Much more in tune with the gothic sensibility of Grimm than the wholesome sentimentality of Disney, The Hazel Wood posits links between the dark fairy tales of our protagonist’s grandmother and our own equally perilous world.
My mum and I lived like vagrants, staying with friends til our welcome ore through at the elbows, perching in precarious places, then moving on. We didn't have the luxury of being nostalgic. We didn't even have the chance to stand still. Until the year I turned seventeen and Althea died in the Hazel Wood.
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 . . .
Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
ISBN: 9780141388663
Number of pages: 400
Weight: 280 g
Dimensions: 196 x 130 x 32 mm
MAGICAL, MESMERISING AND INVENTIVE. - Karen McManus, bestselling author of One of Us is Lying
The Hazel Wood kept me up all night. I had every light burning and the covers pulled tight around me as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years. - Jennifer Niven
Thoroughly, creepily captivating, with surprises I never saw coming! Such a refreshing and beautifully written inversion of the classic fairytale-inspired story. - Kristin Cashore, award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of the Graceling Realm series
This book will be your next obsession. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure - it's not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave. - Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of CARAVAL
A WINDING, CREEPY, INSIDIOUSLY DELICIOUS NOVEL. UTTERLY SPECTACULAR - Melinda Salisbury, bestselling author of The Sin Eater’s Daughter
THIS BOOK NEEDS A WARNING LABEL. CAUTION: SINGLE-SITTING READ. Once you start, you cannot stop. - Alana, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)
If you like DARKNESS and MURDER, strong family ties and light romance, you should probably get ready for this book to mess you up in the best way possible. - Gaby, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)
IMAGINE BEING ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE TO READ HARRY POTTER . . . That's how it feels to read The Hazel Wood in manuscript form.It's Inception + The Magicians + Alice in Wonderland + Night Film, plus humor and warmth and heart. - Eb, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)
With dark fairy tale elements woven into a thrilling story, The Hazel Wood had me under its spell from beginning to end. Magic crackled on every page. - Kate Ormand, author of The Wanderers
A beautiful, terrifying, astonishing and strange story that reads as though Angela Carter has been sucked into a Grimm fairy tale, this book is a wise and wonderful read for fairy tale fans. - Robin Stevens, author of the Murder Most Unladylike series
A dark and magical modern take on age-old fairy tales. - Lauren James, author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
A beguiling mix of contemporary thriller and dark fantasy, coupled with stylish, sharp prose, makes this a dangerously addictive debut. - Fiona Noble, The Bookseller
a darkly enchanting debut - Daily Mail
Albert is a natural storyteller who writes with the confidence of an old hand - Daily Telegraph
A bewitching, elegant blend of contemporary thriller and dark fantasy - Observer
Simultaneously enticing and fearsome, much like the Hazel Wood of the title ... insidiously beautiful - Guardian
This eerie debut YA novel puts such a terrifying twist on classic bedtime stories, you'll not sleep a wink. - Heat Magazine
Bewitching - Guardian
Wonderful storytelling from the start. This book is firmly rooted in fairytales. It vividly depicts a magical world, you are transported to the Hazel Wood. “A gust of wind blew the feathers off my arms in one great... More
Alice has spent her childhood moving from place to place with her mother. They always seem to running away from a string of bad luck, and Alice's life is full of odd happenings and reappearing strangers.
When...
More
The Hazel Wood is one of those books that simply demands to be read; it’s intriguing, well-crafted and impossible to put down. Alice and her mom Ella are constantly moving around, trying to escape from the trouble... More
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
