The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
This promised readers a tale of a girl learning the fairy tales her grandmother wrote about are real. And instead of a subversively unsettling tale we got a clichéd mess about a poisonous brat who makes the potentially ominous story all about her insufferable self. This isn’t spirited or effective and the ‘heroine’ isn’t relatable, pleasant or positive. I felt radioactive loathing for this crap which isn’t mindful or considered and has no subtlety, resonance, genuine depth or feasibility. This is typically outlandish self-conscious teen angst BS. The ‘heroine’ thinks she is richly observant but is averse to sense and her raging temper is exhaustingly annoying.
Best Lines:
“Lie-fests.”
“This passed for charm when you were Harold.”
“He smiled in a way that made me afraid.”
“We were house-sitting for the kind of people who kept bits of murdered elephants around for show.”
