A big thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for this ARC!

I absolutely devoured this book in the span of a few hours. The premise sucked me in and I couldn’t put it down. We follow two teenage boys, Andrew and Thomas, as they enter their senior year. An immediate unease and tension is present from our first introduction to Andrew. Everything in the world is terrifying and overwhelming to Andrew, but it’s more bearable with his best friend at his side. Maybe it helps that he’s utterly in love with him, too.

One of my favorite tropes is being utterly devoted to one that it goes beyond the point of devotion, blurring the line that leads to obsession. It’s clear that the pair are so intertwined that it hurts to be away, but also it scares Andrew at the same time just what being further intertwined means.

Drews does a fantastic job of tying together the dark academia feel with not just the creeping horror of the folklore, but also Andrew’s own personal turmoils. I highly recommend this book and fully plan on purchasing it upon release! 5 out of 5 stars.

3.5

Thank you Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

The cover, beautiful! I would own it just for that alone. I think this would be a great pick for mood reading during the fall during the spooky season as a haunting read. It reminded me of the things I liked from recentish reads like The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco, Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand, and The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood. The writing was poignant, creepy, unsettling, and intense. The monster sequences were my favorite parts. I would recommend to friends who I know would specifically love the writing style and atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the story wasn’t for me. Maybe if I did save this one for when I was in the mood for a darker book, I would have found it more easily immersible. The writing style wasn’t my favorite. It was beautiful writing; poetic, lyrical, the whole nine yards but I think I would have liked it more if it was a period piece— something from the past. It was kind of hard to find the atmosphere convincing when phones or google were mentioned. Sometimes I forgot that I wasn’t reading middle grade until they did something that twelve year olds wouldn’t do. I felt like I never really got to experience the characters for who they are because the narrator told me how to feel about them, what to think of them, what to expect of them. So the experience as a reader was very much sitting in the backseat and being along for the ride. It’s YA so the youngest recommended age for this demographic is thirteen, it even says so in the copyright and I couldn’t help but wonder what thirteen year old would read this. I would really like to know the opinions of someone within the demographic because it's been a while since I've read as a younger teenager. But I wouldn’t have enjoyed a book like this as a kid; alot of the language would have been lost on me and I would have just skipped to the monster fighting to be honest.

But overall I liked what this story was about: Manifestations of grief and loss through this horror lens with some beautiful writing. And I would recommend it to friends who I know would appreciate this read.

I DEVOURED THIS. Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan for this ARC!

5/5 ⭐️
Release Date: 29 Oct 2024
📖: Dark academia, LGBTQIA+, friends to lovers, forestcore and botanical body horror, and fairytale monsters

Andrew is a writer of monstrous and destructive stories, and he is in love with his best friend, Thomas. Thomas is an artist and brings Andrew’s creatures to life. Literally. Those fairytale monsters now wreak havoc in their forest and their school, so Andrew and Thomas are determined to put an end to it—no matter the cost.

“It hadn’t hurt, the day he had cut out his own heart.”

Well, C.G. Drews, you’ve just ripped mine out. I am suffering from the emotional damage of this hauntingly beautiful story, and I couldn’t be more pleased. It was utterly fantastic. The language was so descriptive and haunting. Drews’ words brought everything to life, and you felt it all—urgency, panic, pain, grief, joy, etc. Andrew and Thomas will always have my heart. This story was imaginative, stunning, and perfect. An absolute must-read!

I read this in February and I know without a doubt, it will be in my top 5 favorites of the year. This one took me completely by surprise, shining bright as the best book I have read in a long time.

Sometimes, it is all about vibes and this book was dripping in tortured queer angst and dark academia. Add the atmospheric and ceaseless plant horror, which is a spectacular niche that I love - and Drews does SO WELL. This balances plot driven and character driven so seamlessly, creating a world you can practically see and characters you feel like you know.

Andrew is eager to get back to Wickwood Academy, a private school nestled deep in the woods, where hopefully things will go back to normal. He needs his twin sister Dove and their best friend Thomas to be a trio again. The twisted haunted fairytales that flow from his fingertips need Thomas's cruel dark art... but Dove is icing him out and Thomas is dodging an investigation into his missing parents.

Something has awoken in the forest, though. Thomas's creatures have left their canvases and stalk the woods, getting closer every night, and Andrew is plagued with a strange change coming over him. ...But he still has Thomas. The tender and fragile love they have for each other is epic. They have always been each other's constant and Andrew is struggling because the possibility of more cages him and sets him free at the same time.

