This is a beautiful book but also terrifying and my brain is confused and sad! Sad that the story is over, sad at the book. The book consumed me. I had to keep reading. But true to the end I am just staring at the wall wondering what I read. The writing is heartbreaking. I love the way feelings and anxiety were described, how as the reader I knew something was up but couldn't quite guess what it was. I guess it is still up to me and my imagination! I usually hate endings like that but in this book I liked it.

I’m not entirely sure how to gather my thoughts on this. I find myself just wanting to scream about Don’t Let the Forest In. From the first sentence, I was hooked and by the end of the first chapter I was recommending it to my goddaughter. It’s so beautifully written that it’s practically poetry. This book was hard to put down. When I had no choice but to put it down, because reality called for it, my thoughts were completely consumed by Andrew and Thomas and of what could’ve possibly happened between Thomas and Dove.

I laughed and I cried and I didn’t want it to end. Don’t Let the Forest In is going be a book I think about for years and will most definitely be my favorite read of 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc and to CG Drews for writing such a wonderful story. I can’t wait to discuss this book with more people.

Oh wow. Anything I say about this book will never do it justice. It was so good and creepy.

This is not my typical kind of read, but I devoured this book. The characters were written so well. Thomas became my favorite. Andrew was such an interesting character. His thoughts during the story were chilling, but added to the overall ominous atmosphere.

The story was just so intriguing, it was so much more than I expected. It was well developed and the author has such a beautiful writing style. This book easily became one of my top reads for year.

Overall, I think this book will invade my mind for years. I could not recommend this enough. Thank you NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for the arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In CG Drews' spooky debut book, "Don't Let the Forest In," high school senior, Andrew, writes creepy fairytales for his friend, Thomas, who's dealing with some dark secrets. Thomas' drawings start coming alive and attacking people, so the boys team up to fight them off. But as they get closer, Andrew worries they might have to stop Thomas himself to save everyone.

What initially caught my attention with this book were the poetic lines in the blurb I read, and they continued to be evident and beautifully written throughout the book. The characters were well-developed, each with their distinct traits and motivations. The story kept me engaged from the start, and I never felt like I had to force myself to continue. The pacing was good overall, but the ending felt too abrupt.

This book is suitable for young adults, with just the right amount of scariness and innocent love. The writing is simple yet profound, though some descriptions were confusing due to the mix of fantasy and reality. Overall, a highly enjoyable read with minor flaws like repetitive language and a short conclusion. Still, I recommend it to any fans of horror, YA fantasy, and books with LGBTQ+ themes.

Thank you again, NetGalley, for the ARC! Comes out October 29th!! 4.50/5.00 stars!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Don't Let the Forest in is a YA queer, horror novel that follows our protagonist Andrew, and his best friend Thomas, through their senior year at a prep school. We are dropped into a bit of a mystery, with the year before ending in some kind of event that has left both Andrew and Thomas in the eye of the school's student body. When Thomas shows up to the first day almost late, with blood on his sleeve, Andrew knows something is wrong. Full of gore, nature based terror, and horrifying monsters, Don't Let the Forest in certainly does not disappoint.

As I was reading, I could not get over the prose. C.G. Drews is incredibly talented, and I cannot get over some of the lines in this book. The way words are spun is so captivating and brilliant. The only (and I mean ONLY) issue that I have is that it almost gets to feeling a bit pretentious coming from the mouth of a teen boy, but at the same time, I feel like that's part of the point. Andrew is not exactly the most normal of kids, and we love him more for that.

Speaking of Andrew, I absolutely love the representation in this book. There's a really deep understanding of asexuality in this book, which I really do love. It's not something I see very much of. His and Thomas' relationship is such a great slow burn, and I really found myself enjoying it in a way I haven't enjoyed YA romance in a while. Him and Thomas are both such compelling and beautiful characters.

I think that this is one that's going to stick with me for quite a while. I can't wait to get a hold of a physical copy of this when it's out.

This book has me in it's grasp, and it is not letting go anytime soon!

C.G. Drews is arguably one of my favorite authors, which says a lot, because up until Don't Let the Forest In, I had only previously read their title The Boy Who Steals Houses. Drews has a way of capturing my attention absolutely and completely. Of wrapping twine around my heart and pulling it tight.

Don't Let the Forest In has been my favorite read of the year this far, and I wager it'll continue to be my favorite throughout the rest of the year. It is haunting, beautiful, terrible, perfect, and it owns me.

