I suspect that this is a Marmite kind of book - either you'll love it or you'll hate it. Personally, I really loved it.

Alice's grandmother is the author of a collection of dark fairy stories. Her mother, Ella, doesn't want to talk about them, and they ricochet from one man to another as Ella tries to keep Alice away from her heritage. However, when Alice starts digging into her family history, she discovers that there are more than a few skeletons in the closet.

Atmospheric and compelling, The Hazel Wood sucks you into its world and then spits you out, taking you on a gothic journey of discovery and Otherworldliness. When you sit back and examine it, not an awful lot happens, but that's not important. This really is one of those books where it's not the destination, it's the journey that's important.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert.
Here is a book in which worlds collide, like that time when you wake and fall into a half sleep, when the real and the unreal merge.
Alice and her Mother’s life at the start of the story have recently become more settled, after years of moving around, bad luck dogging their footsteps. Ella, her mother, is the daughter of a famous author who has written a book of dark fairy tales that has achieved cult status. Alice has never met her grandmother, but her mother cautions her not to read fairy tales, most especially those written by her Grandmother and anxiously urges her to forget about her grandmother.
Suddenly Alice’s mother disappears in strange circumstances and Alice scared and alone, realises this is has to do with the elusive book her Grandmother has written, and begins to search for the Hazel Wood, with the help of Ellery Finch, a schoolmate, and fan of her Grandmothers book.
This is when the book gets even stranger, nightmarish characters start to pop up on the streets of the city, Ellery and Alice find their way to the Hazel wood despite them, and once there weird gets weirder, as Alice finds herself in a dark and strange land where the characters from stories live out their lives over and over again, recreating the stories written for them, by the Story Spinner. Alice meets many strange and curious beings, but realises she is trapped in this place and will be forced to retell her own tale over and over again, unless she can break the story, and stop the Story Spinner telling her story forever.
Eerie and hypnotic, where the real meets the unreal, you are drawn into this dark and creepy novel, by the fantastic prose, and astonishing storytelling. But be warned this is not a fairytale for children, think Angela Carter.

Hmmmm I didn’t enjoy this as much as I’d hoped. I found it a little disjointed and confusing in places. (Am I a story, are you a story, an ex-story, a finished story?!). I liked it when I started but the nearer I got to the [Hazel] woods the more I lost interest. Admittedly it’s not my usual [twisty/psycho/nail-biting/thriller] genre of choice but I do step outside of my comfort zone every so often & usually enjoy the ride. Unfortunately this trip left me a little underwhelmed.

I don't read that much fantasy outside of Harry Potter and anything VE Schwab writes, but this title really appealed to me and has been getting a lot of buzz and I'm indeed glad that I read it now.

The Hazel Wood is a fantastic mix of fairytale and legend, with some horror and contemporary elements thrown in for good measure.

Melissa Albert captures a dreamy atmosphere from the start, where everything feels a little off. Alice's transient life sounds exciting, but bad luck follows her and her mother everywhere. Alice seems to be constantly feeling something in her surroundings without ever being able to place it.

Within this real world setting, there is a book of infamous fairytales written by Alice's grandmother, Tales of the Hinterland, a book that has taken on a mythic quality of its own.

Once Alice finds her mother missing in their latest hometown of New York city, she teams up with the superfan Finch. From there, the descent begins into a unique kind of rabbit-hole. The story is clearly and unashamedly inspired by classic fantasy such as The Wizard of Oz and of course, Alice's adventures in Wonderland. But The Hazel Wood and its Hinterland feel fresh and unsettling. There are surreal passages where the reader becomes as discombobulated as Alice, but it's a thrill ride from the Hazel Wood to the actual Hinterland as Alice finds herself in the midst of a fairy tale that appears to have no lesson of morality, no happy ending.

There's a sense of real danger from the various fantastical characters with their macabre methods of manipulation, to the unknown endings to these characters' stories. Alice must discover these endings herself as she lives the fairytales.

The Hazel Wood is a bold and startling foray into a timeless fantasy world, packed with imagination and wonder, but in parts terrifying and creepy.

A suspenseful setting with hints of dark magic, I was so excited about this book and really really tried but maybe I was expecting Herbertesque style fairy horror, I’m not sure but it just didn’t have me on the edge of my seat sorry!

