The Hazel Wood: A Novel

Melissa Albert

Jan 2018 · The Hazel Wood Book 1 · Sold by Flatiron Books

About this ebook

Welcome to Melissa Albert's The Hazel Wood—the fiercely stunning New York Times bestseller everyone is raving about!

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away—by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began—and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

Don’t miss the bestselling sequel to The Hazel Wood, The Night Country or the illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales, Tales from the Hinterland!

Ratings and reviews

Simply put. I thought this book was amazing. 5 stars. 2 thumbs up. A+: 100%. And any other way I can express perfect. Alice Prosperine is a girl who's lived a strange life of instability, with a mother who moves house every few months once their "bad luck" catches up with them. Lurking in the background is a hauntingly weird grandmother Alice has never actually met, the infamous tome of dark fairytales that has almost been forgotten by the world but seems to bring nothing good to those who still remember it and her grandmother's home which these fairytales paid for, known as The Hazel Wood. Once Alice's grandmother passes away her mother believes them safe from whatever has been chasing them for Alice's entire life, she remarries and attempts to settle down in NYC creating a normal life for Alice. Which is where all hell breaks loose and our story pretty much begins. What follows is an addictively enchanting tale that channels The Black Forest through upstate NY. The Grimm Brothers would have loved this book. I enjoyed this book so much that in spite have being given an e-galley copy for review I will absolutely still go out and buy a hardcopy to physically keep on my shelves and to reread later. That is really the highest praise I can give a book seeing as I really have to no time for rereading with a to be read pile like mine or room for any more books but if it's worth it I'll find a way!! This book is worth it.

This was such an adventure to read. So rich and unpredictable, this story really is a feast for your imagination. I loved the pacing and characterization, as well as how trippy this story is. Honestly, it feels like a modern Alice In Wonderland. I couldn't get enough of it!

I received an arc of this and read it over a weekend. An amazing dark fairtale that that isn't what it seems. I highly recommend.

About the author

Melissa Albert is the author of the Hazel Wood series and a former bookseller and YA lit blogger. Her work has been translated into over twenty languages. She's from Illinois and lives in Brooklyn with her family.