I really wanted to enjoy this story, but it was tough to get through. The writing was beautiful and poetic, but at times it felt overwhelming and detracted from the plot. The two main characters, Thomas and Andrew, didn’t have distinct enough voices, which made it hard for me to tell them apart. I lost track of how many times I had to refer back to previous sentences to remember who was who.

By the end, I found myself hurrying to finish, and I was left confused about several plot points. I wasn't sure if they were left unanswered or if I just zoned out during the explanations because I was over it. Because of this, my feelings about the book are pretty meh.

This book was gorgeous!! I loved the forest monster dark academia vibe, and the writing was beautiful. This did not feel like an arc for me- it felt very well developed and written hauntingly. No notes. Loved it and will be reading the next book CG Drews puts out in the future!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This was exactly the vibe I was hoping for this Halloween season! It thrilling heart wrenching and beautiful.

The reason I gave it 3.5 stars is because I struggled with the first 25-30%. It just took me a little while to get into the story but once I got passed that point I was hooked and I loved it.

The writing style was perfect for this genre very haunting and thrilling! The ending was full of twist and turns that really turned around the book for me.

Don’t Let the Forest In
3/5
ARC via Netgalley

Read if you like: queer rep, poetic flowing writing, haunted boys, private school setting with secrets around each corner

The idea of this story was one that I should have liked, yet it was a struggle to get through. The writing was very pretty and poetic, however there came a point where it became almost too much and worked against everything that was going on. The two characters, Thomas and Andrew, didn’t have enough of a unique voice to keep the characters separate for me. I lost count of how many times I had to go back to the synopsis to remember which was which.
By the end, I felt myself rushing through to finish and was left confused about many things that had happened; were they unanswered, or did I just complete blank when they were explained because I was just done with the story? Because of this, I am more neutral on it as I honestly don’t really know what I think about it. I may revisit it some time just to see if maybe it was just a situation of right book wrong time, which is very possible.

This was absolutely phenomenal!
I’m so glad I read this during spooky season, but I would have loved it any time of year. Something about plant based horror always gets me. It’s my favorite niche genre.
These characters were amazing. I was incredibly invested the entire time. The story, the twist, the monsters - I cannot recommend this enough.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think I’m the outlier here. I’ve read so many rave reviews for this book and fell in love with the concept so fast that I was expecting something that would blow my socks off, but after finishing the book I feel mostly vague confusion and a bland lack of caring. Others ate this book up but to me it was a bunch of pretty filler that didn’t amount to much of anything.

That’s not to say it’s a bad book. The pacing is solid and the characterization was fine, but absolutely nothing is explained and Andrew seems perfectly content not to look for any sort of answers. Reach out for help? Nah. Do some research to find out whether anyone else has ever experienced their drawings coming to life and attacking? Nope. The entire plot line of the police being after Thomas for the murder of his parents? Forgotten. Thrown out the window. There was so much left undone and unsaid that I sat there staring at the last page and wondered why I’d even bothered to read the book. Nothing was explained in the end. There was zero resolution.

Also, and this will really be an outlier, the queer yearning really didn’t do it for me this time. The relationship between Andrew and Thomas was just…meh. Everyone hated Thomas, but Andrew loved him, except maybe not, everyone wants Thomas to be kicked out because he’s evil and horrid, except maybe not…like, dude, just go to therapy. Why nobody was insisting Andrew go to therapy or seek any sort of mental health treatment is beyond me.

The dark academia light horror YA novel of my dreams. I’m a big scaredy cat so I can’t dabble in anything too spooky, but this had a good balance of broody soft boi with spooky undertones. I am a huge appreciator of both the queer and specifically ace rep, a part of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum that often gets left out and/or forgotten

Andrew would do anything for Thomas. Together, they can deal with anything that comes their way. As a short story writer, Andrew loves to write all things macabre. Paired with Thomas’ penchant for drawing Andrew’s stories characters, they make a great, creepy team. Thomas’ drawings start to come to life, and together the duo must battle them each night in order to keep their school safe.

However, all is not as it seems… and the truth will always come to light.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my arc!

I thought this was a very enjoyable book. I believer this is Drews's first novel and it was pretty compelling. I love the author's voice and the pacing of the story is compelling!

The writing is a beautiful mix of horror and fantasy! It was a nice change of pace to see asexual representation in this book, which is rare (at least in the books I’ve read). The last quarter of the book really took a couple turns I wasn’t expecting! 🙌

That ending…I’m still not sure what to make of it! I have a feeling this book is going to be sticking with me for a while until I figure it out! 🤔

Thank you to NetGalley, MacMillan Children’s Publishing, and C.G. Drew’s for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

TW: body horror, grief, bullying, self-harm, grief

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.
As I was reading this book I was making notes, mostly because I was vibing along with the book. Some of these notes included:
-reminiscent of Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle
-also had me likening it to T. Kingfisher.
Literally, if you mashed those two things up you'd have this books vibes and atmosphere. It very much blurred the lines between reality and fiction/fairytales. As you all know, those are some of my favorite things, especially some of the darker ones.
This evoked feelings of gothic horror, slight dark academia and dark fairytales. The combination of these things was delectable. You never knew what was going to happen next.
While the book I wouldn't say is super gruesome, it does have some more descriptive parts to do with body horror. Just in warning.
Dark cottagecore? This book embodies that trope/feeling. I don't know what to call it.
I definitely was enthralled with this book. The book was beautifully written, there are not enough good things I can say about that. It felt lush and atmospheric and had such a haunting and a bit of a lonely vibe to it.
I'm finding it hard to put into words this book -- but if you're looking for something spooky, haunting, gothic, horror with a tad of otherness to it, then you definitely need to pick up this book.

