I first heard of The Hazel Wood* from the NY Times Bestseller’s List for YA Hardcover. Upon further research, I became pretty excited to hear that it was a take on fairy tales, because I adore fairy tales, especially retellings and reimaginings.
Author Melissa Albert takes it a step further than retelling classic fairy tales by creating her own tales. In The Hazel Wood, Alice has spent the life on the road with her mom, always leaving a place as soon as they are hit with an uncanny string of bad luck. When Alice’s mother is kidnapped, Alice must look for answers within a mysterious book of dark fairy tales her grandmother wrote.
And of course, the fairy tales are more than simple made-up stories by her estranged grandmother. I don’t want to spoil it, but the tales are dark and strange and lead Alice deeper and deeper into a fantastical and dangerous world.
I utterly loved the use of new fairy tales that feel like they should be classic fairy tales, but also with dark themes that reminded me of original Grimm fairy tales. I was thrilled to see that the book of fairy tales, Tales From The Hinterland, is already listed on Goodreads as an auxiliary piece, tentatively coming out 2020 (how can I wait that long?!). Overall, I greatly enjoyed The Hazel Woods. I will happily pick up the next Hazel Wood book when it comes out, which is tentatively listed for 2019 on Goodreads.
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