Dark, spellbinding, and magical. One of the most original books I've read in years— The Hazel Wood is destined to be a classic.” — Kami Garcia, author of Beautiful Creatures

But when her fellow survivors start being brutally murdered, Alice must face the fact that the Hinterland cannot be so easily escaped. And that, from the shadows of her past something - or someone - is coming for her... Archaeological evidence from pollen analysis has shown there was a rapid expansion in the range of hazel during the Mesolithic period (from 11,000 to 6,000 years ago). Because the large nuts are not dispersed over great distances by small mammals, this has led to speculation that Mesolithic peoples may have transported the nuts with them as a food source, and thereby aided the expansion of the tree’s range. Distribution in Scotland But here's the rub, I LOVED it. And even though I think it's RIDICULOUS part of me wants to call you an a-hole if you didn't.

Value to wildlife

Airy, Hubert (1874). "Pollen-grains in the Air". Nature. 10 (253): 355. Bibcode: 1874Natur..10..355A. doi: 10.1038/010355b0. S2CID 4077214. In Providence, where my mom taught art to senior citizens, the whole first floor of the house we rented flooded while we slept, on a rainless August night. A wildcat crept through a window into our trailer in Tacoma, to piss all over our stuff and eat the last of my birthday cake. Elegant, ethereal, and beautifully brutal, The Hazel Wood is a fairy tale worth falling for. This is a dream of a book I cannot recommend highly enough. It’s like falling into a nautilus shell: every time you think you've found the end, another chamber opens. Absolutely breathtaking.” — Seanan McGuire, author of Every Heart a Doorway Now it’s time for the hard part of the review, when I have to explain why I liked the book. Which, in this case? Difficult.

I loved the scary-fairy aspect of this story - the stories were so creepy and well-written. I really wish this book had illustrations. I think that would have just brought up to perfection. Alice enlists the help of her classmate, Ellery Finch, a Hinterland fanboy who just seems happy that Alice has finally noticed him. But soon their fantasy adventure turns into a horror story as the ruthless citizens of the Hinterland creep further and further into reality, seeking to terrorize Alice and use her for their own means. For the Hazel Wood is a doorway, and Alice has to decide if she's willing to go through it and find out the truth about her mysterious family. Within this large range its distribution is uneven and it typically grows as an understorey component of deciduous forest, especially with oaks ( Quercus spp.), although it also occurs with conifers.

Chen, Zhi-Duan; Manchester, Steven R; Sun, Hai-Ying (August 1999). "Phylogeny and evolution of the Betulaceae as inferred from DNA sequences, morphology, and paleobotany". American Journal of Botany. 86 (8): 1168–1181. doi: 10.2307/2656981. ISSN 0002-9122. JSTOR 2656981. PMID 10449397. What is it that makes Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales special? These stories originally started as oral folk tales, and somehow they were worth the effort of relating to others, and later compiling and publishing them, again and again until they reach us in the 21st century. So much history has been lost, but not these stories about fairy godmothers and princesses and talking animals. Fairy tales with similar plot or motifs are found in different cultures. The story of Cinderella, as a lowly girl who impressed a prince and was eventually identified by him through an article of clothing, existed in Ancient Greece, Middle East and China long before the Grimms added the story to their collection. To that end, classification systems have been created to categorise fairy tales according to their tropes. The writing is as spare and precise as poetry, connected to the darker, edgier elements of fairy-tale conventions. Albert’s rich and tightly focused collection forms the core of the mythology created in her novels, and her fans will be thrilled at this further glimpse into that world.” ― Booklist, starred review

The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Albert, Melissa. The Hazel Wood. Flatiron Books, 2018. Hardcover.

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I had the idea, when Ella started going out with Harold, that I’d make Lana into my friend so I’d have someone of my own, but it hadn’t really worked that way. She was more into having an audience than a pal. If you love fairytales read this story. And read it for itself, because it's an amazing book and shouldn't suffer at the hands of reviewers who are comparison happy.

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began—and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong. And what's with the Kevin Smith movie language? I mean, this is aimed at a Young Adult audience, which I took as being roughly 12 - 18. I'm not a prude by any means, but if you think the language is appropriate for the target audience, you really need to re-examine what’s acceptable. Weird or otherwise evil children abound, who are somehow born (and stay) “not right”, and they usually bring grief and trouble to their parents. (This may be something vaguely problematic, but I don’t feel qualified to get into it.) Alice’s sharp-edged narration and Althea’s terrifying fairy tales, interspersed throughout, build a tantalizing tale of secret histories and magic that carries costs and consequences. There is no happily-ever-after resolution except this: Alice’s hard-won right to be in charge of her own story.” — Publishers Weekly , starred review As mentioned, I love fairytales, and this feels very fairytaley. Which is extremely rare in YA, I think. It’s a particular feeling. It’s also really creepy! How cool is that! Also so rare! This book is atmospheric as hell and it full-on nails it.Jenny and the Night Women In the course of time she bore a child, a pink and white and beautiful child, with a core of hidden decay.Jenny was the much-wanted child of two otherwise childless parents. But her hidden, rotten core begins flaring up the older she gets. After one particularly bad tantrum, she finds a rumor - a legend - that will allow her to punish her parents. The Night Women. I don’t recall any noteworthy woman-to-woman interactions. Sisters exist, but only as plot devices, their deaths used as motivation to spur the heroines forward. The heroines seldom have female friends, and their relationships with their mothers are frosty at best (see above). That was the first red flag - in a book with no commentary on anyone else's features, the single person of color is the only unattractive one? - but it worsens when Finch, despite being a very present figure throughout the story, is never fleshed out. He feels incredibly one-dimensional from start to finish, though some of this may just be to blame on Alice's refusal to let him speak for more than thirty seconds without telling him to shut up.