Wednesday, June 1, 2022

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

 The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood, #1)


First of all, AMAZING cover.  Just look at all those clues and hints and winks and nods!  

Second of all, am I the only one that kept reading the author's name as Melissa Gilbert?  Yes? Ok.

This is DEFINITELY NOT Little House on the Prairie.  More like, Scary house in the deep dark woods.

Ok, so on to the story!  Which one you ask?  Well, once upon a time, a woman became famous for writing some pretty dark fairy tales.  Until suddenly it became almost impossible to find a copy of those fairy tales, and the author pretty much lived her life reclusively on her big dark estate, Hazel Wood.  And no one knew why.

Including her granddaughter, Alice, who never sees her grandmother.  Alice just tries to live her nomadic life with her single mom unobtrusively and not to get involved with the rabid fandom created by the mystery that is her grandmother.

Until Alice's mom disappears.  So Alice and her new fairy tale obsessed bff Ellery go off to find her, and in doing so wind up finding out so much more.

Honestly, to say much more than that would require spoilers.  This whole story had an eerie, sad vibe to it, and gets pretty dark and supernatural.  I liked it, I love a good supernatural spin.  Some plotlines really did not work for me, especially at the end, but I see where the author was going with it all.  This is what I would categorize as YA fantasy bordering on horror, but not Stephen King type horror.  Teresa, you would like this one!  Mom's book club, give this a miss.


Unless you like dark fairy tales, Evil Spinners, worlds beyond the veil....and are very very brave.

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