Don't Let the Forest In is incredible. Creepy and atmospheric, haunting in its ability to stay with you, latching onto your mind until you question if you're part of the story as well.
This book is an experience. I didn't just read it, it wormed its way into my subconscious until I was stuck thinking about it for weeks on end. I still don't know what was real or not. I cannot wait for my physical copy to arrive so I can reread it and try to pick out all the little intricacies that I know I missed in my first read thru.
The story is fantastic but more than that, the entire story reads like a dark poetic fairytale. It is hands down one of the most beautifully written books I've read. Even in the beauty of the prose I have to reinforce that it is not a romance or a quaint story, it is dark. There are creepy creatures, dark themes, and botanical horror. Just thinking about parts of it make my ears itch.
I can't recommend Don't Let the Forest In enough.

A boy and the boy he longs to call more than best friend tread into their school’s forest each night to fight monsters which have originated from one of their artwork.

Wow. Okay. So I really should be doing so much more horror. The whole time I read this I was questioning what was real and what wasn’t, if I had a reliable narrator, and what was causing all this turmoil with the forest in the first place.

The whole book was full of rich imagery that made the monsters come to life and there was spook galore. Also the monsters were very pagan coded which I loved.

The subplot in this was our mc dealing with his identity of gay and ace and it was both agonizing and rewarding to watch him grapple with what his desire for his best friend meant to him.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: None
POV: Solo 3rd Past

I read this in practically one sitting. C.G. Drews knows damaged characters and I'm here for it.

This book will literally rip your heart out and offer it to a forest of lies.

I'm going to start by saying the ending is ambiguous. I really wanted a "5 months later" or some sort of closure for a few of the strands left hanging. Heck it could have been from someone else's POV. This is 100% personal/my brain can't handle so much ambiguity. So If you can't handle it either, I'm telling you in advance. The ending is good, but there are still questions.

The emotional mess that is Andrew pulls you through the story, there's so much damage and questioning that it's hard to put down the book. I was so hung up on his emotional aura I didn't see the twists and turns coming at all once we got to the final hurrah. But wow was that layered in the whole story. Such poetic goodness happening between Thomas and Andrew. The beginning of the story really snaps together by the end and it's just pure magic how it all comes together right under your nose.

These characters are so well developed. Like even the side characters. There's none of that over dramatized YA stuff, just true to real life high school drama which we all know and hate. But how must of it is real? HOW MUCH OF IT IS REAL C.G. DREWS?!? I NEED THESE ANSWERS!

I have questions. I know there is no book 2 to answer them, so I will just steam over them. But seriously, if you love dark academia, with light horror and things that go bump in the night, you're going to love this book.

“Everything inside me is in ruins," Thomas said. "For you.”

Yes please. More of this tragic sad panda heartbreaking work. I need it to feed my soul.

REVIEW

“𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸’𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵.”

Can I make this whole review just quotes?? I’m absolutely blown away by CG’s gorgeous writing style. The story is beautifully tragic, the characters are so damaged and traumatized and obsessed, the shiver I get up my spine is so real. I LOVED THIS.

I’m not one who typically sees a movie in my head when I read, but I could really see things with the way the scenes were so vividly described. I don’t know if that is so great considering this is a horror and a lot of it was describing flowers coming from eyes and vines curling into your rib cage but…it was visceral and gritty.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸'𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘴. 𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘐𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮, 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘦𝘴.

I think I have a new favorite trope in unhealthily obsessed boys trying to deal with their issues in basically the worst way possible. I will eat it up! Andrew slowly going insane over the course of the story…except not really? It’s all in his head…or is it? GAH. Just the underlying uneasiness and shivers of how scary one can describe plants was so well done.

"𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘦.' 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘴'𝘴 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦. "𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦.”

And spoilers here, but I’m losing my own mind finding out that twist at the end. Going back and reading early chapters, the foreshadowing is so potent! I love being able to backtrack and see how the story ended up where it did.

𝘏𝘦'𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴.

If you enjoyed books like Summer Sons and These Violent Delights, this is right up your alley; creepy monster core, horrific vine imagery and codependent trauma boys.
Read Erin Morgenstern or Pascale Lacelle for similar language/writing style.

Thank you SO MUCH NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for this incredible ARC. And to CG Drews for writing it!

Never has an eerier ode to delulu been written, and honestly? Good for them!

Aussie author C.G. Drews makes an extraordinary comeback to the publishing scene with "Don't Let the Forest In", a dark academia novel where eldritch forest horror ends up being the least of the main characters' problems. Even though Andrew Perrault has never been any good at making - let alone keeping - friends, him and his twin sister Dove have always had Thomas, the autumn-haired boy with as many freckles as he's got issues. The boy with an insane talent for drawing, whose pencil brings Andrew's eerie fairy tales to life... Perhaps all too literally.

