The story follows Alice, a 17-year-old girl who’s spent her whole life on the road with her single mom, Ella. Alice’s grandmother, Althea, is a famous author of the mysterious book “Tales from the Hinterland”, a creepy fairy-tale story that very few have their hands on. When Althea dies alone in her estate, The Hazel Wood, Alice and many of Althea’s obsessive fans start to wonder what really happened to her. But then Ella goes missing, and the only thing she left behind was an ominous message: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.” Alice disregards this message and goes on a journey with her classmate Ellery Finch, an Althea megafan, to the Hazel Wood.
The Hazel Wood is a great work of fiction, twisting the whimsical fairy-tale trope into a bittersweet psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It most certainly met my moderate expectations due to the mesmerizing universe and unique plot. The unlikeness caused the book to break many rules of the typical fairy tale fantasy, but still stayed true to its genre. The first half of the book, a more light-hearted tone mostly centering the conversations and deductions between Alice and Finch, was incredibly fun to read and play along with the mystery behind Althea’s books. But in the second half, tragedy strikes, and the book takes a very dark turn for the worse.
The main theme of this book is how we can write our own stories, shown by Alice’s literal escape of her story. While fate may play a role, our stories really are ours to be written, as long as you persevere and work as hard as you can.
The book tackles many other issues, such as economical, gender and racial standards. A major example of this is when Alice, a Caucasian girl, aggressively argues with a police officer when asked to leave a crime scene. Finch, an African-American boy, refers to Alice as privileged due to her ability to verbally fight with an officer like that, and Alice states that Finch is rich and wouldn’t get in trouble anyway. Finch says he’s referring to his race, and Alice refuses to admit that she’s wrong. This is a great example of the problematic standards of race and how someone of a minority race is much more likely to get in trouble than a white person.
This book helped teach me the importance of perseverance and how some things are worth fighting for, even if it comes to risking your own life to obtain it.
All in all, the book met my expectations. While it certainly didn’t blow anything out of the water, it was an interesting read, and I had fun watching the dynamics of the characters and creative plot. I’d recommend this book for readers who like dark twists on common tropes.
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