are more dark, creepy stories to enjoy. So I'll hold out hope that Melissa Albert is just too new on the scene to have found the right voice for her brilliant ideas.

Elevator Pitches:

Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
When Freddy gets new next-door neighbors who are loud, obnoxious, and maybe a bit magical, she and her siblings are sent on a wild adventure to keep the balance between chaos and order in the universe. Their adventures span time and space and leave them tampering with the gods and with the nature of reality itself. Alice’s grandma was a cult classics story writer swathed in mystery. But Alice and her mother never talked about her. They only knew they were very, very unlucky. After Alice’s mother disappears, Alice is set on a wild adventure leading back to her grandmother’s estate, the Hazel Wood. Her past is inescapable and things are more fairytale-like by the minute.


Highlights:

Weave a Circle Round: The best part of this story is the way it captures family conflict and its use of circular and parallel story structures. Freddy’s adventures have eerie echoes of one another that eventually lead to some interesting conclusions. Maaren uses these echoes to engage Freddy with her own problem-solving skills and sense of strength. It’s through that growth that Freddy can embrace her family and resolve the conflicts between chaos and order.

The Hazel Wood: The Hazel Wood has some wonderfully dark fairytale moments. Albert is clearly going for more of a Grimm’s fairytale world than a Disney princess world and has some moments where she truly succeeds. Alice’s story embraces a kind of occult wild goose chase that I found incredibly appealing. Bonus points: the romance subplot is not actually a romance subplot.

Downfalls:

Weave a Circle Round: Weave a Circle Round would have benefitted from some clearer plot. Its circular elements have very high points, but also can serve to distract from what Maaren is really getting at with some of her themes. They can be confusing and occasionally leave the reader with a sense of having missed something.

The Hazel Wood: Alice needed more character development. She doesn’t really try to understand others around her and gets very angry, which has its place, but Albert doesn’t really use that to its best advantage. Additionally, some of the occult and mystery elements waiver in the first half of the book.

If you must read one… I’d probably say read The Hazel Wood, but with the caveat that younger audiences will enjoy Weave a Circle Round more. The Hazel Wood is very interesting YA, but Weave a Circle Round is more approachable and traditional adventure fantasy. Personally, I enjoyed the darkness in The Hazel Wood more, even if it could have used some work.

If You Have to Pick (2)
I’d probably say read The Hazel Wood, but with the caveat that younger audiences will enjoy Weave a Circle Round more. The Hazel Wood is very interesting YA, but Weave a Circle Round is more approachable and traditional adventure fantasy. Personally, I enjoyed the darkness in The Hazel Wood more, even if it could have used some work.

The Hazelwood was so much more than I ever expected when I started the book and completely and continually blew my mind with each event that happened within the book!

As a person who spent their early years captivated by fairy tales - both the light of Disney and the dark of Grimm's - this book felt designed for me. It was eerie, magical, occasionally terrifying, and it brought new things to a world of work already so populated with stories. It was exceptional.

Alice, as a main character, is deeply unlikable. We should get that on the record, probably. She's quick to anger, resents listening to other's perspectives, and there is a certain kind of wall between her and the rest of the world. While this can obviously be a turn-off for some readers, I have always been fascinated by the darkness within a character and what that unlikability says about how they relate to the world. I mean, as a person who once planned to write their senior thesis on unlikable characters, Alice's rage is just another thing that made this book work for me incredibly well. While some YA books with unlikable MCs often end up coming off as unbelievable or eye-roll worthy, Alice is authentically awful at times in a way that pulls you into the darkness of the rest of the story.

(She does still have a couple eye-roll moments, but truly who among us can't look back on our teenage years and roll our own eyes at something we once said or did? If you feel you truly did nothing embarrassing as a teen.... I just... don't believe you.)

Beyond Alice, the other character we see the most of is Finch. His character is where one of my problems with this book comes in. Finch is biracial, and Alice really resists ever seeing things from his point of view. There is a particular scene in which the two of them are pulled over and Alice is her usual combative self with the police officer. When Finch tries to tell her afterwards how deeply uncomfortable he feels around police, especially when people are not being agreeable, Alice blows him off because he's rich and therefore privileged. I don't feel Finch's character was at all well-handled in this instance. If the scene had later been dealt with, and Alice could have grown enough to recognize that her growing up poor does not mean that anyone with money has unlimited privilege, that would have been one thing. But as it was, it was just something that was handled in a clunky manor, without as much care to the situation as I think was necessary.

Finch, though, was brilliantly complex and I loved him. He's easily fascinated, eager, intelligent, and so passionate. He also comes from a home where he goes unappreciated. Basically, he's the kind of character I adore in all things and I want to give him one million hugs.

There are a couple of quick side characters who I won't get into with much detail because a lot about them is full of spoilery stuff, but I will say that there is a sweet, older f/f couple that Alice encounters and I love them with all my heart.

Besides characters, I think <i>The Hazel Wood </i> also has a really solid plot, which I know is not the most popular of opinions. The book is slow. It does not spend a lot of time in a fantasy world, which I know upset many readers. However, I think it works for me more as a mystery than as a fantasy book. Finding clues, the winding journey of desperately trying to figure out what the hell is happening at a given time? I was drawn to it as a lover of the chase, a lover of mysteries. The fact that there was a fantasy element to this mystery only made it more interesting to me.

I also feel that this book held true to the darkness it promised. While I spent a lot of the book terrified that at the last minute it would hold back on me in the end, I think the even-handed ending was completely worthy of the scare factor and the darkness of the rest of the book. It was an ending well-earned, and I appreciated it capping off the journey the way it did.

Which is why I feel deeply unsure about a sequel, but we'll just leave those feelings aside for now.... except to say that books, especially fantasy books, should be ALLOWED to be stand alones. This worked brilliantly as its own story, and I am incredibly cautious moving forward into further installments.

<i>The Hazel Wood</i> was creepy, weird, and fantastic. It had excellent surprise elements and twists, a solid collection of side characters, and a winding mystery that kept me invested. All around, I can't believe I enjoyed this as much as I did, but I am so glad I got the chance to read it.