Honestly, I was bored. I felt like nothing happened in this book. While I didn't love The Hazel Wood, it at least kept my interest and had an interesting enough plot. I wish our main characters were together like in the first book because that made for a more interesting dynamic. Overall, not a satisfying sequel for me.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the sequel, but I enjoyed it. Some dark aspects and a bit of romance. Solid read

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book, which I voluntarily chose to review.

This was a great sequel, but I wish it more than a duology. There is so much to explore in this intricate and sometimes sinister fairyland.

Such a spectacular sequel!! After reading the first book in this series I was so excited to hear that Melissa Albert was writing a second book in this world. This is a must read if you love dark and twisty fairytales.

In her 2018 New York Times bestseller The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert introduced us to the Hinterland, a world of fairy tales that some sought to run from and some ran straight into. At the end of the book, most of us were left wanting more. Albert’s conclusion to The Hazel Wood arrived in bookstores this week. In The Night Country, we don’t quite return to The Hazel Wood, more like The Hazel Wood returns to us.
“For a moment both worlds held me in their grip, one of them dying but both of them strong, and I was wrung like a rag between them.”
We rejoin Alice Proserpine in New York City. Living with her mother, trying in vain to avoid the other ex-stories that are now living in the city, trying to make a normal, human life for herself, wondering if a soul is something you can grow. This tale is the ultimate story of nature vs nurture. Is Alice what she was written to be, or can she change her own internal narrative? As ex-stories begin to be murdered around the city in a narrative of fairy tale noir, we follow Alice, not quite sure if we trust her or not. As she leaves home, and then finds home again. As she embraces her story, and then runs from it. As she follows clues left for her in a halfway hotel for ex-stories. We also follow Ellery Finch, the boy who once betrayed Alice or saved her, depending on your perspective. I have to admit to having a slight crush on young Finch. His life as a hidden human in a land of terrifying fairy tales is absolutely captivating, and what he discovers is both terrifying and exciting.
The trials of our sometimes heroine are unique to her status as an ex-story—the most infamous ex-story, in fact—but many of the aspects of her life, her emotions, her thoughts are that of any other human girl.
“Smoke played like ghosts over the ceiling. The morning light was a lie. And my mother was a forlorn figure in a room where she lived with a girl who was only a figment, really.”

I may not be fictional, but I remember the feeling of being a girl at home, thinking no one really knew me, thinking I didn’t yet know myself. Albert touches on something universal in these fairy tales from the Hinterland, but isn’t that what fairy tales do? Bridge that gap between our world and the fictional. In The Night Country Albert does so much more than that, introducing us to a multiverse that opens up everything we thought we knew about the spinner, the Hinterland, even the real world. Nothing is what you thought it was, and everything can be written or re-written.

Albert continues to delight with her allusions to Althea Proserpine’s “fictional” characters, and as we learn more about the world created by the spinner, the desire grows to learn more about Althea. What led her to the Hinterland? What kept her there? Albert is adamant that this is the final volume of The Hazel Wood story, but with The Tales of the Hinterland to come out next January (think The Tales of Beedle the Bard only darker), I can’t help but want more.

Always enjoy this author. Love going back to the Hazel Wood on of the best YA Fantasy book out there these days.

The author is able to recapture some of the magic of The Hazel Wood in this installment of the series. I found myself drawn to the characters again and invested in the outcome of the mad dashing. I loved going back to the Hinterland and was so happy to find Finch again, he was a favorite part of the first book for me. I did enjoy this book, but not quite as much as I adored the first one. It is a solid sequel to be sure and very good novel. I will definitely read more from this author.

The Night Country by Melissa Albert is a great follow up to the Hazel Wood! I would highly recommend it to young adult and fantasy readers and a must-read after book one!

I really enjoyed reading this as I was looking forward to reading more about Alice and Finch to find out what happens next I’m their lives. Having the crazy murders being pinned on Alice was intriguing and made me keep reading. I think I forgot some of what happened in the first book and will have to reread that to see if it adds anything to the second book. The whole idea of stories being real puts a new spin on things.

Happy book birthday to The Night Country! I have been waiting for the sequel to The Hazel Wood for what feels like forever! I loved the first book in the series and this one as well! It was so wonderful to revisit the beloved characters and see how they have progressed in the next book. If you were a fan of The Hazel Wood (who wasn't?), I highly recommend picking up The Night Country.

Alice Three-Times has found her way back to the real world in The Night Country, but she’s constantly reminded that the real world isn’t her world, especially when a murderer starts targeting Hinterland refugees. Meanwhile, Ellery — who stayed behind in the Hinterland — has been traveling from world to world, getting further and further from his real life — and Alice — as he chases the promise of a new world. This is a grim fairytale (get it?) continuation of The Hazel Wood, peopled with the same creepy cast of twisted fairy tale characters and the same storytelling tendency to coil ever inward, winding deeper into itself so that unexpected parts suddenly connect. This is definitely YA — sex, drugs, alcohol, and murders in bathtubs — but if you like lingering, atmospheric horror, this is a good pick. I liked The Hazel Wood better, but I’ve always liked the “once upon a time” part the best.

I absolutely loved The Hazelwood last year, but this sequel didn't live up to the same expectations. I honestly had a hard time remembering exactly where we had left off in the series and the author didn't provide helpful tools to immerse the reader back into the fold. I think this is extremely important for series, seeing that books are often released years a part. That being said, it took a while for me to reorient myself into the current situation and didn't enjoy the story of The Night Country as much as I did Book 1 of this series.

The Night Country was a bit of a struggle for me. I enjoyed the first book, but struggled with the character's purpose a bit. This story ended the same way for me. There seemed to be a lot of running around. I wanted to delve deeper into some topics that were glossed over, which was disappointing. I think that people that loved the first book will really enjoy this one as well though.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to read this ARC prior to the book's publication, but we did end up buying it for our library collection.

Night Country by @melissaalbertauthor is beautiful. I raved about the first Hazel Wood fairytale when it came out last year. And I didn’t know how you could beat the intriguing strangeness of it all. Luckily, Albert didn’t try. She wrote a whole new story and opened up the world bigger than I could’ve dreamed. Alice and Finch are back to their adventures and it was dark, and gorgeous, and thrilling.

I LOVE the the dark stories Melissa Albert tells in The Hazel Wood and The Night Country — I’m a sucker for fairy tales so I fell in love with her storytelling quickly! Without making this spoilery, I will say that the sequel kept all the things that I loved about the first book — the horrific stories and characters in a magical world hidden within our own. The only thing I would have liked better was MORE FINCH and the banter between him and Alice! I loved that in the first book.

The tale continues! Another dark and twisting tale for those who like a gritty story! The plot kept me on the edge of my seat. The wait for the book did not disappoint me at all!

Weird and wonderful, just like the first. I love the world Melissa Albert has woven, and I'll be following her work closely from now on!

Beautiful, dark story that is a great continuation of book one. Though, I needed to re-read book one in order to feel like there was a good flow going into the second. Don't let that stop you from getting excited!

I liked this sequel even more than the first book. The first story set up the world and left us wondering what came next, and this story delivered all of the implications and fall out, and then some. I love the strong themes of storytelling and literature magic that permeated throughout this story. it is a story meant for those who love stories, books, fairy tales, and especially their characters. I think the characters became better developed in this sequel and I enjoyed seeing where their journeys or lack of there of took them.