Melissa Albert

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away-by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.” Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

The New York Times bestselling sequel to Melissa Albert’s beloved The Hazel Wood! In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors of The Hazel Wood. 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...

A gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales by the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country! Journey into the Hinterland, a brutal and beautiful world where a young woman spends a night with Death, brides are wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and an enchantress is killed twice―and still lives. “Lush and deliciously sinister fairytales to be consumed as greedily as Turkish delight or any fairy fruit. I loved these.” ―Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble “This inventive, enchanting collection reads like the fairy tales of old, hushed stories passed woman to woman, before the Grimms came and wiped away all the blood.” ―Laura Ruby, author of Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All “The writing is as spare and precise as poetry, connected to the darker, edgier elements of fairy-tale conventions. Albert’s rich and tightly focused collection forms the core of the mythology created in her novels, and her fans will be thrilled at this further glimpse into that world.” ―Booklist, starred review “Stories fueled by feminist rage, the frustration of being unnderestimated, and the insatiable longing to experience more mark this collection as timely and universal.” ―SLJ

Secrets. Lies. Bad choices. Dangerous magic. . . . This is Our Crooked Hearts, a contemporary fantasy "so precise and enthralling that the only explanation is that Albert herself is a witch" (Booklist, starred review) On the way home from a party, seventeen-year-old Ivy and her soon-to-be ex nearly run over a nude young woman standing in the middle of a tree-lined road. It’s only the first in a string of increasingly eerie events and offerings: a dead rabbit in the driveway, a bizarre concoction buried by her mother in the backyard, a box of childhood keepsakes hidden in her parents’ closet safe. Most unsettling of all, corroded recollections of Ivy and her enigmatic mother’s past resurface, with the help of the boy next door. What if there’s more to Ivy’s mother than meets the eye? And what if the supernatural forces she messed with during her own teen years have come back to haunt them both? Ivy must grapple with these questions and more if she’s going to escape the darkness closing in. Straddling Ivy’s contemporary suburban town and her mother’s magic-drenched 1990s Chicago, this bewitching and propulsive story rockets towards a conclusion guaranteed to keep readers up all night.

Ellery Finch took a one-way ticket to Fairyland. What happened next? In “The Boy Who Didn’t Come Home”, readers will find out what Finch has been up to since "The Hazel Wood" ended, and before "The Night Country" begins. *** Promotional Item, received with pre-orders of The Night Country

A gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales by the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country! Before The Hazel Wood, there was Althea Proserpine's Tales from the Hinterland...Journey into the Hinterland, a brutal and beautiful world where a young woman spends a night with Death, brides are wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and an enchantress is killed twice--and still lives.

Goddess, goddess, count to five In the morning, who’s alive? In the course of a single winter’s night, four people vanish without a trace across a small town. Nora’s estranged best friend, Becca, is one of the lost. As Nora tries to untangle the truth of Becca’s disappearance, she discovers a darkness in her town’s past, as well as a string of coded messages Becca left for her to unravel. These clues lead Nora to a piece of local folklore: a legendary goddess of forgotten origins who played a role in Nora and Becca’s own childhood games... An arresting, crossover horror fantasy threaded with dark magic, THE BAD ONES is a poison-pen love letter to semi-toxic best friendship, the occult power of childhood play and artistic creation, and the razor-thin line between make-believe and belief.

De zeventienjarige Alice is het grootste deel van haar leven samen met haar moeder op de vlucht geweest voor het ongeluk dat hen achtervolgt. Maar wanneer Alice' oma, schrijfster van een duister sprookjesboek, op haar landgoed het Hazelwoud overlijdt, lijkt het ongeluk hen in te halen: Alice' moeder wordt ontvoerd door een man die zegt dat hij uit het Achterland komt - de dreigende bovennatuurlijke wereld uit haar oma's verhalen. Alice' enige aanwijzing is het bericht dat haar moeder voor haar achterlaat: BLIJF WEG UIT HET HAZELWOUD Alice heeft haar oma's fanatieke fans altijd zo veel mogelijk vermeden, maar nu zit er niets anders op: ze moet hulp vragen aan haar klasgenoot en Achterland-superfan Ellery Finch. Hij helpt haar gelukkig maar al te graag, al vraagt Alice zich wel af waarom hij zo gretig op haar aanbod ingaat. Om haar moeder terug te vinden, moeten Alice en Ellery afreizen naar het Hazelwoud, naar de wereld waar haar oma's sprookjes hun oorsprong vonden. Zal Alice er tijdens haar zoektocht achter komen waar haar eigen verhaal begon... en vooral waar het misging?

«  Ne t’approche sous aucun prétexte d’Hazel Wood.  » Ces quelques mots laissés par la mère d’Alice juste avant son enlèvement scellent à tout jamais le destin de la jeune fille. Hazel Wood, la résidence légendaire d’Althéa Proserpine, auteur des célèbres «  Contes de l’Hinterland  ». Hazel Wood, dont vient d’hériter Alice. Hazel Wood, où Alice doit s’aventurer  pour espérer sauver sa mère. Hazel Wood, cette demeure d’où semblent s’échapper des personnages inventés par Althéa. Hazel Wood, dont personne ne revient jamais. Et si Hazel Wood était bien plus qu’un simple manoir  ? Un leurre  ? Une porte d’entrée sur l’Hinterland  ? Et si Alice était bien plus qu’une simple New-Yorkaise  ? Une princesse  ? Une tueuse  ? Il était une fois… Hazel Wood.