Don't Let the Forest In by CG Drews is a haunting and beautiful gothic novel. It is filled with superb worldbuilding, LGBTQIA+ representation, depictions of anxiety and obsession, and intriguing characters. The plot was engaging, and I was eager to learn how the book would end. I recommend this dark and atmospheric read, which is perfect for spooky season!

Wow that was creepy and beautiful and I’m not sure I can think of enough words to do this story justice!

I don’t like horror but when I found out what this was about there was no way to stop me from reading it. Drews’ writing is so magical and poignant and beautiful. The monsters were terrifying and the boys were beautiful and heartbreaking but I promise it won’t hurt to let this book cut your heart out.

I’m afraid to say too much more for fear of revealing the magic of this story so I’ll just stick with read it, please.

Andrew, his sister Dove, and Thomas are best friends at their elite boarding school. They are starting their senior year, when everything seems wrong. Dove and Thomas aren't speaking, and Andrew is a mess of anxiety about everything in his life. When Andrew confronts Thomas about what is going on, he learns that Thomas' monster drawings are coming alive in the blocked off forest behind the school. The boys make a pact to rid the forest of the monsters before they can harm anyone at the school.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It really gave me The Wicker King (K. Ancrum) vibes, which I loved. It has very Gothic, fairy tale vibes. I liked how it felt like Andrew and Thomas against the world and how much they cared for one another. The plot twists at the end really messed with my head! Oh how we love an unreliable narrator.

The plot seemed to lose itself at some point, but that might have been on purpose to help illustrate Andrew's mental state. The ending also threw me off. To me, it seemed more open ended and let you draw your own conclusion. Or maybe I just didn't get it. Either way, I had a fun time reading this one. It was a great atmospheric read for spooky season.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the description, I thought I could love this book but it did not work for me

Much of the writing felt like it was trying too hard to be dark and artsy and made it feel clunky. The main characters felt similar to the prose, the author trying to hard to make them deep and edgy that made them feel flat and interchangeable
The monsters were what I thought I would enjoy the most about this book, but none of them felt fleshed out or explained well. I still don’t really understand the world building or what was going on with the supernatural elements
And that plot twist… For me its fell so flat and felt so stereotypical.

Overall this entire book to me just felt like it was trying too hard to be deep, artsy, and edgy that it just fell flat.

What a hauntingly beautiful modern gothic tale. Andrew and Thomas are drawn together in their elite private school, outsiders amongst their peers. When Thomas returns to school after being accused of murder, Andrew stands with his friend, even as Thomas claims innocence. As time passes, Thomas lets Andrew into his macabre world of monsters and death.
Thomas and Andrew's relationship is center stage here, with different types of love on both sides, but oh it is full of a beautiful angst. There is a third wheel looming over them, Andrew's twin sister, Dove, who adds complications to their relationship. As Thomas and Andrew work to free themselves from the forest, there are side characters that are not too fleshed out, but the pace and the writing make it easy to miss that. The central characters are the heart of the story while the others are satellites helping to move the story forward.
I did feel that the big reveal was a bit obvious and the ending was a bit disjointed and rushed, but it was overall a wonderfully creepy story with some good representation on the LGBTQIA+ scale.

Vivid details make for a very dark and macabre story. The atmospheric elements were well presented. And I do think that this book did a good job of addressing some of the bigotry that LGBTQIA+ people face.

However, I did have some issues that kept this from being a great read for me. Some of the prose felt clunky. I think there were some pacing issues, ranging from the book being a slow start all the way through a generally flat middle that didn't have much going on—basically, there were sections that felt repetitive and one-dimensional.

Good on the worldbuilding. Nice representation of an asexual character. Lots of horror elements. Just a bit lacking in pacing, cohesion, and plot structure.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year and it did not disappoint. The way anxiety is described along with obsession was amazing. The ambiance was just perfect for it to be read in spooky season. The last 90% of the book had me on my toes and I didn't see the twists coming to the point I audibly gasped. I was a little confused by the ending but I think that was the point to let you interpret what actually happened. Overall I only have good things to say about this book.

Oh my god OH MY GOD what is this ending?? Being haunted by this book for all eternity is the best description I can give at this point, beautiful and so soft but ALSO THE PAIN!!

