The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
(Twitter, Goodreads)Published by FlatIron Books on January 30, 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Fantasy, General, Young Adult Fiction
Format: ARC

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.

I’m not exactly sure where to start with this book… the writing is amazing. So beautiful and mesmerizing and the story is dark and creepy and haunting.

For as long as she can remember, it has always been Alice and her mother. They’ve spent most of her life on the road traveling from city to city never settling. Over the years, she’s heard about her grandmother, a reclusive author of a classic book of dark fairy tales… but she’s never read them and her mother won’t tell her anything about them. When Alice’s grandmother dies alone at the estate The Hazel Wood, she finds that her mother has been stolen away, and the only way to find her is to go to the one place her mother forbid her to ever try to find.

Alice also has no choice but to enlist the help of one her grandmother’s fans… Ellery Finch. He’s a superfan who has read the fairytales and knows what Alice will need to go through to find her mother. But Ellery has his own reasons for wanting to help Alice.

I was completely blown away by the intricacies of this story… the twists and turns that were unexpected were so well done, and I can’t even tell you much about it without giving something away.

If you are a fan of dark fairytales and creepy stories where there isn’t always a happy ending, then this is the book for you. Albert will have you drooling over her words, and entranced with her stories and vivid imagery. The unique fairytales were a wonderful addition to an already intriguing plot and I honestly would have loved to have had more of them within the story.

If you’re a fan of something a little different… something a bit darker than the usual YA read, I highly recommend checking out The Hazel Wood when it arrives in January.

Thank you to Flatiron books for an early copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.