YA Weekend: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Series: Book 1 of The Hazel Wood
Publisher: Flatiron Books (January 30, 2018)
Length: 368 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Seventeen-year-old protagonist Alice Proserpine has never stayed in one place for long. Most of her childhood memories involve being on the road, staying with one family friend or another until her mother Ella decided that they had to move on. Ella never spoke of why they had to live this way, but Alice always felt the sense that her mother was trying to run away from something. But run away from what? Alice has no idea, though she can guess from Ella’s tight-lippedness about her past that it might have something to do with the Hazel Wood, a magnificent home nestled somewhere in the woods of upstate New York. The estate belonged to Alice’s grandmother Althea Proserpine, an author who achieved cult celebrity with her book of fairy tales titled “Tales from the Hinterland”. It was probably no coincidence that no sooner had they received news of Althea’s death, Ella finally decided that they could settle down in the city and start a normal life. She even marries Harold, a wealthy businessman, so that Alice has to start going to school at an exclusive academy for rich kids, where she feels like a fish out of water.
The only person closest to a friend is Ellery Finch, a somewhat geeky and awkward boy whose father is one of the richest people in New York City. Finch also happens to be an Althea Proserpine superfan, and has been fascinated with Alice ever since he found out that the author was her grandmother. Alice, however, is nettled to have to admit that she knows next to nothing about Althea, nor has she even ever read “Tales from the Hinterland”, for Ella had always forbidden her to seek out her grandmother or her work. Still, Alice had tried, and none of her efforts had ever borne fruit. Althea’s book has become very rare and hard to find, and it appears only a small circle of mega-enthusiasts know all the stories. Then one day, Alice comes home from school to find that her mother has been stolen away, and the only clue she left behind was a message: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.” Getting a sick feeling that this has everything to do with her grandmother and her fairy tales, Alice turns to Finch, the only person she can think of who might be able to help her rescue Ella.
If my usual blurb seems a bit more detailed than normal, it’s because The Hazel Wood is a novel filled with so much breathtaking allusion and tantalizing prose that it’s almost overwhelming to consider the amount of setup packed into the first few chapters. Although the fantasy aspect doesn’t come into play for quite a while, even from the start I could feel the aura of mystery and magic wrapped around everything despite the ordinary urban setting.
I was also pulled into the story right away, captivated by the power of Alice’s personality and voice. Granted, she’s not always the most pleasant person to be around, being prone to some truly disconcerting moments of anger as well as snide remarks. But given her itinerant upbringing and the darkness that is later revealed in her life, it makes perfect sense. She also has a dry sense of humor that I found strangely endearing, as well as those rare moments where we got to catch a glimpse of her true self through the cracks in her armor. Belying Alice’s fierce independence is in fact a frightened young girl whose nightmare scenario has just come to pass. Her mother has always been a constant presence in her life, and now she is gone. It is little wonder then that Alice ends up latching onto Finch, who became my favorite character the moment he came into the picture. I’ve always had this soft spot for the geeky type of guys in YA who might not be conventionally attractive but are nonetheless charming and cute in their own way.
As time goes on, the book starts going through a transformation, becoming darker and stranger until at the end, readers are faced full on with the magical fairy tale-like elements of the story. Ironically, I actually found myself less enamored of The Hazel Wood at this point, because the plot loses a lot of its uniqueness and instead plunges into territory that has been covered before in a plethora of other YA novels and re-imaginings with fairy tale themes or settings. Without doing into spoilers, I also did not like how the book ended. One could say this was a fitting way to wrap things up given the overall tone of the story, and, if I’m being completely honest, on some level I can even understand why the author decided to do it this way. Still, I was left pretty feeling pretty cheated and unsatisfied. It seemed a shame that we started things roaring but ended them on a whimper.
However, I am encouraged by the fact that a follow-up is already in the works. Rarely have I been this happy to find out that a book I’ve just finished is going to be part of a series. While I think The Hazel Wood will work perfectly fine as a standalone, if ever a book needed a sequel, it’s this one. Hopefully, the next chapter of Alice’s journey will reveal more answers and dispel the unsettled feelings I got from the ending. Above all, I’m also looking forward to reading more of Melissa Albert’s gorgeous writing. The Hazel Wood may have a few flaws, but overall it is an impressive debut.
