The Hazel Wood by Melissa AlbertMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Look until the leaves turn red, sew the worlds up with thread. If your journey's left undone, fear the rising of the sun.”
Honestly, this is a difficult book for me to review. I've seen this popping up here and there on Goodreads and I added it to my mental to read queue almost immediately. So, I feel like perhaps I went into this with too high expectations, and that ended as it usually does, with disappointment.
My main issue with this book was the lead character Alice. She was so spiky, rude and self-centered that is made her difficult to emphasise with, or even to become fully absorbed into her story. I'm not always immediately against a difficult character, I think when they are skillfully written you can still form an emotional connection to them. In some ways, flaws can make a character more rounded and easier to relate to. I didn't find this with Alice, because her mean spirit would just peak at random moments with little provocation. This just led me unable to connect with her, and confused at her reactions often.
I particularly found her treatment of Finch uncomfortable, the constant reminders of how ugly and annoying she found him was jarring to me, particularly as he was so instrumental in helping Alice to reach her goal. I found her lack of gratitude, or even ability to treat him as an equal human being was difficult to swallow.
That being said, there were moments of this book I really enjoyed. The snippets of Tales From the Hinterlands were beautifully written, as every bit as magical and dark as the original Grimm fairytales. I also loved the descriptive prose Melissa Albert used to paint scenery, she made it incredibly easy for me to imagine her magical forests and the weird and often vicious characters that inhabit them.
In reflection I feel the book would have scored much higher for me, possibly even 5 stars , had Alice not read so self-absorbed, rude and unlikeable.
It actually makes me sad to only give this book 3 stars, as I feel Melissa Albert's beautiful writing style deserves more than that, but the unevenness of Alice means I can't score it any higher sadly.
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