“ 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 “ 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 “An original and imaginative fairy tale: thrilling, fascinating, and poignant in equal measure.” - Entertainment Weekly, Best YA Book of the Year

It’s a captivating debut.” - The New York Times Book Review, 2018 Notable Children’s Book 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. “ The Hazel Wood starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. “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 “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 “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

“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 “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

The hazel wood series order