Now THIS is how you do plant horror. The writing is AMAZING. The gothic metaphor filled descriptions really swept me into the world of Hazelthorn, and I actually had to take my time to really immerse myself. So far I think this is CG Drew’s best work to date. I audibly gasped at the end, and now I’m going to be forever weary of gardens.

Definitely recommend this book for someone looking to get a good plant horror mystery

I’ve had this book for a while and wanted to wait till closer to fall to read it. I am so glad I did. This book is a fantastic blend of plant horror and mystery. From the first page the tone was set beautifully depicting a deteriorating overgrown mansion.

The writing of this book was so good and so well paced. The information gets revealed at all the right points and characters are developed just enough so you can understand who they are with minimal descriptions.

The dialogue in this book is something else I really enjoyed. The arguing between Evander and Laurie had me laughing out loud even if Evander was having a freak out. His inner monologues were also well written where you could really feel his internal struggles and how he tries to compartmentalize things. I just loved him from the very first page.

Overall just a really great book.

Thank you, NetGalley, and MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group, for allowing me to read this book early. The opinion in this review is my own.

This is the first novel I’ve read by this author. I’m excited to go back and read Don’t Let the Forest In. This book was a great creepy, chilling, gothic book. The atmosphere is like no other. The descriptions paint a clear picture without info dumping. The writing made it feel like you were really in the story. I could feel the garden creeping in. The dialogue felt natural and this was impeccably written. The characters had depth with their backstory and it was easy to get invested. It is quite gory and suffocating. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a scary book with mystery and a subplot of romance.

What a book this was. It got me holding on to the edge of my seat towards the end of how desperately I wanted to know how the mystery would unfold! To say that I devoured this book would be very fitting.

Extremely beautiful writing that fit the atmosphere so well. Gothic, gory with flowery, vivid descriptions, it felt like I was being surrounded by the garden as I was reading.

I would definitely will check out Don’t Let The Forest In.

Perfect book for the -ber months up ahead!

🥀 ✨ 🍂 🎃 

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this e-arc.

I received an eARC of Hazelthorn courtesy of Netgalley.

Hazelthorn was an atmospheric, ivy-covered dream. The way this book was written was an ode to the poetry of nature. It was so gorgeous, lush and vibrant, but at the same time it could be incredibly brutal and violent. If you are not a fan of body horror I would regard this book with caution, and take note of the trigger warnings given in the beginning of the book. I myself am quite wary of body horror and wasn’t able to finish CG Drew’s other novel in part due to the body horror. If it weren’t for me being given an ARC copy, I likely wouldn’t have finished it. But I’m SO glad I did.

The story quickly pulled me in with the mystery and intrigue of it all. I am contemplating a reread of the story to pick up on all the foreshadowing I missed.

Evander and Laurie’s character development was excellent, and their romance was well-paced. As their backstories unfolded I found myself caring deeply for them both as individuals as well as rooting for them to work out their budding romantic feelings toward one another.

Some of my nitpicks toward this story fall down to some of the dialogue choices feeling a bit off at times, as well as some of Evander’s internal monologue feeling slightly TOO spot-on (too much telling, not enough showing). I don’t always want to be told exactly what the character is thinking, and felt in those moments the author could’ve left more unsaid. Further, perhaps it was just me but I was a bit confused in the end by how things ended with the butler's storyline. Perhaps upon reread it will become clearer to me.

That being said; this book has one of the most satisfying conclusions I’ve read in quite a while. It feels earned, and I was unable to stop thinking about it days after finishing.

Hazelthorn certainly isn’t a book I’ll forget anytime soon and while the book is set in summer I feel it is a perfect autumnal read, and since it comes out in line with Halloween I would recommend picking it up to get into the spirit of the spooky season!

4.5 ✨ Damn what a ride this was. This is a gothic botanical horror, with queer romance, and autistic rage… what more could you want? The prose were absolutely stunning. I tabbed the absolute hell out of my Ecopy. The mix or horror, and yearning, and fury… this story will live in my brain for some time.

As someone with neurodivergent children, and realizing in her late 20’s, she too is neurodivergent… I really resonated with Evander. While this isn’t a “pretty” or “easy” story… it’s so important and validating. I truly loved this book. My only critique being the botanical imagery feeling a bit repetitive. After a while I found myself semi-skimming descriptions of that sort.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Macmillan for this ARC.

