![]() ![]() I find it hard to believe that two characters who have barely interacted would share their pasts with each other, but Finch seems happy to divulge to Alice that his father cheated on his mother with his secretary, who is now his stepmother, and that his mother killed herself in the aftermath. We know he’s from a rich family, despised by his stepmother, but all of this is directly told to Alice in conversation instead of shown. Likewise, the other main character of the novel, Ellery Finch, is similarly flat. Sadly, Alice is a completely flat character, with only one two main personality traits, worshipping her mother, and being angry at everything and everyone. But what’s worse than her actual behavior, is that there’s really no reason for her anger! Yes, she and her mother move constantly, uprooting themselves to stay ahead of whatever curse plagues them, but as she only likes her mother, has no friends or desires of her own, these constant moves don’t seem to be a good reason for her rage issues. Alice is unkind, angry, and only attached to her mother, whom she practically worships. On her journey to reunite with her missing mother, Ella, Alice learns that she bears the name of one of her Grandmother’s fairy tales, “Three-Times-Alice.” Though “Three-Times-Alice” is the villain in her story, I really felt that modern day Alice was the real villain in The Hazel Wood. Unfortunately, the novel doesn’t hold onto this mysterious, foreboding feeling for long, and quickly becomes just another YA fantasy novel about a girl who isn’t like the others. I was immediately gripped by this hint of something dark and something more and the mystery surrounding Alice’s grandmother, who penned a very rare and gruesome collection of fairy tales, known as Tales from the Hinterland. The novel paints a grim picture of main character Alice’s life with her mom on the run, hinting at something darker than just bad luck chasing at their heels. The Hazel Wood is a book that has a lot of promise, especially in its beginning. 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. 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. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”Īlice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. 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. ![]() 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. Published by Flatiron Books on January 30th 2018īuy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood, #1) by Melissa Albert
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