Don’t Let The Forest In is a YA horror that follows our main character, Andrew, his best friend, Thomas, and a bit of Andrew’s twin sister, Dove. The book opens up at the start of senior year and things are off to a rocky start. Dove, distances herself from Andrew as soon as they get back to school and when he meets up with Thomas, he sees that he has blood on his sleeve.

Later, when Thomas’ parents disappear without a trace, he begins to behave even more strangely and shuts Andrew out. That is until one faithful night when Andrew follows Thomas into the forbidden forest, near the school, and finds him fighting a monster. When Andrew sees this, he devotes himself to helping his friend defend the school and defeat the terrifying creatures.

As the story unfolds, the boys fight to learn the origin of the monsters and discover a way to end their reign of terror. Throughout this journey, buried secrets come to life and the truth threatens to destroy them both.

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Asexual MC ✅
Queer rep ✅
Dark Academia (my forever love) ✅
Angst + mutual pining ✅
Captivating storyline ✅

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Wow wow wow…….what a story!!! I’m absolutely gutted but in the best way possible. This is my first book by C.G. Drews and I am in awe of their writing style. Beautiful and poetic……..heartbreaking……..but yet so comforting at the same time. I was entranced and devastated throughout the entire book. If it weren’t for other responsibilities and momming, I would have devoured this in a few hours. I cannot wait to have the physical copy on my trophy……I mean…..book shelves.

This would be a great addition to y’all’s October/fall TBR. Be sure to check the content warnings before you dive in, as there are some sensitive topics discussed/outlined in the story. Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for the ARC. Don’t Let The Forest In will be officially published on October 29th!

"All my stories are about you. They will always be about you."

Full review coming soon. :)

Thank you so much, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC.

This YA fantasy/horror was ominous and creepy and beautiful in all the right ways. Kept me guessing until the very end.

Zuallererst muss ich sagen, dass die Danksagungen am Ende des Buches genau zutreffen: „Wenn du die letzte Seite umgedreht hast und die Wand anstarrst, ist alles wie es sein soll.“ und „Möge dich dieses Buch verfolgen.“ Beide Aussagen spiegeln meine Erfahrung perfekt wider.
Die Schreibweise ist eindrucksvoll und intensiv.

Ein besonders starkes Beispiel: „Für einen brutalen Moment dachte Andrew daran, seine Finger in Thomas' Schnitt zu stecken und die Rippe aus seiner Brust zu ziehen, um sie in die eigene zu nähen. Sie wären für immer vereint, vereint in Blut und Knochen.“

Andrew ist ein faszinierender unzuverlässiger Erzähler, dem man blind vertraut. Wenn du ein düsteres, psychologisches Märchen mit einer modernen Schule, einem lebendig werdenden Wald und queerer Repräsentation suchst, dann ist dieses Buch genau das Richtige für dich.

Es war grotesk und faszinierend und wird mich noch eine Weile verfolgen. Vielen Dank an den Verlag und MTMC Tours für das eARC!

Dark, dramatic prose with lots of descriptive horror. I think some of those horror elements were well done, just ultimately not enough character work, especially at the beginning to make me really care about the characters. I did want to keep reading to see what was happening. The way ink, stories, and illustrations were used was very intriguing.

I also didn’t really understand the setting and how the school functions. Some of the way the teachers and bullies reacted and spoke was straight up bizarre, but it could add to the unsettling creepy story you slowly get fed. The ace rep was a bit disappointing as it mixed with aromantic rep labeled as just ace. I think the ending had the opportunity to really nail if things were plot holes or intentionally vague and not making sense, and it didn’t do that for me.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy to form my opinions from.

Dark cottagecore horror fans eat your heart out. This one’s for you! Don’t Let the Forest In is a YA horror with gorgeous prose and queer representation. An easy and addictive read that’s perfect for spooky season.

Andrew and Thomas are two boys that share an obsession for one another and the monsters that haunt them. The dynamics between the two boys was perfection. So much angst and tension!

There’s some great exploration of mental health here too which was refreshing to see. It was done really well by the author.

Overall an incredibly unique YA horror story that will live rent free in my brain for a while yet.

P.S completely obsessed by this cover art.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for my eARC!