REVIEW

Don't Let the Forest In is a deliciously dark and gruesome dark academia/horror novel about two feral boys (homoerotic undertones GALORE), Andrew and Thomas, who love art and each other and not much else, studying at a boarding school Wickwood Academy. Andrew writes dark little fairytales about monsters and Thomas illustrates them. But when Thomas's monsters start coming to life, nobody is safe anymore and Andrew and Thomas must figure out a way to put these monsters to rest before more people lose their lives.
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BASICALLY this book was all about mutual pining in silence, longing stares and careful touches, but also about love and yearning so deep tearing your chest open and fitting the other person inside seems like a valid option. You could literally feel Andrew's longing pouring from the pages, but also add to that his struggles with his asexuality and his ongoing fight with his sister, and you have a nice little mix of confusion and desperation to hold onto the one person who will never turn their back on you *coughs* Thomas.

I rooted for them from the get go and every new shared gaze and small touch was torture for both Andrew and me. 😮‍💨 ALSO that ending, CG I shall be sending my therapy bill your way, thank you. 😌

4.5 stars

This book felt like a dark fever dream and i mean that as a compliment. this is the exact kind of psychological horror that i love. i was so easily wrapped into the story of these two boys who would do literally anything for eachother, regardless of the outcome. the writing is immersive, with just the right amount of intrigue and pull to keep you from looking away.. even when things start to take a turn for the worse. I loved the way the author approached Andrew’s trauma and the way he coped through repression and codependency. Both Andrew and Thomas were so enveloped in one another, to the point where they could hardly face what was right in front of them. the way the horror manifested through Andrew’s stories and Thomas’ drawings were genius. The turn this took at the end threw me off guard in the best way, such a dark, macabre and emotional strung story.. i loved it.

This story is tragic. Perfect for a spooky read during Halloween. I liked the world building and character depth. I liked the inclusive characters. 

The story hits the mark for a dark gothic horror academia. A slight nod to Romeo and Juliet. 

The story is written with tension throughout and the main character's mental state can be a lot.

The ending was great. I didn't quite see all of it coming, and it didn't feel rushed. I liked how everything was revealed. 

This story is not for the faint of heart. I think it would benefit from a trigger warning list, if it wasn't created already. The complexity is appropriate for YA, but the topics are heavy.

So beautifully written! It's as if KV Rose and VE Schwab's works had a baby. Dark, mysterious, full of thrills, found family, and coming of age. I loved this!

I am not ashamed to say that this book had me sobbing in bed at midnight by the time I reached the end. A grotesque and poetic intersection of grief, love, abuse, mental health, and identity. Realizing the truth a little over halfway through the story and feeling it like a knife in the ribs as I kept reading, wondering when the truth was going to hit and the wreckage it was going to cause. The ending was beautiful and painful yet tinged with hope. I wish I could wipe this from my memory and read it again for the first time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC eBook of this in exchange for an honest review.

I think I'm going to be in the minority here. I did not enjoy this much. And there are myriad reasons why. But I also ordered it for my library, because I think that I will be the minority, and that there is an audience for this. So, let me start with the good.

The horror in this is written deliciously. The creepiness is so delightful and well done that I almost want to cancel my hike this Sunday because I'm not sure what might come from the woods. I really enjoyed that element of it and it was well written! I also found the premise pretty genius. Teen drama - between friends who have had a falling out - meets dark horror where stories and drawings are coming to life? Brilliant, unique, and wholly terrifying. I loved that, and I finished this in three short days because I was so drawn into the premise and plot. The characters felt well-rounded, too, and while Andrew and Thomas sometimes were interchangeable in my head, that was more a "me mixing up names and which 'he' is being referred to" problem than a downright character development problem.
The writing blew me away at parts, it was so stunning. There were some killer metaphors and analogies and literary elements that just made me want to curl up in the imagery. But, the writing didn't always work.... see below.

