Gr 9 Up--This dark fantasy sequel to The Hazel Wood finds Alice struggling in New York after having been rescued from the Hinterlands by her friend Finch. After someone tries to kill her on the subway, she realizes people from the Hinterlands are infiltrating the human world and murdering ex-Stories like her. Narrator Rebecca Soler returns to the series, voicing the multiple perspectives effortlessly. She reads Alice in the first person in an edgy, intense manner, while Finch tells his perspective in the third person as he wanders through different worlds. Soler gives the book a creepily atmospheric tone while reading the lyrical text with ease. While it is necessary to have finished The Hazel Wood to fully comprehend this sequel, those who have will not be disappointed. It is slow to start but explodes into a satisfying conclusion. Don't give this to your faint-of-heart listeners as violence and blood abound. VERDICT Lovers of dark fairy tales and The Hazel Wood will inhale this.--Julie Paladino, formerly with East Chapel Hill H.S., NC

The hotly anticipated follow-up to Albert's The Hazel Wood (2018) begins with Alice, following her rescue from imprisonment as a Story by classmate Ellery Finch, back home and attempting to live a normal, human life. She soon discovers, however, that her escape from the Hinterland has left that world cracked, with its denizens leaking into New York City. A string of ex-Story murders draws Alice back into their twisted community, and after being framed for the atrocities, she's forced to find the killer herself. Chapter perspectives shift between Alice and Finch, who wanders through a perilous, time-distorted multiverse until their two stories collide. What begins as a slow burn almost an extended epilogue, focused on the aftermath of book one and a comparatively low-stakes mystery pays off tremendously as the various pieces of this puzzle come together. What Albert renders on the page is audacious: with resounding success, she keeps a firm grip on her characters and their stories, and her prose weaves a magic of its own, animating the ever-expanding fantastical premise through lyrical language, striking metaphor, and a mastery of tone that forces readers to feel the magic along with the underlying emotional stakes. It's a magnificent creation, laden with wonder and fear impossible to turn away from, that will satisfy fans and grow with readers over time. Literal goose bumps.--Ronny Khuri Copyright 2019 Booklist

A dark fantasy sequel asks whether characters who flee their stories still have a chance for a happy ending.Once upon a time she was Alice-Three-Times, a vengeful princess in a grim fairy-tale world. Now she's just Alice, trying to be human in New York City even as her escape triggers a mass exodus from the Hinterland. Ellery Finch, the schoolmate who helped free her, is growing weary of his travels through alternate dimensions, finding his thoughts turning back to homeand Alice. Meanwhile, someone is murdering ex-Stories in a very Alice-ish way.This follow-up to the astonishing TheHazel Wood (2018) displays the same lush prose, dizzying imagination, and macabre sensibilities (along with the grisly body count). Evocative details limn exotic fairylands and gritty New York as equally magical. Personalities are more approachable: blonde, white Alice is less rage-fueled than filled with confusion, frustration, and longing; brown-skinned Finch has grown beyond his vacillating geekiness to courage and confidence. Alternating between Alice's first-person narration and Finch's third-person perspective, the twin plots don't intersect until the surreal, shattering climax; but since the romantic yearning that drives both protagonists was scarcely hinted in the first book, it never becomes convincing here. Still, they make a formidable team.Plot bobbles aside, a necessary read for Hinterland fansand who isn't? (Fantasy. 16-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.