Reviews

Hazel and Gray by Nic Stone

carrotts's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.25

undeadwookieebooks's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.0

kmanhart's review

dark medium-paced

1.0

This was just weird and gross. I also hated how Gray spoke. “Dawg” “Bruh” no thank you.

shortstack5's review

dark fast-paced

3.0

seathru's review

1.0

stupid af

thebooklovingpanda's review

2.0

This was an...interesting take on the 'Hansel and Gretel' story. I think I was hoping for some more recognisable callbacks of the original story, as this kind of felt like a more original plot with some aspects that were loosely reminiscent of the fairytale.

It was surprisingly dark and a little heavy (almost gratuitous?) on the sexual aspects for what I thought was going to be a YA novella. (To clarify, I'm not talking about the

Spoiler

sex trafficking and paedophilic sexual predator

plotlines, as obviously that is inherently sexualised and always disturbing to read about.) For example, very shortly into the story it is revealed in no uncertain terms that

Spoiler

Hazel and Gray have just had sex in the forest (no veiled allusions - I was reading about Hazel's "swollen lady bits"),

and it was a little jarring as I barely knew the characters at this point. We do learn a bit more about them before the

Spoiler

later flashback to the on-page sex scene itself

, but it still felt weird. I also didn't enjoy reading in detail about the

Spoiler

scant clothing that the underage girls working as sex slaves, including Hazel at one point, had to wear.

It might be just my brain expecting YA, but it confusingly felt a bit male-gaze-y.

The narration is a little hard to follow as it initially felt like multi POV but instead jumps around between characters, though this cleared up a bit once the POV characters weren't in the same scene. I did like the gradual revelation of how Hazel and Gray are connected, and while some of it was generally predictable, there were still a couple of surprises that kept my interest.

thatweirdbookgirlie's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

It seems I am going against the grain, but I actually liked this spin on Hansel and Gretel, where instead of a house of candy and a witch

they are met by a sexual predator's den

. I didn't love the last minute twist thrown in at the end

that they had the same evil step father

. But overall this was a quick and enjoyable read. 

nagisasigh's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I listened to it in 1.5x speed and it still wasn't over fast enough.

bookish_madi17's review

dark medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

It only gets 2.5 stars because of the plot twist. The location of the book is just urgh 😬💀

innodavid's review

2.0

2.5 STARS

Wow, this is actually good. 2 stars is a medium rating for me, not a negative one. It's a short dark fairytale retelling that contains heavy topics that I find in both of my favorite books [b:Damsel|36260155|Damsel|Elana K. Arnold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518818837l/36260155._SY75_.jpg|57912874] and [b:Alice|23398606|Alice (The Chronicles of Alice, #1)|Christina Henry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531783537l/23398606._SY75_.jpg|42955198]. I liked these loose fairytale retellings that adds its own spin to it, but you cans till feel the source material it was based on.

I might bump up my rating depending on how I feel about the other books in this faraway collection.