Something I always look forward to when reading dark academia is the at times fever dream-ish, at times truly angushing, vibe. Confusion and vague impending doom are exactly what the subgenre is all about, and I can't express how well C.G. Drews understood the assignment. With every turn of the page, Andrew and Thomas' grip on reality slips a little bit further away, to the point that one doesn't know whether they are reading about two boys, about a forest, or about neither and both at once. Despite how vague the stakes may seem at times, nothing about this story lacks polishing. Instead, every single line helps build up a sense of uneasy strangeness that will keep you glancing over your shoulder just in case.

Although there are countless ways in which this little gremlin of a book stands out, one of the most important ones is the nuanced asexual representation. Being both autistic and ace, Andrew does not experience attraction the way others might, and what might have fallen flat had this been written by a great but not brilliant author shines bright with C.G. Drews. One cannot separate autism from everything else, and I personally found this book to be extraordinarily nuanced in terms of showing the reader how autism intersects with everything else the person is or feels or wants.

This book reads like the bastard child of the Tunnel of Horrors and a particularly haunted forest, and it's one of those stories that will stay with you for weeks once you've turned the last page. I must thank the author and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy, which was given to me in exchange for an honest review! Now, on to buying a physical copy as soon as it's released!!

HOLY SHITE WHAT THE EVER LOVING #*$! DID I JUST READ?!?

First, I need to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Childrens Publishing group for the opportunity to experience this incredible story before publication. And thank you to CG Drews for writing a book that had me in a chokehold from start to finish. The representation of the LGBTQIA community was refreshing, and the way they brought the characters to life was something I haven’t seen in a long time. Andrew had my heart from the beginning because he reminded me a bit of someone I love with all my heart. And his relationship with Thomas was just so beautiful and even heartbreaking at times.

I truly think that this book will help anyone who deals with anxiety or panic attacks, or who is part of the LGBTQIA community and who maybe hasn’t found their people to feel a little less alone. (I hope that makes sense. It made sense in my head!)

I leave you with three words that I hope you pay close attention to. READ THIS BOOK.

You will not regret it.

This book right here is PERFECT for those who love dark grim fairytales. This is a story about a prince and a poet. The poet; Andrew loves to write dark fairytales and his best friend Thomas draws those grim fairytales. Thats the story of how they met, two young boys who expressed themselves with words and art. Dove, Andrew twin sister is the opposite of Andrew but that never stopped her from standing up for him.

The atmosphere was horrifying, I mean monsters coming to life and every night both Thomas and Andrew had to fight them off. Drew’s did such an amazing job writing this book, it read like a dark fairytale and unlike any book I’ve read before. I loved how they also added short snippets of Andrew’s writing, it gave the book more of a depth and gave better visuals of how horrifying the monster's were.

Incredibly atmospheric, intentionally unsettling, and fiercely horrific, Don’t Let the Forest in is a deeply engrossing work of queer, dark academia that will keep you on edge until the very last sentence.

Not long after requesting this book I encountered a review from another reader that made me apprehensive about picking it up. In the interest of giving the book a fair chance, I decided to wait so that it wouldn't influence my own opinions. During that period my reading shifted away from YA books and, as a result, I haven't felt compelled to pick this up at any point. Unfortunately, I don't expect that to change in the future, and, as a result, I do not believe I can give this book the fair consideration that it deserves.

Thank you to Macmillan and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.

A Beautifully raw story that truly rips your heart out. "If you cut open my chest you'll find a garden of rot where my heart should be." This book is written so so beautifully and the formatting is perfect.

**⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | A Haunting and Poetic Journey Through Grief**

CG Drews’ *Don't Let the Forest In* is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of grief, trauma, and the healing power of stories. With her signature lyrical style, Drews crafts a tale that is as much about the darkness within as it is about the mysterious forest that looms on the edges of the characters' lives. The narrative is both tender and unsettling, drawing readers into an emotional landscape where every word feels intentional. While the plot can be slow to unfold, the novel’s depth and emotional resonance make it a rewarding read for those who appreciate character-driven stories with a touch of the surreal.

I’ve been following CG Drews on social media for quite awhile now and I’ve been eagerly waiting to read Don’t Let the Forest In. I was super excited to receive an ARC.

This book is beautiful, haunting, twisted, and broken story about Thomas and Andrew. One creates dark stories of monsters while the other draws them into existence— it’s a beautiful pairing until the monsters become more than just a story.

