
Member Reviews

Omg I did not want to put this book down! The writing was beautiful and disturbing and perfect! The only reason it isn’t getting five stars from me is because I don’t handle gore well, and some of the scenes were a little much for my comfort level.
Content warnings: gore, eating disorder, self harm

4.5 stars. My review is posted to GoodReads (link in my profile)
I really enjoyed this book The pacing was well done all throughout the novel, and I wasn't bored at any point. This was the fastest I've ever read a book because it was too good to put down.
As a reader you get the feeling that you're dropped into a story that's already begun, which I felt was really interesting. Andrew was relatable, and I enjoyed reading about a fellow anxious introvert. Thomas' personality was so unpredictable that it kept him exciting every time he was on page. I liked the cast of main characters, but I didn't really connect with any of them too much.
I thought the plot was intriguing as well. It took many twists and turns so I never knew what to expect or predict, which was great. As soon as I thought I knew where the plot was going, it would shift in a more interesting direction. By the 50% mark I finally understood what was going on and was very excited for the rest of the book. The descriptions of the school itself and also the (minor spoiler) creatures that show up were very nicely done. The overall aesthetic matchs the beautiful cover of this book.
There were a few things I felt were under explained and I kept waiting for them to be discussed but they ever were. I don't mind things being open ended or very up for interpretation, but these points felt pretty important to the story and needed a little more explanation.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a bit darker Urban Fantasy story. It's labeled as YA, but I still think it holds up well for adults.
My main issue with this book can't be discussed without giving some minor spoilers, so that is marked separately below. It is not a huge spoiler, as it's brought up a few chapters into the novel.
Minor Spoilers:
Early in the book, one of the characters is tied to a missing person's case, and is the main suspect. This character also has a history of being a trouble maker in general, so much so that everyone in school talks about him (his teachers, principle, and peers). Even though he's a main suspect, no one is really keeping an eye on him. He spends his time doing some things the school would definitely not approve of, due to not being watched. It just seemed too convenient that he was able to get away with the things he did in this novel without the school or police being on top of it.

Thank you author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!!
Have you ever felt like a narrator was so unreliable you seriously don’t know what is real and what’s in their head? I’m 100% serious when I say that even from the beginning I was like ummmmm sir are you seeing things. Also, wow I still don’t know what’s going on. So yeah this was a good read but if you want a wrapped up satisfying ending leave now.
Side note when they were all like oh your drawings are coming to life I just thought about that one goosebumps movie with Jack Black so I know I was supposed scared but I just kept thinking about Jack Black lol

What an absolutely insane book. This is the kind of book that reminded me why I love YA horror—authors are so creative with their prose and storytelling, treating the page and sentence structure like an art form. I was blown away by the prose and terror I felt in this book, it genuinely made me feel sick, in the most addicting way. It combined some of my favorite horror aesthetics—schools/academia, forests, vines, dirt, etc. But also, with enough unique elements to stand out.
I did find some of the nitty gritty sentence structure things to be annoying (lots of stuttering), and some of the side characters felt cookie cutter to me—there were parts and subplots that didn’t enthrall me. The ending also brought in one of my least favorite tropes, although I will say I didn’t even see it coming and it still didn’t ruin the book for me.
I just had such a good time—I love gay and asexuality representation!
Full book tok review to come!

Shoutout to CG Drews, Feiwel & Friends, and NetGalley for letting me read this as an ARC!
Don't Let The Forest In had me hooked from the first line, so much so that I read it straight through in one sitting! I'm not usually a horror fan, but this hit a creepy decaying forest / body horror / psychological thriller sweet spot for me, with an interesting plot and relationships that also kept me engaged. I think the writing throughout the book really brought us along with Andrew and Thomas as their reality got more and more out of control and the tension ratcheted up. Their world narrowed as they got caught up in fighting the monsters, and I the author did a great job showing the divide between them and the students living normal lives in the moments when they interacted with other characters.
The writing was also beautiful and gross (in the best way), which really added to the atmosphere of the story. I especially enjoyed all of Andrew's stories scattered between chapters.
This is going to be such a hit for fall when it releases, and I'm looking forward to having a paper copy to highlight all over and seeing the fan art that people make! I can already think of students at my school library who will love this one.
I think fans of House of Hollow, I Feed Her To The Beast And The Beast Is Me, & The Spirit Bares Its Teeth will enjoy Don't Let The Forest In.

