Format: ebook
Published: October 18th, 2022
Age: Middle Grade / Teen
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Absolutely adorable! I’m really glad to be seeing the kind of themes Hazel Hill tackles in Middle Grade fiction, and hope it’s an ongoing trend. 12-year-old Hazel is a bit of a loner; she doesn’t really interact with anyone at school, and is totally focused on the upcoming speech competition after losing to Ella Quinn the previous year. The only person she speaks to is Tyler, or, rather, Tyler speaks at her. Often. Revealing almost everything about his dating life and crushes. Which comes in very useful when Hazel discovers Tyler has been harassing Ella Quinn through an anonymous ‘ask me anything’ app.
I loved Hazel. Horne has given Hazel an incredibly relatable and witty voice, and she really comes across as 12-year-old girl trying to work out the right thing to do. She’s also quite anxious and tends to overthink things and finds friendships difficult, but as the book progresses, she realises friendships aren’t all that bad.
Horne cleverly handles how the girls approach the situation, too – there are specific reasons they can’t talk to parents or teachers, or at least feel unable to, ranging from worries over not being believed, or flat out being punished when they try to do something. For readers who relate to Hazel, I think this is crucial; Hazel is a ‘good girl’, as acknowledged by multiple adults around her, but it doesn’t help her case, and in fact it means the adults view Ella Quinn as a ‘problem’, rather than a preteen needing help. There’s a lot of layers to Horne’s approach here, and it’s done in way I think adult readers can gain a lot out of, but, more importantly, unfortunately too many of the intended audience will completely understand.
It’s a wonderful book about finding your voice, but pulling in themes of friendships, coming of age, and tackling the misogyny too often faced by girls and women, from both the boys/men around them, and from other women. Horne has crafted an excellent book, one enjoyable for adults, but one I’d also encourage you to get for younger readers in your life, both girls and boys.
Reading Challenge
Musicals Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt: Matilda the Musical – When I Grow Up – Middle Grade or younger, OR a child as the/a main character
Progress: 7/24
Unwrapping Words 