Hazelthorn is a masterpiece of love and horror so feverish, it consumes you. I had a feeling I would love this book, having loved Don’t Let the Forest In, and I was not disappointed. It’s gothic, it’s obsessive, it’s atmospheric.

Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in? Like you’re not “put together” right? Like there’s only one person who sees you, loves you? Drews writes about desperate yearning, dangerous greed, what it really means to be human, and how all consuming love can be.

This book opens with a murder, and everyone has a motive. It may surprise you. There are a couple twists and turns that will have you trying to find the puzzle pieces that led here. At the heart of this story, we follow two teenage boys trying to solve the mystery, who seemingly have every reason to hate the other. And yet, there’s a history we don’t know. There’s admiration and wanting under that hate, and there’s a complicated history from time in the garden. Evander, our unreliable narrator, just can’t put the memories back together.

Hazelthorn is a queer botanical horror, and also a love story that you’ll ache for. Let it take hold.

I'm gonna invoice c.g drews for the emotional damage they caused with this one. Hazelthorn is Drews at their best, it takes all the elements loved about Dont Let the Forest In and somehow made a better story! This book has a very strong setting and vibe that immediately hooks you. this is definitely more murder mystery at times, but thats just to hide the real mystery that is laying underneath. The mystery is intriguing with multiple different red herrings that leave you guessing. I much preferred rooting for our main character in this one and *SPOILERS ARE STARTING HERE* i feel like this one left off with a much happier ending or atleast one that would make these characters happy. because they're codependent gays and they deserve whatever it takes to keep them together at the end of the day. i did not guess the plot twist, it is set up in a way that makes it easy to speculate, but alas i was only half right and should think with my nog more outlandish theories. anyway! this will be perfect for Halloween time when it is released and I recommend highly

After reading and obsessing over CG Drews 'Don’t Let The Forest In' last year, I just knew Hazelthorn was going to be brilliant, but I am honestly blown away with how haunting, gut-wrenching, and achingly beautiful of a horror novel this is.

"His memory has always been full of a thousand neatly cut holes. He can't trust himself and he can't be trusted."
I love an unreliable narrator, and Evander is the most unreliable of them all. Not only that, but he grows up not understanding who he is, or why he feels the way he does. Being kept in a near-constant drug induced haze and locked in his room at the decrepit north wing of the mansion owned by his guardian, Byron Lennox-Hall. He spends his days trying to be good, wanting to be normal, and longing to spend time with (or maybe gouge out the eyes of) Laurie Lennox-Hall, Byron's grandson.

After a traumatic accident when he and Laurie were ten, where Evander remembers very little aside from a mouth crammed full of dirt, and a shovel practically bisecting him at the navel, Evander has spent his life in and out of surgeries, fragile, alone, and full of self-hatred. He's prone to 'episodes' or fits where he will often hurt himself or others, often waking up after with little to no memory of what happened. As a result, he's kept locked in his room, for his own good.

But one day his door unlocks, and this time it's not by Carrington, the butler. This time, there's no one on the other side, and Evander can leave his room without anyone telling him otherwise. He has an encounter with Laurie, who he is forbidden to be alone with because of the accident, and Laurie informs him that Mr. Lennox-Hall is in the conservatory. Evander quickly makes his way to the conservatory, finding his guardian just sitting down for a cup of tea. He scolded for leaving his room, but before he can leave to return, Mr. Lennox-Hall dies in a truly horrific way right in front of him, poisoned, black foam leaking from his mouth as Evander sees something begin growing in his throat. Bryon's parting words to Evander are to never go into the garden.

From here, the book is a murder mystery (led by Evander, with Laurie begrudgingly helping at some points) and slides into a botanical bad acid-trip dream. Evander and Laurie are left fending off the estate from both the greedy hands of other Lennox-Halls, and the horrors that exist in the estate's garden.

The chemistry between Evander and Laurie is addicting; you want to see them happy, but know the best you can hope for is for them to get revenge against everyone they know. You know that they will continue to hurt each other, not because they are monsters, but because they are moths drawn to fire, each taking their turn as the flame.

And of course, because it's CG Drews, I had a good feeling we were not in for a truly happy ending, but I loved the ending so so much.