ARC REVIEW— I keep bouncing between 3-3.5/5 stars for this book. It’s subject to change after reading the final copy of the published book in October!
In this review, I’ll do a brief summary and follow it up with what I enjoyed, and what could improve or things I just didn’t love.
Andrew’s senior year at a Virginian boarding school starts off with his best friend, Thomas, being accused of a horrible crime. Andrew practically becomes a shell of himself, pushing others away, even Thomas for a period of time. His twin sister, Dove, completely deserts him.
Andrew wakes one night to find Thomas gone, he follows him to the forest where he finds Thomas slaying monsters. This becomes their nightly routine throughout the next few months.
Andrew and Thomas believe it’s Thomas’s artwork coming to life, so they set out to destroy every form of his art they can find.
Andrew begins to feel the effects of the forest under his skin. He can’t eat normal food anymore, he feels vines growing in his ribcage, moss covering the back of his throat. He hears voices in his head, he can’t pinpoint where they’re coming from.
The monsters no longer keep to the shadows of the forest, they invade the school in broad daylight, attacking and murdering a few individuals.
It all comes to a head on Halloween night at their annual holiday party, when Andrew feels almost completely consumed by the forest inside him. He and Dove go to the forest, where he knows the monsters are, where he hopes Dove believes him.
Are the monsters real? Can Thomas or Dove save him from turning into a monster himself?
——
“I think someday you’ll hate me.”//“You’ll cut me open and find a garden of rot where my heart should be.”
“When I cut you open, all I’ll find is that we match.”
First, I loved the creepy, macabre theme of the story, it gives a similar vibe like Wednesday, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and a dash of Stranger Things. I like how in depth the scenes or monsters are described, making the mental picture easily clear. I like how we get tiny bits of Andrew’s stories throughout the book too. I was definitely unsettled with the idea of what was happening to Andrew inside while the story progressed.
The book itself was hauntingly beautiful. I found myself highlighting a handful of quotes that I thought were beautifully worded or I felt I resonated with. I love how negative thoughts/the voice in Andrew’s head is lowercase to show the difference of his normal thought process through the story.
Super stoked about the inclusive representation of the characters. An asexual main character who craves a life with his bisexual best friend. We have GSA club representation at the school as well, which is a nice touch.
I loved Thomas specifically. He has a soft and tender side for Andrew and only Andrew. He’d do anything for him, even if they’re not speaking. Throughout the book, I never found myself hating this character.
Disliked:
There was a hint of the miscommunication trope and it’s my one of my least favorite tropes in literature.
Even though, I’m glad there was discussion about sexuality and representation in the story, I feel like it was very surface level. I wanted more internal dialogue from Andrew about how he felt, or even have a Thomas POV.
Speaking of Andrew, I felt like he was not the best character to be the main character. I feel like he was just there with really negative emotions, and you can see his daily struggles with his family, his sexuality and his overall relationship with writing and the forest being intertwined, however, I feel like he just wasn’t the best character.
There were certain moments while I was reading, I felt like we were losing the point of the story, seemed a little bit disjointed in a way I can’t put my finger on. I’m used to adult psychological thrillers/horror, so maybe that’s why I’m feeling like I’m missing something? I feel like adult level in this genre is super descriptive, whereas YA is a little more reserved with the horror and gore?
——
With that being said, I’m leaning towards a 3.5 stars for the book. I genuinely will recommend this once it’s published. I just wanted more about Andrew’s character. The ending twist left me wanting more and I have so many questions. What happens to Andrew? What about his father? What happens to the school? HOW DOES THE ART TEACHER REACT?!?!?!
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this copy!!

The writing is really stiff and dense for what i think is a YA but the characters are too immature to be proper NA characters. i thought it was kinda struggling figuring out what it wanted to be

This book was beautifully written, and I loved seeing the asexual representation in the main character. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a queer and unsettling dark fantasy thriller!