I am obsessed with the imagery and attention to detail. The storytelling is masterful. Drews weaves these flawed beautiful characters into your heart, and stitches them there with vines and thorns. And then has the audacity to let them bloom. I wanted nothing more than to hold these broken boys and protect them at all costs.

This book made me feel seen. The representation is handled so hauntingly and beautifully. My heart broke so many times, only to be put back together, and pulled apart again.

I truly do not have the words to describe how much I love this book. It is an all consuming carnivorous forest that threatens my very existence, and I think my soul belongs to these trees.

thank you netgalley for my first arc!!! i am so excited to read and review this.

This review will contain spoilers

wow that was a very good read, it drew me in from the second that i picked it up. they characters were great and i think the plot was very thought out and original. I love great LGTBQIA representation in book especially in a setting of boarding school.

I knew something was up with Dove when Andrew was dropped off by himself to school and she just randomly appeared. at first i thought she was thomas's twin but then it clicked that she was andrew's and i was like hmmm strange the author never mentioned her in the car. the ending added it up, though. I do think that it is wild that no one told him what was happening especially when he was always asking thomas to talk to dove and work it out and kept mentioning conversations with dove.

I like the idea of their stories and art coming to life, i have not read a book about that yet and it was amazing. the plot was something that drew you in and made to play detective with andrew and thomas to figure out why this was all happening.

there are two reasons why it is not a five star read for me;

one is that i felt the story line of the monsters coming to life and the love story between thomas and andrew were constantly fighting for center stage. if the book was longer i do not think it would bother me, but because of how short the book is it felt like those two story lines were constantly overshadowing each other. i loved them both but i wanted more of each and more explanation.

two is that at some points it felt like the personification and the metaphors were way to strong for the book. i did like them but it felt at points that the author was putting intense figures of speech to make the book seem creepier than it was. I would have loved more descriptive paragraphs to really show me what the school and the monsters looked like. that would have added more to the creepy factor, but for a YA book i felt that the author did a great job of painting that creepy, gothic, horror look they were going for.

I think this is going to be a favorite of people not only from the representation that it has but due to the twins, turns, and extremely likeable characters. I am so lucky to have been given an arc.

This book was extended to me as arc from Netgalley.

As an adult reader I love both fantasy and horror. From horror I really require a twist I don't see coming and Don't Let the Forest in Delivered that for me.

Set just a state away from where I live currently, the forests of this book came to life within the author's words. The monsters crawled out of not only the characters' imaginations, but also into mine. This book was beautifully written with layers of love, grief, and mental illness all twisting together and it took me awhile to figure out what was real and that makes for a good horror book.

The main character, Andrew, at the surface level could've been just any teenager - filled with dread, anxiety, and a crush he believes to be unrequited. Except the author dug deeper than that into what caused those things and did it on a beautiful backdrop of fantasy/horror.

I definitely look forward to discovering other books by this author.

C.G Drews does not miss!! I'm a huge fan of her previous books and although Don't Let the Forest In couldn't be more different in terms of genre and setting, Drews is consistent with her beautiful writing and books filled with suffering boys.

This book was all the best parts aftg and wicker king with an extra bit of horror and gore to bring it to the next level.

Don't Let the Forest In follows Andrew - autistic, mentally ill, traumatized- who is obsessed with his roommate and best friend Thomas - artistic, obsessive, delinquent. Monsters that Thomas has drawn start to come alive in the woods outside their boarding school, Thomas and Andrew must band together to stop the monsters from entering the school and murdering everyone.

I zoomed through this book, the writing kept on drawing me in and kept me hooked. If you like dark academia with fae gothic like horror this is the book for you!

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Netgalley for this ARC!

Absolutely loved it!
Haunting and beautiful. Its dark and twisted but oh so enticing , so unique, delicate.
I fell in love with the anger, the sadness, the slow burn love.
I did not see the ending coming at all, it hit me "right in the feels."
The words jump out at you, the imagery does too. The monsters come alive.
You get to KNOW the main characters so well, feel what they are feeling. Connect to them.
A beautiful nightmare with an unexpected ending.

Um. genuinely not even from the synopsis did I know what I was getting myself into fully but this was absolutely insane! I felt like even from the beginning this started off strong and just progressed more and more as it went on. We get Introduced to Andrew who’s demure and riddled with anxiety and his type A twin sister dove as the embark on their new semester at wickwood academy. Then we get introduced to Andrew’s best friend Thomas head strong fiercely protective, and oh! His parents are missing leaving a puddle of blood in his wake and he’s the prime suspect. Then we get sucked into a world of coming of age, sexual identity and monsters that seem to come alive from the pages of Thomas’ sketch book that are just as beautiful as they are cruel and intense. These two boys grapple with their feelings for each other, their severing trio with Dove who they both adore as they risk their lives every night to keep these vicious things at bay.

I literally adored this wholeheartedly, I loved how fierce Thomas was for Andrew and how Andrew was literally just a boy trying to be strong when he was suffering from things not even he understood (he would love taylor swift). I 1000% need this to be adapted into like a mini series or something because this felt like watching a movie I could genuinely picture everything in my head but I would love to see the things I couldn’t wrap my head around on screen.

This had me reading the last pages over and over to understand the ending and I’m still not sure but honestly that’s ok.

I will say tho only negatives:

-Sometimes the dialogue felt wonky and awkward.

- I do wish Andrew had been written just slightly better. Stronger. He just felt like an extension of Thomas and even Dove rather than his own being.

- The ending did feel abrupt which made it a little more confusing (though if that’s the intent then ok.)

- More clarification on the end events.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and Macmillan publishing group for the arc!

The spectrum of representation in this book is awesome to see! Themes of identity, mental health etc were touched on in this book. That being said, I had a difficult time relating to some of the characters. Which does not happen often and I real a lot of YA. Not being able to connect with the characters was almost a deal breaker for me as I had no reason really to continue the story other than just being curious how it would end.

The cover art of this book is 100% what drew me to this book. Unfortunately, what was between the covers was not as captivating.

2.75 stars out of 5. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC.

I would have eaten this book up when I was in high school simply for the beautifully grotesque horror element written so well in a book aimed at a young adult audience. ‘Back in my day’ (high school 2002-2005) I was reading graphic horror novels written for very adult audiences because the YA books of the time just weren’t doing it for me. The organic, disturbing monsters that stalked the woods and emerged from the wallpaper of the school in Don’t Let the Forest In were both terrifying and yet also oddly beautiful. I cannot wait to see the fanart that will emerge from this book based on not only the descriptions of the monsters, but the well written descriptions of Thomas’s grotesque artwork and Andrew’s morbid short stories that were sprinkled throughout. Teenage me was thriving while reading this and I had trouble putting it down, too eager to see where it was all going. When it comes to the monsters, the forest, and the creeping rot and decay that begins to take over as the mystery of their source expands, it’s a 5-star read.

Then there’s everything else.

The biggest problem I had with this book is the asexual representation. I really would have loved to see a lead character expressing this particular sexual identity when I was a teenager. However, I find Andrew’s internalized acephobia to be possibly detrimental to asexual teenagers already feeling isolated and ‘broken’ (a very negative term used to describe some asexual people due to a lack of want for intimacy or a relationship at all based on societal ‘norms’). Andrew struggles with the idea of being not enough because he can’t offer more than kissing and therefore his self-worth is greatly impaired and he isolates himself and his feelings for Thomas. He also falls into the asexual trope of never having a crush on anyone… except the single person that he is hopelessly in love with but can never have. BIG, HUGE SPOILER HERE: While I know that there are many causes for Andrew slowly losing his humanity (literally, he gets infected by the forest and his internal organs and brain are pushed aside by vines and branches growing inside him) something about his heart turning into ‘a garden of rot’ just doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe I’m internalizing the asexual character’s heart turning into rot and decay because of my struggle to understand and come to terms with my own asexuality in a society that heavily values relationships, sex, and procreation, but it doesn’t send a great message (asexuality is a wide spectrum and many asexual people are fine with intimate relationships; I’m of the variety where I like no one and Do. Not. Touch. Me.). Ace characters are not often featured in books and it seems difficult to have them represented in a positive, normalizing light (take Sunil Jha from the YA book ‘Loveless’ by Alice Oseman) or in a main role where they still get to have a romance (like Charlie from the adult contemporary romance “Charm Offensive” by Alison Cochrun). A lot of times they are side-lined, or a stereotype… and I felt that, while Andrew’s internal struggles were valid and realistic, he fell a little into the stereotype role in his never resolved acephobic feelings of worthlessness.

