ARC Review--Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert

 

A gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve “lush and deliciously sinister fairy tales” (Kelly Link) by the New York Times bestselling 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.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans alike, Melissa Albert's Tales from the Hinterland features full-page illustrations by Jim Tierney, foil stamping, two-color interior printing, and printed endpapers.

 

 

 

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

 

Finally, the book I've been waiting for from Melissa Albert ever since The Hazel Wood debuted, Tales from the Hinterland! When you center a book around a book of unique fairy tales, you kind of want to know what those tales are all about! I think this would've made a greater prequel to the story and wish I had it before I read The Hazel Wood, but what can you do?

I initially thought I would review each tale here in a short little sentence or two, but that ended up being harder to do since the tales are somewhat short. There's very little I can say without giving away the entire story! Lol.

You can tell that all these fairy tales were heavily influenced by the original tales from Grimm, Andersen, and the other guys I am clearly forgetting. But those were my main two (three) dudes I loved to read growing up. I loved seeing those vague similarities; seeing the heavily influenced magic number 3, evil stepmothers, evil mothers, scheming queens, princesses falling under sleeping curses...it was all written so well.

These tales are not for the faint of heart though. Like our original tales, these are pretty dark and very heavy. I wouldn't go off and say they're for adults, but they're definitely not your Disney variety either. So think of them being on level with Grimm and Andersen in terms of heaviness and creepiness!

Like the handful of fairy tales of old, not all of these tales end happily either. There are some that end where you feel like it was unfair or unjust. There might have been one or two where I was little confused as to what the ending was trying to convey

Sadly, my ARC did not have any of the illustrations in it, so I can't comment on those, but I will definitely be looking forward to getting my finished copy to see them!

The great thing about this book is that you don't have to have read The Hazel Wood or The Night Country in order to grasp things. In fact, if you haven't started the series yet, I HIGHLY recommend reading this book first! Goodreads is boosting it as book 2.5 in the series, but take it from me read it first if you haven't started this series yet! When I read the books in the first go around, I really wanted to know more about the characters Alice encountered. I mean, looking back I can't quite remember who was deemed "villainous" and who wasn't. Even after reading this book I still can't say who I felt was of the villain variety. Most were trying to exact justice for the crimes committed against them.

But yes, if you have not read Melissa Albert's books yet, I strongly recommend starting here with Tales from the Hinterland! That way when the book gets mentioned and this character and that character pop up, you'll be in the know of everything! My ratings for the first two books were slightly lowered because I couldn't grasp who these fairy tales characters were and their history.

I truly enjoyed this book though and definitely look forward to seeing the illustrations of the final copy. Tales from the Hinterland is the perfect read for fans of fairy tales and fairy tale retellings! Though these tales weren't 100% based on the original ones we all know and love, you can definitely see some similarities and themes within them!

 

 

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars