The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Summary from Goodreads:

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.

Review:

So, I think my expectations were too high for this one. I didn’t hate it. Other librarians recommended it to me. And I kept reading positive review after positive review for it. I guess I was expecting a dark, fantastical mystery with plenty of fairy tale elements and suspense. I kind of got that, I guess, at least in the second half.

The first half was extraordinarily slow. I kept waiting for something to happen to draw me in, and it took way too long. I almost stopped reading the book entirely a couple of times. But, then, half way through, it finally picked up and I’m glad I continued to read this.

I think my biggest problem with the book was the lack of character development. I never really got to know Alice all that well. And what I did get to know of her, I never really liked. She was angry and judgmental of everything and everyone. She had a weird and unfair upbringing, sure….but I never really had the chance to agree with her or feel sorry for her. There wasn’t a lot to her-besides hostility and a strange addiction to her absent mother.

I also never really got to know Alice’s mother. She defended her over and over to the point of overkill and all I really got to see of their relationship was a few brief flashbacks, none of which were that pleasant…Why was such an angry girl so devoted to a mother that chose terrible men over her all the time? I just didn’t get the characters…I certainly didn’t get Alice’s motivations.

There is a reason you can use to describe Alice’s two dimensional-ness, and I’d even let it slide (spoiler ahead); she’s supposed to have the characteristics of a dark character from a story. It just wasn’t enough for me.

Where Melissa Albert excelled brilliantly though was in her setting and mystery. I felt like I was in the Hazel Wood with Alice. I also loved the NYC setting too. And the mystery of it all with the generations of women and the stories, and the recluse author, and the fairy tale characters come to life was just spot on. The vibe was creepy. And these elements of the stories could almost make up for a total lack of character development.

Unfortunately for me, I’m a character reader and not having the development got in the way of my enjoyment of the whole thing. I did appreciate the dark ending. Honestly, I loved the setting and the darkness of it all. I enjoyed the mystery to it too. The lack of character development though is why I’m giving this a 7/10 (and if I even got to know just Alice a little more, it could have been a 10/10).