Book Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the strange bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a 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 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.
To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began . . .
Find out more about the book on Goodreads
My Review:
5 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Another-World, Fairytale, Mystery, Royal-Court, Scary, Supernatural, Suspense, Teen--
Alice and her mom Ella basically live like gypsies, moving from one place to the next, usually staying with a friend, until the bad luck catches up to them- making them "bad luck guests". After the death of her estranged Grandmother Althea, a woman Alice never met and Ella refuses to talk about, but has a strangely large cult following for her odd fairytale book, Ella decides they will settle down. And then Alice gets a new family of sorts with her stepfather and stepsister- both she barely tolerates for her mother's happiness, and it seems everything is peachy. That is until a man from Alice's past shows up and then Ella goes missing.
Everything about this book was odd and super creepy and I absolutely loved it! This was such an interesting adventure, with different types of "fairytales" and scariness and twists. I was so into this book, more so than any other than I have read recently. The mix of adventure, scariness and random dark humor filled my heart with joy and I found myself laughing at the most inappropriate of times. And ps mentioning crickets are creepy (which they are) made this book my soul sister.
The air around her shivered and prismed like the heat over a blacktop. She was what I was looking for, the hot moving point at the center of this island of charged quiet. I watched her with a feeling I couldn’t name—fear or awe or recognition.
I read a review recently where someone compared this to Alice in Wonderland and I can totally see where that reviewer was are coming from, but I personally mean that in the best of ways- it was an epic, dangerous, crazy journey with some wonderfully strange encounters that I just ate up. I would gladly take another adventure in these same circumstances, no complaint.
The few stories recited from the Tales from the Hinterland were absolutely horrifying, amazing and I need to get my hands on them asap. They were just the way I like my fairytales, scary and surprising. No feel good fairy godmother here.
My one teeny tiny complaint with the story was that the ending felt a little anticlimactic, but as long as I know this is not the end end, I can pretend I am content. If this was a standalone (which is 100% what the ending felt like and I would have assumed so if I hadn't already seen on Goodreads there is another book for next year), I would have been really disappointed. I will try not to get too desperate while I (pretend to) patiently wait for more from the Hinterwoods. In case I was too subtle, I really loved this book.
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