This is very clever. The first half is almost completely a contemporary mystery, before the fantasy builds into a wonderland like world. Clearly this is hard to write, the narrator’s slow acceptance isn’t entirely believable, but the ambition and originality more than make up. This isn’t a book about character, the secondaries are barely developed at all. This was in my first Fairyloot box and I was very pleased to receive it.

Fantasy YA with a very intriguing premise. Alice’s grandmother (a writer of very dark fairy tales) dies and her mother is missing. Alice has to enter a fantasy world to find her. An excellent read although I would have liked some more of the actual fairy tales within the book.

Magical and well written. I tore through this and will recommend to friends. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy. I enjoyed it.

'Look until the leaves turn red, sew the worlds up with thread. If your journey's left undone, fear the rising of the sun.'

The Hazel Wood is trippy as fuck. I wish I had a more eloquent way to put it, but I really don’t. A reclusive author, being followed by bad luck, the mysterious Hazel Wood estate, dark fairy tale characters coming to life, the Hinterland bleeding into the everyday. It’s like you’ve had just a few too many drinks – I spent the first 70% of the novel wondering what the hell was going on, but still enjoying every moment of the bizarre journey Alice was undertaking as she desperately tried to find her mother. It’s creepy and mysterious and wonderful.

Alice was an interesting character to read as she’s pretty unlikeable most of the time; she’s angry, guarded, and can be ignorant (police incident with Finch, I’m looking at you), but I found myself rooting for her at the end and I do think she grew as a character as she learned more about herself. Finch, on the other hand, was adorable and I loved him, even if his motivations sometimes seemed a bit misguided, and Janet was a brilliant character as well.

I’ve read a lot of reviews by people who found this book boring and I can see how it might be seen as long-winded road trip, but, even though it is definitely a slow burner in places, I was kept hooked by the mystery of the Hazel Wood and the Hinterland.

This book was creepy. So, so creepy. The best way to describe it is that it had the atmosphere of a horror movie when you know something horrific is going to happen but it hasn't happened yet and you're just sitting there waiting for it to happen. Luckily for me, it never got into outright horror, though I don't know how horror fans will like this, it was perfect for me. I like creepy things but I get scared so easily and then can't sleep.

The whole plot was full of mystery and suspense. It maybe had quite a long set up for how short it was when things actually went down, but there was so much to explore. From the book written by Alice's grandmother, the strangers stalking Alice throughout her childhood, to the story that shares Alice's name and the disappearance of her mother, there are so many different arcs to this story that come together beautifully at the end.

Just be careful reading this on the train or you might end up missing your stop!

Having read the blurb I was quite excited to read this book. Having now read it I truly struggled. I found the story just ok. I finished it simply because I hate starting a book and leaving it unfinished but I wasn’t excited about picking it up. It just didn’t capture my imagination as I expected it to. The stories ok not as exciting as I expected. Over all I found it an ok book. Rather strange. The characters weren’t captivating and just a bit of a let down

Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

The Hazel Wood is half supernatural urban fantasy and half dark fairytale. And I mean half quite literally since it transitions rather suddenly just after the midpoint. I liked it, but I think it had issues that could've been solved.

I loved the first part of this book. And I loved the second part of this book. I did not love them together. Part 1 is City of Bones (the movie) mixed with Inkheart, then at around 65% we go into what I see as Part 2, which is Alice in Wonderland meets the Spiderwick Chronicles. I adore both of them, but not following on from each other. If you know the stories I've mentioned, you'll probably be able to pick out how they don't run smoothly into one another. A supernatural urban setting with characters going on treasure hunts in a city is one thing - and it can even be moved into a more direct fantasy storyline quite easily - but suddenly crashing headfirst into a dark, whimsical full-on fairytale land with no ties to what just happened is too much too fast. Maybe if this was a two-book series that could work with a break in the middle, but within a page we go switch. As a reader, I have expectations when I'm lulled into a story (and 65% is a fair amount through a story), and it can be really hard to rapidly abandon everything I've learnt about a world if things change. Alright, maybe this is partly a personal preference thing, but I'm sad because I can only remember these two parts compared to one, instead of imagining them as a single story weaved together.