This was the list of vibes/feelings/things I thought of while reading this book:
TRC Vibes
love the writing style
atmospheric
evokes feelings
the relationships
sort of dark academia-ish
gothicish undertones
horror elements
fairytale elements
oh sh*t

This story was everything! So creepy and deep, while also being dark and emotional. This entire novel is a work of art that is masterfully crafted to invoke raw emotions from its reader. From the setting to the stylistic choices, I was constantly engaged and desperate to know what was coming. This is the perfect book for the fall/winter and lovers of the YA horror genre will devour this!

Representation: 5 (asexual mc, several queer and poc side characters, mental health representation)
Emotion: 5 (I sobbed several times)
Characters: 4
Plot: 4
Pacing: 4
Prose: 5
Romance: 5
Twist: 3

Overall Score: 4.4, rounded up to 5 because of all the sobbing

Content Warnings: body horror, eating disorder, panic attacks, gaslighting, homophobia,

Drews has written a dark, bloody and evocative fairy-tale that would give the Grimm Brothers nightmares. Andrew is an intriguing narrator and it was great watching him grow into himself and his own strength. The romance and the prose were the best parts of this book.

The twist and how it was presented were my least favorite parts of the book. The explanation fell a little flat and the number of times someone had to interrupt a conversation or speak vaguely just to keep Andrew from learning vital information too soon annoyed me before I was even a third of the way into the stories. All of that vagueness, just for a kind of common/cliche twist that had me going "oh, yeah, that makes sense.' I didn't get the shock I wanted.

I also wanted a little bit more from the end. It felt rushed and kind of cut off. I noticed this with The Boy Who Steals Houses too, so maybe that's just the kind of ending Drews prefers.

But the book was beautiful and emotional and absolutely worth devouring.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Don't Let the Forest In.

I love all things horror and the premise sounded right up my alley.

But this didn't work for me for a number of reasons:

1. I couldn't stand Andrew. I get he has trouble fitting in, he's confused about his sexual identity and going through a myriad of personal and family issues, but he's a loser.

He lacks confidence, self esteem; he's a doormat, and possesses no exceptional or likable qualities.

2. I enjoyed the horror and supernatural elements, but the narrative was confusing, a jumble of confusing themes.

Is this YA, horror, coming of age, a quest for identity and friendship?

Doesn't seem the author knew as well and it showed.

3. I'm not a fan of using mental illness as a literary device.

I figured the 'twist' early in the narrative because I've read the exact or similar twist in other books before. And those authors didn't do much better with it, either.

4. I liked the representation of LGBTQIAP+ but the author needs to do research on asexuality.

I don't like romance in YA or adult books and this leaned too heavily toward the "do I like him or love him?" for me.

Andrew is characterized as 'asexual' but spends most of the narrative obsessing over Thomas. I don't think the author understands asexuality.

5. The writing is great, but I don't like the style; emotionally overwrought with metaphors, similes, and purple-y.

Teens don't speak like this, I don't care how fancy schmancy their boarding school is.

With stunning, evocative prose, CG Andrews crafts a tense story about facing monsters. The setting was superb, the mystery hooked me right away, and I loved the characters. I can't recommend this enough to all who love dark academia, horror, and heart-wrenching stories.

Haunting, romantic, beautifully written with fantastic queer and mental health representation. I loved this, I actually had to message the author at a critical point in the story and tell them that I didn't want to continue because my heart couldn't take it. I did of course finish this book anyway and loved it all the same no matter how much it made me cry. Gothic, dark and mysterious this story was wonderful, couldn't put it down.

In the acknowledgements the author says if you end up staring at the wall after finishing this book then everything is as it should be, so if that’s the case, then this definitely worked.

Andrew is a very awkward, very anxious high school senior whose whole world is made up of his twin sister Dove and best friend/crush, Thomas.
But in the new school year, they’re both keeping Andrew at a distance, and Thomas leaves late at night only to return covered in dirt and blood. Andrew soon discovers that Thomas have been fighting monsters come alive from his drawings, and as they fight the monsters together, their dependency and obsession with each other growing, Andrew comes to realize that a greater, bloodier sacrifice is needed to stop the monsters.

The prose is pretty amazing, atmospheric and dark and creepy, and really good at depicting the dangerous obsession Andrew has for Thomas. There’s a surprising amount of body horror with forest imagery, but it’s really well done at making it sound disgusting and horrifying. Even by the end I’m not entirely sure what happened, but it doesn’t bother me too much for a horror.

