The Hazel Wood: 1

Product Information

A gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales by the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country! Hazels have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins. The flowers are produced very early in spring before the leaves, and are monoecious, with single-sex catkins. The male catkins are pale yellow and 4 + 3⁄ 4 inches) long, and the female ones are very small and largely concealed in the buds, with only the bright-red, 1-to-3mm-long styles visible. The fruits are nuts 1–2.5cm ( 1⁄ 2–1in) long and 1–2cm diameter, surrounded by an involucre (husk) which partly to fully encloses the nut. [4] Literally the only redeeming aspect of this book, for me, was the occasional time when we would get to hear one of Althea's tales. Sadly, they're incredibly few and far between - I think we only got two full tales in the entire book. I enjoyed those stories, and would probably read a bind-up of them, but within the context of the entire book, they weren't enough to salvage it.

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. The Hazel Wood is still remarkable storytelling though! It’s a dark, twisted tale that will keep you guessing at everyone’s intentions. For we already know not to trust the people within fairy tales, but in reality it’s harder to tell who’s trustworthy and who’s not. If Melissa were to ever do a bonus addition that let us read these mystical Tales from the Hinterland, I’d be all over that! And possibly even willing to do a re-read of this one! Which coming from me, as you know, is BIG!! This is most definitely a book all lovers of fairy tales should read! It contains the classic elements we know and love and it is a truly magical read in essence, if a little befuddling at times. I might just be overanalyzing things too much as I read. Erdogan, V.; Mehlenbacher, S. A. (2002). "Phylogenetic analysis of hazelnut species (Corylus, Corylacae) based on morphology and phenology". Sist. Bot. Dergisi. 9: 83–100.

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. Honestly, even though hating the books that everyone loves makes me feel #quirky and #unique and dare I say...not like other girls, it gets old. Hating the books your friends love = no fun. Paracrania chrysolepidella[Lepidoptera: Eriocraniidae] in Leaf and stem mines of British flies and other insects". www.ukflymines.co.uk . Retrieved 19 October 2023. This story was not at all what I expected it to be. It was better in a lot of ways and not soo good in others. An original and imaginative fairy tale: thrilling, fascinating, and poignant in equal measure.” — Entertainment Weekly (Best YA Book of the Year)

I did get it, I did. And the shame of it boiled into something darker. Before my brain could catch up, I jerked the wheel and turned the car off the road, sending us rattling toward the trees. A darkly brilliant story of literary obsession, fairy-tale malignancy, and the measures a mother will take to spare her child.” — The Wall Street Journal (Best Children’s Book of the Year) 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. Then there's the floral aspect. If you love incomprehensible prose, this book is for you. It's also mainly there to pad, flesh and stuff the barely available plot. Wow, some of Albert's sentences run ... and run ... and run, like the moon-dipped mercury slippers of a princess with eternity hair, a voice like thrice-beaten silk, and a longing to spend winter nights in the company of autumn-smelling log-fires that remind you of being alive - if you get my meaning.Hazel is a member of the birch family of trees, Betulaceae, and can grow to a height of 10 metres, although in Scotland it is usually no more than 6 metres tall. Typically it has a number of shoots or trunks branching out at, or just above, ground level, and this growth habit has led to some people referring to it as a bush rather than a tree, because it doesn’t meet the strict definition for a tree, of having a single stem that is unbranched near the ground. 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... I truly loved this book. And even though it's ridiculous and I normally get REALLY ANNOYED at people who turn all rabid-fan........ If you don't like "The Hazel Wood" I'm blowing a razzberry at you. And I'm judging you. The Hazel Wood kept me up all night. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years.' -Jennifer Niven I don’t think there’s anyone out there doing better work in the traditional dark fairy tale sub-genre at the moment than Albert, who hooked me with her world building with the first book set in this world and has continued to captivate me since.