This was such a BEAUTIFUL book. It is so dark and so delicate at the same time. I will come back to this one often, I think!

“Don’t Let the Forest In” follows two young boys at a boarding school: Andrew and Thomas. One a writer, the other an artist. They write and draw of monsters and darkness, until they begin to manifest in reality. The story follows them as they fight these creatures and discover realities about themselves they would not have otherwise confronted.

What really works in this book is Drew’s descriptions of the violent and natural world she’s built. The folklore and dark fantasy vibes here remain unique while also feeding into everything folks who read this genre frequently love.

What does fall apart a bit are the two main characters themselves. There isn’t enough differentiating them for me that I found them both necessary. Thomas often feels like an extension of Andrew, which often does make sense but does have its faults throughout nonetheless.

Overall though, a wonderful tale that just could be a bit more sure of itself than it is.

4.5 stars

Wow. I dont know what I was expecting but this is so much more than I could’ve hoped for, this is an amazing story filled with horror but more than that, a lot of heart.
I honestly wasn’t sure when I requested this, if it was really going to be for me. I have zero regrets now.
This is a must read/buy

Phenomenal, beautiful,terrifying. It was so serenely horrific, but yet full of love. One of the best psychological horror books I have ever read. It was vividly descriptive and dark, while expertly maneuvering through themes such as anxiety and coming to terms with sexuality.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Holy …. my words will never do this story justice.

‘It hadn’t hurt, the day he had cut out his own heart … No one would want a heart like his. But he’d still cut it out and given it away.’

Sometimes, when I’m writing a review, all I want to do is quote. Because the writing of an author is so stunning and poetic, it hypnotizes me, and I can’t put into words what that book did to me. This is such a book. 

‘Everyone saw Andrew as shattered and fragile, and maybe he was to them. But when Thomas looked at Andrew’s sharp edges, he thought them dangerous and beautiful—not weak.’

Don’t Let the Forest is about an asexual boy …
‘People didn’t just kiss and continue on with their lives. They undid buttons and touched mouths to hot skin and lost themselves within each other.’

… and his feelings for his best friend, the boy with hair like autumn leaves …
‘Thomas was a wild machete with blazing emotions he’d never learned how to moderate properly … this boy made of angular frowns and thorny words. He was brilliant and terrible and unmanageable.’

It's about monsters, but in the end, it’s about hurt and our own fears and how we handle them …
‘When something moved in the dark, 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.’

Let me tell you, I’m not much of a horror fan, but I devour books like these. You know when tension and pain is clawing itself into your body and trying to tear your heart out? Like an undercurrent so strong it will leave you gasping for breath? A story that digs and digs and, despite all the discomfort and angst, embraces you and warms you on the inside? Don't Let the Forest In is gruesome at times but oh so soft and comforting simultaneously.

‘This was the place where he roared and grew taller, where his smile could make flowers bloom and his energy could flow endless and untamed.’

For those who love Jeff Zentner's writing and can handle more angst, this one is for you. C.G. Drew’s writing reminded me so much of his’. Both authors juggle with words and put them together in stunning sentences, and I want to read those sentences on and on and on. 

‘They were beautiful together; they were magic and monstrous, and they had created a whole vengeful world between them.’

Please read this book!

I never found myself a major fan of fairytales. Maybe it’s because they all end up neatly tied with a bow, a moral learned and lives lived happily ever after. Maybe I would’ve fallen in love with them if they were all as heart-wrenching and ambiguous as this book. I was warned to not let the forest in, but I did let Andrew in as he navigated typical teen woes (sexuality, anxiety) alongside fantastical foes. It was easy to connect with Andrew even if I didn’t believe him half the time. Despite his unreliable narration, I believed Andrew as a person, which is why this book works. I adored the style of both Andrew and the author’s writing and wish I had read this while sitting under some humongous tree at least a century older than me to give this book its due. Perhaps I’ll keep that in mind when I inevitably reread this book to find all the bits I missed the first time around.

ARC provided by NetGalley

I'm honestly not sure what to write here, how to capture the feelings this book managed to tear out of me. This is one that will stick with me for a very long time.

I went into this book not expecting much and found everything. This is so much more than a horror story. It's a story of love and loss, of discovery and growth. This book managed to make me care for its characters more than I've cared for half of the people in my life. The LGBTQIA+ representation was phenomenal as was the depiction of panic attacks, anxiety, and social anxiety. The monsters were also great fun, each one described in such a way that they truly came to life.

If you're looking for a scary story that will also make you cry, look no further. Just don't blame me when your heart is ripped out of your chest.