I'm giving up on this book at the 20% mark. I do like the twins and the way Dove sticks by Andrew even when she is exasperated by him. I have sympathy for him and his confusion over whether he is asexual or just not "gay enough" but it's all I can do to keep from skipping ahead or at least skimming because it's moving too slowly to keep my attention.

I really struggled with deciding my star rating for this book.

In the technical sense, it’s very good. The writing is atmospheric and flowery, the characters are vivid, and it’s difficult to not be sucked in. For this alone, I’d probably give it a 4 or 5.

What made reading this not a good experience, was my own taste I think. This is a dark, heavy book; and that’s not a problem for me—I often seek out books with dark themes. But the “problem” for me, comes from the fact that (without giving too much away) there is essentially no brevity from this darkness. SLIGHT SPOILERS: I never felt like there was any hope of anything ending well, and it didn’t seem like the characters did either. It has the same tone of hopeless all throughout, and I never necessarily felt that the characters were working towards anything tangible. Again, this was the authors goal, to “haunt” the reader. But it made me borderline miserable for the entire book.

I know that there will be a large readership out there for this book—clearly, a lot of people already love it. Unfortunately, it was just too emotionally draining for me to feel the same.

Okay so chapter one was very confusing and weird and I can see people DNFing it there because it’s so confusing and I’ve seen someone DNF after one paragraph. I honestly thought this wasn’t going to be for me but I decided to give it a few chapters. I’m really glad I did because then I got to see that it was intentional. The writing style was brilliantly done for this book. I honestly barely found any typos.

I will say that I did predict the twist a bit, but not in a way that was ruined for me. I thought the monsters were a symbolism for something and was very pleasantly surprised.

I will admit that I want/need an epilogue chapter to explain the ending a bit more, but I really loved it overall.

This book was about a high school senior and his best friend fighting monsters, but it’s way more than just that. I do wish this book came with spoiler warnings. I think many will love it for spooky Halloween time!!! The book was very well written and explored a lot of important themes but to share what those are would spoil this one. I hope to see this book at many bookstores this fall!!! Thanks so much for letting me read this ARC!

<i> Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC!</i>

(Slightly above a 4). This book will haunt me. That's all.

Don't Let The Forest In is an absolutely chilling, beautiful, and creepy novel that focuses on what should be a positive: "What happens if your imagination comes to life?" Instead, it's a terror ridden haunted house of horrifying monsters and curses... and that's what makes it so great. This book focuses on Thomas and Andrew, two high school students at an elite boarding school. It's a familiar setup, the two misfits, the "weird kids", bond over their isolation. However, they begin to realize that their art (Thomas's paintings/drawings and Andrew's written stories) is coming to life and they must protect Wickwood Academy and everyone they know from the monstrous hold.

This book is so richly descriptive, I easily got lost in it. Normally, I don't highlight or note in books, and I found myself highlighting so many quotes for their beauty. It definitely is <b>heavy</b> on the body horror and nightmarish visions, and despite being YA, it definitely leans older in tone. The character ages are really all that makes it YA for me, you still get the stomach turning visuals of adult horror. What keeps this book from being a full 5 for me comes down to two things - the characterization and the tropes. Thomas and Andrew are meant to be two sides of the same coin, both boys who are plagued by dark thoughts and wild imaginations. For the first few chapters, the way the narration twists between them is confusing. Even as we get deeper into the book, there are times where it's hard to distinguish the two. I think this was on purpose but it was hard to follow. Secondly, it relies a lot on tropes around mental health, family struggles, and the tortured artist. I want the horror genre to let go of the "main characters must have mental health issues" trope so so badly. It's belittling and wasn't needed for the story. The plot itself also takes a while to get going.

Either way - I commend Drews for this book. It beautifully depicts the dark side of friendship, obsession, and idolization of those you love. It has great diverse representation and an openly asexual main character (something we don't see often even though we should). This is the kind of book I didn't want to end, and would happily read more set in this twisted world.

“Everyone’s first instinct was to go inside and hide under the covers. As if monsters couldn’t open doors and crawl into bed with you.”

The amount of lines I highlighted in this story just proves how beautiful the prose is. Some of these will stick me long after putting the book down.

