The Hazel Wood

This was a really unique take on fae and a version of their world. It's based more on the classic fairy tale format than most urban fantasy I've read. I'm not sure why there are so many 3 or less star reviews of this as I really enjoyed it. The most YA book genre I've read is probably faerie-based dark fantasy (as well as Alice in Wonderland being my favourite book), so maybe it's just more in my wheelhouse than a lot of other readers'.
I didn't find the writing poor or the plot hard to follow and while I didn't come to particularly care about any of the characters, the action kept me reading and I moved through the book fairly quickly.
The book starts out like a lot of urban fantasy where Alice (kind of on the nose but better than the usual eyeroll-inducing YA fantasy names) is being followed by some shady characters and more and more of the elements of her grandmother's hard-to-find-yet-famous published fairy tale collection bleed into her assumed-normal existence. However, once things kick off and she ends up going into the Hinterland (the world all the books' tales take place in) it's very similar to Alice in Wonderland but much more dark.
I definitely look forward to a sequel and seeing more into the Hinterland.

I went into this book knowing nothing other than Korrina loved it enough to include it in an Owlcrate box. I had limited expectations and am happy to say I was blown away by this book. I loved the writing style and the feel of this book.

Pros:
-Writing Style: This book feels like a fairytale. I felt like I was reading one of Grim's fairytales. I loved that this book was able to place me in that mindset and still tell me a complex story.
- World: I loved the world of this book. The Hinterland and The Hazel Wood are these “imaginary” places that Alice and Finch are trying to get to and I loved reading their adventure both while searching and while they were there.
- It is a super small aspect of this book, but there is an encounter between Alice and Finch where Finch is “yelling” at Alice about how she dealt with a cop and how he would never have been able to get away with that. While it was a subtle scene in the book, it held weight with me and I appreciated the candor regarding race.
-I'm going to mark this point as a spoiler just to be safe, but to me, it is not really a true spoiler. Romance: Technically this should say lack of romance, but I really appreciated that Melissa Albert kept this about Alice and finding out about herself and her family. While Alice definitely got close to Finch, there was not this other story of them falling in love on their journey and I really appreciated that.

Cons:
- Timeline: There were aspects of this that were confusing when it came to explaining Alice and the timeline. There were places that I had to reread passages to make sure I was making the necessary connections and understanding what had happened in the past.
- Ending: I know there is a second book coming, but I feel like Alice had all this growth and development and we learned a lot, but then the ending was rushed and her reunion with certain characters happened as we flew through this info dump in the last two chapters. I think the last few chapters could have benefited for a little more editing and not rushing through the ending. There were also a lot of things that I feel like should have been discussed but were just ignored. Hopefully we get more answers in The Night Country.

This book had been one I'd been saving for myself for some time. I'd heard wonderful things about it and I hoped that it's promised tale of magical fairy tales and a mysterious house called The Hazel Wood would give me a great fantasy tale to lose myself in. I was, unfortunately, going to be disappointed.

This book firstly was just not full of characters I fell in love with, set in contemporary New York setting we follow Alice, a young girl of seventeen whose grandmother has just passed away. Her mother disappears and she is then told that she must stay away from The Hazel Wood. The Hazel Wood is the estate of her deceased grandmother where she lived as a recluse for much of her life, having written a book full of dark and mysterious fairy tales.

I could not click with any of the characters in this novel. They were all written quite superficially and as a result, we never really scratch the surface of their emotions. Alice is quite one dimensional and also we have so many characters coming in and out of the story so quickly that we fail to bond with any.

I DNF'd this one at around 50% of the way through as by this point we hadn't even reached the mysterious Hazel Wood and I was losing the will to live with this book. There was none of the magical fantasy I'd wanted from this book, instead we get a few snatches of some dark tales that Alice's grandmother is said to have written but they are disjointed and don't add much to the narrative. Alice instead comes across as unhinged and slightly mad and it was more a weird Wonderland vibe than a magical dark fairy tale.

I was disappointed by this, however, I am learning this year that I am not gaining anything by plowing through books I don't enjoy. I'd rather cut my losses and move on. I was frustrated not to have the strength to finish this one but this is still very much the exception rather than the norm.