I was the kid that had the Complete Collection of Grimm’s Tales and The Illustrated Hans Christian Andersen and got really annoyed when Disney didn’t get them right. Cinderella’s sisters are supposed to mutilate their feet to try to get the shoe to fit! The witch needs to kill Snow White THREE TIMES! The Little Mermaid is supposed to die, dammit! That’s the only way the story really makes sense! Basically, I was that kid who wanted her stories dark and gorey. I have a feeling Tales From the Hinterland, were it real, would have been right up my alley. So I was all keyed up to love this book.
I did like it a lot, but I’m not going to lie, it took a while to get going. Right when I was starting to wonder if this was for me things started getting good and I flew through the second half. So, that is my advice to anyone thinking of reading- hang in there for a bit before you decide if you like it or not.
Alice is a very angry girl. She has been as long as she can remember. Maybe it’s because she band her mom have spent her entire life moving from place to place, never taking time to settle down. Maybe it’s due to the bad luck that seems to follow them wherever they go. Maybe it’s just who she is. Then, one day, they get a letter informing them that Alice’s grandmother, the cult author of Tales From the Hinterland has died, and presumably her estate, The Hazel Wood, is now thiers. Alice’s mother is elated, they are finally free! Alice isn’t sure what she’s talking about, but that sounds good to her; though she is disappointed when her mom tells her there is no way they are ever going to the Hazel Wood.
Soon after, though, things stop seeming fine. Her mom is abducted from their house, and her stepfather, who she’s never had a great relationship with anyway, seems to blame her. The only clue is a note, telling her to come to the Hinterland. Alice was forbidden from reading her grandmother’s book, and her mother’s last words to her were, “do not go to The Hazel Wood,” so she has no idea what is happening. While she has always avoided her grandmother’s fans, they tend to be creepy and obsessive, she now turns to her classmate Ellery for help. He loves the book, but his copy was mysteriously stollen not long ago so he can’t lend it to her, but he will help her try to figure out what is happening and why the characters seem to be appearing throughout Manhattan. The answers all seem to lead to the forbidden Hazel Wood.
Like I said, it took me a little while to get in to this. I’m a little over the “she’s aloof and angry, and she doesn’t know why. She’s just not like the OTHER girls…” trope, to be honest, so that was a little hard for me to get on board with. It has a good payoff here, but it does take a while to get there. I’m glad I stuck it out, there is a lot of great world building and an inventive arc to the character’s growth. The way the stories from the book get wound in through the main plot, without having full stops for “story time” is really inventive as well.
I kind of wish I had more to say about it, I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, and while I really enjoyed the reading experience, I just wasn’t left with a whole lot else to say about it. It’s a fun, interesting, darker take on the whole “fractured fairytale” concept, I recommend giving it a hot if that is something that you find interesting.