This book had all the makings of a novel that I'd love but it really missed the mark for me. The big twist of the book I saw coming from a mile away and it was annoying waiting for the characters to catch up to it. I also felt like for a book about monsters the characters themselves were the least believable part. I really wanted to like this book but it felt a little aimless, like a serious of scenes the author visualized without being able to figure out a way to connect them.

The writing itself was really good and the imagery that it evoked was interesting but I often felt like there wasn't really anything underneath the pretty surface. I see why so many people enjoyed it, it was beautifully written, it just lacked any real substance to make me want to stay in the world or to get more invested in the characters. By the end I was sick of everyone and of the meandering story.

The only redeeming part is that I did feel like the author followed through in the very, very end.

Thanks NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

i can’t say enough good things about this book and that’s completely taken me by surprise. i was very apprehensive going into this book a lot of queer horror is all pain and suffering especially at the queer characters expense but this book wasn’t that at all. that’s not to say things were all sunshine in fact 90% of the book everyone was miserable but not in a way that you felt like they were being punished for being queer. in fact this book was very much a celebration of queer identity if you can call a book this dark a celebration. andrew was an incredible protagonist you felt all of his emotions as raw and bloody and painful as they were you could feel them like they were your own. his pain his pining his anger they all felt so visceral and so real. second to the masterful mess that was andrew was his best friend thomas. he was just as much of a pleasure to read his protectiveness towards andrew his apathy towards others was a very good contrast to andrew. the plot of this book was incredible and dark it was very well done overall. however for anyone who is squeamish with horror i think is a good entry to it with this being YA there is gore and blood present a very large amount of it but it is not lingered on it for pages upon pages with heavy detail like with an adult horror book. this book is incredible its queer its dark its a little disgusting and the plot twists are well done with enough shock that you can’t guess it but enough hints that once the twists are revealed you wondered how you missed it at all. i would recommend this to anyone and possibly everyone.

“In the dark, no one could see his hollow and empty places.”

“Don’t let the Forest in,” by CG Drews

I loved loved loved this book so much. It takes place at a rich kid boarding school with an artist character and a sporty character. It has interesting happenings with faeries and spooky Halloween vibes. I loved that one of the main characters is asexual which you don’t see a lot in books. The writing was very poetic and had all the dark, mysterious, and tense vibes that help complicate the story which is already complicated with the M/M best friends who like each other story happening. The ending was so crazy!!! Did not see that coming. I loved every second of this book and will definitely be rereading it again. 5 out of 5 stars.

-Faeries
-M/M
-Asexual MC
-Multi POV

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

The first thing I want to say, is that the acknowledgements at the end state both "If you've turned the last page and are now frowning at the wall, everything is as it should be." and "May this one haunt you."
Both of these are incredibly accurate statements. I am questioning reality as I stare at the ceiling.

I devoured this in a matter of hours while on an international flight.

Firstly, the sublime writing. Here's one of my favourite bits: "For a vicious moment, Andrew thought about slipping his fingers into Thomas's cut. Taking hold of his rib and breaking it. Pulling the soft crumbling bone from his chest and sewing it into his own. They'd be forever together, rib against rib, fused in gore and bone and adoration." Drews' writing is visceral and clever.

Andrew is such a perfect example of an unreliable narrator that makes you trust him wholeheartedly. I was prepared to believe everything he believed and defend him to the death.

I'm a little stuck on what else to say because I'm still gathering my thoughts but essentially if you want to read a spooky, macabre fairytale psychological thriller set in the modern world at a school featuring a sentient forest, its beasts and some botanical body horror? Read this. Oh, and there's queer rep!

This was utterly and grotesquely delightful, and will haunt me for a while.

Thank you so much to the publisher and MTMC Tours for the eARC!

I am at a loss for words and that does not happen often. This book is perfect!
In this YA fantasy horror story you follow Andrew through a devastatingly gorgeous story of anxiety, love, loss, and the horrors that consume you. Andrew is Ace but he is deeply in love with Thomas. He struggles with feelings of being enough for someone but also being too much as he battles with crippling anxiety. His twin sister Dove has always been his rock , helping him keep his head above water. When monsters in the forest start to attack Andrew and Thomas have to fight them off every night to keep them at bay from attacking the boarding school they all reside in. The monsters find there way into the school and start reeking havoc.
Dove has created distance from Andrew which is tearing him apart but he cannot figure out why. He know Thomas and Dove are fighting but cannot put his finger on why or what happened. The last few chapters of this story are full of such heart wrenching twists and turns. This is a must read and I am so glad this story now lives inside of my head
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing story for my honest review.

