I expected this to be a little lighter fairytale style but it worked so much better beinf darker. The atmosphere created works perfectly with the suspense that comes with the mystery.

This novel had everything I love in it weirdness, magic and yet something didn’t quite gel for me. At times I thought I love this book at others I was bored. Sadly it was a classic it’s not me, it’s you.

A good voice but let down by the plot. Why wasn't this picked up by the publisher? A spooky fairytale that simply didn't deliver.

I went into this without knowing much about it. It seemed to be a dark YA mystery thriller with a smattering of fantasy. I was a good third of the way in before the penny dropped and I realised it was a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. I have a deep seated loathing of Alice in Wonderland retellings - for one thing it's really overdone. For another no one gas yet integrated the philosophy so the fantasy element is always facile and non sensical. That said this wasn't bad. I didn't especially like the story or the MC but it was an interesting direction to take things in. Not really my thing but I can see others loving it.

“Books want to be read, and by the right people.”

The Hazel Wood is one of those books that simply demands to be read; it’s intriguing, well-crafted and impossible to put down. Alice and her mom Ella are constantly moving around, trying to escape from the trouble that just seems to follow them everywhere. Alice suspects that it’s something to do with her mysterious grandmother and the world created in her book Tales from the Hinterland. But is the Hinterland really as far away from reality as Alice believed? When her mother goes missing, Alice is thrown into the world of these elusive stories as our world and the Hinterland collide.

Melissa Albert has crafted an intricate fairytale that keeps you hooked from the very beginning as you are sucked into this world where nothing is quite what it seems. I would thoroughly recommend it for Grimm’s, fantasy and thriller fans as it’s simply unputdownable!

“Stay the hell away from the Hazel Wood.”

I feel so lucky to have been given access to this book before it's published.

I loved this book. It's exactly what I would expected; from twisted fairy tale to real life situations. Alice and Ella's story gripped me from the very first chapter and refused to let go. Very fast paced, intense and perfect. If they ever make a movie out of this it will be as big as Harry Potter and they'll have to make it as perfect as this book is!

I can't wait to see what's next!

‘Alice in Wonderland’ for contemporary readers seems to be the consensus of some early reviewers. Like Stephanie Garber’s ‘Caraval’ this is a novel that looks like it will inspire extreme responses. With a lyrical prose style, some dark content and a sustained use of the absurd, this book will either appeal completely and be devoured in one sitting, or you’ll admire parts of it but be left generally non-plussed.
I was completely smitten!
Alice has never met her grandmother, a reclusive writer, but her short book of fairy tales is a literary phenomenon. The stories surrounding the writer and her mysterious Hazel Wood estate hint at strange events. The only things Alice knows for certain is that her mother, Ella, is determined she will never go there and that she has spent her life moving from place to place hiding from the strange things that follow them.
One day Ella goes missing. Alice becomes convinced that the odd characters she sees have something to do with it. Mysterious letters arrive for Alice, but nobody can help her. With the aid of super-fan, Finch, Alice resolves to make her way to Hazel Wood and learn for herself the truth about the Hinterland.
Nothing could prepare her - or us - for what she learns.
Having been declined for an ARC from the American publishers of this book I thought I was stuck waiting for my copy to come in February. Then Penguin UK came to my rescue...I can’t wait to read it again, which I think is the surest sign of a book finding its mark.

When I received a copy of this book, I really didn't know what to expect. I knew very little about the book, even less about the author, and pretty much only recognised it from it's rather beautiful cover (both the UK (L) and US editions (R), but mostly US). The premise sounded absolutely fascinating, and for the large part was immersive, creepy, and engaging.

This book has a creepy and dark undertone that is absolutely delicious in it's freshness, and wholly unexpected in a YA novel. In the modern day book world of YA fantasy and fairy tale retellings, it's rare to find a world that is so unique and that captures your attention quite so completely. The Hinterland is rich and dark, cruel and relentless, and is absolutely everything you would want from a fairy tale world in a novel. The problem? The execution of the premise.

The book centres around a seventeen year old girl in New York called Alice. She lives a largely nomadic lifestyle with her mother Ella, with bad luck and misfortune following them from place to place and home to home. We find out a little more about Alice as the book progresses, about her step father Harold and step sister Audrey, and about her grandmother Althea Prosperine. The more I saw and the more we learnt as reader, the less I liked her, but for me that felt like the point. Alice wasn't an inherently dislikeable character, she just wasn't someone I actively liked, and as the book progressed and her story developed, I felt like her flaws became more and more prominent, and I quite enjoyed her development and decline.

