The Night Country by Melissa Albert
Hello Books Lovers,
two years ago Rizzoli brought to Italy a book that had impressed many readers both in the States and in Italy itself. It had struck me too, very positively, for its originality and its good strangeness. The book in question is The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert, the first of a duology, and only a few days ago Rizzoli finally brought its sequel, The Night Country, to Italy. A small detail that you should know, if you have not read these books, is that the titles are very explanatory in themselves.
However, if you haven’t read The hazel wood, I advise you not to go any further by reading this article, because speaking of a sequel, there will be spoilers on the first book.
I will tell you, at first glance, seeing the somewhat short length of this book, I was a little doubtful about this ending. I wondered, how can 260 pages give a worthy conclusion to a new adventure that has begun in this sequel? Until the last page I had this doubt, I was ready to say that the ending had not done justice, but in reality the events ended well enough, enough to leave no room for doubt.
At this point you will have understood that there is a new adventure for Alice. By now they have all gone away from the Interlans, the Interland no longer exists. All the old stories ended up in New York, looking for a place to stay, knowing that they can never really feel at home. Alice has returned to her mother, she graduated, but soon the problems return. Because someone is killing the stories, this someone will try to kill Alice too.
It will not be easy to find the culprit. Not even I have been able to guess it. It was a real mystery, well written, right up to the last chapter. But this story also has another particular, its writing style, because in the course of the story we will have the chapters from the point of view of Alice in first person. From the middle of the book, occasionally there will also be third-person chapters from Finch’s point of view, do you remember Finch? He too will have an integral and important part in this volume. And then, again, we will find two stories, or fairy tales, call them as you like, within the book.
This too, like its predecessor, is a very special book. It’s not easy to categorize it, it’s a fantasy, but it feels like so much more. It is a thoughtful book, with morals, like any good story has. It tells of a survival adventure, but also of a journey to rediscover one’s own person. Really a worthy ending.
A negative point? Because let’s face it, nothing is perfect, not even a book as much as it may seem. Its being short could be an advantage because it can be read in a short time, but some events would have prospered more with a few more words, especially the ending when the culprit of the deaths is discovered. Having to compare the two volumes, perhaps the first in this last detail deserves a few more points.
