Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

7 reviews

thejadylady's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

It’s kinda scary! 
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tangleroot_eli's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
A wild ride of a book about the sometimes dangerously blurry line between the "real" world and the world of stories. If you like your fairy tales on the creepy side, this one's for you.
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spiralingoaks's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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msavaiano's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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saskiajva's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The author has created an incredibly intriguing world full of mysteries and surprises. It starts pretty slow in my opinion but really ramps up by the last 100 pages! I will say, the treatment of the one BIPOC character felt gratuitously racist and disturbing at points.
particularly, at one point the main character does some things that put the side character in danger particularly due to his race, and when he calls her out on it she becomes so angry she literally attempts to crash her car with him in it in an attempt to threaten and intimidate him. Less than a chapter later the BIPOC character is murdered in a very senseless manner, and although he comes back to life later, the author never addresses her abuse and racism beyond “her magical curse makes her mean”.

Outside of that, I was surprised that the characters spent the majority of the book in New York trying to prove this world even existed. I almost stopped reading around page 200 when they hadn’t gotten to the actual fairy tale world yet, but around page 220 or so the book kicked into high gear and didn’t stop until the very end. I would’ve loved to have gotten to spend more time inside the magical Hinterland as it’s truly the intriguing writing. The set up did pay off in many ways, and maybe if I reread it I’d find more interest, but I just don’t think this book is for me.
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jblovegood's review

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It's an interesting concept, though some of the story beats didn't fully make sense to me and the character development didn't feel very compelling. I still enjoyed it, but think it could have been done better. 
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parchmentandflour's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Hazel Wood was an interesting take on fairytales and what it means when they come to life. Alice was a flawed main character, and while I mostly enjoyed following her story - some of the plot points were rushed and confused. 

The twist in the middle of the book did not get the proper time dedicated to it and then from there the characters were thrown aside and not really ever explained again.  

I liked the world-building but I think it could have used a bit more exploration. It was a pretty short book, so adding additional chapters to build up the plot, especially in the second half of the book. 

So, 3/5 and I would probably pick up the sequel in the future in hopes of getting the exploration I wanted from this book.
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