The Hazel Wood: A Novel

The Hazel Wood has gotten a lot of prepublication hype, and I always wonder if I'm actually going to like hyped books or if the the buildup is too much for the book to live up to. In this case, you can trust the hype, because The Hazel Wood is really good.Alice is a teenager who lives with her mother Ella. Ella is the daughter of a reclusive writer with a cult following, Althea Prosperpine. Many years before, Althea published a book of fairytales about a place called the Hinterland. The book is long out of print and nearly impossible to find, but Althea has some extremely devoted fans. Ella is estranged from her mother, and Alice has never met her grandmother.Alice and Ella live an odd life. They are constantly on the move, never staying in one place for too long, always trying to stay one step ahead of the bad luck that seems to follow them wherever they go. Bad things happen to and around them: their house is flooded, a wildcat enters their house through an open window, creepy people seem to follow them, and Alice was briefly kidnapped by a fan of her grandmother when she was 6 (she was returned unharmed). But now Althea is dead, they're living in New York, and Ella has gotten married. Ella is hopeful that they've moved on from the bad luck, but one day, Alice sees the man who kidnapped her, and he doesn't seem to have aged a day. She goes home to find her mother missing, and she turns to a classmate named Ellery Finch for help. Finch is one of Althea's superfans, and the two set off on a quest for the Hazel Wood, Althea's estate, which they hope will lead them to Ella.This book is dark and creepy. Think the Brothers Grimm stories as they were originally written, before they were Disneyfied. Alice isn't a particularly likable heroine. She has anger management issues and she's very prickly. But I felt like she was realistic. Her behavior makes sense when you consider that she's a kid who's had no stability in her life. She's had to move every few months, she's never finished a whole school year in one place, and she has to take care of her mother. Of course, she has some anger issues.Alice and Finch's journey is weird and twisty. They start out in New York, looking for clues to the Hazel Wood's location. Finch once owned a copy of the book, but it was stolen, and tracking down another copy proves problematic. They encounter all kinds of creepy people and it seems as though the Hinterland is coming after them. Finch tells Alice some of the stories he remembers from the book, and I loved this part. The bits and pieces of the stories in the book are deliciously creepy, and I would have liked more.I really liked that this book had no romance, something that's rather rare in YA. There's nothing wrong with romance, and I read tons of YA fantasy with heavy romantic elements, so obviously, I have no issue with it, but this book is really about a mother/daughter relationship, and a romance was unnecessary.This book has a really perfect ending. I often feel that book endings don't live up the promise of the rest of the book, but I have no issues here. The resolution was exactly what the story needed.

I devoured the first half of this book in one sitting, but the second half? I dunno. Maybe it was partly because I was so tired the second night, or maybe I just lost the thread of what was happening, but it took me a few nights to finish. I found Alice's time in the Hinterland confusingly random and disjointed, and the end never really felt like any kind of resolution, just a lucky escape.I was enthusiastic about it for the first half and then I just fell out of love with it. I stopped caring whether Alice would escape or even really figure out what was going on with her grandmother's work, and what her mother had done, and what's the what. I found myself just wanting to finish, reading through passages that made little sense to me because I couldn't remember how they related to anything else, or even if they did.The characters? Alice was sort of interesting, Finch more so. Ella was something of a non-entity as was her mother. Harold and his daughter seemed more real to me than Althea and Ella ever did. And there was so much potential here, so much that could have been said about portal fantasy, so much more that could have been made of the whole Persephone story, which clearly informs the novel.I guess the bottom line for me is that while I enjoyed much of it, I was disappointed in the end, and that makes me sad.

(Originally posted on kaleyconnell.wordpress.com)I cannot tell you enough how much I adored this book. I love fairy tales, from Disney to the original Brothers Grimm, and this book is stuffed full of new and original ones, and they’re as dark as the sea is deep.In my opinion, the book is told in two parts. The first sets up the characters: Alice, Ella, Ellery, and Althea. You get the picture of who they are and what you can expect from them as well as the setting and tone of this story. This is my favorite part. Alice sprinkles in bits of her past as ways to tell a story, to explain why she is how she is, and because she realizes that some of her memories are connected to what’s happening now. I also loved the language, both Melissa Albert’s and Alice’s. It’s fresh, and new, and eye-catching. I found myself making mental notes of my favorite lines, or rereading pages because I liked them so much.The second half of the book is the epic quest part, or at least that’s how I think of it after so many lectures in school about Joseph Campbell and The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This part is great in terms of content, plot, and visuals. I’ll be honest, I did find some things lacking in this section. There were many pieces of plot that were brushed over, not explained, and/or just left me feeling unsatisfied. I get what she was going for, though. When you read The Hazel Wood, (and you totally, totally, need to read this book) you’ll get what I mean. The story is Alice’s, and therefore we will only get Alice’s knowledge. But it doesn’t mean I don’t wish she asked more questions about the things I wanted to know.This book is a standalone story, so there aren’t any cliffhangers you need to be prepared for. However, Melissa Albert announced at the signing that she has two books in the works, one being another story set in this same world, the other being the actual stories from the book inside of her book, Tales from the Hinterland. While I’m excited for both, it’s the latter that has me fangirl squealing on the inside.As a whole, this book is fantastic and so worth your time. It is easily my favorite book I’ve read this year, and is definitely something I’ll be recommending to friends. So read it. Read. This. Book. I promise it’ll be worth your time.

