'Groundhog Day' Loop: Stories in the Hinterland repeat themselves in a continuous loop, even though time moves normally for everyone else.Grimmification: Tales from the Hinterland is viewed as this trope in-universe.The Evil Prince: Alice Three Times is a genderflipped example.Establishing Character Moment: Alice and her mother on the road, driving away from yet another failed attempt to settle.And that's not even touching the step-father who pulls a gun on Alice and the step-sister who has her own issues. Dysfunctional Family: A grandmother who rips a hole in reality, a daughter who steals an infant from a fairytale, and a granddaughter with some serious anger issues.Also a literal case when Alice is forced back into her story. Defrosting Ice Queen: Finch manages to get past Alice's defenses, and she begins to depend on him.Book Ends: The book begins and ends in New York.But Finch stays in the Hinterland and Alice finds herself longing for the magic and wonder of the Hinterland. Bittersweet Ending: Alice becomes ex-story, finds her mother, and they are financially stable for the first time.And he gets in… right after he's stabbed. Be Careful What You Wish For: Finch would love to enter the Hinterland.Subverted by Ella, who is utterly devoted to her daughter and spent years on the run, trying to give Alice a life outside of her story.Abusive Parents: A common occurrence in many of the stories from Tales From the Hinterland.But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels.

Into the hazel wood