"Highly literary, occasionally surreal, and grounded by Alice's clipped, matter-of-fact voice, it's a dark story that readers will have trouble leaving behind. HIGH-DEMAND: the buzz for this debut is deafening..." Booklist, Starred Review
From rising star Melissa Albert comes a fantastical story of mythic proportions.
Welcome to The Hazel Wood—a fiercely stunning contemporary fantasy audiobook.
*This program includes a bonus novella, The Boy Who Didn't Come Home, set in the world of The Hazel Wood and narrated by James Fouhey*
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.
Praise for The Hazel Wood:
"The Hazel Wood starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best possible way...Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene...a captivating debut." — New York Times Book Review
"The Hazel Wood will be your next obsession." —Stephanie Garber, author of Caraval
"Thoroughly, creepily captivating." —Kristin Cashore, author of Graceling
"This is one of the best books I've read in years." —Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places
"A dream of a book I cannot recommend highly enough." —Seanan McGuire, author of Every Heart a Doorway
"Highly literary, occasionally surreal, and grounded by Alice's clipped, matter-of-fact voice, it's a dark story that readers will have trouble leaving behind. HIGH-DEMAND: the buzz for this debut is deafening..." Booklist, Starred Review
From rising star Melissa Albert comes a fantastical story of mythic proportions.
Welcome to The Hazel Wood—a fiercely stunning contemporary fantasy audiobook.
*This program includes a bonus novella, The Boy Who Didn't Come Home, set in the world of The Hazel Wood and narrated by James Fouhey*
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.
Praise for The Hazel Wood:
"The Hazel Wood starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best possible way...Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene...a captivating debut." — New York Times Book Review
"The Hazel Wood will be your next obsession." —Stephanie Garber, author of Caraval
"Thoroughly, creepily captivating." —Kristin Cashore, author of Graceling
"This is one of the best books I've read in years." —Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places
"A dream of a book I cannot recommend highly enough." —Seanan McGuire, author of Every Heart a Doorway
Reviews-
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Starred review from November 13, 2017
Alice Proserpine has grown up on the run, haunted by a book her mother, Ella, has forbidden her from reading: Tales from the Hinterland. It’s a collection of unsettling fairy tales written by a grandmother Alice has never met, a recluse with an obsessive fandom. Then Althea, the grandmother, dies, and Ella cryptically declares them free. Alice is focused on how they can turn their straw existence into a brick one after so many peripatetic years, and she’s bitterly disappointed with Ella’s solution: marry up. Shortly after, Ella goes missing, sending Alice and classmate Ellery Finch directly to the place Ella warned Alice to avoid: the Hazel Wood, Althea’s estate, where Alice painfully unravels the mystery of her childhood. Albert’s debut is rich with references to classic children’s literature; Alice’s sharp-edged narration and Althea’s terrifying fairy tales, interspersed throughout, build a tantalizing tale of secret histories and magic that carries costs and consequences. There is no happily-ever-after resolution except this: Alice’s hard-won right to be in charge of her own story. Ages 12–up. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group. -
Narrator Rebecca Soler sets an appropriate tone and perspective for Alice, a 17-year-old who is filled with discomfort and anger. This is the case, in part, because Alice's mother, Ella, continually moves her from one place to the next without reason or warning. Soler also portrays the tension that comes from Alice's unresolved feelings about her estranged grandmother, who writes dark fairy tales she's never been allowed to read. Alice's cynicism turns to fear and confusion when odd characters appear in her world and Ella disappears. Alice finds comfort from her caring friend, Finch, who knows the stories she has not been allowed to read. The suspense heightens when Alice is plunged into her grandmother's sinister fairy-tale world and must tell her own story. S.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