First of, I'd like to say how beautiful the cover is.. photo doesn't do it justice and it looks lovely on my bookshelf.However, I didn't enjoy the story that much.The plot and the premise had the opportunity to really be amazing and initially I was hooked and couldn't put it down.Unfortunately, I found that too much time was spent on the lead up to the "event" and then the "event" was rushed through. The characters weren't very likeable at all, and I just got confused on things that were mentioned and had quite a lot said about them for them to never be mentioned again?Like I said, the actual plot and story were quite good, just some issues with execution

*Sigh* This should have been so much better.From the blurb, this story showed so much promise. However, I feel like it over promised and under delivered. It's not often I'll say it about a book I've finished, but it let me down ... with a thump.Why, oh why, did it take so long to get into the grit of the story? I mean, 215 pages before anything remotely fantasy happens... But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Now, I'm not going to run down the plot because six thousand others have done that before me, so I'll try to keep it simple:This is a portal adventure ... without the adventure and, to be honest, without a discernible portal. If you're looking for Narnia, find a wardrobe, you'll have better luck. The Hazel Wood is so fuzzy and incomprehensible that I found that I just didn't care about it. All that build-up and ... it fell flat on its face, as did the hinterland. It could have been a child's 'it was all a dream' story. Again, what a waste.Alice (our intrepid and unsuspecting heroine) is really Alice-three-times, a storybook character, though, three times what, I couldn't tell you because she's as shallow as a teaspoon and as fleshed out as a desiccated skeleton. If she's not whining, she's snapping at people (because that's who she is, right?). Everyone else, forget it. The closest we come to a character we can sink our teeth into is Ellery Finch, who turns out to do ... not very much except betray Alice, then rescue her from her fate (which isn't really much at all), which all passes without emotional content. Unless, you count the 'Finch is a rich brat, but I like him anyway,' moments.The premise of the story is wonderful, which is why it gets an extra star, but it's not even sure what it wants to be. Is it trying to be the 'great American novel', a paranormal romp, or a fantasy adventure? The reason I ask is because it fails at being any of them. Melissa Albert name-drops a bunch of authors she presumably wants to be associated with - Kurt Vonnegut, Nelson Algren, Andrew Lang - yet doesn't have the decency to mention what they're most famous for witing, assuming, of course, that every 17-year-old on the run for most of their life will have read those authors, or would even know who they were! And that's not even the worst literary crime here (in my humble opinion). Albert mentions that well know story 'Thousandfurs', or you might have heard it called Allerleirauh? No? That's not really a surprise. Well Albert seems to believe it's about revenge ... If you can be bothered, read it for yourselves and decide.Yet, one of the most divisive claims is that Althea Proserpine wrote 'feminist fairy-tales' - of which we hear possibly two and a half - that aren't really feminist at all, and are barely worthy of the title of fairytale. They were flat, without feeling, without ambience and without a moral. In short, Althea's tales are pointless, making the story itself pointless.And what's with the Kevin Smith movie language? I mean, this is aimed at a Young Adult audience, which I took as being roughly 12 - 18. I'm not a prude by any means, but if you think the language is appropriate for the target audience, you really need to re-examine what’s acceptable.Then there's the floral aspect. If you love incomprehensible prose, this book is for you. It's also mainly there to pad, flesh and stuff the barely available plot. Wow, some of Albert's sentences run ... and run ... and run, like the moon-dipped mercury slippers of a princess with eternity hair, a voice like thrice-beaten silk, and a longing to spend winter nights in the company of autumn-smelling log-fires that remind you of being alive - if you get my meaning.In short, the characters were hollow, the story was as shallow as a teacup and should have been 100 or so pages shorter, and it isn't appropriate for its audience. As far as I'm concerned, it gets 1 star because I finished it, 1 star for the premise (which, in my opinion, has been woefully wasted).The best part about this novel is its cover. The artist gets 5 stars.