My favourite thing about this book was Finch. He's not the main character but I think he was far more interesting than anyone else. He might have walked out of a John Green novel or maybe Call Me By Your Name (not in the way you're thinking), but he was interesting, (annoyingly) charming, and conflicted. I think I liked him so much because the choice between a relationship and his dream/desire/whatever you want to call it was a choice he genuinely struggled with. So often we have protagonists that are conflicted for ten minutes and then saying 'I'd never give you up'. That's not how it works in real life. The choice between a person and a lifestyle can be really hard. Sadly, compared to him, Alice (the protagonist) was a bit lack-lustre for me. Her big reveal fell flat for me personally because it felt like it came out of nowhere (I guess it makes sense, but it didn't feel like it tilted the world on its head like it should have), and her characterisation was more generic. She played her part, but she wasn't the star of the show.

The Hazel Wood had my favourite kind of ending: life changes and things get left behind - often things we don't want to leave behind - but the world and the characters move forward anyway. I think a lot of people look at those sorts of resolutions as sad endings, and they are in a lot of ways. But I think it's so good when a story can pull off a realist ending where it is bittersweet because the world moves forward as if nothing happened, but this protagonist is never going to be able to go back to how they were, and show that that's okay. The Hazel Wood pulled it off. I just wish it hadn't been tainted by the blatant and abrupt tone shift in the middle. In all fairness, there's a lot of things that I don't think were solved (or I missed them being solved) and some motivations that didn't make sense in the end, but I'll let it slide because my main issue with this book pretty much entirely consumed my attention.

It's not really my style of fairytale - it definitely borders more on the supernatural horror side than traditional faerie - but I still loved its little twists and dark side. The emphasis on the adventure made it feel more like a children's book than Young Adult. I'm not even sure the horror aspects are too much for that audience, it's just the swearing and age of the characters that seems to have pushed it to a teenage audience. I feel like this book wanted to be something that wasn't natural to it, hence the dramatic out-of-place tone shift in the middle too. It had its strong points, but I think it would've been stronger if Albert had let it run its natural course, rather than trying to tailor it to a different audience.

I found this a pretty unusual book. It is a fairy tale, but from an angle I wasn't expecting - and it's pretty enthralling - dark, and pretty creepy...

Alice and her mum have spent their lives running - everywhere they go bad luck followed them so they constantly moved house, lodged with friends, etc, etc, never really putting down roots.

We learn that Alice's grandmother is a very reclusive and famous author (whom Alice has never met and who her mother does not allow her to talk about), although she has only written one book - one very elusive book that it is impossible to get hold of and has a huge cult following for some reason that Alice can't quite grasp. When Alice's grandmother dies all alone at her estate - the Hazel Wood things begin to get very dark and creepy- her mother is stolen by characters from her grandmothers book, and despite all of her mother's warnings throughout her life never to contact her grandmother she goes in search of her.

I really enjoyed this book - it really gave me the creeps! it's very dark, and it sets a creepy atmosphere from the very beginning. You're always on the edge of your seat, and it is a page turner.

If you like dark fairy tales, and you like to be really creeped out then this book is for you!

Review taken from https://kirstysbookblog.wordpress.com/

'The Hazel Wood' is the debut novel from Melissa Albert, who has now reached NYT Bestselling status and rightly so, because this book was phenomenal. The novel follows seventeen-year-old Alice. After the death of her Grandmother (the famous author of Tales From The Hinterland), Alice and her mother finally settle, only for her mother to go missing not long after. With the help of the Finch, the search into the Hinterland for Alice's mother begins with a lot of obstacles in the way as they go along.

Firstly, I must say I was really surprised by this book. I originally received an eBook copy from Netgalley to review and so I sat with my ipad and started reading. It took me about 3 days to finish the first chapter because I just couldn't get into it. After that I just gave up and with the February Fairyloot box theme being announced then a lot of people began to speculate that this would be the book that would be included so I decided to hold off and see if it was. Amazingly when my box arrived last week I was happy to find that 'The Hazel Wood' was indeed the book that was included! So a few days later I sat with the hardback and if it wasn't for having to sleep for work then I definitely would've finished this in one sitting! The story is so so gripping and you keep telling yourself "oh I'll read one more chapter then get on with everything I need to do." But nope, Albert doesn't allow that, oh no, the ending of each chapter makes you want to carry on so it's almost near impossible to actually put the book down.

