Wow this book...

I'm honestly pretty mad at myself for putting this book off as long as I did because this was the best book I've read all year. Hands down.
To start, the writing is beautiful. There are so many lines I could highlight and emphasize again and again. It's Gothic, morbid and beautiful. I loved every aspect of it. It have me The same feeling I got reading The Great Gatsby for the first time. I mean, is a lot different than that book and it's writing but they scratch the same itch.
The characters in this book were wonderful, The horror was visceral and bloody and I loved it. Also the yearning. It was phenomenal. It was very "In a Week" by Hoizer vibes. The slowburn and angst was just great.
Honestly the only thing I'll dock is the ending. It's not bad but it kinda hurt my heart after reading everything these characters went through. But aside from that this book is amazing! Best read of 2024 hands down. 10/10 highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and McMillan for the ARC is exchange for an honest review (And I apologize for this being late, I was busy with work)

Don’t Let The Forest In is easily one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year.

The writing style is both poetic and gruesome, and I just truly don’t have the words to say how much this story affected me or how much I loved it. I fear I may never recover.

This book was so much more than I expected. It was full of imagery that made me gasp and cringe! The boys were disturbed in the best ways and that ending made me think and wonder… I will read anything and everything CG Drews writes.

This is a book that will linger with me. From the earliest pages, I sense that Andrew is an unreliable narrator. The only question is just how unreliable his POV is. How much is happening and how much is the result of trauma or deteriorating mental health? Somehow not knowing what is real and what is imagined makes me love him and want a happy ending for him even more. Is a happy ending truly possible in a dark fairytale though? Maybe. For once, I’m okay accepting a story’s thorns and not expecting the HEA.

That was dark and that was depressing. Those are not necessarily bad things. It was confused and it was riddled with toxicity. It was hard to tell if the author meant to romanticize these controlling and abusive relationships. It was all just unsettling.

This is going on the favorites list for 2024.
The way it is written is so poetic, romantic, and beautiful that it almost makes you forget that it's a psychological horror. One sentence from the synopsis instantly made me want to get the book and it did not disappoint.
"Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him."
In this sweeping tale, you follow twins Dove and Andrew and their halestorm of a friend, Thomas. Thomas is pure passion shaped into a human being. He lets no one talk down to his friends and finds himself in trouble constantly due to his complete lack of rule-following. Andrew has crippling social anxiety and finds it difficult to do pretty much anything without the help of his sister and his best friend. When Dove decides that she isn't wasting her senior year, and finds less and less time for Andrew, he and Thomas attempt to coast through the school year.
This is made difficult by his trying to overcome his social anxiety, his feelings for his best friend Thomas, realizing that he is Ace, and trying to survive killing the Eldritch forest-like terrors that have begun to attack the boys in search of payment that they're due.
It's Amazing, Queer, and Terrifying all at the same time, and I've already ordered my physical copy.
For all that is holy read it!~

CG Drews’ "Don't Let the Forest In" masterfully blurs the line between reality and imagination in a dark, haunting exploration of friendship, trauma, and the monsters we create—both literal and metaphorical. Drews’ writing captures the raw intensity of adolescence, where emotions are heightened and relationships feel life-or-death. The forest, as a setting, is lushly atmospheric, and Drews paints it vividly, making it both a refuge and a place of terror. "Don't Let the Forest In" offers a deeply moving and unsettling tale that lingers well after the final page. It’s a must-read for those who crave emotionally driven, gothic-tinged stories about the power of creativity, the shadows of our minds, and the lengths we’ll go to protect the ones we love.

After returning to boarding school after a holiday break, Andrew (a writer) notices his best friend and crush, Thomas (an artist), is acting strangely. Thomas is the resident bad boy at school, but then it turns out his parents are missing, Andrew’s twin (Dove) is avoiding them, and they suspect Thomas’s art is creating woodland monsters that are now out for their blood. Kind of hard to get homework done when you’re fighting those things all night, despite your debilitating anxiety.

Don’t Let the Forest in is a fascinating, dark fairytale of a novel that examines obsessive first love, the tortured artist, the LGBT+ spectrum, mental illness, and—as the show Buffy used to put it—how high school can be hell. This book is for you if you enjoy Eldritch horror, psychological horror, spooky forests (and associated body horror), cottagecore, lush, but creepy vibes, and haunting narratives at boarding schools.