Senior year is hard enough without monsters, accusations of murder, bullying, insecurities, and fumbling through a growing obsession for each other. This book is one that I think will stick with me for a while. The ending. Whew.

“They were beautiful together; they were magical and monstrous.”

Wow! I’m not sure where to start. First, this is a strong recommendation for teenage age kids that like the weird, scary and edge of your seat gripping stories. Such an amazing piece to be considered for that age range.
This book was truly amazing. I went into it without expectations but it left me I’m complete shock. Not only was it beautifully written with pieces such as “If you cut open my chest you’ll find a garden of rot where my heart should be” but the story, the characters, the mystery, even the magic was fantastic. It was dark and lightly twisted and yet it was able to be so soft and calming. The ending was spectacular, I’m still a bit confused by it in the best way possible. Mind blowing.

This book instantly grabbed my attention with its cover. And it reminded of Frankenstein meets House of Hollow maybe? I really found it unique story of horror. I love that Thomas is an artist, and the discussion that can be had over the themes of obsession and monsters. In particular I have been looking for more creature feather books. I hope to acquire a physical copy of this book. Which re-reading books is not something I do often.

Andrew is an extremely sad boy with only two true friends, as he begins his senior school year at a private boarding school in rural Virginia. Dove, his twin sister, and Thomas, best friend to both, have had a falling out and their trio is down to two. As Andrew struggles with growing feelings for Thomas, they both are struggling with a darker secret. Andrew, with his extreme social anxiety, finds his solace in writing fairy tales about dark, sad, and brutal monsters in the forests around the school, and Thomas is always bringing Andrew's stories to life with his vivid drawings. But when the drawings begin manifesting, and killing teachers and students, the boys are at their wits end to figure out a way to stop the monsters. But everything may not be as it seems, and Thomas' monsters aren't the only thing Andrew will have to come to terms with this year. I enjoyed the writing and the ace and bi representation. This story will give you whiplash in the best way possible trying to figure out what is actually going on. I enjoyed the young love and angst that comes along with it and the exploration of grief for a person who is already struggling with so much inner turmoil.

Don’t Let the Forest In follows Andrew as he returns to Wickwood Academy for his senior year. Everything in his life seems a little unstable, including his relationships with Thomas, who he loves, and Dove, his twin sister. Throw in Thomas’s parents’ disappearance and the fact that there now seems to be monsters in what was once their favorite place and it sounds like a real horrifying mystery might be afoot.

Unfortunately, this book just massively didn’t work for me. I fought it nearly every step of the way, which is a shame because I’d been so excited for it. Don’t get me wrong, the book has its merits, but they’re few and far between for me. I think this book needed a lot more thought and development just in general, to be honest.

I spent the majority of Don’t Let the Forest In trying to pinpoint what the message of it was and by the end I still think it’s way too muddy to make a lot of sense. Andrew has a hundred and two problems and it doesn’t feel like any of them get addressed. He’s struggling with his sexuality (but he is asexual which is some representation I’m always super excited to see), his relationships are shaky, he is anxious as all hell, and is trying to hide an eating disorder to top it all off. It just doesn’t seem like these play a particularly cohesive role in the story as a whole.

That does kind of bring me to Andrew as a character, though. I love an unreliable and unlikable narrator but he got under my skin almost constantly. Andrew constantly blames everyone else for his problems and the rare time he does take an iota of responsibility or takes a second to look within to fix their problems it’s shallow and surrounded by pitying ‘woe is me’ kind of speech. He’ll rant for full paragraphs about how despicable he is because he’s too anxious and weak and skinny and asexual for any given person or problem and a page later he’s whining about how Thomas or Dove are responsible for what’s currently wrong. I can understand the intent behind these character choices, but they’re maddening to read through. With a character like Andrew I expect some major character arc and self-reflection and growth, but here it just takes far too long and is way too little too late to make an impact. The way he treats people just never really finds the time to come up.

It’s not just Andrew’s character that struggles, though. None of the characters seem to have any consistency besides maybe Lana and the bullies - and the bullies are Disney villain over the top evil for what seems to be no reason at all. Characters will get into throw down, blow up arguments over nothing and dialogue choices will follow almost no logic (I was reminded constantly of that ‘I’m so RaNdOm rAwR’ time period and it physically hurt, though that may be a me problem).