Thank you to Netgalley, CG Drews, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Feiwel & Friends for providing an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second C G Drews novel and suffice to say I am HOOKED. HAZELTHORN grips you immediately with Evander’s opening and then keeps you drawn in closer and closer with every page!

This story and its characters gave me Coraline/Saltburn vibes with a dash of Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy and it is SOOO SATISFYING!

The horror elements are even more powerful than DONT LET THE FOREST IN and Drews pushes the boundaries of creative and imaginative writing in HAZELTHORN.

If you love books featuring a haunted house, a dangerous garden, a family with a dark secret, or a relationship full of limerence and manic obsession—this one has it all. I HIGHLY recommend this for lovers of fantastical horror and thrillers.

4.5 ⭐️

Horror novels are not ones that I frequently read let alone enjoy. However I greatly enjoyed this story. It’s a great mix of horror and gothic atmosphere. It really looks at Evander journey of finding himself and discovering who the real monster is in his world. The world that CG created is interesting and the descriptions perfectly illustrate what is happening to the physical world and Evander’s internal world.

This was so good I couldn’t put it down! I ended up reading it in two days and finished at 2am last night.

I loved how much neurodivergent representation there was in this book. The horror was deliciously creepy, and there was definitely a lot of body horror which makes me a bit squeamish. I do love when the horror elements stem from the natural world. Also, the romance was toxic and I ate up every second of it.

After discovering CG Drews through Don't Let the Forest In, I was incredibly excited about their upcoming botanical horror YA novel coming out. And Hazelthorn did not disappoint in the slightest. The twists and turns of Hazelthorn were wonderfully haunting, with the added bonus of incredible autism and queer representation. The way CG Drews interweaves important MH subjects in a way that allows the reader to experience and relate to them, instead of simply reading them is powerful and immersive in nature. The way they create a world of terrifying gardens comes to life on the paper and you will find yourself on the edge of your seat with every page you turn.

“Part of him had always known there was a monster locked behind the walls of Hazelthorn, a secret overgrown with ivy and hemlock and the sharpened tips of thorns.”

I deeply loved C.G. Drews 1st novel, Don’t Let The Forest In. I felt deeply connected to the story and the main character Andrew. At times it had amazing descriptions to nature and plants. And just a certain type of flowery melancholy nature descriptions that she does very well.

Just like with Don’t Let The Forest In, Drews does an amazing job with botanical horror. She can really do an amazing job with horror in general and the gnarly grossness of it. However, I didn’t personally enjoy the mystery set up/backdrop to the story right at the start of this one. As much as I wanted to like it as it went I just didn’t for some reason. I didn’t really start loving and enjoying the story till the last 20% of the book. And it does have the signature flowery melancholy nature like descriptions (I don’t know how else to word this but I hope you know what I am talking about) but it felt VERY heavy handed in this one. Like just, a little too much.

I am very deeply upset that I didn’t really enjoy this one, not till I got to the very end. There were a lot of elements I liked, some that reminded me of stories I DEEPLY loved. Some being like Mike Fannagins, Fall Of The House of Usher and even a little of his Haunting of Hill House (in the vibes and story choices). And both of those are on my list of all time favorites.

I really can’t put into words fully why I didn’t enjoy this story but I didn’t. I don’t know if there could even be another way to retell this to still even reach the same ending.

Drews is still going to be an author I’ll be excited to read anything from even though I didn’t really enjoy this one, as she always has amazing ideas that I’m always curious to consume and I love the emotion she can weave into her stories.

This was the perfect spooky season read 🎃🌑🌿. Dark, gothic, and creepy in all the right ways. The bloodthirsty garden + eerie estate vibes had me hooked 👀. Evander and Laurie’s twisted dynamic gave the story that extra layer of angst and obsession ❤️‍🔥. CG Drews really nailed the haunting atmosphere—beautifully written, unsettling, and impossible to put down. I ate this one up 🌹✨.

Last year, I read Don’t Let the Forest In and it was my favorite book of the year. The atmospheric writing and the character development was done flawlessly. I have thought about that book often since setting it down.
When I saw that the author had another book releasing this fall, I knew I had to read it and was anxiously waiting for its release. My expectations for Hazelthorn were very high, and I was not left disappointed. Like Drew’s previous book, this book had all of the elements that draw me right into a story. When I began reading this book, it felt a bit like trying to put a puzzle together. You have all of the pieces, but sometimes the pieces don’t quite fit the way that you are expecting. This book was that for me. This book gave me the feeling of reading a mystery/horror with an unreliable narrative. You have no idea what is really going on. It’s hard to tell who you can believe, or if what you are being told is really the reality of things, or just the character’s perspective.