Her relationship with friend/acquaintance/financer/sound board/knowledge hub Ellery Finch has such a refreshingly unusual dynamic. At the beginning, we know as much as Alice does about Finch, and as they get to know each other, we get to know them. Their relationship, in my opinion, was one of the best (if under-explored) aspects of the book itself. Yes, I felt like Finch was little more than a plot device throughout, but until the end he was an interesting element to have bubbling along throughout the story. Most importantly for me, it was nice to have a relationship that was not founded on looks, romantic attachment, or one that ended up overthrowing the main plot.

There were many good aspects to this books, the brilliance of the original premise, the potential of a budding world of stories and characters, but for every good point there was something that didn't quite work or that wasn't perfect.

The start of the book was slow, and for the first 7 chapters I struggled and humbled along, avoiding DNF-ing through pedantic pig-headedness. The introduction of the fantasy world, the dark Hinterland, and of Finch turned the book in it's head in the space of a page, and it became a twisting, engaging, immersive plot. We're told throughout the story that time works differently in the fairy tale world, and I felt like that was right. In the best possible way, the story turned on it's head, world's collided, and everything meshed to keep me gripped. And then, as suddenly as it started, it just stopped again. The ending was, for me, a damp squib that didn't do the rest of the novel justice.

Whilst reading, it felt like the author was really invested in the fairy tale element. She understood the world and the characters and really believed in them and their story. The problem lay in the before and the after, I felt like she had done the bare minimum in terms of introducing the plot and closing the narrative. The juxtaposition between the slow start, and then the rapid pace of the middle 65% was jarring. The pacing issues throughout left a feeling of confusion once I had finished the book, and I couldn't help but feel that the book itself was an (above) average telling of an absolutely extraordinary concept.

The world building throughout the book is fairly strong and immersive. The character building, however, falls a little short. We are introduced to a few passing characters throughout the story who sound fascinating and they just aren't given enough time within the story. I understand that this is book #1 in a potential series, and that said characters may be explored further in later novels, but I wanted to know more about Ellery Finch, about Janet and most importantly, about the creator and author within the novel, Althea. Alice's grandmother is mentioned throughout, her house eluded too, and her world and stories form the basis of the plot, so I was fairly disappointed that her character was not explored further than the most basic of information. She is really left as a bit player when she should be up front and centre, and her story is inadequately explored.

As good as the book is, and it is, I really did enjoy it and race through whole sections, I genuinely believe it would have been an all time favourite in the hands of more accomplished or experienced authors, and unfortunately feel that it fell a little short of it's potential. A solid 3.5 Stars.

This was a difficult book for me to rate. It has some really lovely pieces of writing, but at the same time it didn't really grip me. The pacing felt a bit off, we zoomed through Alice's strange 'bad luck' childhood with no exploration of how she felt about it which made it difficult to connect to Alice right from the start of the book. The Hinterland was interesting but parts of the story felt very convenient - 'Tales of the Hinterland' is difficult to get hold of? oh hold on there's someone who has a copy!
I think this has a potential to be a bit of a love it or hate I book but its left me stranded somewhere in the middle - it was .... alright.

This started off as more of a YA contemporary mystery which completely threw me for a loop because I was expecting it to be whimsical and magical from page one. It was definitely a bit on the slower side to get the story rolling but I wasn't bored at any point reading this - actually, I'm a bit relieved that it wasn't all whimsy from the get go because then my head would have been completely baffled!
It didn't really get to the creepiness / fairytale-esque writing I was expecting until around the midway point in the book and that's when the story got real weird real fast. At first it shook me up and I felt like I was on some weird acid trip (maybe that's because I was on a 14.5hr flight and I was running on little sleep & anxiety), and I had to re-read some passages a few times to get my head around what was happening. But then I eventually got used to the dark fairytale direction the book took and there were times when things in the Hazel Wood 'icked' me out and made me 'nope' out loud.
I definitely enjoyed this a lot more than I initially thought despite the minor niggles I had with the story, and the second half of the book gave me Every Heart a Doorway feels, except The Hazel Wood filled in those gaps that I felt were missing in EHAD.

I received an ARC of this book from Pinguin Random House UK Children's through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.