Don't Let the Forest In is a visceral reading experience that should appeal to fans of dark fairytales featuring plenty of body horror and queer longing.

The story opens with Andrew Perrault and twin sister Dove returning to school in the shadows of a traumatic incident that happened the previous year. Andrew is looking forward to being reunited with Thomas Rye, the only person who understands Andrew's twisted writing and translates them into nightmarish illustrations, and who might be something more than a best friend to Andrew, but he hasn't found the words to describe what that is yet. However, Dove seemingly abandons Andrew at school, while Thomas is hiding a dangerous secret, one that has to do with horrific monsters that show up in the forest, which resemble the creatures that Andrew crafts in his stories and Thomas draws. To prevent the terror from reaching the school, Andrew must figure out how to defeat them for good, even if it means destroying what he loves.

The novel takes its time revealing its secrets, and although certain twists and revelations aren't difficult to guess, the obfuscations are heightened by Andrew's position as an exceptionally unreliable narrator, not only haunted by the past but very much afraid of the present. I enjoyed the overall writing style; it's heavy on descriptions, and the emotional landscape is rendered just as vividly ("There was an explosion happening in Andrew's chest, a thousand flowered vines growing around his heart.") as physical surroundings, sensations, and actions ("The world slid sickeningly left, and pain shot behind his eyes in a white-hot spear of excruciating agony"). This is a book that will reward readers with strong visual imaginations.

With such fantastical supernatural horrors lurking in the forest and causing very real, very bloody damage, though, the human bullies that Andrew and Thomas encounter at school feel somewhat flat and trite in comparison. There are two in particular—a student and a teacher—and neither of them are as dimensional as the threats that emerge from Andrew and Thomas's stories and illustrations. However, I did appreciate the asexual representation a lot. Andrew is firmly asexual and struggles to come to terms with it in the context of his romantic attraction to Thomas, and the book treats that with a lot of care.

Between the horror elements, the tender-obsessive relationship, and a strong execution of external atmosphere and internal voice, this was an easy book to slip into—like a dark forest—for a few hours.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for my honest thoughts!

I am in awe of this book.

The writing and overall story are somehow both delicate and hard hitting. How much detail is put into Andrew and Thomas as characters in terms of their care for each other as well as how much their creative outlets mean to them (in more ways than one!) is done beautifully.

There’s so much creativity poured into the monsters themselves and I have to commend the author for her careful hand in that; they truly come alive on the page!

Just… I will be thinking about this book and how it swept me away for some time. Definitely my favorite read of 2024 so far!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this arc. This book is a dark, monstrous tale about grief and the denial of loss and the stories we tell ourselves instead of accepting reality. This books deal with mental health disorders so check trigger warnings, but is definitely worth a read!

Beautiful descriptive writing! I really enjoyed the visceral horror elements of this book -- the descriptions are just impeccable and there was a very defined sense of atmosphere that I appreciated. Andrew's anxiety and panic attacks were represented quite well and there was a lot of creative imagery.

Here's the thing: I have a very particular pet peeve regarding a certain type of mental health representation that I really do not care for still being around. The blurring of fiction and reality is often very creative but there is a certain extent at which it stops being inventive and just starts bordering on harmful mental health representation. Unfortunately, that is what happened here and what happens in many magical realism books that attempt to involve mental health. To be honest, that is what knocked the book from a 4 to a 2.5 for me.

I think the characters could have been fleshed out better -- I felt like we were often told why we should like a character or care for them but not often given an opportunity to create our own opinions on the matter. It would have been nice to see more involvement of the side characters that were given such a grave importance within the book.

Unfortunately, I did not care much for the romance. Again, since description takes up such an impressive majority of the book, it was hard to really care fully about it and it felt as if we didn't see them interact enough, in a way.

Overall, not for me! But definitely not a horrible book.

Holy shit, C.G. Drews writes so fucking poetically. They spun such an atmospheric tale that made me want to savor this book like a good glass of wine. I really enjoy Andrew as a narrator, and I love that his narration wasn’t always accurate.

It didn’t consistently quicken pace until around 70% of the book. There were great moments before that, but they were spaced in between really slow plot moments. However, everything started happening at that 70% mark. The love declaration gave me Bridgerton level monologue-ing, which I LIVE FOR. The monsters hit their peak, with the author writing their descriptions so damn perfectly that it felt like a damn movie. I also love the unique way Andrew defeats the monsters- so cool!

AND THAT FREAKING TWIST! I should have guessed it, then didn’t! Ugh!