The characters were fleshed out so well and the interior monologues of Andrew felt visceral. Although, he’s wrong about Tim Tams. They are delicious and he needs to respect that!

The codependent relationship between Thomas and Andrew will feel constricting and toxic, but it’s meant to be. These boys NEED each other and that need is present in each word of this story. It bleeds from the page and you want these boys to win. You want to fight with them and heal them and make things better. The horror is that you can’t. My goodness, what a thrill this story was. Taking that ultimate human want of needing someone to love you despite anything you may have done and not wanting to be alone, and then twisting it until it becomes a thing that festers and grows inside you. Until eventually, it no longer fits inside you. That’s what this story does. What it FEELS like.

Things that go bump in the night, monsters that’ll haunt your dreams, a creepy forest that is always watching, and a sense of grief and pain that blankets it all are all things you can find in this story.

I am very much looking forward to this author’s next book!

Beautifully dark. Drews's wordsmithing is such that I would stop everyone around me and read passages out loud. "They didn't need two hearts. They could share Andrew's, even if it was a bruised and sorrowful thing. Their rib bones would twine together in a lattice to protect them from the worst of the world, and they would always be together; they should never be apart." A psychological horror that makes you question what is real. Andrew Perrault writes beautifully twisted fairytales. Thomas Rye beautifully paints them. Things are not as they should be at Wickwood Academy. The boys are faced with their creations in the off-limit forest and must defeat them every night to protect the rest of the students.

Andrew is a beautifully unreliable narrator. Yes, there is a lot of beauty in the darkness. Each version of darkness holds a truth that Andrew must work out or he will completely lose himself and any scrap of reality.

VERDICT- Must add to teen libraries that serve readers of thrillers.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc of this YA horror. I did enjoy it however there were a few reasons I didn't go all the way to five stars for it. Let me hit those first 1. The prose in the beginning is a bit hard to get into and Andrew (our point of view character) has so much on page anxiety that the prose begins to circle (more on that in a bit) 2. That beautiful prose really felt much more like I was seeing the author and not the characters who are 17-18 year old boys and even as an author of wicked fairy tales as Andrew is, this felt way too flowery (or maybe that's just the gender biases I carry with me growing up in the era that I did) 3.the ending (more on that later too without spoilers)

Andrew and his twin sister, Dove, are Australians going to a wealthy boarding school in the states. Dove is your quintessential over achieving academic. Andrew is a bundle of mental health issues (consider this your content warning) He has some sexuality worries (he's learning that he's ACE), huge anxiety issues especially social anxiety and later develops anorexia. Andrew worries what a lot of people with mental health issues do (speaking as one of the group) that his issues are too much for people. In his case, they are. Andrew is exhausting.

Andrew's one friend is THomas Rye, a very talented artistic young man, the abused and neglected son of two artistic parents, the boy who hates everyone but Andrew (and Dove) Apparently he and Dove had a blow out at the end of the school year and are not talking now. She's barely talking to Andrew and he has to rely on her roommate, the always ready to fight Lana Lang (whose name drove me up the wall since there wasn't at least one Superman reference to her name in the book)

The new school year opens with Thomas under suspicion of hurting his parents who disappeared and there is blood in the house. Worse, things are happening in the forbidden woods outside of the school. Monsters straight out of fair tales (like Andrew writes), straight out of Thomas's art (which they twig onto immediately) are attacking and if Thomas doesn't beat them every night, they attack the school.

The boys are left trying to find a way to defeat the monsters once and for all while not dying or failing out of school. We have nice supportive art teachers and on the other hand we have the bullies, one is the calculus professor and the other is Bryce, typical rich kid who is going to get away with it because teachers/admin love him. He and the teacher Clemmons are SO bad you're rooting for the monsters.

For Andrew the fight between Thomas and Dove, the monsters, school, Bryce and all of it are becoming too much, especially talk about what he did at the end of the last school year that left him with scars. Andrew develops an eating disorder (too full of the forest to eat is how he describes it) and his anxiety over his relationship with Thomas deepens (as he fears rejection if Thomas a) wants Dove b) wants him but only if sex is part of it)

It takes them a lot longer to figure out what is causing the monsters than I did (which is good because it would have been a short story and not a novel if they picked up on it that fast). And as much as I like Andrew, Thomas and even Lana, the ending disappointed me because (without spoilers) it relied on a trope I don't like (and one I know enrages a lot of people) and worse if this is how it plays out then every adult and several of his friends have really let Andrew and his mental health down. Still overall, it was an engaging psychological horror.

oh my god. this book is EVERYTHING. From the atmosphere to the two main characters, I was hooked the whole time.

