I would like to thank Macmillan and Fierce Reads for sending me an E-ARC of this book!

CG Drews crafts a nightmare spun in webs of beautiful words in “Don’t let the forest in.”
Their beautiful writing a stark contrast to the creepy and unsettling atmosphere of this book.

We follow both Andrew and Thomas, a shy boy who loves to write stories and a wild unruly boy whose art is so amazing it seems to come to life.
Literally.
The boys discover that the monsters they write and draw about are coming to life within the forest by their school, and it’s up to them to figure out how and why, and also stop them before everyone becomes endangered.

The pacing of this book was perfect to me. Bits of information are fed throughout the book, and the forest and monsters make their appearance gradually before everything is interconnected and brought to a head at the end.

I’m also so pleased with such the LGBTQIA rep in this book: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Asexual all have their place in this story, which as a queer reader brings me so much joy.

Without spoiling anything, I do believe the ending of this book was perfect for the genre of psychological horror and achieved what the author wanted to achieve. It leaves you with an uneasy feeling and wondering what on earth happened.
Loved this immensely. 5 stars to C.G Drews 🖤

Spoiler-free CW: eating disorders; death; body horror; violence; gore; some light homophobic remarks; grief; panic attacks

Don’t Let the Forest In is a YA Horror novel following Andrew, a boy whose macabre fairy tales chill to the bone, and his best friend Thomas, an artist who brings Andrew’s monsters to life with his dark drawings—in more ways than one. The forest at their boarding school is off limits ever since a mysterious event last year, but that doesn’t stop Andrew and Thomas from climbing the fence. And it certainly doesn’t stop the monsters from getting out.

I had an absolute blast reading this book. The prose is beautifully atmospheric and morbid. I love how each page is stained with ink and blood (metaphorically of course). It’s lyrical, it’s angsty, and it belongs on your bookshelf.

Some chapters end with Andrew’s stories. Each one is short, but impactful. I could read many more of those and not be upset.

I really liked Andrew’s deep devotion toward Thomas. It seemed to simmer down as the plot started to really move, though it didn’t go away, just kind of felt like an afterthought at a couple key moments. It came back in the back half in a major way.

Andrew’s asexuality was also a pleasant surprise. His twin sister’s roommate is in the GSA, which prompts some conversation about sexuality. I’m not entirely sure the GSA scenes were completely necessary, but cutting them would remove some much needed representation and discussion. Being asexual myself, I found it so refreshing that C.G. Drews included it. It shows that devotion doesn’t have to have a sexual element to it. Even if that devotion is unhealthy.

The last act of the story was a roller coaster. If you’re like me, you’ll be saying “what??” and “is that true??” after every page. I mean that in a good way! The plot twists were very twisty, and I really loved how even though we get answers, the ending leaves us with more questions. It’s worth a second read just to pick out Drews’ masterful yet subtle foreshadowing.

I can’t say more without spoiling it, but I could go on for ages! I’d definitely recommend if you like sort of paranormal, fairy tale type stories!

don’t let the forest in is an excellent mix of ya thriller + mystery. thought i guessed the twist early on, i still very much liked how it played out.

i do wish more character dynamics were more fleshed out—i feel like the ending was a tad bit rush, but it still wrapped up everything pretty nicely.

andrew is an anxiety bae whom i just love so very much! i love the different type of anxiety rep within this book. there’s not much i can say without diving into spoilers, but if you’re into fast paced horrors with real life monsters, this book is for you!

5 stars.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★/☆☆☆☆☆

thank you netgalley and macmillan publishing for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!!!

Very macabre, which I'm not always a fan of, but definitely a page turner. Really wild twist with a lot of commentary on mental health that I wasn't fully expecting, even though I feel like there was plenty of foreshadowing. I'll probably keep reading books from this author. They have me intrigued.

So I finished this book but the whole time it just felt like it was missing something. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was but it was a pleasant read nonetheless. I would absolutely recommend it to people that enjoy this genre.

Don't Let the Forest In is a YA gothic horror and, my goodness, is a hauntingly good time. We follow Andrew, a high school senior at Wickwood Academy who writes creepy fairytales to share with his best friend, Thomas. In turn, Thomas produces whimsical and terrifying sketches to go along with Andrew's stories. Upon returning to Wickwood for his senior year, Andrew soon discovers that something is off with both Thomas and Andrew's twin sister, Dove; Thomas keeps going into the off-limits focus and Dove keeps avoiding the both of them. Andrew is completely devoted to Thomas and determined to help his friend. Even if that means fighting the monsters from Thomas' drawings, which keep coming to life and seem determined to kill anyone that Thomas holds dear.

