Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

20 reviews

cyanlizc's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

this NEEDS to be a studio ghibli movie! it would be soooo excellent!! 
but about the book: the story was so great and fun with plenty of twists and turns, none of them felt cheesy or shallow. the writing was great, I loved the author's metaphors. She wasn't trying too hard but she also wasn't just slapping words down (like some of these other authors.....). A really cool story within a story within a story and some cool characters on a cool journey. 
The only reason I rated it a little lower than I would've is because fantasy is not a genre I normally read.

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lawbooks600's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Representation: N/A
Score: Five points out of ten.

One year ago, I mistakenly read The Hazel Wood's sequel, The Night Country, which I initially enjoyed but later repulsed. One year later, it was time to read The Hazel Wood, which initially looked promising until I checked the ratings and reviews, thus lowering my expectations. However, nothing could prepare me for how disappointing it was. Did I mention The Hazel Wood was also on the BookTok shelf? 

It starts with the first character I see, Alice Proserpine, or Alice for short, forced to move to The Hazel Wood estate after her grandmother dies. I would classify this novel as a contemporary urban YA fantasy, which appeals to me since I like fantasy stories, but unfortunately, it didn't work out. The Hazel Wood's most prominent flaws lie in its pacing, worldbuilding and characters. For starters, the pacing is too monotonous and not engaging enough to keep me reading. It makes The Hazel Wood less like under 400 pages and more like 500 pages. All the characters are two-dimensional, and Alice is the most infuriating because how she talks to people comes off as irritating at best and frustrating at worst. The worldbuilding is nonexistent. There's no reason why everything is the way they are. I'm done with this author.

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lyricallit's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
This reminded me a bit of The Most Precious Substance and the TV show Once. 

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tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
A wild ride of a book about the sometimes dangerously blurry line between the "real" world and the world of stories. If you like your fairy tales on the creepy side, this one's for you.

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inkysplodge's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75


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bookishgia's review against another edition

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problematic discussions of racism and white privilege, the most insufferable main character who used her anger and virtuous violence to propel herself forward but had no regret or mind to the others around her. I stopped at 49% when some secondary antagonists came back on page urging Alice to unalive herself to "make a door" and save Finch, who was just revealed to have betrayed her. Extremely triggering for some and should not have been included

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bookishthea's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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theyellowbrickreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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saskiajva's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The author has created an incredibly intriguing world full of mysteries and surprises. It starts pretty slow in my opinion but really ramps up by the last 100 pages! I will say, the treatment of the one BIPOC character felt gratuitously racist and disturbing at points.
particularly, at one point the main character does some things that put the side character in danger particularly due to his race, and when he calls her out on it she becomes so angry she literally attempts to crash her car with him in it in an attempt to threaten and intimidate him. Less than a chapter later the BIPOC character is murdered in a very senseless manner, and although he comes back to life later, the author never addresses her abuse and racism beyond “her magical curse makes her mean”.

Outside of that, I was surprised that the characters spent the majority of the book in New York trying to prove this world even existed. I almost stopped reading around page 200 when they hadn’t gotten to the actual fairy tale world yet, but around page 220 or so the book kicked into high gear and didn’t stop until the very end. I would’ve loved to have gotten to spend more time inside the magical Hinterland as it’s truly the intriguing writing. The set up did pay off in many ways, and maybe if I reread it I’d find more interest, but I just don’t think this book is for me.

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dreamofbookspines's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

3.5

Like dark fairytales? This is for you. Fan of cold main characters? Also for you. The weaving together of fairytales is maybe a bit clumsy in places, but mostly the retellings hang well together. Albert's writing style is good, descriptive and lovely and haunting.

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