The thing I loved the most about this was how dark and twisted it was, more so than I was originally expecting. The fairytale characters were creepy and for me that was one of my favourite things about the book. I felt sorry for the main character Alice because her whole life she's been on the move so never really had the time to settle and figure things out but when she does there's that little bit of hope things will start to look up for both her and her mum. Alice's classmate Finch is probably my favourite character in the whole thing. He was just so sweet, caring and he had his own issues but he never let that show. I liked how similar both him and Alice were and I liked that it wasn't something that was completely obvious to them straight away. 

From the characters created by Alice's Grandmother in 'Tales From The Hinterland' Twice-Killed-Katherine was probably the creepiest for me. I don't want to spoil anything but her actions were creepy and just the overall character description was enough for me. There were times I didn't want to sleep or turn the light out because I had such clear visions of her in my mind and it really wasn't pleasant. Albert's description of each of the characters throughout the story is so thorough and it's one of the things I enjoyed about reading this book because you could imagine each one so well and have a clear image of them in your head as you went along. 

Albert's writing from page one is engaging and gripping and I can guarantee you will be hooked straight away. What I originally thought was going to be a normal YA book turned into a dark, twisted and psychological thriller which I absolutely loved! This book has a bit of everything, humour, love, mystery and horror so I guess in a way it has something for everyone. I definitely recommend this book to you all, especially if you are a fan of fairytales because I promise you won't be disappointed. Thank you, Melissa Albert for creating such an amazing world and I really can't wait to read more about The Hinterland!

18/20 | 5 stars.

The Hazel Wood was so entertaining!!
I've always had a soft point for dark fairytales and this one kept all its promises. I was totally captivated by the atmosphere of the Hazel Wood.

The story is dark and twisted and gloomy. The scenery is perfect and even if we can guess a lot of things, the author maintains a part of mystery that I'm ready to see further developed in the second book.

The main character, Alice, is a very interesting one. Far from being perfect, I really enjoyed her. She's strong, she knows her way, and she's ready to do whatever it takes to find her mother safe and sound. She is a mystery herself, with all that's going on around her since her childhood and with that anger often mentionned through her adventure.

In conclusion, It's a dark, bewitching, and enchanting story where the reality meets the darkness of fairytales. Beware of the Hazel Wood!

I enjoyed this book very much, it is a dark fairystory, compelling, pulling you gradually into its web. And that despite it not being a perfect read: it was bit slow at the beginning, then the middle part whooshed along nicely. The ending, I wasn't sure. I felt it fell away a bit, rather as if the author had got bored by then and shrugged as she finished it.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is one of the strangest books I have read in a long time. That is not to say that it wasn’t good. It really was but some books I have read in the past have been weird and have left me with the feeling that I haven’t a clue what I had just read and I don’t feel good about it. The Hazel Wood left me wanting to know more about the history of fairy tales.

Melissa Wood’s book is creepy and dark and twisty and completely compelling to read. It makes you feel uncomfortable like you have stepped out of your comfort zone but the story of a child trying to make her way back to her mother is an undeniably effective thread that keeps you turning the pages.

The Hazel Wood will go down as one of the strangest books I have read over the past few years but it will certainly be one I recommend to others.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is available now.

For more information regarding Melissa Albert (@mimi_albert) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Penguin Random House UK Children’s (@PenguinUKBooks) please visit www.penguin.co.uk.

The Hazel Wood was a slow burn for me at the beginning of the book but it built into a deliciously dark and foreboding fairy tale very reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm. Alice is very much a changeling, stolen from her fate in a fairy tale story by the woman who she knows as her mother, Ella. The story has much to say about the apposing forces of nurture and nature and the power of family love. A fascinating read for upper middle grade confident readers .

From reading the synopsis, which mentioned cult-classic fairy tales, missing mothers, and long-buried familial enigmas, I was sure I was going to love this book. And, initially, I did! The writing was of a whimsical nature and chocked with passion and emotion that had me immersed in the story-line, the family this focused on had a dark past I was eager to uncover and which added a mysteries element, and the fairy tale focus ensured this was peppered with beautiful imagery.

My only source of discontent was that the more fantastical moments did not appear until quite far into the book. Whilst all preceding this was of interest, I felt I was awaiting the arrival of more dark whimsy to completely permeate the narrative, and the lead up to the introduction of these elements was too prolonged for my tastes. This was a thrilling contemporary mystery but with too much of a sparse sprinkling of magic, for me.

I received with thanks an ARC copy of The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1) from Penguin Random House UK & Netgalley.

