The Hazel Wood

The Hazel Wood

by Melissa Albert

Up until very recently, I had a monthly subscription to Owl Crate, which I highly recommend.  I've received a lot of really fantastic reads from Owl Crate's curators, and a couple of months ago, I received this beauty.  

I was immediately struck by the cover, which has all of these gorgeous illustrated items that play into the story throughout the book; I was also excited that this seemed to be a book about fairy tales.  I hoped that this book would do something new and interesting with this very traditional concept, and I was not disappointed. 

I seriously cannot praise this book enough.  It is both beautiful and eerie in its narration and descriptions.  The original fairy tales included in this novel are unapologetically gruesome and tragic (which in my opinion is the hallmark of a great fairy tale).  The whole story is just incredibly unique.  It's one of those books that reminds you why you read in the first place. 

The story centers around a teenage girl named Alice. She and her mother, Ella, have always been on the move, living a life much like fugitives, running from one place to the next whenever "bad luck" seems to catch up to them.  

Alice's grandmother, Althea Prosperine, is the famous author of a book of fairy tales, called Tales from the Hinterland.  Alice has never known her grandmother, but she knows that Althea lives on a large estate called the Hazel Wood, and that her mother left as soon as she was old enough to, taking Alice with her.  

One day, Alice and her mother receive a letter saying that Althea has died, and that they have been invited to visit the Hazel Wood.  They don't, but their bad luck seems to end after Althea's death.  They settle into a life where moving is no longer necessary, and things seem to be on the up and up for once.  

That's when things really hit the fan.  The stories and characters from the Hinterland are more real and menacing than Alice could have ever realized, and when her mother is abducted, she knows she has to find this fairy tale place to get answers.  

I can't recommend this book highly enough.  It was so good, it dragged me out of my summer reading slump, which is quite a feat, because Netflix is pretty alluring right now.  5/5 stars on Goodreads.