The concept of this book really intrigued me as I love fairy tales and the idea of intertwining it with the modern world sounded very similar to OUAT which I love.Overall I did enjoy this story, there were parts of it that I didn't expect in it at all. However I felt that halfway through it changed author. I don't know if this was intentional so that the first half was written like a "normal" story and then the second half more like she'd become the fairy tale? That being said I did enjoy how Ella became part of a story to then escape it, but I think that the book was a bit to all over the place and random in the second half for me to really love it.It's a shame because I really felt like it had potential and this type of book is usually right up my street but I felt like I reluctantly finished it.

Wow, this book was good. Fantastic, really; utterly compelling, intriguing and, at times, chillingly creepy too. The story was full of twists, turns and unlike anything that I’ve ever read before. It managed to merge the eerie Hinterland with the real world seamlessly and was ultimately very hard to put down once started.The characters in it were very interesting and completely captured my imagination. Alice was like no individual that I’ve ever came across in a book and definitely had a fascinating tale to tell. Her mother Ella was also an interesting character too (her childhood must have its fair share of twisted tales to it) as was what was seen of the mysterious Althea. Finch was someone that I loved too, even if his fan status made Alice uneasy at times. And the individuals from the Hinterland were truly chilling indeed, their dark fairy tale nature practically leaping off of the page.After my first reading of a Hinterland tale I’ve got to admit that I was torn between conflicting feelings; seeing how intriguing they were I wanted to read them all but, at the same time, thanks to the chills they sent down my spine I was nervous of the idea too. Having now seen that such a book is going to be made I’m thrilled though. Yes it’ll probably cause me a few restless nights but it’ll definitely be worth it. I need to know all of these creepy, dark, eerie tales in their entirety.If I had to compare this story to anything then, with the slipping into another world and the sheer level of strangeness within it, it’s probably Alice In Wonderland. It also had a similar feel to The Iron King at times, mostly due to the way that the two realms merged. The Hazel Wood truly was an amazing and unique book however and I highly recommend it. It ended well enough to stand on its own but I’m also delighted to see that there’s now an upcoming sequel.

I found this an interesting premise that was reasonably well executed, however it was let down by pacing issues, a sudden change in tone and style half way through and an inconclusive ending. I really enjoy the darker side of fairy tales and so the premise here was right up my street. Unfortunately, you don't really get to see much of that. There are a few short stories intermingled with the main plot that are definitely dark fairy tales, but their impact on the plot is minimal in reality. The first half of the book is fairly aimless, involving a lot of wandering around and an overly long road trip. When we finally hit the actual meat of the story it feels like it might finally come together into what seemed to be promised... and never quite does.This is perhaps because things just get confusing and tangled once you reach the boundary. This isn't helped by the notable change in writing style and despite this being what I was really after, I can't help but think that the slow and aimless first half was better written. The second half devolves into flowery, descriptive prose which could have worked if it wasn't so overbaked but instead fell flat. Strangely, despite this nothing ever actually seems to be explained and explain that contradiction if you would!? Between this and the really slow beginning, I have to admit that it took me far longer than it should of to finish this. I kept putting it down to find more interesting things to do. On the plus side I have a new shiny platinum trophy on my Playstation account...What I did enjoy were the character dynamics - at least most of the time - and the occasions when you got to hear the actual dark fairy tales that are supposedly the keystone of the novel. Alice is interesting - she has serious anger problems that aren't really explained until the final chapters of the novel and this makes her a flawed yet intriguing character. There are moments when her actions border on psychopathic I admit - attempted murder by car anyone? But it did mean that you were never quite certain what she was going to do next. She can certainly be rude and demeaning and in serious need of a slap, but it makes interesting reading, particularly in her relationship with Finch. Finch is another complex character and there is a play on racial tensions and undertones, although relatively subtly. In fairness, the only two properly developed characters are Alice and Finch, so it's a good job that both of them were interesting.So. I was interested at the beginning but the book was so slow that it took effort to remind myself to read it. When we did finally get to the interesting bits it became convoluted and confusing, as well as weighed down by flowery language that didn't do it any favours. So why three stars? Because I did enjoy it. It probably won't stick with me for long, I admit, but I might just be intrigued enough to read the second in the series.