2.5 ⭐️
♡ Spooky Settings
♡ Great Representation
♡ Beautiful Writing Style
For the record the writing was beautiful in this book, C.G. Drews writing style was genuinely so gorgeous! The representation in this book is also amazing. It deals with things such as sexual identity, eating disorders, and mental health all of which are written so well. Not to mention how stunning the cover of this book is which is the reason I looked into the synopsis in the first place.
However, having said that I didn’t really like this book. Some of the horror parts felt like they didn’t mesh well with the rest of the story. I feel like I’m missing something after reading the last few chapters. The psychological horror vibes only appeared in the last quarter of the book. I was expecting it to be a little more intense in the beginning, however, it was rather mundane.
Most of this book focuses on the main character, Andrew longing for his best friend, dealing with his sexual identity, and working on his self acceptance in general. And while I enjoyed the importance of some parts of it, I just feel like it flopped. For romance being a major part of the plot it felt lacking and boring to read. I would love to have seen more desire or actual romance instead of the intense and to the main characters knowledge one sided pining. There were a few parts I thought were good but then I blinked and they were over.
The same thing seemed to happen with the horror/creepy aspects. Something would happen but it never really went anywhere.
The ending was especially disappointing. I kept waiting for it to get better and it never did. The ending itself (without spoilers) was frustrating to piece everything together and honestly I’m still kinda confused as to what happened. The hint that it all could be in Andrew’s mind or that the monster were real and no one but Andrew and Thomas knew about them? The back and forth of that was just aggravating.
Either way, thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Spice Level: n/a
POV:Third Person
Release Date: 29, October 2024
Rep: Asexual (Main Character), Bisexual (Love Interest)
⚠️ Content Warnings:
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Bullying, Death, Body horror, Homophobia, Gore, Blood, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Cursing, Acephobia/Arophobia, Gaslighting, Violence, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Sexism, Vomit, Self harm, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

I absolutely devoured this book. I loved everything about it: the gothic school surrounded by a sentient forest, codependent queer relationships, the macabre fairy tales. I flew through this. The only thing I'm not completely sold on is the ending is a bit more open ended than I typically like.

Thanks to Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC.
I really liked this! It’s sort of challenging to talk about it with giving too much away, but I really did like it. The characters felt well fleshed out, and the atmosphere was excellent. Seriously, the atmosphere is really key for this book, I think that’s definitely what I’ll remember from it. I also liked the ambiguity to it, I appreciate books that trust the readers to have their own interpretations. I really recommend this.

This book was everything and more. It was the right amount of darkness mixed with the right amount of romance, and the fact that it was an LBGT storyline made it even more better. Honestly, I loved everything about the story, and how it took accepting the trauma and the darkness and everything in between to end the suffering and the monsters that were made into a reality. I also really love that the book focuses on the beauty of art and writing, and really kind of bases the whole story around it in a way that is just so beautifully written and worded and for someone who is an artist like myself it makes me very happy to see because sometimes we forget the beauty in art even through all of its darkness, because art is a reflection of things that you’re feeling and things you can’t say out loud to the world so the fact that this story made those feelings and darkness and trauma and terrors, real in a way that spoke volumes was fantastic.

The story itself is interesting and as a fan of dark academia myself, I certainly see the appeal, especially for teen audiences. The prose itself was poetic in a way that I feel will resonate with some readers. It was not my style, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless.

Holy Moly …. my words can never do this story justice.
Every once in a while - while I am writing a review of a book - all I want to do is quote the book itself. I find this is often true when the writing of an author is so striking and poetic, it takes my breath away & I struggle to put into words what the book did to my emotions. All of this to say, Don’t Let the Forest In is one of those books.
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.
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 & his feelings for his best friend.
It's about monsters, but in the end, it’s about our pain & anxieties & 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.
I used to say that I was not much of a horror fan, but I think it’s time I stop, as I find that I tend to devour books like these. The books where tension & pain is clawing it’s way into your body/mind & attempting to tear your heart out? Like an undercurrent so strong it will leave you yearning for breath. A story that digs & digs yet, despite all the uneasiness & anguish, it embraces you & melts your walls you carry inside. Don't Let the Forest In is gruesome at times but oh so gentle & 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 Ian Reid’s writing & can handle more anguish, this one is for you. C.G. Drew’s writing reminded me so much of his.
They were beautiful together; they were magic and monstrous, and they had created a whole vengeful world between them.
Please read this book!
Thank you so much, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Edelweiss+ and NetGalley, for this beautiful ARC. I'll never forget this story!
TW: eating disorder/ heavy depictions of murder, gore/ mentions of grief/ suicidal ideation/ losing oneself to dark thoughts

“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.”
This book was poetic, gory and interesting. The characters well developed, and I really enjoyed the storyline. When monsters leap from the pages they’re birthed on, one young writer and their artist best friend are in for an endless, nightly battle. And as the two grow closer, the monsters grow stronger. What if the only way to get rid of the art-borne creatures is to destroy what brought them to life in the first place?

