The Hazel Wood

“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.

“This book isn’t for children.” 

This is the rationale Ella gives for quickly taking Tales from the Hinterland from Alice when Alice comes across a copy at age 10. Alice is so surprised by her mother’s reaction that she does not know how to reply; Ella has always told Alice the truth about everything despite her age. Significantly, and as is the case with children, Ella’s insistence that Alice can’t read it makes Alice want to read the book all the more. Strangely, though, she can never find a copy to procure for herself.

“Everyone at Whitechapel was rich, but Finch was on another level.” 

This line of character description suggests that Finch will be an important figure in Alice’s story. His wealth may set him apart at their school, but the line also has significant additional meaning. Finch is very different in his physical traits (his size, appearance, and dress) as well as his complexity (which Alice suspects stems from his mother’s death, possibly a suicide). His characterization in this line connotes an otherworldly sense as well, similar to the way a magical character might be described in a fairy tale.

“My skin felt keyed up and nervy. And there was something else: the pressure-shift feeling of bad luck on the move, as familiar to me as the smell of Ella’s skin […] Think of every room you walk into being filled the sense of someone having just left it.” 

These details foreshadow the moment Alice walks into Harold’s apartment and discovers the smell, the disappearance of Ella, Harold, and Audrey, and the title page in the envelope. It is significant that Alice characterizes the bad luck as being “on the move”; this detail foreshadows the appearance of Twice-Killed Katherine and the cab driver, who follow her.

“But by the next morning, I’d decided she was right. I was done holding a torch for a stranger.” 

Alice recollects how, years before, she tried to use fan blogs and message boards to feel closer to Althea. When Ella caught her on a blog one night, she told Alice that Althea would never care about them. This line is significant in that Alice decided Ella was right: She gave up trying to follow any deep fans or fan theories. When she meets Finch, consequently, some friction exists.

“Your mom is gone.” 

Audrey tells Alice this bluntly and in a tone of exhaustion. Audrey explains in short, cryptic phrases that the Hinterland took them but let Harold and her go. Alice sees that Audrey is in shock. This line is notable because it is the only bit of information Alice gets from Harold or Audrey about Ella on the day of the abduction.

“It’s a birdcage. It’s what Twice-Killed Katherine carries. This is it […] This is the Hinterland!” 

Finch’s line notes the first time a named character from the Hinterland tales appears in the real world. He recognizes her and her destructive capabilities because he read the story. He is also able to reassure Alice that Katherine would not harm her mother because Katherine only hurts men.

“Don’t you wonder if your mom’s not the one they want? What if you’re the target, and she’s the bait?” 

Finch asks Alice this before they sleep in his friend David’s sister’s room. Displaced and wondering what their next move will be, Alice realizes it doesn’t really matter if the Hinterland is after her; her goal is Ella’s safe return, at practically any cost. Finch prompts Alice to realize her mother would do the same for her.

“Get out, and don’t even think about train to come back to steal this. It’ll be out of my shop in an hour. Someone else can deal with the cursed thing.” 

The rare book dealer William Perks kicks out Alice and Finch from his shop after the strange Polaroid of them taken just that morning falls from the book. The moment shows how the Hinterland is toying with them and capable of sneaking close as they sleep. It also induces a sudden migraine and fainting episode in Alice. Perks associates the book itself with a supernatural quality, calling it “cursed.”

“I wasn’t my mother, but I was the closest thing Ness was gonna get.” 

Alice has this thought as Ness reveals her location via reply to Alice’s posted comment on Ness’s last entry. Her words play on several levels, as Alice is in the process of remembering more and more about her history of travel with Ella and wonders about Ella’s upbringing with Althea. She inadvertently notes their similarities and differences with every backstory revelation.

“You’re Althea’s granddaughter […] Go to the woods. If they want you to find them, you will.” 

These fairy-tale-like words from Ness send Alice from the messy apartment with little to go on except the news article she tore out and took. Ness’s line, however, matches the tone of her whole sad and curious story about her time at the Hazel Wood and punctuates for Alice the new knowledge that others have seen Hinterland characters before.

“Then she was standing in her father’s house, alive and alone, and Death didn’t feel cheated because she’d traded a life for her own.”

This line appears in Finch’s oral re-telling of “The Door That Wasn’t There,” when Anya succeeds in trading her life for that of her father’s new son. She uses deception to carry out this plan, as the new son thought he would be joining Anya on the other side of the door she encouraged him to draw. This moment signifies how kind characters turn to cruelty when faced with desperation and Death.