It took me a while to get a handle on where this would fall exactly in terms of genre and audience; part of it really strongly reminded me of Joanne Harris’ Chocolat, though I think it’s more intended for the YA market than that book was. Once I got into it, I really enjoyed it: some lovely writing, some very creepy scenes, and lovely use of fairytale tropes — the original sort of brutal, horrible fairytales, not the sanitised versions. I think the pacing was a bit jerky at times. Given the fairytale setting, I don’t think I can really complain about some of the rules not seeming clear/consistent at times… Fairytales are like that, and it spills into the book as a whole.

I enjoyed the fact that the ending didn’t go with anything too easy… though I’ve learnt that this is a series, or at least that there’s going to be another book. I’m somewhat reluctant to read it, actually, in case it changes Finch’s ending — that just seemed so apropos after what we see through the rest of the book.

The Hazel Wood is modern fantasy which takes the original elements of classic fairy tales and weaves them into the story. Starting in modern day New York, Alice has spent her life on the run with her mother Ella, seemingly cursed to move from one place to another within a couple of months. Following the death of her grandmother, a recluse writer of a solitary out of print book of fairy tales, Alice’s life takes an even worse turn as elements from the land of Hinterland bleed into her world.
Definitely recommended if you like your fantasy a little dark.

Not for me I'm afraid, I could not even finish this book!

I DNFed this book at 30%.

If you like Alice in Wonderland, you’ll probably like this book. But it was too zany, inane and nonsensical for me.

The 30% that I read was incredibly slow. Most of it consisted of the background of the main character, her mother and her grandmother, who she didn’t know that well. The main character herself, Alice of course, is seriously unlikable and doesn’t compel you to continue reading.

The Plot...

The story is focused on Alice and her journey in finding her mother who is taken away, and doesn't have anyone else to help her but Finch, the cute kid at school who is obsessed with her gran's stories. The funny thing, it's not even a spoiler as it is given away in the book description. The plot takes a very long time to pick up and unfortunately I saw the plot twist at the end midway (which was a total bummer), but I was still hooked and enjoyed it. I felt that it was quite simplistic and relied too much on the whimsical writing and Alice's obsession to find her mother which felt sometimes like dust in my eyes. The ending left me quite unsatisfied as well; I loved the fact that she managed to break the wheel, but was deflated about some other choices. 

What this story did very well, was the suspense of Alice finding her mother. The mystery aspect of the novel kept me turning the pages until I finished reading it, so well done there!

Characters...

Alice, the main character, is a 17 years old girl followed by bad luck as bad things continue to happen to her and her mother. I initially liked Alice as a character, but as I progressed I started to like her less and less until I wanted to smack her in the head. I do not understand why she was so hung up on other people being rich. It really annoyed me that she thought that her mother's husband was not good enough for her because from what I read, he did not do anything to Ella. Same with her step-sister who wasn't actually mean to her, she was just rich and could afford to do eccentric things like rich people do. That's it. Does that make her bad? No! Alice hated on because she was rich, like rich people do not have feelings or a brain.

But she did not stop here, she acted like a turtle with Finch who was there for her every step of the way. It was not his fault that his dad had money, he was actually a decent, smart guy who was better off without her. Why did she have to be like this? Being rich doesn't mean you're bad or not good enough, so talk to the hand! (and no, I am not rich) I know, I know, it makes sense when you read the ending, but what bothered me was that it was never challenged, like Finch never turned around to say 'Hey, that shit is not ok!' I actually really liked Finch and I wish he would've been treated a bit better as he was key for her journey and deserved a lot more credit. 

Alice is looking to find her mother Ella, but I struggled to understand her obsession, it felt really unhealthy and unbalanced. Ella became less than a person, became an idea that Alice was chasing, memories strung together by flowery writing. It also annoyed me to no end that right at the beginning of the book, Alice acted with so much jealousy towards her mother because she married and was convinced that Ella needed to leave him because he was not good enough for her. Ella, giving their past experiences and her ability to manipulate situations and people to get what she wanted, was perfectly capable of looking after herself. Somehow Alice made everyone seem less for almost all of the book. 

Writing style...

The Hazel Wood is slow paced and whimsical, wanting to read like a fairytale and building a dreamlike (or nightmarish) quality to it, but that's ok, I can like that. What I do not like, is weird descriptions like "dead coffee" or "furious glitter". Like what's that supposed to mean? Why do I feel like it was meant to pull wool over my eyes...?

World Building...

Again, it felt that the world building was not as good as it could've been and for at least 70% I had no idea what the rules of the game were as a lot of the things happened because Alice had lots and lots of hunches...

Enjoyment....

The Hazel Wood, regardless of my picks on the characters, plot and writing style, it was extremely entertaining and kept me hooked. I read 50 pages on Tuesday night, and finished it off yesterday, in one sitting. I was hooked and I could not put it down until I finished it!

