Her characters are three-dimensional as well: Alice is a bit of a loner but still has friends, and struggles with anger issues, which she battles throughout the story Ellery Finch is rich and knows it (but more out of habit than of snobbishness) with a trick up his sleeve Ella is as mysterious as mothers can get and kind of neglectful, but not enough to make her a villain.Įven the non-humans are beautiful, too. She has a knack for captivating her readers with her simple yet elegant writing style and her ability to make suspense feel like horror.
Speaking of which, it’s surprising that this is Albert’s debut novel. While The Hazel Wood reads more like a fairy tale than an urban fantasy, I surprisingly gobbled it all up. I don’t particularly love fairy tales, but this one caught me off-guard. They live like nomads, and the weirdest part is that Alice’s grandmother, Althea Proserpine, is the reclusive but brilliant author of a dark collection of fairy tales that Alice unfortunately realizes are becoming all too real after the disappearance of her mother. A debut author, Albert does a wonderful job with not only her prose but her characters and the vibrantly creepy world of the Hinterland.Ĭonsidered a young adult novel, The Hazel Wood revolves around 17-year-old Alice Proserpine, who - along with her mother, Ella - is chased by bad luck. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is a strange but attractive hybrid of Alice in Wonderland and Black Mirror. That way, you’re more eager to read it and it becomes a sin if you don’t. Sometimes, it’s better to know nothing about the book you’re reading.
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