While I had merely liked the first book, my students loved it. However, I enjoyed this one a lot more. This may be due to the fact that it reads more like a spin-off than a true sequel.

I adored The Hazel Wood and was so excited for this sequel! Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. It was hard to read and the characters felt so distant. Whereas the first book was fast paced, intriquing and I really had to "keep up" with it, this book dragged and was difficult.

I loved and was so moved by The Hazel Wood, with its complicated layers of fairytales and darkness and how much agency a person or character can have in their lives. I could not connect with The Night Country at all, which was disappointing. It would be better to read this right after the first, perhaps, with a fresher memory of everything that happened, because starting with a couple of years in between left me lost and not able to appreciate subtle characterizations or motivations. This was grittier, and focused on what happens after the ever-after, but was not for me. Too hard to follow and piece together.

I confess I found this sequel to The Hazel Wood hard to read. The grim and bloody violence was wrenching at times, and the story seemed a bit convoluted. However, all of the odd story strands were pulled tight and tied off in a pulse-pounding conclusion that will resonate with fans of The Hazel Wood and the Hinterland.

All that said, I really think I was not in the right frame of mind to read this. It was early days of “New York on PAUSE” due to coronavirus and my nerves were super-taut. I’m recommending it because the writing is awesome and the conclusion to the story begun in The Hazel Wood is highly anticipated by fans.

Still in print, best to added to library collections or read if you have read the first book in the series, THE HAZEL WOOD. Many readers say that Alice and Finch are among their favorite characters.

The world building a character development is so much more than I hoped and left me wanting more, and I honestly need more.

Alice's adventure is wild, I like the urban aspect meanwhile keeping the fantasy and fairytale flavor. Her story will keep you interested throughout the whole book, definitely wasn't ready for it to end because hello, that ending. But I loved every minute of it. I would have liked to have less inner monologue but it was great to see her perspective so clearly. But come on, I needed way more Finch. Maybe a novela with him... hmmm fingers crossed.

If you haven't started these books, you should. I enjoyed them quite a bit!

Thank you net galley for the opportunity to read this!

** I received an electronic ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this work. All opinions are my own. **

Okay, so it's no secret that I really did not enjoy The Hazel Wood. I thought the pacing was way off, Alice's character was strangely developed and that The Hinterland was not described with enough space or detail. The book tried to be a fantasy but felt more contemporary to me.

This book was able to improve on some of its predecessor's flaws. Pacing was somewhat better. I actually found myself wanting this book to be a little longer. I feel like I didn't have the time and space needed to absorb the horror of the last 10 to 15% of the book. We get an overview, like a reporter's newscast, about the effects of this horror on the "real" world, but not enough detail to truly "see" it. I was told about it, but not shown.

Alice is more bearable in this book as well. She isn't a horrible character, but her development is strange. She feels both dynamic and static, both flat and round. It makes for an incomplete character and I'm left to wonder if Alice is supposed to be an author or reader insert.

The author does an excellent job re-imagining the tales we heard as children and twisting them with dark magic and with the simple darkness we humans are able to all too easily inflict upon one another and upon ourselves.

** For teachers and parents, this book is intentionally dark and creepy. It is not for all students. There are numerous curse words, including f***. This is how Alice's inner monologue functions. You'll also see recreational drug use and the description of murders of Hinterland characters. It can get gorey. There are some mild sexual themes, but nothing that really stands out. Overall, your more mature junior high or high school readers will be fine. Language is the main concern here. **

This book struggled a bit to keep my attention. But after awhile I got in my reading groove and found myself enjoying it more. I will continue to read more by this author.

The Night Country is a powerful sequel to The Hazelwood. Rather the foreboding otherworldliness of the Hinterlands creeping in from the first book, The Night Country is about inner rage, living outside the world we know, and the connections and love we protect. I could read books and books about Alice and Ellery's adventures, and I look forward to more books by Melissa Albert.

Definitely a good addition for my YA collection, and and author to watch. Fantastic writing, and the covers from this author are always beautiful on the shelf.

I thought this one was good, but felt It could be better. It was really predictable. I really enjoyed the parts where I thought there was an actual serial killer. That would have been so cool and interesting to follow. Really dissatisfied with this I wish the story was a bit more anticlimactic.

