The Night Country
Ratings20
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings20
Average rating3.6
The New York Times bestselling sequel to Melissa Albert’s beloved The Hazel Wood! In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors of The Hazel Wood. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang. With Finch’s help, Alice escaped the Hinterland and her reclusive grandmother’s dark legacy. Now she and the rest of the dregs of the fairy tale world have washed up in New York City, where Alice is trying to make a new, unmagical life. But something is stalking the Hinterland’s survivors—and she suspects their deaths may have a darker purpose. Meanwhile, in the winking out world of the Hinterland, Finch seeks his own adventure, and—if he can find it—a way back home... Don’t miss Tales from the Hinterland, coming January 12, 2021!
Featured Series
2 primary books3 released booksThe Hazel Wood is a 3-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2018 with contributions by Melissa Albert.
Reviews with the most likes.
3.5 Stars
SO..HERE IS MY DILEMMA. This is the second book in the series.....and I still don't care about the main characters, Alice or Finch. I kind of wanted them to be more than okay to me at this point. but I liked the story in and of itself. The author has a great skill in writing or reworking a dark fairy tale. I can say that I seriously enjoyed that even more than i did in the first book. However, since i feel like now i should be somewhat more invested in the characters..at least by the end..and i wasn't.. no matter how much I liked the story itself i'll keep it at a 3.5. Also I feel like the first one read and ended as a stand alone so i didn't know where this would go. Not a bad thing. I just can't say I was super hype for anything in particular.
I don't know this one just dragged for me. I felt like nothing important happened for majority of the book.
The Hazel Wood was one of those books that surprised me last year. I wasn't expecting to love it, but it transported me to a different world and I loved following Alice's story through the Hinterland as she searched for her mother.
I was expecting that same out of worldness with The Night Country, however, I was disappointed. I felt like the story was drawn out and did not seem to have a set path of where it was going. Then when it started to get more interesting toward the end, it picked up speed and then felt rushed as we went through the climax and conclusion to the book.
Overall, for me, this book suffered from second book syndrome that a lot of other books struggle with. I just did not feel like there was a good direction in the storytelling and then the ending was too rushed.
To be honest, I haven't read the first book since 2018 so I went into this one with very little memory of what happened before and relied on this book to remind me. I really enjoy Albert's writing because it's whimsical without being over-the-top poetic or metaphorical like some writers can get when trying to write fairy tale type stories. I also enjoy that this is darker interpretation including some actual blood and guts. Like the first book, and maybe even more because it's been so long between books, I really didn't care about what happened to these characters. This one was definitely a little more “in the day of” rather than full of action so parts were a bit boring. There also were less characters as this centered on Alice and Sophia's friendship with the mystery plot going on in the background. Suddenly, in the middle of the book, we get every other chapter being from Finch's POV as he travels between worlds with a new character. Finch's story is a little more interesting because he has a better outlook and is actively travelling into different worlds, and isn't all woe is me like Alice can get.
I recommend these if you're into dark fantasy and faerie stories but definitely read them back to back. I think this book might have been more compelling if I didn't spend some of it a little confused.