This is my true and honest review of The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. This was released for publication on 8th February 2018.
This is a haunting tale of Alice who has lived on the road with her mother for most of her life. Alice and her mother are estranged from Alice’s grandmother a cult author of a collection of dark fairy tales. One day Alice hears that her grandmother has passed away and that her mother has been left The Hazel Wood a place that Alice’s mother does not want to return to. Alice’s mother finally decides to settle down, meets and marries a man that has money. But one day Alice comes home from school to find that her mother has disappeared. Now it’s up to Alice and a boy from her school, who is obsessed with her grandmother’s tales to find her mother.
Alice is a likeable main character who is written with multiple layers. I liked the dynamic between Alice and Finch. This was a dark and haunting tale. My main drawback was this did not keep my attention as I hoped it would. I think I will definitely try to read this again once the hype has died down.

I've been hearing amazing things about this book and I was super happy that I got this copy from Netgalley. This story is deliciously dark and has brilliantly unique story line but I didn't give this full 5 stars as I enjoyed the first half and bit lost in the second rest.

Before I start reading it, I thought this story would be like a drama "Once Upon a time" which I quite like, however it turns out pretty different. This one is much more darker than that and I welcomed it.

I enjoyed the eerie thrill whole the way through and mystery of Alice's grandmother and her book. They are very intriguing. I quite engaged the first half that chasing those mysteries even its background is less fantasy.
I think the second half took many directions that a bit hard to keep up with and there are some parts of the world that I couldn't get quite grasp on.

The characters are interesting. Alice and her mother share a strong bond. Finch, who is a big fan of Alice's grandmother and her Fairy tale book, is attractive character. I like Alice and Finch especially.

The story of actual fairy tale from The Hinterland is very dark and it's too atrocious for me. However I haven't read any dark tales before, so it was interesting thing to read.

I marked this book as 4.5 stars out of 5.

Part mystical fantasy, part family saga, this novel straddles the line between young adult and literary fiction. It presents a fairytale world in which each individual has their own story to follow, and the stories make up the very fabric of the earth in which we live. This was an interesting, if not slightly confusing, fantasy story that attempts to take the magic of the fairytale and story into a whole novel. There were brief moments of wonder, where the lyrical prose wove itself together in a really cool story, which reminded me of a novel like Inkheart. But there's so many things happening at once that I lost my concentration most of the way through. This book was just okay, but I wish the author had stripped back some of the complications for a clearer story.

I was lucky enough to pick up an early copy of The Hazel Wood at YALC 2017 and I’m so pleased I did as it looks like it’s going to be the start a really imaginative series of books.

I’m not a huge lover of fantasy, but I thought that this was a really fresh idea, and I loved the Althea Propserpine back story – which I won’t spoil for you right now – that was unfolded at just the right pace.

The book itself is written beautifully and conveys Alice’s self-sufficiency and loneliness in never being able to put down roots, constantly being followed by the worst luck. She’s spiky and unlikeable, but she’s had to build up a thick skin to keep moving on and starting again and never beng able to put down roots. I really enjoyed Alice and Ella’s relationship as it is all about each other. Even though when we originally meet them Ella has attempted to settle the family by getting married, they still have that unique bond that is just the two of them.

At the heart of the book is Althea Proserpine’s Tales from the Hinterland, a dark and mysterious volume of fairytales that elude Alice, and these are dark, twisty and written by Melissa Albert. I think in the age of Disney, we forget that fairytales like Cinderella are not the warm family stories that we remember – for instance, in the original Cinderella, the ugly sisters start cutting off parts of their feet to fit them in the slipper. The stories in The Hazel Wood align more closely with the dark origins of stories by the Brothers Grimm than with cartoon mice and pumpkin coaches!

According to Goodreads, this is just the first book in a series and, based on The Hazel Wood, I’ll definitely be reading more.

I had heard so many positive reviews of this book from youtube and various podcasts so I had high hopes. I think this is why I was somewhat disappointed with what I read.

I enjoyed the creepy and mysterious atmosphere Melissa Albert created but unfortunately, the characters failed to hold my attention. I'm not one to shy away from books with unlikeable characters/narrators but rather than being unlikeable Finch and Alice were just very unbelievable and two dimensional.

I find fairytale retellings compelling and Albert's chapters retelling stories from the Hinterland were by far the strongest aspect of this book. They prove that she is a talented writer and storyteller and I think the book would have benefitted from more of this.