The Night Country by Melissa Albert is the conclusion to the Hazel Wood duology.
With Finch’s help, Alice escaped the Hinterlands and the dark story her grandmother wrote for her. Alice returned to the world of subways and street vendors while Finch stayed behind.
But Alice’s departure sparked a catalyst, a mass exodus of stories from the Hinterlands and now NYC is teaming with stories, some of whom still have a small measure of power. Each story is trying to make a life for themselves beyond the Hinterlands, for good or bad, Alice included.
Something is stalking the stories; killing them off and taking trophies. Alice can’t let go out her past until she uncovers the truth of these killings. Meanwhile, Finch follows his own adventure and maybe, one day, a door back home.
The Night Country was a good sequel. I don’t know if it was necessarily needed but for readers who don’t like to give up a good world, then this will be a great read.
In The Hazel Wood Alice was portrayed as this character struggling with who she was, someone trying to be good who had a dark side she had to embrace in order to understand the truth. In this one, it is kind of the opposite. Alice wants to forget her dark side, but she embraces it in order to do the right thing.
The stories in this book kept talking about how Alice didn’t know her own story, how it ended. And even Alice says that she wants Finch to be the one to tell it…. Did I miss it or did we never actually get the end of the story? That was the major thing that bugged me about this book. I felt there were a few loose ends. We never really get a resolution with the girl helping Finch, we never get Alice’s story and a few other loose ends along the way.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. It was nice to get a glimpse back into the world Albert created but I missed the dark magic, the more fairy tale feel of the first book. This one just didn’t wow me quite at much. That’s why it gets 3.5 stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-