This is my first book by Drews and it definitely won't be the last. What drew me in the most with this book was the beautiful prose and the way I was immediately immersed in the world. I have to admit, I found this book extremely upsetting and disturbing...in an exceedingly good way. It was exactly the right thing to read in the middle of spooky season and worth every single messed up dream I had after finishing it.

The book mainly follows Andrew, a senior at a boarding school full of rich kids and bullies. The only lifelines he has are his twin sister Dove and Thomas, their best friend who has enough trauma to fuel the monsters that eventually come alive and terrorize Andrew and the school.

I felt so deeply for Andrew and his struggles which at times were painful to read. His love for Thomas and his sister was so pue and beautiful and the way he has to cling to that love in order to survive is written just astonishingly pure and twisted (which sounds like a contradiction but I promise you it isn't).

I was shocked by how upset this book made me and how legitimately scared I was while at the same time loving every second.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This will definitely not be my last C.G. Drews book.

Beautifully written, this dark academia book is a perfect spooky season read. The novel is rich with imagery, full of strong characters and perfectly paced. Highly anticipated and rightfully so!

"They were beautiful together; they were magic and monstrous, and they had created a whole vengeful world between them."⠀
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C. G. Drews, Don't Let The Forest In⠀
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📗 Don't Let The Forest In by C. G. Drews is a book that will continue haunting me long into the future. It is a gothic masterpiece of dark academic horror that gripped me from page one and dumped my bleeding crumpled heart on the ground with a fierce and frightening ending. This tale has the unique ability to blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Every line is as beautiful and broken as Andrew and Thomas themselves. The blossoming romance; the prep school vibes; the secrets; the ghosts: Perfection. ⠀
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Don't Let The Forest In is a spooky, surreal story that consumes you slowly with beautiful and terrible monsters that are closer than you think. Look no further for the best queer young adult psychological thriller of 2024!

This book was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I’ve been holding my breath waiting for it and C. G. Drews did NOT let me down but man did I sob so hard. It’s a beautifully written heartbreaking story and I am so honored that I was allowed to be an ARC reader. Thank you so much.

This book was a trip! I am broken and scarred after reading this....GIVE ME MORE! This really shows, in my opinion, how fragile the human mind is and how trauma causes small cracks that turn into valleys.

Hauntingly beautiful book.
Thank you Netgalley and C.G Drews for my e-ARC of this masterpiece. I am leaving my honest review of my own free will without coercion.

Book Review: Don't Let The Forest In
◇Author: C.G. Drews
◇Genre: YA Horror
◇Pages: 336
◇You might enjoy this if you like
-Summer Sons
-Dark Academia
-Fighting monsters

5 stars!

🌲🏫🏳️‍🌈💀✏️

Happy pub day to this masterpiece! I sure hope this story gets the hype it deserves. I absolutely adored this book, and it was perfect for the Halloween season.

This book is just creepy and eerie the entire time. On every page there is a sense of unease present, and it was intoxicating. I couldn’t get enough of this story!

This book is YA but it does not read that way. It’s disturbing, it’s deep, and I loved every minute of it. I can’t give this book enough praise.

The last part of this book threw me for a loop. I was riveted and devastated. I hate to share too many details, because you should explore this for yourself. The author’s note says this book may haunt you, and it definitely is.

Thank you Macmillan and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

A perfect late autumn read! The writing was lush and atmospheric, and I found the book creepy but not really scary anyone who might be timid about horror books. Andrew was a fascinating character to be in the head of.

Review: Holy shit. I loved this book. Absolutely loved it. I read it in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. Didn't want to. It was creepy, but somehow sweet as well. There was a point towards the end where my jaw absolutely fucking dropped. Pick this book up ASAP. I mean, ASAP. I'll be thinking about this book for a very long time.

Synopsis: Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him.

Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality—Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won’t say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork—whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew’s wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster—Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator…

I am impressed, this author is a modern-day Poe!
Honestly, I doubt my words will do the justice this book deserves.
We start with Andrew and his twin sister returning to school and there's an ominous feeling about an incident that happened the previous year. Even in the process of dropping him off Andrew's dad was unsure about letting him return but he wanted to return because he wanted to see and be around his best friend Thomas. When he sees Thomas he is excited and they are roommates however, Andrew has feelings for Thomas but he has not vocalized them or he's more on the shy side about it.
Andrew is asexual with his feelings for Thomas, he's more in his discovery phase of figuring himself out as he is a senior in the school.
Then, the police arrive at the school to ask Thomas about the disappearance of his parents and the amount of blood that was found in the home. Suddenly Thomas starts to pull away from Andrew and then once Andrew finds out what's going on with Thomas they decide to work together to help keep the school safe from these monsters that are attacking the school and killing a teacher.
I loved the analogies and the story and how everything is written and the message underneath is all. This is probably my best read this month!
Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends for the opportunity to read and review this one! It was definitely a treat and a spectacular read for October!

I stopped and started this book s many times. I can't really say much outside of it being confusing for a good 80 percent of the book and I didn't like Thomas at all. The whole book is just about the main character's obsession with him. And there was just no development. It was 99 percent overly emotional angst talking about Thomas's eyes, lips, hair and I was just over it. The "horror" elements didn't even make sense in the end. And the little stories we get in between some chapters didn't make sense with the reveal we get in the end.

"Don't Let the Forest In" follows high school senior Andrew. Andrew is dealing with the fallout of something (it takes forever to even find out) that happened between him, his twin sister Dove, and their friend Thomas. Andrew doesn't know what happened and why Dove won't just talk to him or Thomas and instead has made new friends and refuses to make Thomas better. When Andrew follows Thomas one night though, he finds him fighting monsters in the woods. Andrew decides he will do whatever he can to help Thomas.

Andrew was exhausting. Being in his head for this long, for this many weeks was painful. Things are revealed, but I have a lot of questions about so many things, but am too tired to point out the plot holes. Also, Andrew is confused about his sexual identity and honestly the only part of the book that felt true and sounded "right" was him hanging out with Lana and Chloe and talking about it. Anytime he is near Thomas is just becomes Thomas, Thomas, Thomas.

Thomas is just pretty awful. I don't see why Andrew was focused on him and their "backwards" friendship. He's also not developed at all, neither is Dove. But for Thomas being the main focus for Andrew, it's a mistake that Drews didn't develop him better.

The main reason why I gave this two stars is that the conversations that Andrew has with Chloe and Lana were the saving graces of the book. I know some reviewers mentioned they didn't know if this was a coming of age story, a coming out story, or a horror story and I agree. Drews didn't do a great job with the horror aspect and maybe if that was stripped away this would have made for a better book.

The overall "plot" was a mess and the flow was terrible. The writing was just purple prose to the 10th power and I got really sick of reading the sentences after a while.

I wish the setting of the school had been scary, but honestly it read as pretty blank and I got confused about how big it was and how big the forest was too.

The ending was not well done, probably because I knew where things were going and there were still too many plot holes to be believed.

I forgot to give feedback for this one, but I really love the cover, and I can't wait to read it when my TBR gets less unwieldy!

I really enjoyed the horror in this book! The imagery is beautiful and grotesque. I really love how the characters developed their feelings for one another. This book had be in chokehold. I basically read it in one sitting.

This is the perfect Autumn book, dark academia with a boarding school setting, lots of spooky details that will haunt me for a while. I really enjoyed reading it and I would definitely recommend it.

“Life didn’t fit against his skin and it never had and sometimes everything was just too much.”

Andrew Perrault is on a journey, one filled with anxiety, disordered eating, depression, questioning where and how he fits into his world, and doing so in a place that is both a waking nightmare and a slumbering hellscape. Andrew is a schism between what is real and what isn’t, and CG Drews uses florid prose and vivid imagery to draw the lines between what blooms in Andrew’s mind as real and what readers see as impossible to perceive, yet brilliantly terrifying all at once.

