New York Times bestseller
Amazon Best Book of the Year So Far (Teens & Young Adult, Science Fiction & Fantasy)
“A charming, mysterious fable that unpacks what it means to be a story and whether we are all simply the stories we hear and tell.” —Cassandra Clare, author of the Mortal Instruments series
“What Albert renders on the page is audacious: with resounding success, she keeps a firm grip on her characters and their stories, and her prose weaves a magic of its own, animating the ever-expanding fantastical premise through lyrical language, striking metaphor, and a mastery of tone that forces readers to feel the magic along with the underlying emotional stakes.” —Booklist, starred review
“This fairy tale noir adventure blends romance and mystery with plenty of action...a must-read for fans of portal fantasies, mysteries, and readers who prefer their magic with bloody sharp edges.” —School Library Journal, starred review
“Albert’s legion of fans will relish her return to the bloody, terrifying, seductive world of her debut and the inventive brilliance of her storytelling.” —The Guardian
“A lush and enchanting tale. Albert effortlessly draws on a wide range of literary references and builds a world where magic really does emerge from pages and where books are not just figurative but literal doors. Dreamy and disturbing in equal measure, it’s the perfect antidote to a grey winter’s day.” —The Irish Times
“This follow-up to the astonishing The Hazel Wood displays the same lush prose, dizzying imagination, and macabre sensibilities. A necessary read for Hinterland fans—and who isn't?” —Kirkus Reviews
“Melissa Albert deftly weaves her magic once again between our world and the fairy tale realm of the Hinterland. The Night Country is a new modern classic filled with wondrous delights and daring forays into the dark. Not to be missed!” —Kim Liggett, author of The Grace Year
“The Night Country is so deliciously creepy—the kind of puzzle box nightmare you have to see through to the end. One of the most unputdownable books I’ve read in a long time.” —Emily X. R. Pan, author of The Astonishing Color of After
“Darker, bloodier and even stranger than The Hazel Wood, The Night Country invites the wolf from the forest inside your home. A sinister jewel of a novel, like splitting a pomegranate and finding the inside filled with blood and rubies, every sentence of this book thrilled and chilled me to the bone.” —Melinda Salisbury, author of The Sin Eater’s Daughter
“Starting with an unexpected kiss that breaks convention and ending with a new beginning, Albert transforms the traditional fairy tale, deconstructing the very notion of a happy story. Dark, yet inviting, The Night Country reimagines the way in which we tell stories through the realistic gaze of a teenager uncomfortable in her own skin. Rife with long-forgotten ghosts, unforgettable tales of fancy, and even a touch of romance, Albert shines in her sophomore novel, pulling the reader once more into the haunting depths of the Hinterland, where Stories rule, whether they know it or not.” —Paperback Paris
Praise for The Hazel Wood
New York Times bestseller
Seven starred reviews
#1 Indie Next Pick
Junior Library Guild Selection
ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List
Publishers Weekly Flying Start
“The Hazel Wood starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth, and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a good book. It's a captivating debut.” —The New York Times Book Review, 2018 Notable Children’s Book
“An original and imaginative fairy tale: thrilling, fascinating, and poignant in equal measure.” —Entertainment Weekly, Best YA Book of the Year
“Insidiously beautiful, this is the opposite of escapist fantasy; it is a story about the imagination’s power to loose atrocity into the (mostly) law-abiding confines of the real.” —The Guardian, Best Children’s Book of the Year
“A darkly brilliant story of literary obsession, fairy-tale malignancy, and the measures a mother will take to spare her child.” —The Wall Street Journal, Best Children’s Book of the Year
“This extremely creepy, wondrously original and beautifully written book conjures up a dark, bloody netherworld of fairytales and enchants and enthralls from the first sentence to the final page.” —The Buffalo News
“A contemporary fantasy that dwells in an atmospheric, intertwining world of terrifying circumstances; a breathtaking dive into the magic and importance of story in one’s identity." —Shelf Awareness, starred review
“Alice’s sharp-edged narration and Althea’s terrifying fairy tales, interspersed throughout, build a tantalizing tale of secret histories and magic that carries costs and consequences. There is no happily-ever-after resolution except this: Alice’s hard-won right to be in charge of her own story.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
”Highly literary, occasionally surreal, and grounded by Alice’s clipped, matter-of-fact voice, The Hazel Wood is a dark story that readers will have trouble leaving behind.” —Booklist, starred review
“Simultaneously wondrous and horrific, dreamlike and bloody, lyrical and creepy, exquisitely haunting and casually, brutally cruel. Not everybody lives, and certainly not ‘happily ever after’—but within all the grisly darkness, Alice's fierce integrity and hard-won self-knowledge shine unquenched.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“An empowering read that will be especially popular with fans of fairy-tale retellings.” —School Library Journal, starred review
11/15/2019
Gr 9 Up—It's been two years since Alice Proserpine fought her way out of the Hinterland and the fairy tale she inhabited there with help from Ellery Finch—the boy who chose to explore other worlds instead of returning with Alice to New York City. Being an ex-story isn't easy even in a city like New York, where strangeness already lurks on every corner. At first it seems like she might really be able to reinvent herself with a new, human life. But something is happening to the Hinterland survivors who made it out—something that's leaving them dead. While Alice tries to track down the culprit, Ellery has to try to find his own way out of the Hinterland before there's nothing left. Everyone knows how a fairy tale is supposed to end, but as Alice and Ellery search for answers and a way home, they soon realize that their tales are far from over and may not end happily. This sequel to The Hazel Wood is a suspenseful story of loss, hope, and searching. The fairy tale noir adventure blends romance and mystery with plenty of action as Alice struggles to stop a conspiracy with ramifications she can barely imagine. Alice's pragmatic first-person narration contrasts well with third-person chapters following Ellery as he tries to find his way home and, possibly, back to Alice. VERDICT A must-read for fans of portal fantasies, mysteries, and readers who prefer their magic with bloody sharp edges.—Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library
2019-10-25
A dark fantasy sequel asks whether characters who flee their stories still have a chance for a happy ending.
Once upon a time she was Alice-Three-Times, a vengeful princess in a grim fairy-tale world. Now she's just Alice, trying to be human in New York City even as her escape triggers a mass exodus from the Hinterland. Ellery Finch, the schoolmate who helped free her, is growing weary of his travels through alternate dimensions, finding his thoughts turning back to home—and Alice. Meanwhile, someone is murdering ex-Stories in a very Alice-ish way….This follow-up to the astonishing TheHazel Wood (2018) displays the same lush prose, dizzying imagination, and macabre sensibilities (along with the grisly body count). Evocative details limn exotic fairylands and gritty New York as equally magical. Personalities are more approachable: blonde, white Alice is less rage-fueled than filled with confusion, frustration, and longing; brown-skinned Finch has grown beyond his vacillating geekiness to courage and confidence. Alternating between Alice's first-person narration and Finch's third-person perspective, the twin plots don't intersect until the surreal, shattering climax; but since the romantic yearning that drives both protagonists was scarcely hinted in the first book, it never becomes convincing here. Still, they make a formidable team.
Plot bobbles aside, a necessary read for Hinterland fans—and who isn't? (Fantasy. 16-adult)