P.S- If you like books with happy endings, don’t read this book.

A haunting and beautiful tale about two boys who must learn to cope when the art they use to escape becomes the monster that they must fight at night. The prose is magnificent and immersive and helps to build a world where the forest feels alive. and the monsters in it are both terrifying and magnificent.

The characters are intriguing and their reactions feel real. Andrew and Thomas are delightful and the reader can't help hoping they get a happy ending. Lana and Chole are amazing and they keep the story grounded in a sense of reality. The bullies feel real and it makes the plight of their victims realistic.

The story is a haunting mystery where the reader slowly learns the answers and slowly learns to fear what could be lurking in the forest. The language is captivating and I could imagine the feeling of the forest growing. I loved the glimpses of fairy tales that Andrew is writing, and the story will haunt readers long after the book is finished.

I had really high expectations going into Don't Let the Forest In, and while I wasn’t let down by any means, it also wasn’t quite the story I thought it was going to be.

The writing is EXTREMELY flowery, to the point where I did get a bit annoyed, but to its credit, the writing is extremely consistent throughout - it never pretends to be unpretentious and unpoetic, but I do think the plot occasionally suffers for the art of an alright turn of phrase. The horror elements are absent for the first third or so of the book, but once they come in, they come in so strong that I was honestly a bit queasy at times. I also found the twist to be predictable (guessable from the first chapter), but the end itself was completely indecipherable - I think it’s meant to be ominous and open ended, but I honestly could not tell you what happens at all. That said, I love the weird forest monsters. They’re so creative, and gave me a similar feeling I had reading The Spiderwick Chronicles as a kid, and I have the sinking feeling that some of the more body horror-y imagery will stick with me until I die. Chills.

I’m always impressed when teenage characters actually act their age in genre fiction, and I think these guys definitely seem accurately 17. Even so, I had a really hard time connecting with the main characters, both Andrew and Thomas. I found Andrew to be a bit annoying, and I couldn’t figure out what about Thomas made Andrew love him so much. However, there were plenty of very sweet moments that I genuinely enjoyed a lot, and even though I wasn’t able to 100% buy into the world, I also couldn’t put the book down - I read the book in two sittings, and I stayed up until at least 3 am to finish it.

All in all, this book is a really solid 3.5 stars to me. It’s weird and overwritten and deeply queer and absolutely haunting, and I know so many people who will absolutely love it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for the ARC!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Don’t Let the Forest In in exchange for my honest review.

I usually find flowery language to be a bit obnoxious and difficult to read after the first couple of chapters. However, that was not the case with the writing in this book. It added so much to the atmosphere and plot that I was immediately sucked into it.

I wanted to wrap Andrew and Thomas in a giant warm blanket and protect them from all the monsters in the woods.

What a wildly wicked and mysterious book. CG Drews is incredibly talented at writing so much life into each page. The poetic imagery is immaculate. This was a perfect addition for Pride Month reading, as it is very LGBTQ+ positive.

You’re catapulted into Andrew Perrault’s story at a private boarding school, where you’re very quickly told something ominous happened the year before. But that mystery doesn’t come to light until the very end…Well, unless you’re a 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ detective like me. A story filled with monsters, murder, and complete mental health devastation. An absolute phenomenal story that I can’t wait for my friends to be able to read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for sharing this amazing book's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

Don’t Let The Forest In is a YA Psychological Horror novel that was just wow. The prose was stunning, the setting was so atmospheric it took on a life of its own, and the characters were heartbreaking in all the best ways.

I did not see the plot twist coming and I’m not fully convinced I understand what really happened from the ending, but that’s okay! I still loved this story and the experience that was reading this incredibly beautiful and, at times, gruesome writing.

Andrew finds solace in writing twisted fairytales. His best friend and secret crush, Thomas, draws them. But senior year is off to a weird start as Thomas puts distance between them and walks the halls with a haunted expression. Andrew sneaks into the off-limits forest to find out what’s troubling Thomas only to discover him fighting a nightmarish monster.

The terrifying monsters from Thomas’s drawings are coming to life and they’re after blood.

Just in time for Halloween, you should definitely add this haunting, atmospheric read to your tbr!

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

While I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read this book, I fear it’s been a DNF for me. I struggled greatly to push through the first few chapters, and while I think the prose is beautiful and the pitch compelling, I think this book is simply just one that doesn’t vibe well with me. It’s a stunning cover and the author is incredibly talented! I really really wanted to like this one but something stopped me from getting more than three chapters in. I was dragging my feet to keep reading.