“I don’t buy it […] You seem like one of the good ones.” 

Alice tells this to Finch as they awkwardly recover from her anger episode with the policeman and driving off the road. She is sincere, but Finch disagrees in a strange tone that makes Alice wary. Readers learn soon after that Finch has made a deal with the Hinterland to get Alice near the Hazel Wood.

“Hell is caring about other people.” 

Alice thinks this to herself in the motel after she loses control of her anger and purposefully steers Finch and herself off the road. She regrets her actions and her irrational temper and wants to apologize, realizing that Finch is one of only a very few people she cares about—really, it’s just him and Ella. This line is ironic as the reader is about to learn that Finch betrayed Alice’s trust and made an agreement with Hinterland characters.

“I’m not […] a house cat.” 

Alice tells Twice-Killed Katherine this line of dialogue immediately before slapping her in the bus stop parking lot in Nike. Katherine insulted Alice with the use of “house cat”; curiously, it is the same insult as the one a teacher used years ago, prompting Alice to cut off her hair. This moment is also significant because while the slap causes Alice’s hand and arm to burn as if on fire, Katherine shows that the slap injured her as well. Alice begins to sense that the Hinterland characters are afraid of her.

“You’ve made it as far as the Halfway Wood. You’ll find your way from here. Or perhaps you won’t.” 

Alice tries to hide from the strange group and the knife fight between the aviatrix and a man “dressed like Mr. Rochester” (224), but the aviatrix knows she lurks in the bushes. Alice shows herself and asks for directions to the house, and this is the aviatrix’s reply. The content of the line is riddle-like and reminiscent of fairy tale advice; it contributes to the tone, style, and atmosphere of the surroundings.

“Another fairy-tale lesson learned: Don’t look back.”

Alice thinks this to herself after the feather expands to full wings and carries her directly to the Hazel Wood mansion. The wings puff away in the wind, and Alice begins to assess the house and grounds, reminding herself with this line that in a story, the part yet to happen is always more important than the part already told.

“You are a walking, talking bridge to the Hinterland. Anywhere you go, the wall between the worlds grows thin. They get through. They do damage.” 

Althea tells Alice this when Alice finds Althea inside the Hazel Wood estate. Althea tells teenaged Ella their story; now Alice knows she is a living character from the Hinterland stolen away by Ella. The line is significant proof that Alice’s greatest fear is realized: The “bad luck” trailing Ella and her all her life really is because of her as Hinterland characters have tried to get her back since Ella, the Thief, took her.

“If they glow at the edges, move like they’re in a trance, smell like smoke or glowers or salt, or generally look like they belong in a murder ballad, steer very, very clear.” 

Alice hears this advice from the first refugee she meets upon arriving in the Hinterland. He points out that she should avoid involving herself in any Stories or their stories and sends her to an old woman who can direct her to Janet. The line is notable for its irony; he is a few beats away from realizing she is Story.

“She was a jailer taking me back to my cell, and I was letting her. Based on the idiot notion that somewhere inside was a key.” 

Alice meets the Story Spinner in the Hinterland, and though she tries to tell herself not to trust the Spinner, she cannot help but go into the castle where the story of Alice-Three-Times plays out. Alice’s assessment of her own situation in these lines of interior monologue is notable because it highlights her increasing inability to control her actions; the compulsion to simply join her story is too strong.

“That’s what you’re worried about? Dying’s not so hard, Alice-Three-Times. You’ve done it before.” 

The Spinner tells Alice that once she is back in her story where she belongs, she will never want to leave. Alice asks if she dies in the end, bringing this response from the Spinner. The line represents Alice’s last effort for control moments before the Spinner sends her into the story; Alice tries to run, but the Spinner catches her and forces her to submit to the plot of “Alice-Three-Times” exactly as the Spinner wrote it.

“I needed you to come back here, so you could help me break it […] Because I’m not a page in a book.” 

The younger redhaired brother tells Alice this when he tries to break free of the Spinner’s tale of “Alice-Three-Times.” The line is crucial to understanding that when this character attempted to “spirit” six-year-old Alice away from Ella in the blue Buick, he was not doing so with any negative intentions; he wanted to change the story’s trajectory and needed Alice to help him do it.

“I don’t have a story.” 

Alice speaks these ironic words to the woman who stops on the road once Alice leaves the woods. Alice’s tone is insistent and instinctive; she wants to state strongly and immediately that she is ex-Story, having broken free of the Spinner’s tale “Alice-Three-Times.” Her line is ironic with double meaning, though, as she now has quite a story to tell about her experiences.