BIG, HUGE SPOILERS HERE: Another thing that bothered me was the lack of adult supervision and security at this prestigious, expensive boarding school full of the children of wealthy, influential families. Andrew and Thomas sneak out of school every night, climbing down a trellis, running across the grounds, climbing over an 8-10 foot metal fence, where they then stalk and fight monsters until dawn, reclimb the fence (now covered in mud and injuries), run across the grounds, climb the trellis and sleep for like, an hour before attending class. NO ONE NOTICES THIS? THERE ARE NO SECURITY CAMERAS? NO ONE IS ON PATROL? THERE’S NO SECURITY SYSTEM/MOTION ACTIVATED LIGHTS/ANYTHING? These two teenagers, minors, trusted to the care of this school are constantly in a state of visible injury, supremely sleep deprived to the point of failing their classes, Thomas is constantly on edge and is jumpy as hell and Andrew has completely stopped eating, slowly wasting away to a skeletal state. Not a single teacher pulls either of them aside to check in with them. We find out Andrew has suffered a devastating incident last year on school grounds and now he’s not eating or sleeping and the counselor/nurse/principle/literally anyone don’t step in to see if he’s okay? If he needs help? It just seems very unprofessional and a bit ridiculous that they never get caught (except by the school bully almost at the very end of the book) and no one shows any care to them. Also, Thomas’s parents are reported missing almost at the very beginning of the book and we just… never really go back to that. Thomas knows what happened to them, but the school doesn’t and seemingly just lets it go. Thomas mentions his aunt checking in maybe once, but his parents just stay MIA and again, no one checks in with Thomas to see if he’s okay.

I love the horror elements. I loved the monsters. I absolutely loved the idea of the forest creeping in and taking over. I really appreciated the slowly building body horror of Andrew’s organic infection. I just wish that body horror hadn’t happened to a character who already feels so othered in his sexual identity. That may have been the whole point of it, but, as stated before, it kind of reaffirms the idea that ace people are not normal and worth less than others. The whole idea of this all coming about due to unresolved or unacknowledged grief was really a beautiful concept. I just wish that the school felt less unrealistic, the adults less stereotyped (super eccentric, unobservant art teacher, ridiculously mean bully teacher that only targets Andrew and Thomas because… plot?), and that the ace rep wasn’t so negatively reaffirming. I had been greatly anticipating this book due to a variety of reasons and I’m glad I was able to read it, but I don’t see this being a book I’d want to read again as much as I adored the creatures and the forest within it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for granting me access to the ARC of ‘Don’t Let the Forest In’ by CG Drews in exchange for my honest review.

4/5

This novel reads like a dark fairy tale. There's something in Drews's writing that's heart-achingly earnest but also dark as it gets. Andrew's mind is a twisted place and living in it for 350+ pages is an adventure. The relationships in this novel are strong and believable. The main characters are both caricatures (with fits with the fairytale vibe) but also incredibly real and broken in a way that works. The prose is haunting and you're never quite sure what's going on. It's definitely a mood read more than a straightforward plot, but if that's the vibe you want, it delivers in spades.

The only flag I have is that the 'twist' was fairly apparent to me very early in (~20%). I'm not sure if that's because I read a lot of similar books or if it was intentionally obvious. I lean towards the latter as, seeing what the twist is really brings every single aspect of Andrew's narration and reality into question. It's creepy and ethereal and the best kind of dramatic irony.

Also, that cover. I requested this galley entirely based on the cover and if you like the vibe of the cover, the vibe is the book.

cw: <spoiler> gore, body horror, bigotry, bullying, death, violence </spoiler>

I enjoyed this young adult read. It had just the right amount of horror and such vivid descriptions throughout. I love that the main character was asexual as I haven't read any books in which a character was. It was a nice change of perspective from the typical heterosexual romantic relationships found in most books. I felt a goo connection with the two main characters and wanted to see them have their happy ending. Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group for this ARC!

“For a vicious moment, Andrew thought about slipping his fingers into Thomas’ cut. Taking hold of his rub 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 blood and adoration.”

There’s a ravenous quality to Don’t Let The Forest In, CG Drew’s fever dream of a fantasy. It’s nominally YA, though it’s full of shredding teeth and slicing claws, and that’s just the monsters.

The humans, including anxious Andrew, our narrator, the distant Dove, his aloof twin sister, and the wild Thomas, their shared best friend, are starting their senior year at Wickwood Academy, a private boarding school for privileged kids when monsters start creeping in from the forest, once the friend’s shared domain, an off-limits kingdom they conquered and kept in spite of the rules.

