The Hazel Wood
Stay away from the Hazel Wood.
A young adult book by Melissa Albert.
Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic 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 Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set.
This book provides examples of...
- Abusive Parents: A common occurrence in many of the stories from Tales From the Hinterland.
- Subverted by Ella, who is utterly devoted to her daughter and spent years on the run, trying to give Alice a life outside of her story.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Finch would love to enter the Hinterland. And he gets in… right after he's stabbed.
- Bittersweet Ending: Alice becomes ex-story, finds her mother, and they are financially stable for the first time. But Finch stays in the Hinterland and Alice finds herself longing for the magic and wonder of the Hinterland.
- Book Ends: The book begins and ends in New York.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Finch manages to get past Alice's defenses, and she begins to depend on him. Also a literal case when Alice is forced back into her story.
- Dysfunctional Family: A grandmother who rips a hole in reality, a daughter who steals an infant from a fairytale, and a granddaughter with some serious anger issues. And that's not even touching the step-father who pulls a gun on Alice and the step-sister who has her own issues.
- Establishing Character Moment: Alice and her mother on the road, driving away from yet another failed attempt to settle.
- The Evil Prince: Alice Three Times is a genderflipped example. She is cold and cruel.
- Grimmification: Tales from the Hinterland is viewed as this trope in-universe.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Stories in the Hinterland repeat themselves in a continuous loop, even though time moves normally for everyone else. Those who break the loop are called ex-story.
- Karma Houdini: Alice never really suffers any consequences for nearly killing herself and Finch in a car accident.
- Magical Land: The Hinterland
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Finch is a gender-flipped version. He's wealthy and kind, and willing to go along with pretty much anything Alice wants to do.
- Open-Minded Parent: Ella has always treated Alice with a great amount of respect, only pulling the parental card once: when Alice tried to read Tales from the Hinterland.
- Sadistic Choice: When Alice is forced to choose between killing herself or watching Finch die.
- When Dimensions Collide: If a story character from the Hinterland crosses over, others can follow.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Years pass in the Hinterland while a negligible amount of time goes by in Real Life. Finch ages significantly there, which is one of the reasons he decides not to go back.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: Story characters don't age or perceive the passing of time as they repeat their stories, but time around them in the Hinterland is linear. After becoming ex-story, Alice has no idea how many loops she's gone through and is shocked to find Finch has grown up while she hasn't.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Once back in the Hinterland, Alice can't stop herself from being returned to her story. Subverted when she escapes the loop to become ex-story.
