Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

5 reviews

thejadylady's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

It’s kinda scary! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Bullying, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Suicide, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

saskiajva's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Racism, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol

sunnydale's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As someone who loves fairy tales and fairy tale scholarship, I felt so seen. Beneath the story, which was compelling on its own, was the author's clear understanding of why we tell fairy tales and why they hold power over us. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Gun violence, Suicide, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

The protagonist is kidnapped as a child, but is unharmed and not sexually abused in any way. The kidnapper's identity is later revealed, and he never intended to hurt her.

sssssoup's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I read it for the first time a few years ago, and I’m so glad I decided the read it again for spooky season this year.

I’m a huge fan of the dark fairy tale aspect of the story. It’s very well developed and interesting, and I love how the author incorporated a story within a story; it’s not something you see very often.

The characters are what really sell it for me. Alice is a very well rounded and complex protagonist; she may not be the most likable character, but her story is engaging and I love how well developed her backstory is. Her memories from her childhood really help to develop her personality for the audience and a lot of depth to her. Finch is one of my favorite characters from recent YA because he’s entertaining and deep at the same time. Like Alice, his trauma and backstory are very well written and really help show his depth.

The writing style is fantastic as well and it’s beautiful to read. It feels very poetic and deep yet realistic at the same time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Stalking, and Car accident