Last year I read The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. I enjoyed the first half of the story, but felt the second half, or maybe last third, went off the rails. It's a fantasy set in our world, with a door to a world of stories called The Hinterland. The door, of course, is in the Hazel Wood. The main character, Alice, is a heroine easy to root for, and her accomplice Finch is also enjoyable. While fantasy obviously always bends expectations and plays with reality, I don't like it when this is used to cover up gaps in the plot or rush the story along, and I felt this happened in the Hazel Wood.

Nevertheless, something about the story still stuck with me and intrigued me enough to request the sequel, The Night Country, from NetGalley. I am so very glad that I did as the sequel is far better than the original.

The Night Country follows Alice in the aftermath of the events of The Hazel Wood. The story is dark, disturbing, has wonderful fantasy elements, but the plot still all makes sense and hangs together. This second effort was much more well written, and I really loved the premise. The writing style, for me, is interesting. I really like the imagery she uses and she sets a scene nicely. At times, she uses metaphors that I personally felt were a bit clunky or strange. They did not, for me, evoke a "yes it's just like that!" reaction. This may simply be due to personal experiences, and overall did not detract from my enjoyment of the story. If anything, I liked the experimentation with language even if I didn't feel it was always 100% successful.

The book as a whole is a great one and very fun to read. I say fun, but this is a dark tale, as is The Hazel Wood. I do recommend reading The Hazel Wood first, despite my more lukewarm review, as otherwise The Night Country won't make as much sense. Together, they form a world worth visiting.

Started a little slow, and wasn't quite sure where the story was going to go, but then all of sudden I was hooked! Almost as good as the original.

I adored this book! Alice's story has had me captivated since I read book one, and the second installment in the series was no different. Atmospheric and just as strange as the first installment, I am a fan of this world and these characters. Twisted fairy tales just suck me right in. I loved where the author took this story line with this second installment.

I soft DNFd this book twice and while the writing is still beautiful the story dragged and just wasn’t necessary to tell. Alice and Ellery just fell flat for me and Alice lost in the real world with all these killings happening around her should have been more compelling then it was. Unfortunately, I didn't like the twist that accompanied the reveal of the killer and the whole unlikely hero in Ellery. Their story was already wonderful but this one went a bit too far. Also, can we just get a healthy mother/daughter relationship where the teenager isn't total crap to their only parent figure? Ok, thanks.

I am excited for the bind-up of fairytales because I think that’s where Melissa excels but this wasn’t it. I loved The Hazelwood but this fell flat in so many ways.

This is not even a little bit a standalone, but a sequel that has almost no recap to get you up to speed, just drops you into the story. I highly recommend reading The Night Country right after the Hazel Wood since the worlds are so complicated and twisty and I felt like I had forgotten so many details since I read them a year apart and it took me longer than I hoped to get into the story.

In my opinion, the Night Country was darker, full of shadowy corners and scary twists, keeping the reader guessing and on edge trying to anticipate what was coming next. I was full of so many theories and assumptions but I can easily report that I never saw the actual ending coming, the author created something entirely new and so very unexpected as an outcome.

I feel a little bit like the story might actually be over now, where I didn't after the first book, but I would love to come back if something more was to be created. I really hope the author makes a collection of her creepy fairy-tales because I would love to see how all the little pieces I got through this series all fit together. This is the perfect series for anyone who likes the darker side of fairy-tales and enjoys twisty mysteries.

Yes, I still have my Christmas decorations up. And yes, I DEVOURED both #TheHazelWood and #TheNightCountry last week. This fairytale land is one of nightmares, and I haven’t been so haunted by a world in awhile. Melissa Albert does a fantastic job of creating a wholly unique set of fables — and tricky characters who stuck with me. The mystery kept me guessing, too. It’s an eerie, enjoyable and poetic series and a great way to start my 2020 reading! Thank you to @netgalley and @flatiron_books for the copy!

I have been looking forward to reading this after the hazel wood. This book will be difficult to review so not to give away spoilers however it was, I'm my opinion much better than the first book which typically doesnt happen for me. I do like the writing style of the author. I did listen to the audio excert provided and did very much enjoy the narrators voice.
I hope that net galley will provide options to review full audio, as these can be consumed faster.
Thank you for the chance to review this ARC I enjoyed it.
4⭐

Melissa Albert has such a beautiful writing style and it really showed in this sequel. It was so much fun being back in this dark world. I feel you can’t say too much about this book without giving away some spoilers but I will say it was better than the first and I can’t wait to see what she does next

I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and will recommend it often!