So begins, then, a rather unconventional road trip through a slightly off-kilter New York and eventually into a demented land of make-believe, as Alice sets out with her wealthy classmate - and self-confessed Hinterland obsessive - Ellery Finch to track down her mother, despite having been warned away.

Now Althea has died in her secluded rural estate, the Hazel Wood of the title, and shortly afterward Ella disappears, perhaps whisked away by a creature sprung from AltheaвЂ™s imagination. Those ills might be the responsibility of AliceвЂ™s grandmother, Althea, a reclusive writer whose dark fairytale collection, Tales from the Hinterland, has achieved a ravenous cult fandom who hang on its every atypical word.

And like my review of that locked-room whodunit, with public interest probably higher now that itвЂ™s going to be for a while, I find myself returning to this assured YA debut for a brief write-up on what was probably the best book in its field during its year of release.Д«lending the enduring dreamlike qualities of the best fairytales with a plainer kind of psychological horror, the setup is intriguing: Alice, a seventeen-year-old with an attitude, and her mother, Ella, have lived an itinerant lifestyle throughout the United States, finally settling in New York where presumed but not perceived ills catch up with them. Like One of Us Is Lying, Melissa AlbertвЂ™s The Hazel WoodВ has a new sequel. A well-written young-adult fairytale that mixes fantastical escapism with moody horror to fine effect in an assured debut.

Noodlesoft hazel review