I find reviewing books like The Hazel Wood so incredibly difficult. The story was entirely different from what I expected and that was quite scary because it could’ve been a recipe for disaster! I absolutely LOVED the book and it was such a special kind of feeling of being both utterly surprised and still loving it so very much. The Hazel Wood is dark, whimsical, a bit odd, mysterious and on top of that relatable and even funny! I do have to admit some small things could’ve been different on better, but in the end I’m perfectly happy with the way it was and I enjoyed it from start to finish. The end was beautiful and heartbreaking but, above all, just so satisfying!

The Hazel Wood is a Contemporary Fantasy. I knew this because I did a Waiting on Wednesday post on it last year, but I was still quite surprised by the setting of New York City and by how dark it was! I was scared of being disappointed by its contemporary-ness, but it was done so well! I often struggle fully relating to characters or things in Fantasy books because they’re so far removed for out own world. It was so refreshing to read a fantasy and still be able to relate to the characters a lot. This book made me feel so many things. Alice and Finch are two wonderful main characters and they were both relatable. Sometimes I read something and had to put the book down because it just hit home and then I cried a little and picked it up again. It was one of the most incredible books I read in 2017. Plus, I just have to mention the contemporary-ness again! I mean, there were mentions of Lin-Manuel Miranda (YAY), Harry Potter and even Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop, hahah!

The Hazel Wood is one big mysterious fairytale adventure. One of the reasons this book made me feel so many things is because of this mystery. Alice has never met her grandmother or read her book, but when her mom disappears she goes out to look for her with Finch. He tells her all these things about the Hinterland and they go on this journey together to find the estate. It was written almost as if it could actually happen right here, right now. The book wasn’t scary because it was actually scary, if that makes sense. It was scary because it felt so real. Alice has been warned all her life not to go to her grandmother’s estate but then she has to. It’s definitely not easy and that’s what makes it real. They use all these resources to find their way to get where they need to go and it’s almost like an epic scavenger hunt full of genuinely surprising plot twists!

The fantasy/fairytale side of The Hazel Wood was fantastic. For the most part it’s all very comtemporary and real-ish, but the end is definitely more fantasy. We have the mysterious and hidden Hazel Wood estate, the Halfway Wood and then, of course, the Hinterland. The world was so interesting and incredibly odd, and for a while I wasn’t sure if I liked it. I mean, it was so strange! There were trees that looked like “Etsy jewellery on steroids!” It was all very freaky and I was a little confused sometimes, but it was perfect. Like I said before, the end was absolutely perfect and I loved it so, so much! It was heartbreaking at the same time, but it was a good and beautiful kind of end. It was very satisfying!

Words can’t explain how much I love this book. It was dark, twisted, odd and whimsical while also being super fun to read and relatable. The main characters were wonderful and the plot twists were really unexpected! Melissa Albert’s writing style is one of my favourites and I really cannot wait to read more of her books!

Amazing read! I will never think about fairy tales the same way again.

This was the wrong choice for me. It started well and, even up until about half was through, I was engaged in the storyline and the main characters seemed interesting. However I have now given up at 85% as it really deteriorated in my opinion. The fairytale concept was overplayed. I just didn’t enjoy it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - something a bit different from my usual reads, written in a lovely flowing style that hurried me along with the well-paced plot.

Alice has spent her life with her mom, Ella, on the road, always running from something, although she's not sure what. Then Ella is taken and Alice goes to her rescue, only to get drawn into the very world that Ella has been trying to escape from.

If you like a bad-ass fairy tale, with a heap of sinister characters, and loads of twists and turns, then this is the book for you. Alice was a great character, as was Finch, her companion for part of the story. I have to admire the author's imaginative powers - it's amazing the amount of characters and stories she has dreamt up in here and she takes you along with her all the way, with her vivid descriptions and emotive prose.

Excellent read, marked down from a five only because I found that in parts there was a bit too much going on and there was a coincidence too many near the end.

If I could only say on thing about The Hazel Wood, it'd be that it will be unlike anything you read this year.

Dark and whimsical, the story centres on ire-filled Alice who has led a nomadic lifestyle with her young mother thanks to the bad luck trailing them. But the bad luck turns out to be far more sinister and otherworldly than anyone could imagine...

The mother-daughter relationship was beautifully complex and I struggled to put down Alice's story. Filled with twisted antagonists and a barely there romance, The Hazel Wood is sure to stay with me. I was thrilled to hear that there'll be more stories from this world...even if this book did give me sleepless nights!