I will give it 3.5 stars because although I had some issues with it and wanted more from the plot and the characters, it kept me really entertained.

I wasn't expecting an alternative fairytale when I first picked up this book. It had a lot of parallels to Alice in Wonderland, but a lot darker and with none of the whimsy. The biggest issue with my enjoyment of The Hazel Wood is that The Hinterland was the most interesting part of the novel, and it was the part that we got the least information on. Alice was not an interesting or strong enough character to carry the plot. We had to go through chapters and chapters of boring exposition before we got to anything of interest, and when the novel finally did pick up it felt rushed.

I had low expectations for the book however i was pleasantly surprised which made me like the novel all the more. There were some cringe and long winded moments however overall i really enjoyed the concept of the story and the plot especially the snippets of the stories told and visually told.

As a lot of you reading this will know, this book received a lot of hype in the book world online. I don't know if this is because of the premise of the book, the various beautiful covers, or if the publishers just did a really good job of marketing! I would like to say thank you to NetGalley for the free eARC of this book in return for an unbiased review.

This book follows Alice as she tells us about her life, we are sped through her younger years on the road with her mum Ella, essentially being homeless, until they end up stationary, finally, in New York. But Alice is noticing some weird things happening around her, and they're resurfacing memories that she had subconsciously pushed deep down. This is when things start getting... weird. 

I won't be saying any more in order to keep this spoiler free, but I really liked the way the book progressed from this point. There is a strong and frequently mentioned link to fairy tales and when this fully gets underway it's incredibly gripping and engrossing. I enjoyed the twists and turns and discovering the details as Alice does, and I absolutely loved the end half of the book! But... the very end was a bit... eh...

I feel bad for saying that, after such an amazing book all the way through, but the wrap up of this story felt rushed, incomplete, unsatisfying, and as if Melissa Albert didn't know how to end the story. It could've been so much better if there had just been a bit more tweaking of this section. There is going to be a sequel which is expected to be published in 2019, and I am sure I'm going to pick it up as I need more of this world and to learn more about Alice, Ella and the Hinterland. I just really hope Melissa Albert improves on how she ends books, and that her editors help her along with this because this could have been a five-star book. As it is, it was a very enjoyable 4-star read and I am looking forward to finding out more about the world (if it's possible with the ending we got...).

