I decided to read The Hazel Wood because it intrigued me with its different take on fairy tales. At the moment I am enjoying the re-imaginations of fairytale and like the idea of reading one with a dark take.
Alice is a seventeen year old girl who has spent her life on the road, always leaving when her bad luck finally catches up with her. When her Ella mother receives a letter saying her Grandmother the recluse writer of a cult dark fairy tales has died. That one letter means they can finally settle down and have a normal life. But Alice bad luck finally catches up with her and her mother is stolen away by ‘Hinterland’ cruel supernatural people from her grandmother fairy tales. With the help of Ellery Finch a friend from school, and a super fan of her grandmother works she heads of to the one place her mother told her not to go Hazel Wood the home of her grandmother. Alice will final find out there is more truth in her grandmother stories, that even connect to her own. But will Alice let someone else write the ending to her own story or will she write her own.
This story starts out as a normal story and then as the books progress it starts to become weirder. This book is creepy and enthralling you feel like you have step into the rabbit hole, but you can’t stop yourself from following Alice to the very end. I did have to re-read so part of the book as I can’t a little confused what was happening as it goes an eccentric when Alice finally gets to Hazel Wood. Alice as a character I neither like nor disliked her, I just was fascinated by her and her world. I did like the character of Finch I would hope if there are other books in this series that we get to see more of him.
I really enjoyed the fairy tales in the story and would be interesting in reading more of them, they reminded me of the Grimm fairytale with the dark and not so happy ending.
The Hazel Wood will be a book that people either love or hate, I enjoyed the book and read it in just 2 days as it is beautiful written. But I can understand why people didn’t enjoy it.
I would give this book a go if you like;
- Mysteries with a strange twist
- Dark fairytale
- Creepy stories
I give this book 4 out of 5
I received this book from NetGalley for a honest review.
This is Melissa debut Novel and she can be found on Twitter @mimi_albert if you would like to find out more about her.
Thanks for Reading
Gem x
