The Hazel Wood Review

Title: The Hazel Wood

Author: Melissa Albert

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Pages: 368

Date(s) Read: 12/14- 12/23

Synopsis (from GoodReads):

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 w

here her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her

mother left behind:

"Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

I really enjoyed this read! I was in kind of a reading slump

this past year,and I picked this up and could hardly put it down once I started.

It reminded me somewhat of Caraval by Stephanie Garber which I

read early last year, but was quite different as well. It was captivating, creepy,

and creative. Alice grew up moving from place to place whenever a

weird situation crept upon her mother Ella and herself. Bad luck her

mother called it. Then they receive a letter from her reclusive

grandmother’s estate, stating that she had died alone. Ella is relieved,

thinking the “bad luck” is over and they settle in New York. In New Y

ork, Ella marries a rich man and Alice attends a private school alongside

her step-sister. Alice makes a friend… well kind of. Ellery Finch, who in

turn ends up helping Alice in her search when her mother suddenly goes missing.

The two of them set out to find her and the people who took her, the Hinterland.

As well as to find the world her grandmother wrote about. Throughout all this,

Alice learns more about who she really is, and the life she thought was her own.

~Mackenzie