Now, the things I did not enjoy: The pace and timeline of this book were WILD. I was fully lost at times. I felt like entire weeks and months went by in the book with VERY LITTLE transition. Which was maybe intentional, but it left me feeling like I couldn't quite keep up with the story. It also made me feel like the story was totally unfinished, and jarring, and kept giving me whiplash. I'm still not totally sure of what exactly happened throughout this - big chunks felt like they were missing.
I also take serious issue with the dialogue. Teenagers do NOT talk like this. I work with them every day. This felt forced and cheesy and a little odd, and it tore me out of the story so harshly every time teenagers discussed things with each other.
Outside of the main characters, the side characters felt like caricatures of reality. The math teacher, the art teacher, and the bully were great examples of this, and I was overwhelmed with how fake they felt. Again, maybe intentional - we're seeing this from Andrew's view, and we know from page one that he is unreliable - but I still struggled with it.
Some of the thematic elements in the book were odd, too, and I just don't think I understood everything going on. I felt a little like I did when I read She is a Haunting. It felt overarchingly like the story was purposefully convoluted in a way I didn't enjoy.

So, this is a me thing. I don't want to think too hard about this book, because I'll start to pick apart the plot in a way that I'm sure will cause me stress (there was a lot that others will enjoy about this), but overall, this was just not for me.

If you're looking for an atmospheric horror, and you can handle very unreliable and gray characters, this might be a good fit for you. The horror really was something else (in a good way!). If you need believability in your stories, or if you struggle with opacity in your narratives, skip this one.

Being a teenager sucks, especially if you are even the least bit vulnerable. Sometimes you just want to be anywhere else other than where you are right then. Sometimes you just wish you could manifest someone or someplace that could handle you in all your cruelty and kindness; in all your hard and soft places. That could handle all of you, without reservation.

Don’t Let the Forest In is an exquisitely messy tale of grief, queer love, coming of age, sexual identity, mental illness, creative genius, and pain that reached inside of me, grabbed onto my heart and guts from page one and didn’t let go until the last page was read. My guts still feel a little twisted and my heart bruised, but I’m better for it as a person (despite how many tears soaked my pillowcase and shirt).

Author C. G. Drews has said it took five years to bring this book to the public, and it really shows. The storycraft shown here is a clear-cut case of laborious love. The prose has been groomed until it shines, the characters have been tended to until they resonate just right, the worldbuilding has been vividly etched, and the story itself has obviously been nurtured from a seed to a fully grown tree full of ripe fruit. The whole thing just shines with purpose and determination.

The imagery and atmosphere of botanical horrormance books is something I cannot and will not get over. There’s something so enticing about stories that are just one step over the line from the notion of “ripe”, which is how some people choose to write about young adults. Botanical horrormance tends to deal with the imagery and notions of what happens when “ripe” goes wrong: rotten, spoiled, expired, trashed, ripped, exploded, squashed, torn, buried, and even so destroyed it just becomes part of the forest’s detritus. I don’t think this is a coincidence and I enjoy the juxtaposition.

I had been waiting all year to read this book and it did not disappoint. I loved it even more than I thought I would.

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Coming of Age/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Fantasy/Romantasy/Horrormance/LGBTQ Fantasy/LGBTQ Horror/LGBTQ Romance/Paranormal Fantasy/Paranormal Horror/YA Fantasy/YA Romantasy/YA Fiction/YA Horrormance/YA Horror/YA LGBTQ Romance

First it must be noted that this book has fantastic body horror/gore.

But the plot doesn’t feel very anchored. The other characters outside of Andrew/Thomas should have been more present and/or we needed way more flashbacks to previous years. I would have loved to see much more of Lana and Chloe and ESPECIALLY Dove. There’s a twist that quite simply doesn’t land because Andrew and Thomas are so isolated - and Andrew is such a passive character.

Honestly, it would have made a brilliant novella, since most of the connective tissue was so thin. Then the prose could shine without the need to expand to fill space.

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillian for letting me read this early!

HOLY SHIT I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! The writing was so beautiful and dark and haunting, I’m glad I waited until October cause the vibes were immaculate. At the same time, I’m devastated I waited so long to read this BECAUSE I LOVED IT SO MUCH MY GOD.

The creepy forest/fungal/nature horror was so well done. The perfect amount of body horror and surreal imagery. The constant creeping fear of the forest getting in, infecting them, corrupting them with its dark magic was to die for!

Andrew and Thomas were each such deeply complicated and tragic boys. I felt so much for Andrew’s struggles with asexuality and anxiety, even if it felt a little close to home. Thoma’s sharp edges and his fear of being alone while pushing everyone away broke my heart, oh god.

I also really really adored how VICIOUSLY Andrew and Thomas loved each other. It was so dark and codependent. They were so twisted into each other. There’s a line at the end about loving someone so much it ruins them and then yourself, and oh boy is that exactly the kind of love I adore reading about.