Plot-wise, it did a few things to build tension that almost always backfire. Keeping the reader in the dark while continuously hinting to this thing that happened just before the narrative started. A main character intent on not actually following leads the plot is throwing at them. It was frustrating to me because the book is so focused on fairytales and the power of storytelling and missed out on making the book itself follow fairytale rules and structure. There doesn’t seem to be a logic or real flow to what happens and it’s hard to string together why each plot point happens in the grand scheme of things. Fairy tales are tight, everything happens for a reason and there’s a moral to every piece of the story. A lot of this just felt like “and then this happened and then this happened next” just for the sake of the imagery and to bulk the story out further. Honestly, it didn’t feel like a lot of the emotional beats or plot points were there for any logical reason in-world at all so much as the author needed something to fill space between point A and B.

Sorry, I’m just so frustrated because this book has so much potential and so many people seem to have enjoyed it and I just couldn’t. I’m so tired of books not receiving the amount of editing and care they deserve.

There are things the book does get right, though, even for me. There are scenes in here, specifically some of the more action-based ones, that are absolutely heart-racingly good. They show the talent that Drews truly has in a way the rest of the narrative misses out on. If you’re into gore, this book is exceedingly gory. There’s body horror and creepy forest monsters galore. The imagery itself is super tight. Almost all of the description falls back to forest imagery or hunger or stuff like rib cages and eye sockets (I will say that it could be a little too tight because it did get on my nerves with how repetitive it felt at times). There’s also some decent queer talks as Andrew grapples with his asexuality.

So, Don’t Let the Forest In isn’t a book without its merits. I just think it could have been so much more in a way that makes the disappointment crushing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan Publishing Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is not a book that everyone will enjoy, you have to be willing to tolerate the slow pace and really getting to know the deeper minds of the characters in order to fully appreciate it. I think this particularly applies to the general YA reader population. The style of writing is very artistic as well, with a TON of imagery throughout. That being said, I thought it was great. I was a little skeptical at first, but once I got into it I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The way the author describes some of Andrews thoughts is truly mesmerizing. The depth of Andrew and Thomas’s relationship toward one another…chef’s kiss. There are some trigger warnings to be aware of, which are also presented at the start: depiction of eating disorders, self-harm, and quite a bit of blood/gore. There is a solid twist towards the end that I did not see coming, but very much appreciated. If you’re looking for something hauntingly beautiful and deep with a touch of psychological thriller, you need to read this one. Side note, it’s a perfect book to read for the fall season.

I’m pretty sure I read this in one sitting. The premise was so unique, and the characters felt so real and angsty. The setting was written beautifully, and I felt as though I could not only see it in my mind, but physically walk around in it. This book was scary, heartfelt, and endlessly intriguing, and I am so glad I got to read it. The concept of monsters coming alive that were drawn as a response to trauma is such an interesting metaphor as well. Again, I loved the characters. The action sequences in the forest were also really well done. Though-out the book, tension is building, and building, and then the climax towards the end was very satisfying, as was the ending. This book played with a quiet fear that we all have, and made it tangible, well done.

Don’t Let the Forest In follows Andrew Perrault in the aftermath of a mysterious friendship disaster between his twin, Dawn, and his obsessive crush, Thomas. His return to Wickwood Academy is bad enough, dealing with having no friends and continued bullying, when Thomas’s monsterous drawings come to life, threatening him and everyone around him. Together, the two boys try to rub their two braincells together to put an end to the monsters and figure out what they mean to each other, even as the horrific odds turn against them. The result is a poorly anchored book with terribly handled twists and weak characters.

The main problem with the book is the lack of on-page set up for characters and their relationships. Much of the premise of the book lies in how different Thomas and Dawn act with Andrew compared to when their friendship at its peak. Unfortunately, their friendship is completely off page, so the whip-lash that Andrew feels has to be tediously explained to us. The reader is meant to understand that these characters have this deeply established connection, without any work being done to make us believe it. This is a huge issue, as this book revolves around Andrew and Thomas’s intensely obsessive and codependent relationship.

The problem with the relationships is also tied to Andrew’s weakness as a character. He is completely obtuse about the things going around him and he’s annoying to read about. Things that are obviously worth considering about the horrors haunting him and the people around him fly right over his head every time, making for an incredibly frustrating reading experience. The way he speaks is so melodramatic and overwrought that it’s laughable. This continues into the excerpts of his fairytales, which are all edgy and fake-deep.

I appreciate what C. G Drews tried to do with Andrew as a representation of anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, but the work put in didn’t work on-page. As an audience, the reader is out of the loop of his non-monster anxieties, so he sometimes makes leaps in logic that make no sense and we can’t even see how he got there. Ideally, the reader would be led onto the same traps that Andrew’s anxiety leads him, but instead it’s confusing and aggravating. I also think the way that mental health is sometimes shown plainly on-page and other times in symbolic imagery and allegory creates a confused depiction of mental illness.

