Review: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
Overview:
Rating: 3 out of 5.
The Hazel Wood had a strong start, but it flopped for me in the second half. I enjoyed the mystery of the plot until it was explained and became confusing. I also think that the characters were lacking and the ending was rushed. I probably won’t read the sequel, but I am interested in the collection of fairytales that is based on this book.
Content Warning:
The Hazel Wood contains profanity, gore, child abduction, domestic violence, gun usage, and stalking.
Book Description:
The Hazel Wood is a YA fantasy thriller. Alice and her mother are constantly on the run from the bad luck that prevents them from living in any one place too long. Though they’ve never met, Alice knows that part of this ill-fortune is tied to her grandmother — the author of a dark book of fairy tales with a cult following. When Alice and her mom receive news that her grandmother has died, they hope they are finally free from the stalking, harassment, and general oddities that come along with being related to Althea Prosperine. Any sense of safety is not permanent, however, as Alice’s mom is soon kidnapped by her grandmother’s fanatics. To save her, Alice must risk returning to her grandmother’s home, but something much more sinister than fairy tales is waiting there for her.
On the Building of Tension and Mystery [Spoilers]:
The first half of The Hazel Wood is absolutely gripping. Albert masterfully builds up the mystery around the “bad luck” that follows Alice and her mom through the careful revealing of flashbacks. More and more the reader learns about the creepy ways in which her grandmother’s stories seem to haunt Alice and her mom: a confrontation on a subway, a man following Alice home at night, a webcam that turns on when googling Tales of The Hinterland. I was terrified of the force behind these encounters, and my desperation to discover what evil entity was responsible kept me hooked on the story, despite its other flaws (more on that below). Unfortunately, the truth behind the mystery was nowhere near as epic or intimidating as it was initially made out to be, and explained rather vaguely. After the big reveal, I spent the next half of the book feeling disappointed at the lackluster conclusion, as well as confused by plot holes and general abstractedness.
On Character Depth and Development [Spoilers]:
All of the secondary characters felt very one-dimensional to me. Many of them were defined by a single trait and lacked any nuance, making them read more like caricatures than actual human beings. Additionally, the only character to actually change throughout the novel was Alice, but her “shift” from being an angry impulsive character to one that is more mellowed out was explained away by magic! She was never forced to make any hard choices or grapple with life-changing information or literally anything that would constitute as interesting character development! The author basically just said, “oops, the magical thing that made her angry is gone now, yay!.” I felt so cheated by the end of the book to discover that this was the conclusion and that there wasn’t any greater takeaway or greater meaning gleaned by the main character.
On the Ending:
The ending of The Hazel Wood did not feel earned at all. Trapped in one of her grandmother’s stories, forced to reenact the same twisted tale over and over again, Alice cannot seem to break free. Just when all seems desperately hopeless, her long-dead friend shows up and releases her from the bonds of the story almost immediately… and then it’s over. The entire affair was rushed and too easily resolved. To me, it read like the author was in a time crunch and just slapped down whatever she could to conclude the narrative before its publishing deadline.