The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert was a little disappointing to me. I read previous reviews from individuals who called it disturbing and not at all like a fairy tale. I would remind those individuals that the "fairy tales" they know aren't the originals. The originals by the brothers Grimm were even more disturbing than the two fully narrated fairytales in this novel. I actually loved those better than I did the novel itself.
Seventeen year old Alice has been traveling, a.k.a. running, with her mother, Ella, her whole life. Running away from her Grandmother Althea, she couldn't say, but she does know that the bad luck always finds them. At first, Althea is someone she wants to meet and Alice tries to find her book Tales from the Hinterland. Ella wants no part of Althea that includes the estate, Hazel Wood, or the fairytales, and does everything in her power to make sure Alice does too. When Althea dies, Ella makes the decision to settle in place, and marries up. Later, Ella disappears with a single warning for Alice,
"Stay away from the Hazel Wood."
However, Alice disobeys and brings along an Althea Proserpine fan, Ellery Finch, mainly because he knows the history and the stories of Tales from the Hinterland. Determined to find her mother, Alice delves deep into her grandmother's stories to find the Hazel Wood. But she just might find more than she bargained for.
First off, I enjoyed Albert's choice to take fairy tales back to their origins. I liked that the stories weren't all about rainbows and falling in love. There were consequences to the royalty's actions, and many of them paid for it. The thing I love about the brothers Grimm fairy tales is that the consequences more closely resemble what I believe would happen in the real world. I'm not saying that mermaids are real and they turn into sea foam. But if you ask someone with a nasty reputation to give you something, then expect something nasty to happen to you. I felt that The Hazel Wood took on this identity, but then went a bit farther.
I have to agree with many people as the pace of the book is odd. It took me so long to read because the beginning is so slow. The descriptions at the beginning (to me) seemed to have nothing to do with the ending. Then the ending gave an implication of how the Hinterland and Earth worked together, but it was just that, an implication. I would have liked to hear more about a particular character and how they were attached to the Hinterland, to Alice, and especially to Althea. It also would have been nice to hear more about Ella and how her childhood planned into it. The ending then felt rushed to basically end and I felt I had more questions than I did answers.
Overall I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. Mainly I feel very neutral about it. I partial liked the ending. I can see why some characters ended the way they did, but others felt me numb. I definitely liked the plot but wish it was fleshed out more with maybe more dialogue or more explanation as to how things worked. I just really didn't like the slowness and then full steam ahead.
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