The twist was interesting, and I see the signs for it scattered earlier, but I feel like there were some discrepancies though I can’t say for sure. Another twist was a bit predictable, but I’m not sure if it was meant to be. Some parts also felt a bit slow to me.

Overall this was a very well-done book that delivers on the horror!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!

As a kid, I was a little obsessed with fairytales. I was raised on all things Disney, and boy, was I in for an awakening when I read the actual stories that these cartoons were based on. I was fascinated by how dark and macabre they were, and I loved it. I call this out because this beautifully written book plays out much like a story written by the Brothers Grimm.

The novel focuses on high school senior Andrew Perrault, who, along with his twin sister, Dove, attends a private school for wealthy kids in Virginia. Andrew is shy and meek and often bullied. It doesn't help that he and Dove are from Australia, and he gets teased a lot for his accent. While Dove is well-liked, studious, and outgoing, Andrew is shy and loses himself in the dark fairytales he writes. His only saving grace, and the only person besides Dove he likes at school, is Thomas Rye. Thomas has a troubled past, an unhappy home life, and is a bit of a loose cannon, but he means well. Andrew, Thomas, and Dove have been super close since the twins started school at the academy when they were twelve, but Andrew's feelings for Thomas have grown more intense over the years.

When the twins return to the academy for their senior year, Thomas seems distant. When Thomas begins to exhibit strange behavior, Andrew is determined to figure out what is going on and help him with whatever it is, no matter the cost. What Andrew doesn't realize is that something is lurking in the woods that was once their safe haven, and it's connected to Thomas in a way. (I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll leave it at that.) Defeating this something will either bring them closer together or tear them apart forever.

While this is a young adult novel, it doesn't read like one. The author expertly weaves together elements of fantasy, horror, and mystery to create a story that is both chilling and enchanting. I especially loved the relationship between Andrew and Thomas. It is intricately layered and filled not only with teen angst but also an underlying desperation that is palpable. Much like Andrew, I felt that if he didn't help Thomas, he might lose him forever. It was so obvious that Andrew would be lost and adrift without Thomas, and I didn't want that. I adored Andrew, mostly because I saw so much of myself in him. I know what it's like to feel like you exist in a space where people only see you when they want to tear you down, and I understood what Thomas's friendship meant to Andrew. He was his tether.

Another thing that makes this feel less "young adultish" is how the author explores trauma, and the psychology around it. Drews doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of her characters' lives, instead delving into the complexities of their emotions and experiences. The result is a story that resonates on a profound level, making it more than just your typical coming-of-age tale. There's a twist toward the end of the book that knocked the air out of me and completely turned everything on its head. It was devastating and beautiful all at the same time.

I don't read a lot of YA these days because I have trouble connecting with it, but I can honestly say this is one of the more hauntingly beautiful young adult books I've read in a while. It challenges conventions, pushes boundaries, and left me staring at the ceiling after I finished it. I'm still not sure how I feel about the abrupt ending, but it definitely left me thinking. If you're a fan of dark academia with a touch of fantasy and horror and don't mind a final act gut punch, I recommend checking this one out.

This was freaking amazing and I wasn’t sure how much I would love that going into it but I couldn’t pass up the gorgeous cover and OH MY GOD THIS WAS PHENOMENAL I am going to shove this down everyone’s throats.

Don't Let the Forest In was such an interesting read! It's perfect for anyone craving a dark, macabre tale with eldritch horrors. The book nails that spooky vibe that will make you think twice about reading it at night, and the prose is immaculate.

The monster descriptions were especially vivid—my favorite was the wolf with stitches at its throat. Creepy and unsettling in the best way! I also loved the short macabre stories sprinkled throughout. I can’t wait to see the illustrations when the final version comes out.

However, as much as I want to rave about this book, I did have some issues with it. The plot felt a bit erratic -- somewhere in the middle, the pacing slowed down. Even though the characters kept saying the situation was dire, I didn’t really feel that sense of urgency.

The tension with the monsters, and between the characters' relationships, built up, only to fizzle out repeatedly. It's as if the book couldn't decide whether it would be a romance book with a horror subplot or a horror book with a romance subplot.

I loved how atmospheric this was, and I really liked Andrew and Thomas as characters. But, like a lot of horror stories, it felt abstract—maybe too abstract. The deeper meaning kind of flew over my head, but I’m sure someone else will get it.

You might be confused with my review, and truthfully I am too. I'm still unsure whether I like this book or not, but I would definitely recommend it based on vibes alone.

This book was the perfect choice to get me in the mood for spooky season. Creepy fairytales monsters come to life in a private school in the woods? SIGN ME UP. I enjoyed the atmospheric setting, the lyrical prose and the characters. The queer rep was lovely and I loved both the main and side characters. There were parts of the story that truly creeped me out and the ending had a twist I did not see coming. Very grateful to the author, Macmillan and NetGalley for this amazingly creepy ARC 🖤