This book…wow. I went in with high expectations as someone who has been following along with the release drawing closer and I wasn’t let down! Firstly Andrew was such a heart warming chaste whilst he was exploring and understanding his asexuality. It was such a joy to read such great representation!
I am thoroughly obsessed with Thomas and how protective he is of Andrew.
This story had a great balance of horror mixed with small slithers of romance, friendship and plot twists. The ending was very unexpected and the illustrations were GORGEOUS

So so so so sooooooo good. Loved the balance between heartwarming and unsettling lol. I’m going to be thinking about this one for some time.

Unreliable narrator plus more. We realize what's going on at the same time Thomas does, which is interesting because Andrew is the sole narrator. I cried at the end. Tags: dark academia, nature horror, asexuality, ptsd, unreliable narrator, graphic depictions of mental health crises.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book officially publishes on 10/29/24!

I will say right at the start that I don’t believe I was the ideal reader for this book. Being an older reader, the characters were difficult for me to relate to, as this novel takes place at a private high school. That being said, I really enjoyed the unique premise of this novel, the LGBTQIA+ representation, and the format of the book. I do wish that some more things were tidied up by the end, as I do still have some lingering questions. Overall, however, if YA horror is your favorite genre or one that is comfortable for you, you would absolutely love this book.

I have so many feelings about this book. It was dark and interesting enough, but about halfway through, Andrew really started to get on my nerves. I couldn't understand how he could be so oblivious and whiny. I just kept pushing through. So many things unraveled in the end, and it totally made sense. I don't want to give any spoilers, so I can't really say too much. But, if you are into dark gothic stories, this is a good one to read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC!

I’m not a huge horror person, but sometimes a story comes along that makes me want to leave my comfort zone. This was one of those stories. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. Everything about this book was just so good: the psychological horror, the atmosphere, the dark fairy tale vibes. The thing I think I liked most of all was the relationship between Andrew and Thomas. The love that they had for each other was so deep and the lengths they were willing to go for each other was beautiful in a dark way.

I also appreciated the asexual representation. It always makes me happy to see ace rep popping up in different genres. Also, can we take a second to appreciate this gorgeous cover? It perfectly encapsulates the vibe of this book. Gosh, I loved this book so much. It might be one of my favorites that I’ve read this year.

I'm much more interested in sapphic horror so I'm not entirely sure why I requested this one, my bad.

This story was truly a haunting experience. I’m not sure that I can find a better way to describe it. I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes, just trying to figure out what everything meant. Was this a fever dream ignited by the absolute devastation experienced by Andrew? Or was there really a horrible magic born out of it that caused the forest to infiltrate every facet of his life and attack with an unforgiving vengeance?!

The prose is so beautiful and poetic in this. The descriptions, to me, felt deeply romantic, if not a little macabre. I know that sounds strange, but the writing resonated with me and the entire experience was unlike anything I’ve read before.

I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for an eerie and atmospheric read! It has angst and tension, emotional insecurity of adolescence, dark and emotional themes, forest monsters, and a journey through destructive grief. It’s dark…really dark and really sad. I’m not going to forget this one.

*Firstly, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

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

When people talk about being lost in a book this what they mean. This book was so complex and beautifully written. From beginning to end I was so enamored by how the author described the setting. All of the descriptions and how complexly written the characters’ feelings were. I don’t know what else to say other than this book was stunning. Heart achingly so but stunning nonetheless.

“Other people existed only in Thomas’s peripheral, but the Perrault twins eclipsed his entire galaxy.
There was something intoxicating about meaning that much to one person.”

This is definitely a book I will read again and probably again.

This book was amazingly atmospheric. You really felt like you were right there with the characters. It is very gripping and everyone ya and up should check out this book.

This book is so unhinged and unabashedly gorey. It’ll have you second guessing everything— Andrew, the other students, yourself…by the end of this, you’ll want to avoid the trees and the secrets they keep.

Andrew’s point of view is truly a unique one, one that honestly took a minute for me to get used to. He’s a boy who lives and breathes in metaphors and once the plot started picking up pace, it became one of the novel’s many great strengths. How, much like the forest, you truly feel a part of him, right down to his very soul.

Don’t Let the Forest In is the perfect read for Halloween!! Love the monsters, love a good fucked up forest, love all the repressed queer yearning!

I enjoyed the atmosphere of the book. It was super dark and perfect for the season. It was a quick easy ya book. I would recommend to our local ya book club.