Book Review
Title: The Hazel Wood
Author: Melissa Albert
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Rating: *****
Review: The opening to the Hazel Wood was great, we meet Alice whose mother Ella is a bit of a drifter, but it is her grandmother Althea we are interested in as she seems to be famous. The most interesting part is that Alice has never met her as she lived and died in the Hazel Wood. After her grandmother’s death Alice doesn’t understand her mother’s reaction but knows that something in the letter informing them of Althea’s death involved her although her mother wouldn’t speak of it. As we learn about Alice’s childhood and now present something strange happens when a man who had seemingly kidnapped her as a child shows up in the coffee shop where she works reading a very familiar book to Alice; Tales from Hinterland which was written by her grandmother and I have a feeling this is only the beginning of strange things that are going to be happening to Alice in the near future.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we learn more about Alice’s home life and the strained relationship she has with her stepfather Harold and her stepsister Audrey. However, she is more focused on the three items the man left behind in the café; a feather, a comb and a bone. The relationship between Alice and her family members is strange, she and her mother act more like sisters giving Alice the problems and appearance of someone far older than she is, Harold she hates but not for the reasons you think, it is because he took her mother away from her as up until that point they had always been the centre of each other’s worlds and Audrey she gets along okay with but can’t overlook that at her core she is just a pampered little rich girl, everything Alice isn’t. After the constant upheaval of her childhood Alice is always on edge waiting for the bottom to fall out even when the guy she tries to deny she has a crush on; Finch asks her out in his own quirky way. Then things suddenly go from bad to worse when her whole family goes missing and the only clue is a page from Hinterland; Alice three-times. Eventually both Audrey and Harold turn up saying people called the Hinterland took Ella and Harold refuses to help Alice believing it was her that did it even threatens her at gunpoint and the only friend she has now is Finch.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Finch tells Alice the story that she believes she was named after and both strange seeing strange things and Alice is confident that someone, maybe more than one person, is following her. At this point she has met two strange people, the red-haired man from her childhood and the boy in the cab. While Alice needs all the help she can get to find her mother she doesn’t want to drag Finch into anything as she isn’t sure how deep the rabbit hole goes (movie reference for all you old school people – let me know if you got it in the comments). Soon the pair realise that they aren’t looking for Hinterland, but rather Hinterland has come alive and it appears to be hunting them. Alice soon comes to realise her childhood wasn’t as settled as she thought and the reasons they moved a lot was because of strange things happening to her that scared Ella but things seems to be looking up when they manage to track down a copy of Hinterland but not before a strange bird appears carrying a new clue for Alice and Finch.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the story quickly descends into a new level of mindfuckery I haven’t experienced since I read It for the first time. Nothing seems to make sense yet in some perverse way it makes complete sense. Eventually the pair learn they can’t trust anyone, however, they come across a blog post by a woman called Ness who Alice has heard of before and she claims to have been to the gates of Hazel Wood and now they have to get there themselves despite Audrey passing along her mother’s warning of staying away from her grandmother’s estate but all the clues are leading her there. As they travel to where they believe Hazel Wood is Alice beings to experience visions or flashbacks that connect with Althea’s stories that Finch fills her in on, together they seem to be getting closer and closer to their destination but travelling further and further down the rabbit hole with no idea where it leads. As they closer and closer to the small town bordering the mysterious estate more and more disappearances and murders seem to be connected to the dark and haunted stories of Hinterland and the visions and memories Alice is seeing don’t make sense to her. You can literally feel the tense and paranoid atmosphere that makes you want to constantly look over your shoulder.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Alice and Finch are so close the Hazel Wood when they meet the fairy-tale head one with disastrous results and now Alice is beginning to understand her true purpose within the horrors they have found themselves in. Alone and with marching orders Alice must now act alone to rescue her mother and get them both out alive if she can but without the knowledge of Hinterland this might be a hinderance to her. As she begins to understand what the clues that where left for her means she finally arrives at the one place she has been warned many times to avoid but the love she has for her mother won’t stop her, it seems that not even death itself can stop Alice when she puts her mind to something. However, I have the feeling that Hinterland didn’t just suddenly appear, it seems like they have been here for a while searching for a way back to their home and Alice seems to be the key unwilling to pay the price to open the door.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Alice is stumbling through the house looking for her real mother, struggling to separate dreams, fantasy and reality. However, I have a feeling that things are going to becoming clear when she stumbles upon Althea seemingly waiting for her, despite the fact Alice has believed her dead for year yet nothing at Hazel Wood connects with logic and reality. When the truth is revealed to Alice she realises to be free of the nightmares that have haunted her for most of her life, the nightmare that took her mother from her she must follow the rabbit hole until the very end and that end might be closer than she thinks.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Alice is given the tools to write her own story and now we are the audience that will see what she chooses to do with these tools especially since her heart is conflicted about what it wants. In the end Alice learns about her story and how to finish it but she doesn’t get the happy ending she’d pictured as a child, but she is free, the one thing she always wanted. Overall, I really enjoyed the Hazel Wood and felt it was a refreshing take on the fairy tale genre, it almost reminded me of a darker version of Seanan McGuire’s books. Highly recommended!

I loved this to start with - a book about a book, a genuine herione, characters I cared about, everything I love. But, once in the Hinterland, I found it too confusing and too bazaar. I think it would have worked a lot better if it had been more simply told.

Kind of creepy young adult fairy tale. I am not the correct age group to be reading it

This is a fabulous read! It's an enthralling, absorbing fairytale for grown ups and is so beautifully written, I really can't recommend it enough.

It's marketed as a YA Teen book, but, please don't let that prevent you from trying it. The writing is sublime and the storyline spooky, strange and amazing. I don't want to say anything about the detail as you really need to experience it for yourself. Just to say I literally stayed up to read it and still feel dazed and emotional and strangely bereft now I've finished it.

Thank you so much to netgalley, Melissa Albert and Penguin Random House for the wonderful opportunity to preview. Wishing you all much and well deserved success.

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I really enjoyed the first part of this book. Alice is a believable character and the set-up was really well done. Unfortunately the second part was not as captivating. Too descriptive for my tastes and I also found it to be a bit rushed. I believe that readers who liked Caraval will also enjoy The Hazel Wood.

(Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!)

I finished The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert yesterday and really enjoyed it. I've always been a fan of dark fairytales and this book is the modern day equivalent. Part of the story is made up of chapters from Alice's grandmother's book "Tales from the Hinterland" including Three Times Alice and The Door That Wasn't There. These are truly eery and I'd love this to exist as a book in its own right! High school me would have gone bonkers over The Hazel Wood and I can see why it has so many rave reviews.