The BiblioSanctum 
I saw another review about this one and I confess that I’m curious about it! Glad you’ll have more!
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Hope you get to check it out! I loved the writing 😀
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Ohhhh I loved this book, I’m glad to see you did on some levels too! Finch too I feel the same.
I’m so excited for the book of tales she will write based on this!
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Yes, I mostly loved this! I was just a little miffed about the ending because I’m picky 😉
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Hmmm, sounds like I have to get to this soon!
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I would love to hear your thoughts on it!
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I did really enjoy reading this review – it brought the story back to mind again and it was such a good read, beautifully written and enchanting. Like you, I really enjoyed the first half, it was so mysterious and creepy, it really did give me the goosebumps when I was reading in the evening and I actually had to stop reading because it almost felt like somebody was watching me! The fairytale elements I also loved – but then I’m a sucker for anything like that and the Hazel Wood was so dark and dangerous – I really think the author should use more of these dark and and perhaps that’s where the next book will take us. Like you, I’m also really happy that there’s a sequel in the works.
Lynn 😀
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I really really enjoyed this. The first 80% of it or so was PERFECTION! I’m just a little annoyed by the ending, and it just sucks I couldn’t go into it in my review because of spoilers 😀
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Sounds interesting and good. Beautifully written and gets darker? Seems maybe I should add this to the TBR
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You should! Despite my misgivings about the ending, it really was a wonderful, lovely book.
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So curious to read this, I’ve read so many mixed reviews! Glad it worked for you, I know you don’t give out four stars lightly 😊
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Yeah, I’ve been seeing a ton of mixed reviews too, but I definitely fall into the “I loved it!” camp. It came close to being a 4.5!
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I’m glad you enjoyed this one as I do plan on reading it as soon as I can get it from my library. I think I’ll enjoy the dry sense of humor. Also, it’s great that your excited for the next one. Sometimes I feel like authors write trilogies because it’s the “in” thing to do and not because the book needs more story. Great review!
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I get annoyed by those kinds of trilogies and sequels too, but I think there’s genuinely something here to explore, and I would love to see some things from the ending here resolved in a follow-up…it might or might not happen, I think it could go either way, but I’m crossing my fingers!
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I read Lynn’s review for this yesterday, and your blurb made want to read this story just as much as hers did! Plot is quite captivating 🙂
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I hope you get to check it out! I was so hooked!
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Thanks to your review and Lynn’s I feel more than ready to overcome my wariness of YA novels: with believable characters and great writing as a solid basis, I know I will enjoy this story very much.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
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This was quite different from the paint by numbers type of YA novel, which was why I fell into right away. Despite my quibbles about the ending, I really loved this.
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Too bad about the latter part even if it was still a great one
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Yes, it was so close to being the perfect book for me. But I still loved it!
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That’s really good to know about the sequel- especially cos I’ve been hearing quite a bit how it’s slow on the build up- it’s good to know that it’s not just a standalone. Really looking forward to this one- especially because of the writing. Awesome review!
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Yeah, I can definitely understand the criticisms regarding the slow build-up. I think a lot of those reviewers were disappointed at how little “fantasy” there was in the beginning, and to be fair, the fairy tale elements do take a while to kick in. If you know that going in though, and are prepared for it, I think you’ll really enjoy this! I actually loved the first half where most things took place in the city and in our “real” world.
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Yeah that makes sense! And that’s really good to know- I think that’ll help! That’s great 🙂
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I also thought this book could totally be a standalone. I am not sure whether I will read the sequel or not. The ending of book one both seemed appropriate as a standalone and also made me kinda want more answers. Perhaps I will let ye review it first and make a choice based on that!
x The Captain
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Yeah, I feel very torn on the ending. On the one hand, you are right in that it is totally appropriate. It fits the book. But I am also hoping the next book will provide some closure for me on some aspects 😀
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Yes! I felt the same about the conclusion and the contrast with the overall intricacy earlier on. You said a lot I was feeling but didn’t include in my own reaction blog. Thanks for writing this!
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