The Hazel Wood

I purchased this as listed in very good condition. The book came creased, dirty, warped, and bent without a dust jacket. I might call this good condition at best. Certainly not very good.

Certainly not a children's fairytale, The Hazel Wood revamps the meaning behind old fairytales where not everything is a happy ending. The gorgeous writing is captivating with characters that will make your skin crawl or make you fall in love with them. This book is for the morbid fairytale lover.

If you like Grimm fairytales this may be something you’d like. Alice Proserpine and her mother are constantly on the move and she doesn’t know why, only that if they stay in one place too long, strange things happen. She crosses paths with a guy named Finch and together begin unraveling why it’s happening. All she is told when her mother disappears is not to go to her grandmother’s estate, the Hazel Wood. But all of these strange occurrences surround the stories her grandmother published in a book nearly impossible to find. What I liked is Melissa Albert has a beautiful way with description; she makes something we’ve read many times feel new. This is perfectly eerie, mysterious, and fairy-tale-esque. There was not anything I disliked about the book; if you’re not a fan of cursing, there is a bit of colorful language but otherwise, it’s a clean, eerie story. No one part felt like it slowed the tempo of the plot; each part flowed very well and Albert makes the reader care what happens to the characters Alice crosses paths with. I would read more of her work.