From the first line, this book had me hooked. Drews' writing is gripping and beautiful and so incredibly atmospheric. The monsters really clawed their way off the page, and I could feel the moss and taste the mud right alongside Andrew. I'm pretty sure I may have even been stabbed by an antler or two when all was said and done. There were times when I just wanted to pause and appreciate a particular word choice or phrase -- and I probably would have, if I didn't absolutely need to know what happened next.

Andrew and Thomas are terribly haunted high school boys and they are compelling characters separately, but it's their devotion to one another that really propels the story forward. They would absolutely, 100% murder a monster (maybe even in the form of a bigoted high school boy) for one another, and I applaud them for it. I was happy to spend every page rooting for them: come on boys, kill that monster and just kiss already!

This is one that I did not want to put down and would have finished in one sitting if it wasn't for pesky work getting in the way. It is certainly one that I will be recommending to anyone who enjoys horror and books about incredibly intense friendships. Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book!

Reading this book felt like there were cold, terrible hands, tearing me apart. I often felt secure, connected, in ways a book rarely gives me, but just as soon as I'd finished cherishing one page for the joy it gave, I was shattered to pieces by the next.

While reading this book, I had praised it on social media. I begged people to read it, to keep their eyes out for the title upon it's release. I said, "reading this book isn't enough, i have to consume it. i have to chew on the words and swallow every line".

The author replied, and added their take: "bonus is that Don't Let The Forest In will eat you back".

At first I thought that was a charming, funny way to put it. Provocative. Fitting in with the book's theme, and true to my experience so far. But I had only gotten halfway through the story at that point, and had no idea how true that claim would be.

This story is beautiful. It's dark and horrible and somehow leaves you feeling gutted by your own hands. I cannot praise it enough, and I doubt I will ever let these boys go.

“it hadn’t hurt, the day he had cut out his own heart.” the way this story made me feel is beyond any words. the idea that drawings are coming to life to kill their creator and anyone close is such a unique idea. i was hooked from the very beginning, trying to piece together what was actually going on. all the metaphors and atmosphere of this book was immaculate. i loved every minute of this story, especially Thomas and Andrew’s banter. literally had me giggling while reading. the fact that everything is so detailed, the academy and the monsters, made this book that much better. the chemistry between Thomas and Andrew literally had me screaming waiting for the confession. when i got to the twist my jaw hit the ground, i was totally not expecting that. this book went above and beyond all my expectations, although the ending wasn’t my favorite because i wanted more, i’m gonna hype this book up for the rest of my life.

Don't Let The Forest In does an incredible job of joining horror and emotion. We follow Andrew, back for his senior year at his boarding school where he hopes to spend another year with his twin sister, Dove, and best friend, Thomas. But right away, some things feel different. Dove and Thomas aren't talking to each other, and Thomas is acting uncharacteristically. Thomas, blood on his sleeves and secrets in his head, seems to be covering something up after his parents were reported missing.

And then the horror start. The forest, which students are banned from entering, starts to encroach upon the school and it's Thomas that's holding back the monsters. He's protecting Andrew, Dove and the other students but it's getting harder. So Andrew joins him in keeping the school safe, which dealing with Dove's reclusiveness, his own mental health, school bullies, and their changing relationship.

This book did not hold back the horror - it's deliciously dark, filled with secrets and twists, and was written so well that I kept thinking about it even while doing other things. This is a book that's going to stick with me for a long time. If you enjoy books like The Wicker King and The Forest Demands Its Due, this is a must-read!

How far would you go to protect the people you love?
This question is answered in the psychological horror book that absorbed my psyche until I put it down.
I lost myself with each page I turned, every sentence I read as I learned more about the main characters of Andrew and Thomas. The ending had me gasping with it's twists and turns up until the very end.
This book is easily in my top 3 books I have read so far that blew me out of the water.
I cannot wait until October for the world to read this phenomenal book

An engrossing tale - with a certain emphasis on (delightfully) gross. Despite the warning title, this novel makes the reader almost helpless against letting the rich characters and fascinating albeit terrifying forest in.

If you're looking for a macabre mystery with a creepiness that demands your attention - devour this now.

As a lover of horror, the story drew me in, but ultimately the obsessive, angst-filled, ultimately lovely dynamic between Andrew and Thomas solidified this novel as a new favorite.

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.