Don’t Let the Forest In is the darkest of dark fairy tales. The woods bordering Wickwood Academy aren’t a setting; they are a character, a living, breathing, murdering space devoid of conscience or remorse, but full of needs and an appetite for flesh and blood. The landscape not only takes its due, it demands it from those who dare to enter and disturb. Those who love the legends of the forests and what they often symbolize: the unknown, the dangerous, the mysterious, the obscured will find that in this disturbing place.

Andrew and the boy he loves, Thomas Rye, and the forest are allegory and archetype. What is real and what isn’t is not as integral to their story as whether they will survive when they become consumed by their fears and anxieties, and the forest comes to collect its pound of flesh. With that in mind, Don’t Let the Forest In is not a YA Romance novel. In fact, though Andrew loves Thomas, is in love with him, a significant part of Andrew’s narrative involves his asexuality and his reconciling that with his love for Thomas. Drews exams this in some powerful ways.

We all get that it’s imperative to have books available in the world that offer teens and young adults the opportunity to see themselves, that they aren’t alone in their feelings, that what makes them feel different doesn’t mean they’re broken. Don’t Let the Forest In does that. It’s esoteric and honest, unhurried and delivers some great twists that made me go back and read chapter one again to see how it all fit together. It also includes mentions of physical abuse, death, and body horror, so consider yourself cautioned.

I'm still trying to pull my thoughts together after that ending, but here are my initial impressions while they're fresh in my mind.

The writing was gorgeous and atmospheric. It really did feel like a beautiful, brutal fairytale, just like the stories Andrew wrote.

The relationship between Andrew and Thomas is messy and beautiful and impossible to look away from. I was thinking about this book even when I wasn't reading because I needed to know what happened with them next.

And I didn't see the big twist coming until just a little before. I love when books surprise me!

I was going to give this 5 stars all the way up until the last page. I really don't enjoy ambiguous endings, especially in a case like this. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the ambiguity of the ending essentially stole the end of Andrew's character arc. It will never be clear if or how he changed, and I think that would have been powerful to see (no matter whether it was a negative or positive arc).

I'm off to wrestle mentally with that ending some more, lol!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the ARC.

<i>Don't Let the Forest In</i> is a haunting exploration of love, identity, and mental illness. The story centers around Andrew, a young boy haunted by his inner demons, whose intense connection with his twin sister Dove and deep infatuation with his best friend Thomas shape much of his world. Both Andrew and Thomas channel their complex emotions through creative outlets—writing and artwork, respectively—adding layers to their relationship and underscoring the novel's exploration of artistic expression as a form of self-discovery and coping.

Writing this review was a challenge, but only because the book left such a profound impact that I needed time to process it. The author’s poetic and evocative prose creates an eerie, haunting atmosphere that resonates long after the final page. The sensitive treatment of mental illness and sexual identity offers a raw glimpse into the struggles faced by both boys, portraying their experiences with honesty and depth.

And then there’s that ending—a masterfully executed twist! No spoilers here, but I found myself rereading certain sections, marveling at the subtle clues the author planted along the way. The conclusion is as satisfying as it is mind-bending, drawing everything together in a way that both shocks and satisfies.

If you’re drawn to slow-burn stories that lead to dramatic, unforgettable conclusions, <i>Don't Let the Forest In</i> is a must-read. This is a tale that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

I can't even say it was an emotional rollercoaster, because it wasn't, not exactly. It was like a car going up and up and up again, and you know that you'll have to fall at some point because that's how rollercoasters work, there is always a drop. But the drop doesn't come and you are getting more anxious every second, with your heart beating faster and faster, because the higher you'll get, the scarier the fall will be. Well, that's exactly how I felt. The tensions ramped up while reading and I felt compelled to keep going while also afraid of what I was going to find. All the emotions Andrew felt were so well described that at a certain point, I couldn't detach his emotions from mine. I was feeling what Andrew was feeling and even when I stopped reading I still felt on edge, restless and kind of ready to jump at anything.

