Book Title: The Night Country
Author: Melissa Albert
Pub Date: 01/07/2020
Series: The Hazel Wood #2
Genres: YA Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Goodreads
5 STARS
Amazon Pre-Order Link

SYNOPSIS:

In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.

With Finch’s help, Alice escaped the Hinterland and her reclusive grandmother’s dark legacy. Now she and the rest of the dregs of the fairy tale world have washed up in New York City, where Alice is trying to make a new, unmagical life. But something is stalking the Hinterland’s survivors―and she suspects their deaths may have a darker purpose. Meanwhile, in the winking out world of the Hinterland, Finch seeks his own adventure, and―if he can find it―a way back home…

♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣

“To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve even got a soul. If a soul is what makes you human, then I probably don’t. Unless a soul is something you can grow, like, after the fact. And I don’t think it is. So. No soul. Just to explain why your pickup line’s not working on me.”

Tehehehehe. I love being back in this world. If you thought The Hazel Wood was dark, just wait until you jump into The Night Country. This sequel kept all the things I loved about the first book, and brought in a bunch of new characters and plot sequences that kept this follow up feeling funky fresh. I rarely enjoy sequels as much as their original counterpart, but I may have loved this second novel set in the Hinterland even more than the first. What a time to be alive.

“We were predators set loose in a world not made to withstand us. Until the summer we became prey.”

This is one of those books where a) you really need to read The Hazel Wood before jumping into this one and b) I can’t really give you specifics in a review, because it would take away from the fun of reading the book. However, I can say that the writing in this installment is just as crisp, engaging, and suspenseful as the first one was, and having the privilege to listen to an advanced audio copy has given me the opportunity to encourage the listening folk to make the audiobook a priority. The atmosphere is ethereal and has a dreamlike quality, and the narrator is beyond fantastic. If you enjoyed Melissa Albert‘s debut, then her follow up story is a must. Highly recommended!

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copies via NetGalley and Libro.fm.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Melissa Albert is the founding editor of the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog and the managing editor of BN.com. She has written for McSweeney’s, Time Out Chicago, MTV, and more. Melissa is from Illinois and lives in Brooklyn. The Hazel Wood is her first novel.