Book Review: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Seventeen year old Alice Proserpine and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get. Her mother is stolen away--by a figure who claims to come from the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: "STAY AWAY FROM THE HAZEL WOOD". Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother's cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with her classmate and fairy-tale superfan Ellery Finch, who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To find her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood and then into the world where her grandmother's tales began--and where she might discover why her own story went so wrong.
(The Hazel Wood)


This review is going to be a little difficult for me to write because it's not going to be full of glowing praise like my others. I also feel weird about posting negative reviews because I never want my negative opinion of something to prevent someone else from giving it a try and forming their own opinions about it. My cousin had picked up The Hazel Wood and, after finishing it in a day, scrunched up her nose and told me the book was just okay. She didn't like it. But I thought, "Well maybe it just wasn't her thing." We tend to have different taste in literature at times. But when I too started reading this book, I was also disappointed.

I will admit that as much as I'd like to say hype was the reason I bought this book in the first place, the real reason was the book's cover. The Hazel Wood's beautiful black and gold cover had immediately put a controlling spell on me. I had to pick it up. I had to buy it. I was weak! And As I admired the texture and colors and aesthetic of this book's cover--as many bibliophiles do--I also took note of the book's summary and thought, "I love fairy-tales! Especially of the deliciously dark variety! This book sounds awesome!"

“There are no lessons in it. There's just this harsh, horrible world touched with beautiful magic, where shitty things happen. And they don't happen for a reason, or in threes, or in a way that looks like justice. They're set in a place that has no rules and doesn't want any. And the author's voice - - your grandmother's voice - - is perfectly pitiless.”

And you know what? It honestly could have been awesome. A young girl having to travel to the dark world of her grandmother's eerie fairy-tales to rescue her kidnapped mother sounds awesome, like a book I would read again and again. But...

As I got further and further into the book, I hadn't reached that magical dark world yet. Melissa Albert's novel was TOO SLOW. It took twenty chapters before I was finally introduced to this dark Hinterland--practically the anti-Wonderland--that I kept reading and reading and reading about. And by the time I'd reached that fairy-tale world I was frustrated, impatient and bored. Imagine reading C. S. Lewis's "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and having to get through twenty chapters before Lucy Pevensie FINALLY steps into Narnia through the wardrobe. Imagine then that after Lucy arrives in Narnia, the world and all its whimsical characters are just okay. As someone who (if I'm being honest) doesn't really read that much fantasy, I really wanted my magic and wonder and spells and witches and curses, and I wanted them fast! I am all for good pacing, but did I really need to wait twenty chapters for something to happen?

I also felt that, all in all, the dark fairy-tale world of the Hazel Wood and Hinterland was slightly unimaginative. I started wondering if the author was taking so long to introduce us to this world to avoid having to spend time building it--yes, I am accusing the author of lazy writing. Terrible. I know. So terrible that I feel I should say at least a few things I DID enjoy about the book.

First, the story idea itself is fantastic, I wish I'd thought of it! Second, I really enjoy reading some excerpts from the grandmother's book. The titles of the fairy-tales ( The Skinned Maiden, Twice-Killed Katherine,  Death and the Woodwife, Alice-Three-Times) actually sounded awesome. I enjoyed the fairy-tales more than the actual book I was reading. Third, there is a twist near the end that I actually didn't expect!

That's it. The characters were okay. The plot was okay. The writing was okay. The whole book was just okay. Which is why I gave it a 2.5 out of 5 stars. Am I going to tell you not to read this book? Heck no. Read it by all means. Make up your own mind. You might find magic I was too frustrated and blind to see. But heed my warning: Never judge a book by its beautiful cover.

                                                                           xo Nina