As the author guessed in the acknowledgements, I was, in fact, frowning at the wall after I turned the final page.

I sat with this for a while. The confusion and irritation at the unclear ending. The curiosity if I understood and caught everything. The absolute rage I felt for the adults, especially for Andrew's father, who let these kids down.

The language was beautiful and repulsive. I loved Andrew’s fairytales included throughout the book. The body horror will upset some readers, but I found Andrew’s internal experience just as distressing to read. The story was seeping with dread, despair, and loneliness. I cried with Andrew on and off throughout the book, feeling the godawful young queer longing for a friend and the belief that you aren’t good enough for them. Andrew's disgust for himself and belief that he is a bad person was so hard to read, as were the palpable depictions of social alienation and grief.

"He was so tired of suffering because he moved through the world differently from everyone else. [He] never seemed able to cope...the world didn't fit against his skin...he felt too much and hurt too often and couldn't pack his emotions into neat, palatable boxes. He needed help. He needed someone to hold on to. He needed to be believed."

"[He] was so used to no one liking him, no one caring, that when they did, he was always terrified of the day they'd stop."

"Being left aching and hollow was a familiar feeling. A comfortable pain. [He] had always been an empty boy."

"'They're just meant to hurt.' Like a paper cut--a tiny sting that meant nothing more than I'm alive I'm alive I'm alive."

This was a tough read. It brought me back to feelings I had as a teenager that I didn't want to revisit, and then demanded more. At the same time, I know the trees will tempt me with what I now know, and I will have to return.

Thank you, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and NetGalley, for this eARC.

Don’t Let the Forest In by C. G. Drews

brb, let me collect my thoughts and my heart that this story aggressively sunk its teeth into and ripped to shreds.

*deep breath*

what an absolute masterpiece. this book was so beautifully written that I highlighted quotes on almost every page. I can’t wait to share my favorites once I get a physical copy!

this story is rich with gothic horror and twisted fairytales as it follows the lives of two boys who would do ANYTHING for one another no matter the cost.

Thomas and Andrew have been childhood friends since they began at Wickwood Academy. Thomas is all broken sharp edges yet has a softness to him reserved only for Andrew. He’s fiercely protective, impulsive, and loves sweet treats.
and Andrew. my sweet angel baby Andrew, who gets lost in his mind and anxieties, and is driven by his macabre writing.
I fell in love with them deeply and was quickly not only fascinated by the depth of their characters but rooted for the success and questionable actions.

here are the vibes:

🌲folk horror
🌲“touch him and die”
🌲ace representation
🌲 sinister forest
🌲academia setting
🌲twisted fairytales

the last 10% of the book had me in an absolute chokehold and I couldn’t put it down. when I got to a particular part I audibly gasped alone in my house and then proceeded to sob. this book simultaneously left me in a state of shock and awe and is truly the perfect read for autumn🍂

release date: today!!

thank you Netgalley and Feiwel & Friends for this arc in exchange for an honest review.🫶🏻

An eldritch delight, this book was simply lovely and made my dark, forest-loving little heart happy!

I enjoyed the writing and highlighted beautiful passages throughout, especially the descriptions of feelings. This is YA, and these are teenagers, so the overwrought, oppressive nature of said feelings made sense and felt relatable. The plot isn’t covering new ground in its base notes, but the characters felt original and the commitment to the horror elements was delightful.

Flawed characters just do it for me, and I was a sucker for these messy, broken boys. Andrew and Thomas were so completely wrapped up in one another, and the selfishness of young love was embodied by the monsters springing from the pages of art. There were some themes of mental health and sexuality that perhaps could have been explored more, but overall I had an amazing time and definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for queer YA horror!

Stunning, stunning book! I've been looking forward to reading this since its announcement and it wasn't a disappointment! So so glad to have read this and something that I will definitely purchase a physical copy of!

Thank you to Feiwel & Friends and Net Galley for the chance to review this ARC!

The acknowledgements at the end of this book says "if you've turned the last page and are now frowning at the wall, then everything is as it should be," and that is exactly how I feel. I am breathless and deeply moved, but also disturbed in the way only Dark Academic horror can bring out. It's gruesome and visceral and heartbreaking. It's moving and compelling. It's powerful.