The story itself revolves around the characters, their growth and their ever changing relationships. I also appreciated how the manor and gardens were written to feel alive. I don’t want to say much else about the book. It’s much more enjoyable to go into this one not knowing too much ahead of time. With that being said, the author does have a list of trigger warnings before reading the book, and I highly recommend checking those out if you are a sensitive reader. Hazelthorn touches on a lot of deep topics and has a mix of body horror and psychological horror. This book will have you feeling so many different emotions and will stick with you for a long time.

CG Drew’s stories feel almost poetic, very thought provoking and are unique in the best, possible way. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc!
I feel so lucky to have been able to read an early copy.

CG Drews has a way with storytelling.
Greed, overgrown gardens, yearnful romantic interests all while dealing with the family’s dark secrets.
I cannot wait to purchase a copy when it’s released.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

Content warning ⚠️ Blood, gore, child abuse, medical abuse, ableism, eating disorders, and body horrors (straight from inside of book, which, why are these only on the inside of the book. Should be listed on the websites before people purchase)

This book was so amazing that I finished it in one sitting! I was a bit concerned after reading the content warning, thinking it might be a bit too gory for me. Really, it wasn't too bad. It was gory, but not so bad that I felt like throwing up or anything. It definitely was very gothic. I will say that the dark romance fans will love this book.

The main characters are only 17, and so there is nothing more than kissing. (Also include the clean rating)

I haven't read read any books by this author before, but I will be looking to see what else she has written. I would definitely recommend this.

I like a weird little garden story, and this one was unhinged in the best way - take that little invalid boy from The Secret Garden, make the garden creepy evil, make the relatives cartoonish evil, and then add in another hateful little boy so they can definitely just toxically hate each other and not be secretly in love with each other (also the little boys are older teenagers so it's not as weird as I made it sound).

C.G. Drews' writing and execution remains as lovely to read as Don't Let the Forest In. Though I had a good sense of what was happening from the beginning (yes yes I'm so smart), Drews did have me second guessing myself throughout, which I loved. Definitely excited to read their next novel.

"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘵," 𝘌𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴. "𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘯. 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘰𝘵."

Rating: 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇
Spice: 🫑

Trope(s)/Element(s):
-Murder Mystery
-Queer
-Hate To Love
-Unhinged Secret Garden
-Botanical Body Horror
-Dark YA
-Autism Representation

"𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘐'𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰." 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴, 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. "𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶."

I read Don’t Let The Forest In a couple of months ago and loved it, but honestly, I loved this one even more!

Hazelthorn follows Evander, a 17-year-old boy who has been living in Hazelthorn Manor since the death of his parents and his own near-death experience at the hands of a former friend, Laurie. When the owner of the estate suddenly dies of “natural causes,” Evander discovers that the manor will be his once he comes of age.

This book is hauntingly beautiful. A blend of YA gothic mansion horror, psychological thriller, murder mystery, botanical body horror, buried family secrets, and a dark, obsessive love between two boys.

Being neurodivergent, Evander’s struggles resonated deeply with me. The constant feeling that something is “wrong” with you, the uncertainty of your own identity, and being told what you’re allowed to feel or do. Add in the gaps in his memory, and it only drives him further into a spiral. I could feel his anxiety, despair, and rage from being mistreated and taken advantage of.

Both Evander and Laurie go through incredibly dark experiences, carrying so much pent-up anger, but beneath it all, what they truly crave is tenderness and love. They just want someone who understands them, someone with whom they can finally be themselves.

CG Drews’ writing is stunningly atmospheric and immersive. I felt as though I was wandering through the wild, overgrown, living garden myself. Botanical horror might just be one of my new favorite genres after this.

If gothic horror, twisted love, and creeping vines of dread sound like your kind of read, I highly recommend picking up Hazelthorn when it releases on October 28th. 🌿🖤

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends and NetGalley for the ARC!

⚠️TW/CW⚠️:
-Blood
-Gore
-Child abuse
-Ableism
-Medical Abuse
-Eating Disorders
-Murder
-Body Horror