The Boy Who Didn't Come Home

The Hazel Wood #1.5

by Melissa Albert

Ellery Finch took a one-way ticket to Fairyland. What happened next?

In “The Boy Who Didn’t Come Home”, readers will find out what Finch has been up to since "The Hazel Wood" ended, and before "The Night Country" begins.

*** Promotional Item, received with pre-orders of The Night Country

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Young Adult, Fiction, Short Stories, Fairy Tales, Magic

38 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2020

About the author

Melissa Albert is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of the Hazel Wood series and Our Crooked Hearts, and a former bookseller and founder of the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and included in the New York Times’ list of Notable Children’s Books. She enjoys swimming pool tourism, genre mashups, and living in Brooklyn with her hilarious husband and magnificently goofy son.

Okay, now I will stop talking about myself in the third person. I try to reply to all messages and questions, so please reach out, or come find me on Twitter (@mimi_albert) or Instagram (@melissaalbertauthor)! (But please note: I don't accept GR friend requests anymore because of Amazon's related review policy.)

Reviews

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mini novella from Finch’s POV. ☺️

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick, interesting read. I thought this novella was supposed to be from Finch’s point of view over events that happened after The Hazel Wood. Instead, it provides his perspective over some events that already happened in that. I did enjoy learning more about his backstory and motivations though. I have been saving this to read right before The Night Country, so I am hoping I can finally get to it in December.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Physical novella.
I loved this... Finch is one of my favorite characters and I'm so glad I got to see a little of his side of the story before the ending of The Hazel Wood... I'm so excited for more in The Night Country!

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quick little novella from the perspective of Finch. It was nice to get a peak into what happened to him as well as his point of view looking into Alice's story.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't generally like audio books, but this one wasn't bad at all.

The story picks up with Finch's story from The Hazel Wood, which focuses on Alice. It's really a short story, but it's a fun, quick read. It makes the most sense to read it together with The Hazel Wood. The audio book I had contained both. It's excellent and well worth the read. My only complaint is that we don't get "the rest of Finch's story." It goes no further than the end of The Hazel Wood. I really wanted to know what happened at the end of Alice's story (which obviously focused on her).

I will quickly follow up with the next two stories. Perhaps I can find my answers. This is a great collection!

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved being back in this world and seeing the events through Finch’s eyes. I’ve always been curious on Finch’s motivation and loved learning the reasoning behind it and cannot wait to dive into book 2!

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its soo sad that I enjoy this even more than I did "hazel wood".
It was really good to know what drove finch to help Alice and what did happened to him in the book cause I was indeed very curious.

[Badseedgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the tale of Ellery Finch and some of his experiences in the Hinterland while Alice was trapped in her own story. Turns out, mostly he was stalking Alice. Just kidding... but not really.

[Tiffani Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finch isn’t my favourite character to begin with so having his events of what happened to him in the Hinterlands, didn’t really do anything for me. Whether this adds anything that I will need to know for the second book remains to be seen, I could have done with out this novella and been fine.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this was SO SO SO SO creepy [and made even creepier by the narrators slow deliberate voice]. This short little story was in parts MUCH creepier than the 1st book all-together. S H U D D E R.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Finch, and it was nice to get his perspective on some of the events from The Hazel Wood. That said, this really didn't add much if anything to the story.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This didn’t add anything to the story for me. It just told a very small part from a different perspective.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️
The description of this novella isn’t up to date. This is supposed to be in Finch’s POV, taking place after the events of The Hazel Wood. Instead, it’s just a few scenes from The Hazel Wood, rewritten to focus on Finch. We understand his character a little better and we find out what he was doing when he wasn’t with Alice, but that’s it. Not very informative - you can forego this without any regrets and move on to the sequel without missing anything important.

[Carrie Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good bridge story between the first and the second books. It was nice seeing Ellery's perspective.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost didn't realise this was at the tail end of the Hazel Wood audiobook. Bonus! So good.

[talia ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"it would be an adventure to be stuck in a story."

i loved this short and i love finch <3

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting addition to the Hazel Wood story, but it didn't quite proved what I was expecting. We see what Finch was doing while Alice was living her story, but not really what happens after, as I was expecting. Still nice to see his side of things, but not exactly what I wanted from a Finch story.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction Novella
Given it's a bonus add on for Book 2 preorders I want expecting this to be a involved as a full addition to the series. I did kind of expect more than what's here, though. It's really just a drawn out explanation of getting Alice back from Finch's perspective and could have explored him more or added an adventure we had no idea even happened. But... nope.

[Nicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

When listening to the audiobook of The Hazel Wood via CloudLibrary, this tale was included at the end.

The Hazel Wood companion short story from Ellery Finch's perspective.

I'm happy they included this as you can see where his motivation actually came from. His need to "fix" the broken things of his life and his effort to save Alice.

[Courtney Fortenberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Strategy. This was why Finch loved Janet, one of the many reasons. She was a tea party in a hurricane. She could bring an academic rigor to a picnic.”

“You're a nice young man. Not as deep as you think you are. Not really destined to be a destroyer of worlds.”

Nice little bridge between books. I enjoyed it, short as it was.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely short story set on the edges of the main tale. Plus, it's hard not to love Ellory.

[Jessica Mannella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked seeing Finch’s story of him in the Hinterland it was coolio

[Aimee Sarchet · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only romance novella I need. I loved this perspective and felt it added some interesting depth to the original novel. I found it included at the end of The Hazel Wood audiobook.

[Lydia Hendricks · Rating 3 out of 5]

sweet little pov piece from this series! quick and easy

[Dana Vit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. It was Finch’s side of the story. He’s precious.

[Cammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story was deliciously written!

[Buzzkill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was super short, but I liked this slightly more than I liked the first story. I wanted Ellery Finch to be more involved and this sort of scratched that itch.

[Kristin Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's never good when you think about a book after you've read it and you realize that you gave it too many stars. The Hazel Wood universe loses its stars.

Full review @ https://shethinks23.blogspot.com/2020...

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and sweet. Nice short story.

[Stasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the plus side, this novella did put me to sleep, so it did what I wanted it to. But on the other hand, there was nothing I liked about it. At all. And I did like Finch in The Hazel Wood. I did not like the way it was written, and the "plot" I found extremely boring. Oh well.