I don't know where to start. The depiction of grief is absolutely riveting and gut wrenching and, if you've experienced it before, relatable. It's the combination of grief, social anxiety, questions about sexuality, and general mental strife that creates such turmoil, and it's beautifully and heartbreakingly depicted here. I could write a thesis about the importance of the asexual representation in this book as an ace person myself, and all the confusion that comes with it. I could write a separate thesis about mental health and grief and the ways to represent that in literature and how much I adore the way it's been done here.

I cannot wait for more people to get their hands on this book, to read it, and to frown at the wall like I am, and will be doing for the next several hours.

Bravo, C. G. Drews, on this absolutely amazing book.

Here is my review for don’t let the forest in! This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year!!! I was so exited to get my hands on it early. Thank you net galley

**Net Gallery Approved Review**


Have you ever had loved someone so strongly, you do anything for them and I mean anything...

This book took me on a journey that can only be described as love born in a forest turned into a battle of survival. 2 boys who would do anything for another including fighting battles day and night. These monster that are coming from the forest are terrifying and truly nightmares born from darkness of the heart. Monsters lie in every corner of this story. Our teens have figure out why their beloved forest turns into nightmares before they kill them and everyone they hurt anyone else. Maybe the monsters they fight are the same ones they fight in their head? Or just creations being puppet by a malevolent entity? What do these monsters want and how far are our heroes willing to go to make them stop?

What I love is our author does shy away or hold back in their imagery of who and what you are reading . The setting puts you into their world of ink and wont let you go even in the light of day. It truly feels like the beast are right in front of you and the characters are very well done and have depth to them. The way the author brings the beauty of nature and the macabre into every person and item and place and monster in the story is a work of art! A true dark academia treasure! You are truly will be on a ride of emotions as these teens struggle and battle their feelings for each other and even who they are as a person. A question that came up for me is a person purpose in love and should it over rule your identity?

This book really put me in a Halloween mood, I truly recommend this book all year round but if your looking for a spooky, bone chilling, mind wrecking, tear jerker read grab this book by Halloween!!

What a great book to finish out October with. CG Drew's is such a great storyteller and can't wait to read more.

3.75 stars

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for this advanced copy!

This book was insanely trippy. Everything about it left me reeling and unsure of what was real and what was not and I really enjoyed that. I'm honestly convinced that everything took place in Andrew's head and that he was having a mental breakdown after the events of the previous school year. However, I think the author did a great job of making you really unsure of whether everything was real or not and that feeling of being unsure really lends itself well to the story, especially the ending. I'm still unsure even now whether it was real or all in his head, that's how well the author weaved the story together.

The characters were really interesting and I kind of love how unhinged they got by the end of the book. I truly think that Andrew became obsessed with Thomas and in a very much unhealthy manner and it was incredibly interesting to watch his decent into obsession as the book progressed and how sort of out of touch with reality he became as the book moved along. The way he talked about wanting to bury himself into his chest and steal his rib bones and things like that were just crazy. I truly have no words for it at all.

I also really enjoyed the monsters and the stories that were included in the book. I could really picture the creatures in my head and the stories really added the fantastical background to them that very much had Grimm's fairy-tale vibes to them.

Overall, it was a really interesting book and very much lends itself well to the Halloween season. I honestly feel like I need to reread it to see if I can pinpoint whether it was all real or not because I'm so unsure.

This book was a captivating read, with twists and turns I thought I had figured out, but was constantly proven incorrect. The characters were very relatable, especially to people in the LGBTQ community. I took one star off as it felt the story got a little repetitive. However, if I could give a 4.5 star rating, I would due to the final chapters. I highly recommend everyone reads this book if you find mystery/horror/subtle romance interesting. Please note, there are some gory scenes throughout the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for this ARC Copy! 4.75 Stars

Oh.My.Gosh... This book absolutely blew me away. It was literally everything I was looking for for spooky season. When I received the ARC it was painful to wait but I knew that I needed to wait for the right season to read it and it was absolutely perfect. The mental health rep, the ACE and questioning rep, the troubled boy and the twins who are inseparable all set in an elite boarding school that just happens to be nestled up to a forest.
A boy who writes the most troubling fairytales, and a boy who draws the horrors he sees on the pages find themselves in a battle with the forest that used to be their refuge.

