She loves her, while at the same time she resents her for keeping her away from her infamous grandmother and her legacy.Įllery Finch is a perfect love interest.

She’s been raised on the run–from the “curse” that seems to follow her and her mother–and her relationship with her mother is an interesting one. She isn’t what you’d expect the main character of this type of book to be like. She’s sarcastic with anger issues and she isn’t against dropping the occasional F-bomb. But how are you supposed to know what books are ‘must-reads’ until after they’ve already been out for a bit?Īlice isn’t like your typical protagonist. I’m doubly embarrassed for not reading this sooner. Now I know why people were raving about this book last year. Albert lays out clues like bread bread crumbs, but I still didn’t know where they were leading until the twist smacked me in the face. The plot and pacing of this book is phenomenal. I found myself understanding her and her predicament almost immediately. Because of this, I was able to get into the head of the protagonist, Alice, quite quickly. Melissa Albert writes with a beautiful, lyrical style that is quite unique. The Hazel Wood reads like a fairy tale, but set in a gritty, modern world with iPhones, baristas, and high school classes. Now Alice must team up with a fellow classmate–Ellery Finch–who just so happens to be an expert on the stories that her grandmother wrote. Together they will go to the Hazel Wood and uncover the truth about the Hinterland… Plot Alice’s mother is kidnapped by someone who claims to be from the Hinterland. But this decision might have been a tad too hasty. She says they can finally settle down and place roots in New York. But when Althea dies, Alice’s mother is happy. Alice has spent her seventeen years of life on the road her mother moves them from place to place as mysterious bad luck seems to follow them wherever they go. Afterwards, she isolated herself in her enormous estate, the Hazel Wood, cutting herself off from the rest of the world. Althea earned her fame decades ago by penning a single collection of fairy tales about a strange place called the Hinterland. Alice has never met her grandmother, infamous fairy-tale writer Althea Prosperine.

The hazel wood series order