The Hazel Wood

“My mother was raised on fairy tales, but I was raised on highways.” 

Alice presents this blunt juxtaposition in her slightly cynical tone, introducing the exposition of the story. Ella, Alice’s mother, spent her childhood and teen years at the Hazel Wood, her mother Althea Proserpine’s estate. Alice’s claim that her mother was raised on “fairy tales” is somewhat sardonic, as the tales in Althea’s story collection are very grim—and so were Althea’s recent events: Her royal-descendant second husband killed himself, and Althea locked herself and Ella away behind the gates of Hazel Wood for 14 years. Alice is quite realistic when she says she was raised on highways; she and Ella have led a nomad’s existence throughout Alice’s 17 years, uprooting frequently as bad luck always seemed to follow them close behind.

“I hadn’t seen the book in years, but I knew what it was the instant I spied the familiar green cover.”

Alice sees the redhaired man who briefly kidnapped her when she was six under the guise of a friend taking her to see Althea. The man leaves when Alice spots him in the coffeehouse where she works. She notices he carries out with him the published book her grandmother wrote, a collection of dark stories called Tales from the Hinterland. This line shows the long-term influence the book has had over Alice; though she was never able to find a copy for herself, she recognizes it immediately.