The Hazel Wood

Photo credit Macmillan Publishers

“A wall of trees parted obligingly, then sealed back into place as neatly as a curtain. I turned slowly in place, alone in a clearing in the deep dark woods.

That’s when I entered a fairy tale.”

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is a stunningly, captivating tale. The layering together of the fairy tale story within the main story is absolutely beautiful. Albert, in her debut novel, is a story spinner for the ages and one that is not to be missed. With mystery, magic, and of course a “Once upon a time,” The Hazel Wood is sure to lure readers in to its magical world.

The vivid descriptions of the settings was completely alluring. When the character and reader are approaching the Hazel Wood, “And there it was. The grass cropped close as green velvet, racing toward the distant steps of the house. Althea’s estate was pillars and white brick and gabled windows. It was a flat swimming pool set like a lucid blue brooch against the lawn, trimmed in glittering stone. It was exactly how my mind had built it, right down to the electric feelings in the air, of some wonderful thing about to unfold.” These descriptions encompass almost all of the senses to provide the reader with a complete experience of being in the Hazel Wood along with the characters.

The figurative language is also incredibly bewitching and created a full range of visuals for the reader. For example, “She threw herself against the door, but it was too late. It opened, inch by inch, yawning with dank air like the mouth of a cellar… The hallway hummed with the same heavy green light.” This personification that Albert uses adds to the creepiness factor within the fairy tales. Through her description of Althea telling the stories, she says, “Althea laid out her words like a dealer lays out cards, with a distant, mesmeric precision.” The reader can tell exactly what kind of storyteller Althea is just from this one simile. The precise use of language by Albert, to create these mesmerizing bits of figurative language are incredibly enrapturing for the reader to get the full visual experience.

Throughout the magical fantasy, there are many unexpected insights that both the characters learn and that can benefit the reader in their own lives. I think the insight that really impacted my reading was “Life never turns out how you imagine it will when you’re young. Everything is smaller than you think, or too big. It all smells a little funny and fits like somebody else’s shirt.” We all have expectations and comparisons for how we think our lives “should” be, but it usually doesn’t turn out that way, and that’s okay. Our lives are our own, we don’t have to have the same life as those we see around us. Don’t compare to someone else’s life and you will be much happier. This insight is snuck into the fairy tale, but is a very good one to learn, especially for young adults who are moving into making their own way into the world.

I absolutely loved how Alice connected the books she read to the places she had been in when she read them. I think that books come to us when we need them and it’s fun to go back and reread a book when you’re in a different place in life and she how much you’ve changed or how much of you is still the same. I too can connect the books I was reading with memorable places or things I was going through at the time that I read it. I found the Hazel Wood to be absolutely entertaining, and a real page turner as I read late at night. The creepy fairy tales and adventures that Alice goes through and the suspenseful mystery that surrounds the plot were phenomenal. I highly recommend this book and give it five out of five stars! I wish I could go back and read it again for the first time!

While this book may seem light and like the fairy tales we have come to know, Albert takes us on a creepy fairy tale adventure that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. The beautifully captivating descriptions of the magical world around Alice and the figurative language that creates the kind of visualization that sticks with you add so much depth to the story.  With the power of her words, this story will stay with anyone who dares to enter the Hazel Wood long after the story is over.

Albert, M. (2018). The Hazel Wood. New York: Flatiron Books.