And after that twist (that I only guessed two pages before it was revealed) I feel like I need to read the whole book again!

The only thing that left me a bit meh was the fact that one of the twists was very straightforward to guess - it was actually explicitly mentioned several times - but the main character did not guess it till the very end. Maybe he was refusing to see it, as he did with the other twists, but it still felt kind of weird that he didn't even think about it.

I love things that make you double-guess your reality. You wonder whether what you see is real, what can you trust? Who can you trust? Is it all in your head? Not being able to trust yourself or your senses is one of the scariest things for me. How do you know what's real?
But in the end...does it even matter? If it's real for you, that should be enough.

And the writing! So evocative, I wanted to highlight half of the sentences in the book😂

I already miss the characters, I wish I could spend more time with them. I just want to hug Andrew and Thomas and tell them that everything will be okay. And even if it won't, that they'll have each other.

And I have so many questions now! There were several questions that were not answered, so that makes me hope that there is going to be another book, but who knows🫣

Rating: 4.75/5

It’s very rare for me to be at a loss for words…but y’all I’m at a loss for words. This book is pure poetry, plain and simple. I read it initially as an eARC, but this is one where had I been reading the physical copy I’d have highlighted entire pages. The writing is haunting, atmospheric, magical, and just plain eerie. It grabs you by the throat and never lets you go. I know I’ll be thinking about it for a while to come and can’t wait to reread and annotate my gorgeous physical copy!

Beyond the beautiful writing, Don’t Let the Forest In is such a compelling story. I was immediately invested in Andrew and the mystery behind Thomas’s behavior. I’ll be honest here, sometimes I shy away from YA because I’m a 34-year-old married mother of 2, but while reading this I felt like I was transported straight back to high school experiencing all of Andrew’s intense emotions right alongside him. I figured things out pretty early on, which usually disappoints me, but I honestly didn’t mind it because I was so engrossed in the storyline! The mental health rep was also amazingly done and so appreciated.

Okay, now brb while I attempt to emotionally recover from this.

Everyone. Read. This. Book.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for the gifted ARC!

I honestly don't think that I am going to be able to get this book out of my head for quite some time. This is just one of those stories that sticks with you. Don't Let the Forest in is a YA psychological horror that is incredibly creepy and mysterious while weaving in elements of first queer love. I did really enjoy the representation in this story. It was such a driving force in this book. If body horror is your thing, then this book will be perfect for you. I can't fully understand how such terrible and scary things can be written with such beautiful prose. It really changed how this story made me feel. The entire book felt really tense and mysterious that compelled me to read faster and faster. I am still shocked by the twists and turns towards the ending. As I was reading, I couldn't help but have small flashbacks from The Spiderwick Chronicles. I can't remember if I am remembering it correctly, but I couldn't help but think this had similar vibes, yet somehow still darker. I highly recommend this one for the fall season. It is just so well done and absolutely nails the spooky season vibes!

You might be ready to let the forest in if you love nature that comes alive, eerie and haunting creatures, illustrations that peer into your soul, a boy having panic attacks in the forest and writing that feels like you’ve melted into the pages.
This is a book that will be replaying in my head endlessly and will probably have worn out pages with how many times I will be rereading it.
You know when you syke yourself up for a book or movie for months, and as you pick it up to start it, you have that small moment of dread, that minuscule paranoia that it won’t match up to the hype that has been created in your own head? For me, Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews was nothing like that. The vivid imagery that they spun within the pages felt like I was being pulled in, like I could feel and taste the way the forest was taking over Andrew’s world. The captivating way that Andrew’s feelings and anxieties were described was like my own chest had been cracked open right alongside his and Thomas’ and I was drowning in the chaos unfolding right there with them.

The shocking pieces that broke apart through this book I won’t even get into, because these are things that you need to experience on your own, and when you do - please I beg of you, come back and tell me what you feel.