Review - Hazel Hill is Gonna Win This One by Maggie Horne

‘I’ll stop listening in ten seconds,’ I say. ‘Starting now.’

‘Fine,’ he says. He looks around one more time to see if anyone might overhear us, and then pauses again.

‘Ella Quinn … has a crush on you.’

Girls in Hazel’s school are being harassed by an anonymous person online, someone who seems to know all about their insecurities and dreams. With no one willing to stand up and face the bully, how will Hazel be able to prove her suspicions? 

It's so cheesecake awful that we need books like that at middle grade. It makes me sad and so cheesecake angry at the same time. But I guess we do, and Hazel Hill is beautifully written, powerful and just so cheesecake hard hitting.

Cheesecake powerful stuff!

Hazel Hill is Gonna Win This One is such a powerful, important book and this is absolutely the right time to be bringing it out! Its message is one of perseverance and hope, that people can stand up, be heard, and they can make a difference. It's so vital and so timely. It's realistic too. There's no sugarcoating it. Standing up and speaking out is hard, it's scary, there are unfortunate and unfair consequences, and it's tiring. That all comes across so vividly throughout the novel. I love that, heart breaking though it is. 

I also like how it acknowledges that it's not something everybody can do, that there will always be some victims of sexual harassment who are not prepared to speak out, and this is alright. It's a book that accepts and acknowledges the many different reactions so fairly.It's also a book about friendships, about finding the people you belong with and how empowering and important that can be. The way it handles queer romance is also subtle and very well handled. It's always there in the background, adding additional tone and depth.

With Hazel Hill is Gonna Win This One, Maggie Horne is giving us something incredibly powerful, beautiful, educating and inspiring. Definitely one to watch out for! I'll be buying my daughter a copy for sure!

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Hazel Hill is Gonna Win this One is by Maggie Horne. It will be published in the UK by Firefly Press on 18th October 2022.

I was given an electronic proof via Netgalley in return for an honest review.