I really enjoyed this book, it flowed well and the characters were good. Although this is not the genre that I normally choose I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

I received a free arc from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a bit of a weird one. The first half, while enjoyable, felt a bit slow, and so the events that happened in the actual Hazel Wood and Hinterland felt slightly rushed. However, the concept was great and I loved the writing - I've seen complaints that Alice is unlikable, and I agree, but this doesn't bother me, as a) you can't expect to like every character that you come across in novels b) it's more important that the story is engaging and c) I thought her flaws were well-addressed in the narrative.

I particularly loved the fairytales scattered throughout the story - they gave me real Angela Carter vibes and I'd love to see more of them - perhaps in a sequel or Hinterland short story collection? But I would recommend this book to anyone who loves sensual, lyrical YA with a fantastical, fairytale edge.

Thanks to Penguin Random House for the arc.

I liked this book, it was a real page turner. I was gripped throughout the whole book, with unexpected things constantly happening, you never knew what direction the book was going to go in. I really liked Melissa's writing style, she has the perfect balance of description and narrative. I would love a sequel of Finch's perspective towards the end of the book, and leading into what happens after the book. This book is quite dark in places and can get quite violent, so it probably better suited to the older end of YA if not new adult.

I love dark fairy tale stories so when I read the synopsis for The Hazel Wood I was immediately intrigued, with more than a pinch of scepticism. "No books are *that* dark these days", I thought to myself.

Happily, I was very wrong. The Hazel Wood is everything good about fantasy and if you like your fairy tales dark and bloody you won't be disappointed.

Alice and her mother Ella live life on the road constantly travelling from town to city to town again as bad luck follows them. Then, they receive word that Alice's grandmother, the infamous, cult-acclaimed writer of a book of fairy tales and owner of The Hazel Wood estate, has passed away and the bad luck engulfs their lives completely.

Although a fantasy book, The Hazel Wood is set in "the real world" for 60% of the book. I really enjoyed this slow unravelling of the story and found it very creepy as more and more of the dark fantasy world invaded the supposedly safe surroundings Alice was in. I love the way Melissa Albert writes, she can send icy shivers down your back by the simple act of having a background character unexpectedly wink at Alice, letting you know they were part of the Hinterland.

The Hinterland itself is a fairy tale masterpiece. The idea of a realm where these dark, twisted fairy tales repeat themselves over and over, with the subjects of the hellish stories unable to free themselves is absolutely chilling. I found the journey Alice had to complete within the realm a little overlong and bogged down with description, however, the plot itself was clever and gripping.

The characterisation in this book was fantastic. The characters were all flawed but inherently likeable. I fell in love with Finch and his kind, quiet nature and I found the way Alice interacted with different people in her life very interesting. From her close, dependant relationship with her mother to her blossoming relationship with Finch I felt like I was able to get to know Alice better by the way she behaved with each person in her life.

My only criticism with the book is with the length. Admittedly it is a very detailed story with a tangled plot that required a lot of explaining, but I found that in places the pace of the plot dipped a bit and some sections (e.g. Finch and Alice travelling to The Hazel Wood) could have been far choppier without taking anything away from the plot.

If you like fairy tales you will definitely enjoy this original, unpredictable take on the genre.

This book!

The Hazel Wood is like a new wave of Grimm's Fairytales. I personally am desperate to own my own copy of these fairy tales on their own. As a child I would have loved some of these stories and their titles intrigue me to no end. The crossover between the real world merging with the Story world and vice versa, I feel like was done really well and kept me drawn in from the first page. I feel like I expected there to be a twist, and I was close to solving it but didn't see it coming.
When reading this I found myself feeling really tense and like I completely couldn't put the book down. For me, its very rare to feel that tense and excited to keep reading feeling. My favourite thing about these Stories were how horrible and creepy and scary they were. This for me absolutely made me fall in love with his book.

Melissa Albert's style of writing made reading this book very easy and the writing flowed well. Although it took me a few hours to finish I felt like only minutes had passed since I'd picked it up each time, quite like the characters within the book. In terms of characters I don't think I have a real favourite, I loved each one and was eager to learn more about their lives and stories. I am very looking forward to the sequel to this book, and the film too.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, I absolutely loved it!

5/5 Stars

(EDIT: I've just found out there will be a book of the Tales of Hinterland due for publication in 2020!!!)