The Hazel Wood

How it reads

The Hazel Wood is young adult (dark fairy-tale fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in several locations, in no single period, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are family, identity and coming of age. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It opens a series. It ends on a cliffhanger, so have the next book ready. At 359 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.