THE HAZEL WOOD

by Melissa Albert; Flat iron Books(368 pages, $16.99)

Alice Proserpine has grown up on fairy tales.

Her estranged grandmother, Althea Proserpine, is the author of “Tales from the Hinterland,” a book of stories with a cult following. But Alice and her mother Ella have spent much of the 17-year-old’s life on the road, running from the bad luck that seems to catch up with them wherever they go.

After the death of Althea, a recluse on her Hazel Wood estate, Alice’s mom hopes their fortunes will change. When Ella is kidnapped, Alice is left with a trail of clues calling her to the Hazel Wood and hinting that the “Hinterland” is more than just a fairy tale invented by her grandmother. Having never actually read the book herself, Alice is forced to enlist help from classmate Ellery Finch, a superfan of Althea’s.

Melissa Albert’s “The Hazel Wood” is suspenseful and enchanting from the start, and the fairy tale world we’re drawn into is eerie and dangerous. As Althea’s Hinterland characters start to show their faces, we meet not the familiar Rapunzel or Sleeping Beauty, but doomed princesses and terrifying vampire-like temptresses.

Alice’s journey is full of twists, turns and fairy tale logic. There are some beguiling dreamlike sequences as she travels from Manhattan to the Hazel Wood and beyond. It takes a while to actually get to fairy land, and when we do, it’s something of a letdown.

But Albert spins a unique tale that plays nicely on the concepts of fairy tales and lets us believe in—or fear—the magic that may occasionally seep into our world.