I would like to give it another go though when it comes out! I think this would be a great autumn read, and I think it might just have been timing with what I’m reading currently and writing myself!

Amazing book. 10000 percent reccomend. LOved the characters and the plot. Finished this in like 5 hours. I couldn't put it down.

Thank you so much to CG Drews, MTMC Tours, and Macmillians Childrens Publishing Group—Fiewel & Friends, for the advance digital copy of DON'T LET THE FOREST IN. This review is entirely my own thoughts and opinions based on the early copy I read.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

DON'T LET THE FOREST IN is an eerie psychological queer YA folk horror set at a boarding school for rich kids that is a heart-pounding nightmare wrapped in rotted leaves, thorny vines, and ancient forest horrors.

Andrew's senior year has begun and it's already starting off in the worst way possible. His twin sister, Dove, is ignoring and avoiding him, and his best friend, Thomas, is acting strange and jumpy. When he attempts to follow Thomas in order to find out what is going on with him, he ends up in the forest and catches his best friend fighting off a monster. Thomas reveals that whatever he draws, comes to life in the forest and creeps into the school to destroy anyone close to Thomas. To ensure the monsters harm no one but them, their nights become filled with desperate attempts to keep the horrors of the forest at bay. But as their obsession with each other becomes deeper, the fights become harder, and the forest closes in faster—and Andrew fears the only way to stop them will break his heart.

If you're a fan of:

☆ Anxiety Rep
☆ Asexual Rep
☆ Dark Academia
☆ Eerie, Gothic Atmosphere
☆ Folk Horror
☆ Eldrich creatures
☆ Twisted Fairytales

Then this book is absolutely for you. But please note: this is a DARK story, so please proceed with caution.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

This book is... stunning. CG Drews has penned this tale in the most poetic of prose, full of eerie descriptions that keep the scent of dirt and rotted leaves in your nose and the feel of bark and twigs against your skin. Their writing is tragic and haunting. It sinks into your mind and burrows itself deep, keeping your thoughts on the tale, even after you've put the book down. It's delightfully creepy and kept me breathless with every turn of the page. My e-book is filled with highlighted sentences that just showcase what masterful skill CG Drews has in writing gorgeous, creepy, forest-haunted prose. I'm 100% a fan.

Their phenomenal writing skills aside, they did a fantastic job tackling representation in both mental health and in sexual identity. Andrew suffers from Anxiety and is Asexual— both are representations that I also fall under. In regards to the anxiety, CG Drews nailed representing it so utterly perfectly. I struggle with describing how anxiety feels so next time anyone asks, I'mma just hand this book over because it's spot on. The asexuality representation is also completely on point. Asexuality is already confusing. It gets more confusing when you have feelings for another person but all you want to do is kiss and melt into their skin and just exist happily with them and just skip all the other intimate things. CG Drews apparently just rifled around in my head and dug out my exact thoughts and feelings and confusions and worries and splayed them out in poetic writing, that is how on the nose the ace representation is. It's gorgeous, it's beautiful, it's so well-done. It makes me incredibly happy to be able to say that this book represents me.

The story and plot is so twisty and turn-y. Thanks to me highlighting (cuz stunning prose was stunning) and taking my time reading this ARC, I actually managed to catch onto clues that had me asking the right questions that led me to figuring out the big reveals. But it still wasn't easy. CG Drews definitely knows how to make sure you're second guessing yourself every step of the way. All in all, this story is beautiful. It's dark and gothic, just the right about of eerie and creepy, and absolutely thrilling. I highly recommend this book!

I don't give out 5 stars to books frequently, but if you can make me cry and feel what the characters are feeling, you've earned it, and boy, CG Drews deserves those 5 stars. "Don't Let the Forest In" was both magical and terrifying -- the way that the monsters within the book come to life through Drews's words is an impressive feat that kept me sucked in. I read this book in one sitting, unable to tear myself away from Andrew and Thomas during their descent into madness.

I truly cannot believe this is CG Drews's debut novel because of the way that the words flowed, and how the raw pain poured from their characters gave off the feeling of someone who has been publishing novels alongside the likes of Stephen King or Shirley Jackson. Much like the monsters that peeled away from the trees in the forest to come to life, Andrew and Thomas did much the same from the pages of this book. Top all of it off with a plot that is a near-perfect metaphor for the feeling of being closeted and you've got a winner.

I highly recommend this book to anyone willing to experience the horror & trauma of Andrew and Thomas' journey.

Such a hauntingly beautiful book. I already preordered my copy and I cannot believe how much I loved this! LGBTQIA+ themes and a shocking twist ending.