Melissa Albert Books in Order (Updated March 7, 2026)

With Melissa Albert, the main reading-order issue is narrow. She has one clear connected sequence, and then a set of separate novels that share mood and obsessions rather than continuity.

So the practical split is this:

• Read together: The Hazel Wood books
• Read anytime: Our Crooked Hearts and The Bad Ones
• Upcoming separate adult novel: The Children

The only true series: The Hazel Wood

These are the books that belong to the same fictional line.

1. The Hazel Wood (2018): Alice Proserpine’s life of bad luck and restless movement cracks open when her mother is taken and the dark fairy-tale world behind her grandmother’s cult book stops being distant rumor and becomes immediate danger.
2. The Night Country (2020): Alice and Ellery Finch return to the Hinterland’s fallout in a sequel that assumes you already know the first book’s rules, relationships, and damage.
3. Tales from the Hinterland (2021): A collection of the cruel, storybook tales tied to Althea Proserpine’s mythology, best read after at least The Hazel Wood and usually strongest after The Night Country.

Best order for first-time readers

1. The Hazel Wood
2. The Night Country
3. Tales from the Hinterland

That order keeps the mystery intact. Reading the story collection too early gives away too much of the atmosphere and world logic before the novels have earned it.

The books that do not connect

Melissa Albert’s later novels are not sequels to the Hazel Wood material. They are separate stories.

1. Our Crooked Hearts (2022): A mother-daughter witch story built around secrets, teenage friendship, inherited damage, and the sense that bad magic is never really finished with the people who started it.
2. The Bad Ones (2024): A supernatural horror novel about a vanished friend, a small town with an ugly underside, and the dangerous power of games, belief, and girlhood devotion gone wrong.
3. The Children (2026): An upcoming adult novel about the estranged children of a famous fantasy author, legacy, memory, and the eerie gap between the childhood people imagine and the childhood that actually happened.

A clean publication list

If you want the shelf in release order, this is the straightforward version:

1. The Hazel Wood (2018): The debut that introduces Alice, the Hinterland, and the author-grandmother mythology that defines Albert’s best-known world.
2. The Night Country (2020): The sequel that follows the damage left by the first book and opens the world further.
3. Tales from the Hinterland (2021): The in-world story collection that deepens the mythology behind the series.
4. Our Crooked Hearts (2022): A separate contemporary fantasy about mothers, daughters, and witchcraft.
5. The Bad Ones (2024): A separate supernatural horror novel centered on disappearances and toxic friendship.
6. The Children (2026): Her first adult novel, currently listed as forthcoming.

The most useful way to approach her books

Instead of asking for one giant reading order, it helps more to choose by what kind of experience you want.

If you want the signature Melissa Albert experience

Start with The Hazel Wood.

It gives you the author’s most recognizable blend of storybook menace, literary fantasy, and real-world unease. Then continue to The Night Country, and only after that read Tales from the Hinterland.

If you want a standalone first

Start with Our Crooked Hearts or The Bad Ones.

Choose Our Crooked Hearts if you want witches, family secrets, and parallel generational tension. Choose The Bad Ones if you want the darker horror lane, with missing people and a nastier small-town mood.

If you only want adult fiction

Wait for The Children.

It is separate from the YA books and does not require any earlier Melissa Albert reading.

Does chronological order matter here?

Not in the usual way.

There is no meaningful cross-series chronology to solve, because most of the bibliography is disconnected. The only place order matters is inside The Hazel Wood line, and there the answer is simply publication order.

Recommended reading paths

Path 1: stay inside the connected world

1. The Hazel Wood
2. The Night Country
3. Tales from the Hinterland

Path 2: sample the standalones

1. Our Crooked Hearts
2. The Bad Ones

Path 3: read everything available now

1. The Hazel Wood
2. The Night Country
3. Tales from the Hinterland
4. Our Crooked Hearts
5. The Bad Ones

Then add The Children when it releases.

Final recommendation

If you want the safest answer, begin with The Hazel Wood and read the Hazel Wood books in publication order. If you want a one-book entry instead, Our Crooked Hearts is the cleaner standalone fantasy start, while The Bad Ones is the better pick if you want Melissa Albert at her most overtly horror-leaning.