I also found the exploration of Asexuality to be mixed. I was very excited as an Ace-spectrum person to see how this was done, and I’m still not sure. For a YA audience, I would expect the explanation of asexuality to be heavy handed, but that wasn’t what I got. An actual introduction of asexuality doesn’t exist at all, but Andrew’s fears and feelings about being “wrong” are who’ll to explained to the point of being repetitive. I’ll be honest, some of my opinions about the representation is clouded by how little I cared about Andrew as a character. I can’t really complain about it though, because this was one of the better elements.

The decent element is the horror. It’s not the best I’ve read even in YA, but it’s competent. The gore is gorey and gave me the creeps more than a couple times. My only issue with the horror is how poorly rooted it is within the story. This is the same issue I had with character relationships. The characters know all about these monsters and why they are important to them, but it’s only clunkily explained to the reader. The horror also suffers by the poorly defined setting and passage of time. Every time the time of day was mentioned, it was news to me. The characters just float around from scene to scene untethered. This is emphasized by the unrealistic dialogue and one-dimensional supporting characters.

No one in this book talks like real people. I understand the point of exaggerating for the purpose of creating drama and tension, but this book’s attempt was laughable. Andrew and Thomas say unhinged things about living inside each other and how they’d die without each other, but I could at least see the draw of that. The background characters spend most of the book bullying Thomas for being a murderer, even at times where if they truly believe this, they would be in immense danger. As the death toll increases, the lack of panic is covered up because the school is just ignoring people dying in the middle of day for some reason. The main bully repeatedly complains about people “slandering” him. I mean, this is just ridiculous, people. Some side characters I actually like, Lana Lang (unrelated to Superman’s friend) and Chloe Nguyen, are sidelined by the narrative in favor of the riveting relationship between Andrew and Thomas. Some characters aren’t even deigned to have names, even if they eventually get significant page time. Anyone who isn’t directly related to the romance/monster plot is severely undeveloped compared to Andrew and Thomas, and I already said how lacking they are as characters.

The final nail in the coffin is the horrible ending. I don’t want to spoil the twist(s) but I can stress how hard they fall on their face. There are fakeouts that are so dumb to be laughable. There is an actually good twist that is ruined because of execution. And there is a final twist that is SO OBVIOUS because it had been a blind spot in the boys’ pisspoor problem solving the whole book. The thematic meaning behind the horror fails to meaningfully connect to the characters and their terrible romance. What makes things worse is that these twists rely on the established character relationships that never got fleshed out the entire book.

Overall, I can see how teens would get a little bit more out of this than I would, and it could be worth checking out at a library if it’s convenient. That being said, I’m not that far out of teenhood and I know that I would not have been charmed by this. Everything that this book does has been done better by other books. I can’t strongly recommend it to anyone.

The prose is pretty good but I think the story itself gets kind of muddled as the book goes on.

Don’t Let the Forest In follows high school senior Andrew Perrault, who is strangely captivated by his friend Thomas Rye. But Thomas has been different this year — his abusive parents have disappeared, and the rumor flying around school is that Thomas murdered them. It doesn’t help that every time Andrew brings it up, Thomas just completely shuts down. With Andrew’s twin Done also giving him the cold shoulder this year, Andrew feels especially alone. And then one night, he follows Thomas into the woods, and he sees the truth: Thomas’s monster drawings are coming to life.

It’s weird because I feel like the two parts of this book were each done well. The fantasy element and the mini fairytale stories were written beautifully; I was very invested in figuring out what the lore was. The more realistic arc about trauma, family, and sexuality was also really interesting as I really enjoyed Andrew and Thomas’s “us-against-the-world” dynamic even as they dealt with their internal conflicts, and I am always a big fan of unreliable narrators.

Together, however, I felt like the story got a little muddy. The fantasy arc is interesting on its own and I think it could work well as a metaphor for Thomas’s struggle with sexuality and trauma, but ultimately it felt a little too abstract. And then there are other moments where you end up questioning whether the creatures coming to life is real at all. While the interactions between Thomas, Andrew, and the monsters are well-written in a vacuum, once the monsters are brought into the “real life” boarding school setting, most of the side characters’ reactions and the way things play out don’t feel as natural.

The book does succeed at creating the mysterious and cryptic atmosphere very well, but it’s a difficult balance and also kept things confusing when I wanted more concrete answers. Ultimately though, I still think the concept is really interesting, the writing is generally good, and the setting is extremely captivating.