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A review by paxyquiltan
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
4.0
The reason i picked this book up was because of it's beautiful cover design,
and boy am I glad that it caught my eye. I really enjoyed reading this book. Like many I grew up wishing and imagining what it would be like to cross the line between reality and fiction. This book gave me a glimpse of what that might be like and after finishing it do I really want to cross it...
uhhm
"My mother was raised on fairy tales, but I was raised on highways. My first memory is the smell of hot pavement and the sky through the sunroof, whipping by in a river of blue. My mom tells me that’s impossible—our car doesn’t have a sunroof. But I can still close my eyes and see it, so I’m holding on to it."
So, from the very first beginning we learn that Alice Proserpine has lived her entire life on the road with her mother Ella Proserpine (I feel the need to mention that her name is short for Vanella), never settling in one area always on the run from the bad luck that seems to follow them everywhere, and from the very beginning of the book you learn that Ella's mother, Althea Proserpine, the famous author of Tales from the Hinterland, is somehow the reason behind why they're on the run.
The first couple of chapters are sort of like a background check introducing us to Alice and her mother and the life they've been living. One day Ella receives a letter informing her that her mother Althea is dead and so she declares them free and finally ready to settle down. Or so she thinks. Once settled Ella is abducted by a mysterious man:
"It was that last one that got us into trouble — Ella's dream of a normal life for me, one with a future. Because if you've spent your whole life running, how do you learn to stand still? How do you figure out the right way to turn your straw house into brick?"
This man claims to be from Hinterland (the fairy tale land in her grandmothers book). So, Alice teams up with a classmate named Ellery finch who is a fan of her grandmothers book and together they head out to look for her mother in the one place that everyone seems to be telling her to stay away from which is (dun dun duuuun).
And so you follow the duo as they try to find their way to and all the events that unfold when this Alice ends up tumbling down her own rabbit hole into the world of Hinterland where she is forced to confront the truth behind who she really is.
Now the reason I did not give this book a 5/5 stars is because of Alice's character. There were moments in the book i wanted to strangle her under different situations. For example, her rudeness especially towards finch (who the only reason Alice befriends because he's rich (which means he also has connections), and because he has read Tales from the Hinterland). She won't let him speak when he tries to voice his opinion. My rating is a 4/5 because later on in the book you sort of learn why Alice has all this pent up anger and negative nature/ dark vibe.
Also, the fairy tales that Althea documented were soooooo wonderful and mesmerizing and disturbing and I wished the author would have provided us with all 12 of them. But we only get two complete fairy tales: Alice-Three-times (wink, wink) and The Door That Wasn't There. Actually even those are told secondhand from what Finch can remember when he read the book. Those were my favorite parts of the whole book.
Overall, i really enjoyed the book and found it hard to put down. However, I wouldn't go as far as to compare it to Sarah J Maas's books as some have done.
Here are some quotes from the book that i liked:
“There are no lessons in it. There's just this harsh, horrible world touched with beautiful magic, where sh*tty 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. She's like a war reporter who doesn't give a f*ck.”
“Look until the leaves turn red, sew the worlds up with thread. If your journey's left undone, fear the rising of the sun.”
"My love he wooed me
My love he slew me
My love he buried my bones
His love he married
His love I buried
My love now wanders alone."
“Everyone is supposed to be a combination of nature and nurture, their true selves shaped by years of friends and fights and parents and dreams and things you did too young and things you overheard that you shouldn’t have and secrets you kept or couldn’t and regrets and victories and quiet prides, all the packed-together detritus that becomes what you call your life.”
“When in doubt, the answer is always Death. With a capital D.”
“When you finish a story, it begins again. Until I stop telling it. And while they're being told, stories create the energy that makes this world go. They keep our stars in place. They make our grass grow.”
and boy am I glad that it caught my eye. I really enjoyed reading this book. Like many I grew up wishing and imagining what it would be like to cross the line between reality and fiction. This book gave me a glimpse of what that might be like and after finishing it do I really want to cross it...
uhhm
"My mother was raised on fairy tales, but I was raised on highways. My first memory is the smell of hot pavement and the sky through the sunroof, whipping by in a river of blue. My mom tells me that’s impossible—our car doesn’t have a sunroof. But I can still close my eyes and see it, so I’m holding on to it."
So, from the very first beginning we learn that Alice Proserpine has lived her entire life on the road with her mother Ella Proserpine (I feel the need to mention that her name is short for Vanella), never settling in one area always on the run from the bad luck that seems to follow them everywhere, and from the very beginning of the book you learn that Ella's mother, Althea Proserpine, the famous author of Tales from the Hinterland, is somehow the reason behind why they're on the run.
The first couple of chapters are sort of like a background check introducing us to Alice and her mother and the life they've been living. One day Ella receives a letter informing her that her mother Althea is dead and so she declares them free and finally ready to settle down. Or so she thinks. Once settled Ella is abducted by a mysterious man:
"It was that last one that got us into trouble — Ella's dream of a normal life for me, one with a future. Because if you've spent your whole life running, how do you learn to stand still? How do you figure out the right way to turn your straw house into brick?"
This man claims to be from Hinterland (the fairy tale land in her grandmothers book). So, Alice teams up with a classmate named Ellery finch who is a fan of her grandmothers book and together they head out to look for her mother in the one place that everyone seems to be telling her to stay away from which is (dun dun duuuun).
And so you follow the duo as they try to find their way to and all the events that unfold when this Alice ends up tumbling down her own rabbit hole into the world of Hinterland where she is forced to confront the truth behind who she really is.
Now the reason I did not give this book a 5/5 stars is because of Alice's character. There were moments in the book i wanted to strangle her under different situations. For example, her rudeness especially towards finch (who the only reason Alice befriends because he's rich (which means he also has connections), and because he has read Tales from the Hinterland). She won't let him speak when he tries to voice his opinion. My rating is a 4/5 because later on in the book you sort of learn why Alice has all this pent up anger and negative nature/ dark vibe.
Also, the fairy tales that Althea documented were soooooo wonderful and mesmerizing and disturbing and I wished the author would have provided us with all 12 of them. But we only get two complete fairy tales: Alice-Three-times (wink, wink) and The Door That Wasn't There. Actually even those are told secondhand from what Finch can remember when he read the book. Those were my favorite parts of the whole book.
Overall, i really enjoyed the book and found it hard to put down. However, I wouldn't go as far as to compare it to Sarah J Maas's books as some have done.
Here are some quotes from the book that i liked:
“There are no lessons in it. There's just this harsh, horrible world touched with beautiful magic, where sh*tty 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. She's like a war reporter who doesn't give a f*ck.”
“Look until the leaves turn red, sew the worlds up with thread. If your journey's left undone, fear the rising of the sun.”
"My love he wooed me
My love he slew me
My love he buried my bones
His love he married
His love I buried
My love now wanders alone."
“Everyone is supposed to be a combination of nature and nurture, their true selves shaped by years of friends and fights and parents and dreams and things you did too young and things you overheard that you shouldn’t have and secrets you kept or couldn’t and regrets and victories and quiet prides, all the packed-together detritus that becomes what you call your life.”
“When in doubt, the answer is always Death. With a capital D.”
“When you finish a story, it begins again. Until I stop telling it. And while they're being told, stories create the energy that makes this world go. They keep our stars in place. They make our grass grow.”