**This book was received as an advanced review copy from NetGalley.
What a strange, oddly terrifying book. While I'd definitely classify it as young adult, I'm not sure what else would be appropriate. Maybe horror, maybe supernatural?
Andrew has an odd obsession with his friend. Trying to meander through his feelings for his friend and to try to understand his own sexuality has made for a complicated year. Especially when his twin sister is acting strangely. But that's not the only strange thing going on, something sinister is lurking outside the school and threatening the students within. With all his fears, Andrew knows he needs to do something, but isn't sure what he may be capable of.
I honestly didn't care for Andrew as a character. While I could appreciate his struggles, he was just a little too lackluster for me. What I did think was done appropriately though were his struggles with mental health. I thought they were portrayed in a compelling way while still giving him grace and understanding. His sister didn't feature as much but I can't say that she really added or took away from the story; she probably could have been left out entirely as her plotline seemed to come out of nowhere and not really need to serve a purpose. Thomas is the standout star of this series. He is wild, frightening, and wholly different from everyone else in the book.
I did enjoy the supernatural elements of this book and its theme on monsters, combined with the stresses of teenage life and the monsters that are human beings. While it got a little more out there by the end (well, as out there as you can get with a book already featuring the supernatural), I think that the visuals were stunning and the art described in the book fascinating. Would love to see some of the illustrations at some point (or would I?).
Interesting, and I can definitely see it being popular with the young adult crowd.
Review by M. Reynard 2024

I read this book in less than two days, and then I read it again ... and I never do that.
This is a thrill ride that's appropriate for YA readers, and yet still thrilling for adults. Smart, creepy and creative, Don't Let The Forest In is high on my list of books to recommend to everyone.

Sooo. Let me start off by saying; phew. What a ride!
( I’d 🔪 for a physical copy lol) and I didn’t go in with much expectations. I was wrongggggg!
The book is MM Psychological Horror with(Asexual/Bi Rep).. I loved every second of it!
Starting off there is content warnings of: Blood/Gore, Body Horror, Panic Attacks, Grief, Eating Disorder, Bullying, and Self-harm.
From the first page I was immediately hooked! The plot twist towards the second half unfolded into an even bigger plot twist and honestly was left feeling sick to my stomach. Not at all what I was expecting to happen whatsoever. The writing style was easy to keep up with, and didn’t leave me lost or confused! I finished this book in about 3 days. It’s literally 2am and I just read the last page and am feeling *beyond* empty. (Just like the author said in the acknowledgments you should 😭)
Honestly go request an ARC of this if you can! If not add it to your TBR/Pre-orders, something! It comes out October 29th 2024!
10000% Thankful for opportunity to read this early! Worth every minute I spent reading!

The writing and imagery were stunning. I love forest/nature horror and this book nailed it as far as that goes.
The twist was obvious after a certain point, but I didn’t mind that.. but I was still left hanging in the end. Which I would be okay with if there was a way for me to connect the dots on things that made sense for that psychological horror aspect- some of it I understand… some of it I don’t. IE- okay so this happened, but actually… and that makes sense, while simultaneously wondering about the other thing, because there isn’t much of way to figure that out.. so what’s the deal? Idk, I’m trying to explain it without spoilers!
Then the a-sexual aspect was a little confusing. I get that it’s a spectrum, but he was really very physically interested, at least up to an extent, with his friend who he is.. extremely toxically, in love with. Their relationship made me uncomfortable, I was actually more afraid for Thomas than anything by the end. I didn’t care much what happened to Andrew. At first I was rooting for moments between them, for them as a whole, and by the end I was like.. baby no.. leave that boy alone get OUTTA there. They were so codependent.
So yeah, I feel the end left a lot to be desired and it came really abruptly, so that made me feel a lot less about the story in the end. I don’t dislike the book as a whole, but I would have been more satisfied with a little pinch more of what could satisfy the curiosity that was piqued and kept me reading it in the first place.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for the ARC!

This is what LGBTQIA+ youth need to read this fall! Lovable and hateable characters with a bit of horror. What a horrifically wonderful mix!