This book surprised me! It's a dark, atmospheric fantasy set in a boarding school plagued by horrors both human and otherworldly. The story’s vivid, unsettling imagery creates a dreamlike yet disturbing atmosphere. While the focus on style sometimes overshadows clarity, the writing is undeniably captivating. The ambiguous ending may frustrate some readers, but its unresolved nature adds to the story’s haunting quality. I would certainly recommend!

When the monsters within are feeding nightmares that can walk the waking world, what can you do? Don't Let the Forest In is a chilling dark fantasy set in a boarding school with a host of problems, including creatures who are out for blood...

When Andrew arrives for his senior year, he expects a hard time. He's been bullied for years, he's in love with his best friend Thomas, and his anxiety has him constantly spiraling. However, he didn't expect these to be the least of his worries - it's the horrific beasts coming from the forest he must survive.

This is a twisted fairytale gone very very wrong, and it's beautiful and ugly and will definitely get you thinking. The whole story keeps you guessing about what's going on and bends reality in ways that will keep you guessing. I ended up guessing one of the reveals about halfway through but this didn't lessen the impact at all. This book hits hard, and while there are some issues I found it powerful.

Often this struggles with focusing on style over substance, but the imagery is so visceral I didn't really mind. The writing is stunning and flowery and creates the perfect atmosphere for the narrative. My bigger problem was the ending. I read the final few pages about five times and still have no clue what actually happened. While ambiguity can be effective, in this case it let me down. But maybe this fits with Andrew never finishing his stories?

The book deals with some really serious content including sexuality, bullying, abuse, broken families, financial structures, grief, self harm, EDs, and more. It doesn't offer easy answers or positive/constructive thinking - it presents the situations grimly and without any wish to 'fix' them. In a way, this is actually refreshing. It captures the darkness of our worst thoughts and actions and wishes, and doesn't sugar coat anything. It makes you ponder the discomfort you feel, so prepare for complex characters and inner monsters to be faced.

It took barely a few sentences of Don’t Let The Forest In before i knew this was going to be my favourite book of the month.
Sequestered somewhere between fantasy and dark academia, with hints of gothic horror, unnervingly beautiful writing, and the haunting feeling of dark woods at midnight, Don’t Let The Forest In is a unsettling masterpiece designed to snare your heart with a tangle of thorny vines, and refuse to let it go.
Honestly, i was not expecting to love Andrew and Thomas so much. I already knew i would adore the atmosphere of this book, but how attached i got to the characters themselves completely blew me away.
Andrew. He is the invisible boy who haunts the hallways, someone so impossibly sharp and fragile that tiny papercuts could tear him to pieces, and at times so fierce and scared that he could destroy everything in his path for the few people he cares about.
And Thomas. The faerie prince to Andrew’s poet. A so-called troublemaker, brave and angry. So rough around his edges that he could slice out someone’s heart without meaning to, and yet so exhaustingly tired at his core.
They’re my favourite kind of love story—one made of mutual yearning, a little darkness and despair, but at the end of it all just two people whose souls are so intertwined i genuinely don’t think one could survive without the other.
I seriously couldn’t recommend this book more, even if you don’t normally read YA fiction. The writing is so ethereally stunning, and even though i may have guessed some of the plot twists beforehand, that didn’t give them any less magnitude. Sometimes it’s even better when you know before the characters do, as it gives more insight into choices characters make…and of course there’s the sinking feeling of waiting for them to realise.

A dark academic queer tale full of monsters & rich atmosphere.
The illustrations were perfect and really added to my enjoyment.

Strong stomach advised & maybe check for trigger warnings ⚠️

Don’t Let The Forest In is a terrifying queer YA horror novel set at an isolated elite boarding school. It is filled with twisted fairytales and terrifying monsters come to life. It’s dark academia meets cottagegore.
Andrew Perrault returns to boarding school after the holidays and is eager to reconnect with his friend Thomas Rye. Andrew has had a difficult year, and it’s his friendship with the boy he loves that is keeping him together. But Thomas’ parents have vanished, Thomas has blood on his sleeve, and the police come to investigate. Thomas won’t talk to Andrew, even though the two had been thick as thieves before and he’d loved to sketch the monsters from the dark fairytales Andrew writes. When Andrew follows Thomas into the woods to discover what is going on, he finds him fighting a nightmarish monster – one of his drawings come to life. Events spiral from there, as the boys find themselves dragged into a world of gore and nightmares fighting these creatures each night. And with the creatures gaining strength, the only way to destroy them might be to destroy their creator.
What a beautifully written and haunting novel! I loved the fairy tales and monster sketches and felt this really gave the reader a feel for Andrew, the writer, and Thomas, the artist. The story builds up slowly, but in a manner that kept me completely wrapped up in this twisted and horrific world. There were surprising plot twists, and the ending was in equal parts brilliant and frustrating. Andrew’s character and his struggles with mental health were convincing, but they also made him an unreliable narrator as it was at times difficult to work out what was real. It’s a book that captured me completely and one that I will without a doubt enjoy re-reading. Pick this up if you like cottagegore and dark academia vibes, nightmarishly poetic prose, asexual and bisexual rep, and two main characters who’d do anything for each other.