The way the forest was described was creepy, atmospheric, and the perfect mix of moldy and gross, making it a living thing that was breathing down the necks of the main characters the entire time. The monsters were absolutely horrifying and made the whole forest so much scarier.

The characters, especially Andrew, were so well made, and I was obsessed. Andrew’s anxiety was so realistic, and I could truly feel as his anxiety got worse. I related so much to his reactions and genuinely he is a masterpiece of a character. The side characters as well, they were all so dimensional and it was easy to love them.

The twist, goddamn the twist. I didn’t see it coming, until one specific scene where I had to put the book down because I realized exactly what I had missed. It truly crept up behind me and shocked me to my core.

This book is absolutely amazing, and I know I will be thinking about it for awhile. I’ve been following the author for a bit now, and when this book was announced I was so excited they’d finally be publishing in America. This book was the perfect choice, and I will absolutely be devouring everything they write from here on out.

(Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC)

“All my stories are about you. They will always be about you.” Excuse me while I reread this stunning ARC. C.G. Drews, you drew me right in and did not stop the ride. Andrew and Thomas are going to live rent free in my head for some time. This was a story that did not disappoint. Twists. Turns. Everything in between. I am still reeling. I am so incredibly lucky that Netgalley allowed for me to read this as an ARC, I will happily refer this book and author to anyone that will listen. RUN. Do not walk. I was not ready for it, and I am going to absolutely be reading this again and again.

Beautiful. Hauntingly, achingly beautiful. This is one that will stay with me for a long while. I read this as an e-ARC from NetGalley, but I will absolutely be buying a physical copy.

I loved this book. The characters are really fleshed out and authentic. The story is dark and twisty. It really threw me for a loop and I was hooked until the very end.

I absolutely loved the codependency and neediness and obsession Andrew and Thomas had for each other. I loved the building of this and the slow reveals of just how far they would really go for one another. You could feel their desperate love for each other, it was definitely a highlight of the story for me. I also really appreciated the asexual representation and thought it was done really well. I really enjoyed having a main character who identified this way. And loved seeing him accept that he was asexual and what that meant for him.

And just the whole vibe of the book was amazing. The writing brought the forest alive and you could feel it creeping inside with every page. I adored the tone and mood this set and just all visual imagery. The eldritch horror style monsters were excellent - I loved that they were causing Andrew and Thomas to slowly decline and go mad almost with the stress. The academy setting was perfect; the connection to the woods, the old style building and moody aesthetics helped build the tone and also gave it an isolated feel.

Whilst the cast at the academy were a little stereotypical I still really liked them all (or hated the ones we’re supposed to hate) - Andrew’s anxiety kept him mostly to himself but I did really like Lana and how she offered her support and friendship in whatever way Andrew could accept.

The ending was wild. It had me doubting everything and then questioning how it left them but I loved it. Very on point for the horror tone. I don’t think it was particularly suspenseful but it felt more like a slow building, creeping kind of horror that burrows itself inside you rather than scary/ high suspense - which I was so here for.

Overall a really enjoyable read and I’ll definitely be reading her next many horror books! Definitely a memorable one and one I’ll recommend.

I'm not quite sure where to start with this, it was as marvellous as I hoped it would be.

The story follows Andrew, desperate to figure out what's wrong with his friend, Thomas- 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 in the off-limits forest.

This was dark and atmospheric, perfectly haunting and full of all that angsty slow-burn goodness.

The relationship between the two boys was absolutely mesmerising! Their codependency and almost toxic need to constantly be around each other was addictive to read. The way the story unfolded piece by piece as more information came to light had me completely hooked!

The Eldritch style monsters coupled with the creepy fairytales and the academic setting was so spooky and captivating I couldn't put it down.

The ending of the book was so cleverly done, it leaves you questioning reality and your mind, and left me feeling completely freaked out. I LOVED it.