Don’t look now, but Guy in the Hat is here.” My coworker, Lana, breathed hot in my ear. Lana was a ceramicist in her second year at Pratt who looked like David Bowie’s even hotter sister and wore hideous clothes that looked good on her anyway. Today she was in a baggy orange Rebel Alliance–style jumpsuit. She smelled like Michelangelo must have—plaster dust and sweat. Somehow that looked good on her, too. The nuts of all hazels are edible. The common hazel is the species most extensively grown for its nuts, followed in importance by the filbert. Nuts are also harvested from the other species, but apart from the filbert, none is of significant commercial importance. [5] I stared at her, then around at the room we were sitting in: rich and stuffy and somebody else’s. “Wait. Does it mean we get the Hazel Wood?” Hazel is widely distributed throughout much of Europe, from Britain and Scandinavia eastwards to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and as far south as Spain, Italy and Greece. It also occurs in Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus region. Ah, the Hinterland. Seems like an absolutely terrible place to take a vacation, but the best setting ever for dark fairy tales.The premise of the story is wonderful, which is why it gets an extra star, but it's not even sure what it wants to be. Is it trying to be the 'great American novel', a paranormal romp, or a fantasy adventure? The reason I ask is because it fails at being any of them. Melissa Albert name-drops a bunch of authors she presumably wants to be associated with - Kurt Vonnegut, Nelson Algren, Andrew Lang - yet doesn't have the decency to mention what they're most famous for witing, assuming, of course, that every 17-year-old on the run for most of their life will have read those authors, or would even know who they were! And that's not even the worst literary crime here (in my humble opinion). Albert mentions that well know story 'Thousandfurs', or you might have heard it called Allerleirauh? No? That's not really a surprise. Well Albert seems to believe it's about revenge ... If you can be bothered, read it for yourselves and decide. This author truly shines in short stories. But more than that, she shines because this places the focus on what I loved most of all : her dark fairytales. Stories that are less morality and more magic, more monstruous, more real, rarely featuring happy endings or anything happy at all. Some of these are definitely better than others but overall the whole vibe, the whole concept, just works for me. While I will not go into detail into each story, I do have a few favorites. The opening tale, The Door that Wasn’t There was a nice introduction, setting the tone for the rest of the collection. Fairy tale fans will appreciate the familiar tropes—rich merchants and their daughters, stepmothers and blood curses—but the ending will also surprise you, a reminder that Albert has her own ideas and that she’s working towards a unique vision for The Hazel Wood series. Other favorites include Jenny and the Night Women, The Skinned Maiden, as well as Alice-Three-Times. I loved how the protagonists of these stories are not your helpless maidens, but neither are they always good, kind, or sweet. In fact, some of them are highly unlikeable, and you’d be hard pressed to sympathize with them at all. This is a must for fans of The Hazel Wood series but honestly? You could have disliked, or even not read, those books and still enjoy this.

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. Dear Melissa Albert: Thank you for making this book (which I basically had the idea for - I mean, you mentioned it in a different book, but I am on the record as saying I would like it to be a real book before even you were, so), and thank you for making it everything I wanted it to be, and thank you for giving me a five star read against the odds. But my mother’s bony hand was around my wrist, pulling me out of the Technicolor lawns of the Hazel Wood. “God, no. Never. It means we’re free.”I found this an interesting premise that was reasonably well executed, however it was let down by pacing issues, a sudden change in tone and style half way through and an inconclusive ending. I really enjoy the darker side of fairy tales and so the premise here was right up my street. Unfortunately, you don't really get to see much of that. There are a few short stories intermingled with the main plot that are definitely dark fairy tales, but their impact on the plot is minimal in reality. The first half of the book is fairly aimless, involving a lot of wandering around and an overly long road trip. When we finally hit the actual meat of the story it feels like it might finally come together into what seemed to be promised... and never quite does. She pulled an ivory letter opener from the table beside her, because we were house-sitting for the kind of people who kept bits of murdered elephants around for show. With shaking hands, she slit the envelope jaggedly through its middle. Her nail polish was so red it looked like she’d cut herself. The Mother and the Dagger Wherever you live, there are rules you must go by.A queen, desperate for a child. A king determined not to be fooled. A horrible fate alone, in the woods...luring in life. 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 For that reason you may find some of these stories more familiar than others, especially if you’ve recently read the other two books. I haven’t read either in about a year, so there wasn’t any part that felt redundant for me. A few of the names and general tone I recognized, but I didn’t feel like I knew what was going to happen next based off of that. If I could start to guess how a story would end, it was probably because they all had similar themes. There’s usually a young girl or woman, she makes a choice and it has grim consequences. There are very few happy endings in Tales From the Hinterland, and even the ones that do usually have a sinister twist to them.