Definitely check your trigger warnings on this one, it has some body horror, but it was so well done and the gothic fairy tail aspect filled with eldritch horrors keeps you hooked from start to finish.

DON'T LET THE FOREST IN is a book i've been longing for my entire life and not a word i could say here will do justice to its sublime beauty. it's a verdant, surreal, and horrifying story of queer love, grief, and rage that made my veins burn as it grew through them and into my heart. it is the story of two boys—andrew perrault and thomas rye—whose fairy tales and monstrous art come to life and threaten the existence of everything they hold dear. it is about what happens when you are pushed to sacrificial depths in the name of the person you love more than any other.

this is a love letter to the act of creation, an ode to feverish obsession, and a desperate prayer for those who feel broken, those who feel like monsters, and those who pour their heart and soul into their work, who channel their pain into art. utterly compelling, gorgeously written, and unapologetically queer (the asexual representation here made my heart sing), DON'T LET THE FOREST IN is one of my favorite novels i've ever read.

i read this book like a person possessed. i could not tear myself away from it and when i was forced to, i thought of it constantly until i could return to it. it is one of those rare novels that holds up a mirror to parts of me i've kept locked safely away. it made me feel loved and it validated all the times i've gotten lost in my head or explored my heart and found them treacherous places to be. there is, after all, no real line that separates love and horror, and DON'T LET THE FOREST IN is the perfect showcase of that. it is not a story i will ever forget, and i am immensely grateful that it exists.

The macabre writings and drawings of Andrew and Thomas have been coming to life at night. The boys face monsters head-on and must battle for their lives and their sanity. Their world spirals further into darkness as the forest creeps into the school.

Don't Let the Forest In is lyrical, destructive, and looming. I was left with a chill in my bones and a shiver down my spine. I wanted to grab these two boys and squeeze them tight, even while the thorns on their bark skin cut into my flesh. Drews is, as always, cutting and vivid in the imagery she creates. The dark forest and obsessive love between Andrew and Thomas combine to create a sumptuous rotting horror of a story. There is a softness here, but it is like the softness of velvet moss covering a sharp knife. It gets in you and infects you with its imagery until it lives inside you forever afterward.

This book was absolutely delicious. I was immediately pulled in by the haunting and gruesome stories that Andrew writes. I’m extremely excited to see the illustrations to go with them in the published book. The descriptions of Thomas’ artwork were grotesque and chilling, and I loved them. My only (minor) gripe with this book is that the final question is unresolved. I read mostly standalones because I like having resolution at the end of my books. That being said, at the end of the book Drews notes, "If you've turned the last page and are now frowning at the wall, everything is as it should be." I was doing exactly that. This is one that needed to ruminate inside me. I’m looking forward to reading this again on release date and diving back in for more clues and horror.

4.5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for the eARC of Don't Let the Forest In in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely devoured this book in one night! It was so unique the writing style drew you in and I loved the characters - it was both a coming of age story plus a horror story plus mystery. Just everything was perfect and I am still reeling and thinking about that ending! Will be recommending to everyone I know!

The overall atmospheric feel of this novel was really interesting and totally unlike anything I've ever read before, especially from a YA novel. I think this is the type of writing that needs time to be truly digested (pardon the pun). Everything was so visceral and descriptive and overwhelming -- it was hard to tell what was actually happening and what wasn't.

I will admit upfront that given all the positive reviews, I was not the target audience here. I did think the premise sounded promising.

The book is marketed as a YA horror novel and I suppose it is. For me, it was like watching a car crash--though without having committed to reviewing it, I would have looked away long before the 50% point.

I wanted to empathize with Andrew, the troubled high school senior from whose perspective the story is told, but found him whiny; and the choice to have him and his twin sister be Australian seemed random. Thomas, Andrew's love interest, is a violent mess.

The author does introduce Andrew as asexual and with an eating disorder, but then never resolves or even explores either issue very deeply. The twist at the end only makes matters more confusing. I have no idea what happened at the end or really what the point of the book was--so ended up being unable to care about what happens with Andrew and Thomas.

The book is unrelievedly grim and violent and all the characters are miserable throughout.