That said,,, that ending,,, oh boy. I do love the sense of urgency hurtling over a cliff as we approached it, and in that sense the last few chapters felt like a sudden stop after a short drop. But it was sudden. And the unreality of all of it kind of left me with some question marks, especially with Andrew’s unreliability as a narrator having just been put out front and center. I’m not sure what happened at the end but I don’t honk it matters to Andrew. He’ll always have his own litter world.

AND THE TWIST? Ok I will admit i am usually SO GOOD at guessing twists, they do not get past me. I only guessed this twist like two chapters before it was revealed. I thought something COMPLETELY different had happened, so that first sneaking suspicion of the twist hit my like a ton of bricks. BUT IT WAS SO GOOD. I tried to think back on those elements but (much like the boys) I was so caught up in the horror of the forest, in their warped little love story, that I hadn’t even been paying that much attention to That Stuff EVEN THOUGH ALL THE CLUES WERE THERE. This will def be a fun book to reread with the twist in mind ☺️

Fully 5 star read, I cried so much and it was so good 🥲

" If you cut open my chest"- Andrew's voice was wrecked-"You'll find a garden of rot where my heart should be"


"Don't Let the Forest In" by CG Wells is a rotting, dark whimsical fairytale of longing, grief, and self-discovery, where nature eerie embrace consumes you whole. Andrew, his twin Dove, and Thomas are inseparable friends, attending the idyllic and exclusive Wickwood boarding school since childhood and enjoying their home away from home in the forest surrounding the grounds. Andrew delights in writing macabre fairytales that Thomas brings to life in nightmarish drawings of forest creatures, a written and drawn bond recollectiong of their emotions during the years. During this new school year, these stories become all too real and chaos ensues as they navigate their changing relationships and follow the trails of blood and rot to the forest's edge.

Wells' new and upcoming novel pulled me in with its evocative writing and gripping tension that kept me hooked from start to finish. This young adult novel was a frenzied, nightmarish, and beautifully crafted descent into self-doubt and the conundrum of trying to be true to ourselves while facing societal pressures. I found myself endeared with Andrew, his story highlighting many of the challenges and internal conflicts that come with understanding your identity, as he explores his feelings for the person who holds his heart. Thomas and Dove are perfect planets for the constant evolution of Andrew's universe as reality blends with a haunting, almost sentient presence that stalks the forest around the academy, the shifting and surreal landscape of the protagonist's mind that made me question what was real and what was not. I enjoyed the horror aspect of this book, a dark metaphoric, fairytale rendition of the many emotional battles faced by many. I loved the asexual representation through Andrew, an integral part of the story that gives a nuanced, authentic, and relatable portrayal for so many individuals exploring their identities. Also, the monsters! Imagining the monsters that the characters both wrote and drew was both amazing and horrifying. The battle scenes were vivid and well crafted, coming alive on the page and perfectly balancing the tension with the story's emotional depth. I lived for Andrew’s little chapters of his fairytales, interspersed throughout the narrative. They brought the horror to life and reminded me how fairytales also speak to the many unsaid and unnamed horrors of our daily lives.

This is a must-read for anyone looking for some queer dark fantasy for this fall/winter season that explore the intersections of queerness and identity through the lens of the supernatural. I'd also recommend to fans of Ryan LaSalas! This gem and The Honeys live within the same universe in my mind now. Andrew, Thomas, and Mars are my holy divinity for now.

Thank you NetGalley, publishers, and CG Wells for an advance readers copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately this one is not for me, and it’s also on me for requesting this ARC and not doing enough digging into the TW’s. My rating of 1 star is not a reflection of the authors writing, it’s 100% the content that didn’t sit well with me.

This book was so good. I wasn't disappointed. It has all of my favorite things. Dark mysterious forest, private school, gay kids, horror, monsters, beautiful writing, and a tragic ending. I think I need to go and by myself a physical copy right now

So I technically didn't give this a rating but to submit this I would place it at 3, as this could be more enjoyable to others. I was able to read this early through NetGalley but unfortunately it was just not for me. I got about 70/75% through and I just kept losing interest. I don't feel like the love interest/romance part flowed well. I would've preferred more just about the monster and forest aspect of the story and I would've have liked it a lot more.