The Hazel Wood
by Melissa Albert
*** (3 out of 5)
Disclaimer: The above Amazon Link is an affiliate link. If you purchase any books through one of my links I will get a small commission! All the thoughts/opinions in this post are mine and in no way influenced by Amazon.
Have you ever tried to fast forward something on the TV but accidentally pushed the button too many times and then it was going too fast that you couldn’t stop it in time?Thats what this book felt like.
It starts out really really slow. Then it speeds up and starts to get exciting. Then it goes too fast and just blurs through everything. It would have been much better if the pace stayed the same throughout the whole book.
Before I started reading I was worried about it being an Alice and Wonderland re-telling. When I was halfway through I couldn’t tell why it was considered a re-telling, but in the last half it makes more sense. She even mentions Alice and Wonderland in the book. But the story overall was still good. I liked the premise of it.
I liked the characters a lot but I wish we would have gotten to know more about some of them. There were so many side characters that seemed super interesting, but you never really learned their stories. A lot of them are alluded to as being stories from the Hinterland, but you don’t get to know anything about them, just bits and pieces and random allusions that make no sense. It was super frustrating!
Finally I didn’t really like the ending. The relationships didn’t turn out the way I hoped (I can’t say more without spoilers) and there were new characters introduced right at the end. This goes back to my last point! I want to know everyone’s stories!! Even if it is just a brief history!
Overall I thought the book was just “Meh” but I know a lot of people loved it. My friend Phil really liked it and he is actually the one that convinced me to read it. I will try to get him to write a review! But he is a butt so he probably won’t 😉 Help me convince him to write a guest review!!
Have you read The Hazel Wood? What did you think? Let me know in the comments! And tell Phil he needs to write a review since he made me read it!!
I received this on my Owlcrate and finally sat down to read it. I didn’t even get that far and I put it down. It was too boring for me and now I’m wondering if I should go back to it or not. Hmm… Sorry it wasn’t a winner for you! Great review. I’d love to
hear Phil’s thoughts. ❤ There are a lot of people recommending this book. 😁
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It definitely picks up its pace! By the middle I was completely engrossed and wanted to know what happened next! But then it got too fast and didn’t go into enough detail and I lost interest again haha. It needed to take the average and keep the same pace the whole book. And Thanks 😀
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I agree so much with this. The end of the book felt like a mess.
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Yay! I’m glad I am not the only one that felt this way!
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I have it on my TBR. I just might have to pick it up sooner rather than later.
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If you get around to it, I hope you like it! 😀 I know a lot of people did! It just wasn’t my cup of tea!
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I haven’t read this but I’ve read lots of mixed reviews. I’m curious to see how I feel about it😁
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I hope you like it! (Even though I didn’t much care for it I wouldn’t wish for anyone to not like a book they are reading!)
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Great honest review Brittany! many made comments on the pace as well. I don’t like Alice. At all! So this one is still sitting on my shelve unread…
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Thanks 😀 And I wouldn’t have read it if Phil hadn’t wanted me too haha. I don’t like Alice in Wonderland at all either!
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Your opening is spot on! I enjoyed the book but I was most interested in the snippets of the fairy tales we got and would have liked a lot more of them. It seemed like the hazel wood was a really fascinating place we may have spent a little too much time getting to 🙂
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Thanks! And exactly!! On Goodreads it shows that the author plans to publish a book called “Tales from the Hinterland” so maybe that is the same one from the story and it will have all the dark fairy tales? I would be interested in reading that!
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Aww man, I’m so sorry this one didn’t live up to the hype for you. I’ve heard mixed reviews about this – and I had such high hopes. You don’t often hear about Alice in Wonderland getting her own retelling. Normally the focus is on the bigger princess characters.
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Thanks! Its bound to happen every once in a while haha you can’t like every book! Don’t give up on it just because of my review! Maybe just go in with lower expectations if you plan on reading it 😀
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Very balance review. I love the gif you used for the pacing issue. I knew it sprats off slow but didn’t realise that it speeded up so much after too.
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Thanks 😀 And yea it just kept getting faster! There was a sweet spot in the middle that had a good speed tho.
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That’s good at least.
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I have thus on my TBR but it keeps getting pushed down. So many mixed reviews. I should probably jyst read it and see what I think. I do bot like slow though.
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If you do read it I hope you like it! If you can make it through the beginning it speeds up!
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Great review . I want to read it asap😚😙😍
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Thanks! I hope you like it!
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I loved this book, but the ending kinda dampened my overall enthusiasm as well. I just didn’t like certain aspects of it, but hopefully the next book will resolve some of these issues, because at the moment I still plan to continue the series.
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I am glad you loved it! My friend Phil loved it too! I hope they resolve everything in the sequel for you! I probably won’t read it, but I might read Tales of the Hinterland, which goodreads has listed as #2.5 in the series.
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That gif of Dash!!! What a perfect way to visualize the pacing problems you experienced. I’m sorry you felt that way, but that gif… 😉
The Hazel Wood is not on my TBR. I don’t like to read hyped books, and this one certainly has been hyped! I’m not surprised it came off as “meh” for you overall. I find that’s a trend for me and hyped novels.
This book is part of a series, yes? Do you plan on continuing it?
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Thanks 😀 I love that gif too! I haven’t been blogging long enough to have read a lot of hyped books, but I loved Geekerella and The Cruel Prince! So I don’t think it had anything to do with being hyped. I think I would have thought it was “meh” no matter what.
It is part of a series, but it is the only one that has been released. I won’t read the sequel to this book, but I might read the “Tales From The Hinterland” which is the fairy tale book that is referenced in “The Hazel Wood”
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It can be frustrating when pacing is uneven, and that’s a bummer you didn’t get to know much about the characters you found interesting. Sorry this one didn’t really work for you!
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Thanks! It was frustrating! but you can’t like all the books you read and I was due for a dud haha.
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