The author raises important issues, like asexuality and an eating disorder, but these are mostly unexplored and left unresolved at the end. What happened in the previous term? The author leaving this info till the end of the book to me seemed manipulative rather than clever. I found the writing repetitive and the tone set to a numbing level of constant angst. There is no build--and the confusing ending left me sorry I had read this. I do realize that I am in the minority.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Review posted to StoryGraph and Goodreads on 10/28/2024. Review will be posted to Amazon on release date.

A dark and twisty journey through what’s supposed to be Andrew, Dove, and Thomas’s senior year at their boarding school. Things seem to be starting off on the wrong foot for Andrew when his twin, Dove, can’t wait to get away from him and his best friend, Thomas, is being questioned by police. As the weeks start to pass by Andrew begins to realize that something truly wrong is happening at his boarding school and it involves the forest.
This was such a quick, interesting read. The entire read I found myself thinking “something isn’t quite right…something isn’t adding up” which made the twist towards the end even more impactful. This was such a thoughtful and tender exploration of grief and the ways it sinks into us.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillian Children's for letting me read an advanced copy of this forest rot, dark academia YA horror.

Andrew struggles with anxiety and Thomas is his comfort person. What Andrew lacks in confidence, Thomas makes up for in spades. The two of them are an inseparable pair, with Andrew writing dark fairy tales and Thomas illustrating them. This year as their senior year starts, Andrew notices something is off with Thomas and when he follows him into the woods he discovers more is wrong than he expected.

YA books haven't been hitting for me this year, and I had all but decided I was just too old for them but thought I would finish out this last one. I am so glad I did, this book had me gripped. I flew through it. The writing is highly consumable, with lovely prose that just flows into the gothic haunted vibes of the story. Following Andrew and being concerned for his health, his sanity, and his safety was quite a ride. He is such an unreliable narrator that piecing things together was a fun challenge and the moment you get it, before it's revealed is a true stare at the wall moment. I appreciated the pacing and how things were not hand fed to the reader but also not hidden in a "there's a secret we aren't telling you" way. I very much loved that Thomas and Andrew were deeply flawed and frustrating, as it felt very true to the genre.

I think the ending was a touch rushed, I would have liked a little more. But given the dark fairy tale vibes, I feel like it works for the story.

A story of love, loneliness, and the monsters within us. Don't Let the Forest In is equal parts mesmerizing and horrifying. It blends poetic writing, fantasy, and horror to create a chilling tale with a stunning, gothic feel to it. This story has impacted me in a profound way. There are no words to accurately describe how powerful and devastating this book is.

Don’t Let The Forest In is a novel steeped in vivid imagery, and a single glance at the author’s aesthetic reveals the obsessive detail that brings these pages to life. The prose is intense, brought to reality through Andrew's storytelling and Thomas's illustrations, which add a tangible quality to the narrative as their creations leap from the page.

Andrew is introduced as an unreliable narrator, with subtle yet disturbing hints about past events affecting those around him—though he remains oblivious. His complex obsessions and inconsistencies are depicted through his codependent relationships with Dove and Thomas, which deepen as the story unfolds.

Andrew and Thomas’s struggle against their self-created monsters mirrors the confusion and yearning they feel toward each other. Their inability to express these feelings creates a sense of angst and miscommunication. While some readers may find the tension and unresolved romance frustrating, these aspects enhance the realism of Andrew and Thomas's journey of self-discovery. The queer and asexual representation, while polarizing for some, feels purposefully woven into the story, grounding the characters' vulnerabilities and identity exploration.

Plot twists reveal trauma and hint at the forest as a possible metaphor, culminating in an unsettling ending that invites readers to question what is real. This ambiguity is part of the novel's charm, allowing readers to interpret their own meaning, especially regarding the powerful love that anchors the story. The "roots" of this love appear metaphorically and literally, representing the deep, visceral need underlying Andrew and Thomas’s relationship, set against the self-discovery, denial, and doubt typical of teenage life.

The fantasy-horror arc of monsters expands beyond Andrew and Thomas’s personal struggle to include their school environment, creating a surreal, sometimes ambiguous narrative. Some plot points remain intentionally unresolved, which may not appeal to readers who prefer clear-cut endings, but it’s part of the book’s abstract and unsettling design.