Book Review ----- What are you reading? ----- The Hazel Wood was weird, bizarre, creepy, horrifying, cliche, grungy, plot convenient, nonsensical, and all of it just worked. The Hazel Wood was unexpected in how it worked for me. The writing style is one that sweeps you away and immerses the reader within the story. There are a lot of fairy tale retellings, or stories based on fairy tales or even stories that the characters are aware of, that they are fairy tale characters. The Hazel Wood puts a spin on all of this, giving something to the readers who prefer a darker and creepier read. Overall, The Hazel Wood was very well written. ----- The Hazel Wood Synopsis: "Seventeen-year-old Alice 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 cult-classic 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 Hinterland, 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 classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong."

Posted by Zoë at 2023-07-17 15:33:55 UTC