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The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1) by Melissa Albert

4.5/5 stars

A true to form dark fairy tale with a cold protagonist makes for a serious and strange tale. The Hazel Wood is the YA I have been waiting for! No high school drama! No plot revolving on a romance! An all around adventure with splashes of mystery, storytelling, magic, and self-discovery. And that cover is just great, too.

Alice is used to a life on the road with her mom, Ella. Never staying in one place too long or else bad things start happening, they have traveled all over the United States. In addition to the bad luck that they are outrunning, Ella is also dodging her mother and famous writer Althea Proserpine. When an unexpected letter at a motel arrives, it changes Ella’s outlook on their life. Finally, her mother is dead. Finally, they can settle down.

Cut to Alice, who was raised on highways and temporary, fleeting housing trying to fit in to a private high school in New York. Easily angered and a bit cold and awkward*, Alice’s only solace and friend is still Ella. But when her mother goes missing and the kidnapper claims to be from her grandmother’s fairy tales, Alice must come to terms with who she is and why her grandmother’s stories are trying to get her. Along the way, she works to understand how her life was woven into the lives of her grandmother and mother.

The Hazel Wood is a story that you can feel the threads being pulled but just can’t see the spindly fingers at work. It keeps you thinking and guessing. I feel that Albert not only created a vibrant, if deadly, world, but she also did a fantastic job of capturing a teenager. Alice is unapologetically stoic and reserved on the outside and she makes mistakes. At times, she is selfish and privileged, but she also deeply loves her mother and has a drive to do anything to find her again.

And all of us had something empty in our eyes. Something eager to be filled. […] I felt like an outsider there, too, but then we all did. I’d sat at enough misfit lunch tables in my life to know the feeling.

I’ve read reviews trying to compare this to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and to a point I agree. But not all books that have a character named Alice and/or someone traveling to a strange world need that comparison. Honestly (and this is coming from a huge fan of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), the thought never even crossed my mind while reading the book. The Hazel Wood is far darker, more blurred between the worlds, and less nonsensical. There is structure to the chaos. I will agree with the criticism that the book ran a little slow in the beginning and then plummeted a bit too quick at the end (hence the dinged half star), but I went with it.

What I really like about this book is how it breaks from problematic YA themes and tropes. YA has a problem with being marketed to cast a wide net (and, to be honest, popular fiction does, too). I think that The Hazel Wood breaks that problem barrier and offers a strong voice that might not be for everyone. It is messy and complicated and shows real behaviors even if they aren’t the right choice. Everyone gets to be a person and that includes their flaws and charms.

The Hazel Wood is perfect for anyone looking to read a great YA, enjoys dark fairy tales,  or enjoys “door-tripping” as I call it (meaning traveling, often by magical door or portal, to another realm/world/time). If you like stories that get a little strange or folded in on themselves. Stories that break their own rules and mesh back together again, then this book is for you!

* I also read reviews that called Alice a range of names and I can’t help but ask “Weren’t you paying attention? Did you not read Alice-Three-Times?” Of course she is cold! That’s part of her character. I though that Alice was a well written character with flaws, problems, and a personality that not everyone might understand (not everyone has made it through rough childhoods and mental/social alienation to recognize a fellow misfit), but this is fine! We should have characters with diverse upbringings, outlooks, and personalities!