The appearance of tiny, wicked thistle fairies and creatures who cut the tears off of faces to slake their thirst coincides with the implosion of Thomas, Dove, and Andrew’s friendship, with the disappearance of Thomas’ parents, with the ever-growing aloofness between Andrew and his twin.

Andrew, who is asexual, wrestles amidst all of this, with his longing for Thomas, an uncontainable boy whose mouth is “crammed full of thorns and lies.” The two are a pair of vampire stars, feeding their mutual codependence as they battle the forest and its monstrous outpourings, creatures that seem birthed from the stories Andrew writes and Thomas illustrates. Don’t Let the Forest In is interspersed with these dark fairytales, even as they become a terrible portent of things to come.

“He had this boy in pieces, had him carved down to a desperate, trembling nub. He’d sliced into Thomas’s heart with brutal precision and found no trace of Dove, so shouldn’t it feel like he’d won? Thomas couldn’t exist without him and he wouldn’t ask for things Andrew couldn’t give.”

Don’t Let the Forest In is gloriously beautiful; I highlighted what feels like half the book. I feel like readers who love Summer Sons and The Wicker King will devour Don’t Let the Forest In. There are shades too, of The Raven Cycle, with its privileged, entangled boys. It’s a book too, for lovers of art, and fairytales, and for those who’ve wrangled with the monsters in their head that the book is dedicated to.

As for me, I read it twice in a row, a thing I’ve almost never done, desperately drawn to its dark, lush prose.

“What would it even look like, to cut their feelings out, bloody and aching and raw, and compare them? To find they didn’t match. To be left with guts vivisected and no way to sew themselves back up so they looked the same as before.”

Sure, my adult self might recognize the toxic aspects of Thomas’ and Andrew’s reliance on each other (and their exclusion of the rest of the world) and I realized pretty quickly that the elusive Dove <spoiler> was dead (though I thought she was a ghost, rather than a manifestation of the dark heart of the forest), </spoiler> but Don’t Let the Forest In is wild and wonderful in the tradition of the best fairytales.

Thank you to NetGalley, MacMillian Publishing, Feiwel & Friends, and the author for the ARC.

“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.” —
“When I cut you open,” Andrew finally said, “all I’ll find is that we match.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of Don't Let the Forest In! This was such a refreshing read.

This was fun, eerie, easy to get through, and wholly captivating. I really loved a lot of the imagery - it was just creepy enough while still maintaining a bit of a whimsical, fantastical feel. Whatever this genre of horror is, that centers around nature and death, has to be my favorite. This was the kind of YA that appeals to everyone. Mental health representation was strong throughout the story, which I think is so so important in books for teens.

My only critique was that the imagery did get repetitive after a while. I felt like I was reading a lot of the same words restrung into different metaphors every chapter. This is really minor and I doubt anyone else will feel any type of way about it, but it kept nagging at me so I had to mention.

Truly, this was so enjoyable and will be a great October/autumn read. I'd highly recommend for any other House of Hollow fans.

what a delightful queer story. we’ve all known a love like this, i fear. it’s scary enough to be a horror book, but in the YA space, it’s just enough to bridge the gap to be a quick read for adults. i loved it! thanks to the publisher on NetGalley for the advanced read!

I'm not sure i would pick up this book based on the cover.

4.5 stars

Andrew, Thomas, and Andrew's twin sister, Dove, are back at Wickwood for their senior year at the private boarding school. After Andrew scarred his own hand breaking a mirror last year, whispers are following him everywhere and after a summer with no contact from his best friend, Thomas, Andrew is eager to have things back to the three of them, but right away it's clear Thomas and Dove are fighting. On top of that Thomas, Andrew's roommate, starts avoiding him too.

Are you ready for this book to drag you into the forest and maybe let you walk out? This one will haunt me for a while. I appreciated having an asexual main character; Andrew is exploring what that means to him and for his feelings for Thomas throughout. Dark Academia YA, dark fairy tales, art bringing monsters to life, forestcore horror and more. There's some really lovely and cutting prose throughout.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for an ARC on @NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Don't Let the Forest In had some truly creepy scenes and a momentum in the plot that kept me hooked. It's dark and there is some difficult content, but I had a blast reading it. This would be a good read for people who liked The Raven Cycle but wanted more of a focus on the darkness or for people who liked the complicated relationship and reality bending of The Wicker King.