I was so excited to read CG Drews newest novel and wow, this was so good! The writing was gorgeous, the character dynamics utterly hooking and I didn't want the story to end. First 5-star read of the year.

This is my first book from C.G. Drews and I was really excited for it as I’ve been meaning to pick up one of her books for years!

I really loved Drews writing and I really liked her storytelling. Drews strength certainly is in forming gruesome and dark imagery, this book was so immersive in the feelings of gore and horror. I loved the illustrations alongside the writing too, they added dimension to the story.

As for the story itself, I felt at times it moved awfully slow and not much progress happened until the end. There was a twist, that happened right near the end, and the result of that was left to imagination. I didn’t really like this — it felt a bit randomly placed and I would’ve liked it if it happened earlier in the story and didn’t have so much of an unresolved ending. I felt like I sat through a whole lot of repeated scenes just for it to end unresolved.

However, despite that, I understand that Drew made the story confusing and contradictory as this mirrored Andrew’s mental state and his grief. Although, unfortunately, I still believe that Drew could have found a way to showcase this while making the story more cohesive. For the longest time I really did not know where any of this was going.

All in all, there’s some great writing within this story and I liked how it explored the impact of grief and trauma.

This book has a great mysterious atmosphere and set up the obsessive relationship between Andrew and Thomas well. The concept messes with your mind and constantly makes you question what exactly is happening, or why.

The psychological parts were the best for me, so that’s why I didn’t find the actual monster fighting that interesting. Since there were quite a few of those scenes in the middle, I got a bit bored. But the ending did stick the landing and engaged me once more.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Children's Group & Hodder Children's Books for the advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I've started typing and deleted what I want to say about 3 times now because I feel like nothing I write will do this book justice.

The entire book from start to finish was beautiful but haunting, but written so well that the two blended together to form the story.

The author had a way of writing that drew you into the story, making the book wrap you up in it until you couldn't stop reading because you were so engrossed.

They also wrote the characters exceptionally well. The detail and thought that went into every aspect of Andrew was just amazing, and as for the way that Thomas was written - wow.

This is quite possibly some of the best witting that I've ever had the pleasure to read. A very worthy 5 stars.

✨LOUD SCREAMING✨

Friends, this book was ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. Haunting, terrifying, twisted, horrific… two beautiful characters who are tormented and broken and desperately clinging onto each other with everything they are. If you’re in the mood for some feral-cottagecore dark academia then this is the book for you 🖤

Andrew Perrault is broken. Everything hurts, he is constantly anxious and the only thing holding him up is his best friend and the boy he is hopelessly in love with, Thomas Rye. Thomas is an artist and Andrew is a writer; between them they create macabre worlds full of monsters and princes. But neither boy knows how to cope when the monsters that Thomas draws start coming alive at night and they are dragged into a nightmarish world of gore and horror.

Andrew was such a complex character - he’s clearly suffering so many facets of mental illness, but you can’t help but root for him and Thomas, even as their lives fall apart around them.

I loved the dreamlike quality of this book - the whole way through I was constantly unsure of what was real and what was Andrew’s psychosis… and honestly, I still have no idea 👀 The ending was very much open to interpretation; I personally took it as a HEA, but I know a lot of people who have taken it in different ways… I think it all depends on how you read Andrew.

I cannot recommend this book enough; I know I’ll be thinking of this one for years to come 🖤

Read Don’t Let The Forest In for:
✨ Feral cottagecore, Dark academia
✨ Asexual rep, bisexual rep
✨ Spiralling mental illness
✨ Nightmarish, beautiful writing
✨ Touch him and I’ll set monsters on you
✨ Is anything real? Only you and I
✨ Isolated boarding school location
✨ Sentient forest
✨ Artist and Writer creating worlds

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for a copy of this glorious tale. It’s available in the UK on 16th Jan and it’s out in the US now 🖤

Don't Let the Forest In is a strangely compelling darkly woven tale of monsters and stories and friendship. It's got all the hallmarks of a horror with eldritch terrors rising from the woods and yet at it's heart it's about the monsters we keep within our our own hearts and minds, our fears and the pain we carry and how we deal with that. It's cleverly told, mirroring the body horror with some really powerful abstracts that draw you into the vulnerabilities and the prickly strengths of the characters.

Thomas and Andrew are best friends. But something happened last year and when they reunite at boarding school, Thomas isn't the same. Neither is Andrew for that matter, but he doesn't understand why his friend is distancing himself and why he disappears each night to the forest. Soon he will come to realise that the monsters they have imagined in written and drawn form are coming to life around them and nobody around them is safe.

This is atmospheric and creepy. It's haunting as well, because it doesn't just go with the stereotypical horror but draws you into the characters vulnerabilities and weaknesses, their individual struggles alongside the monstrous creations they are trying to fight off. It's generally very well done, bringing the characters to life in and highlighting their mental health struggles.

All in all an unusual yet enthralling tale that drags you to unexpected places. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

thank you to NetGalley for giving me an early access copy to this, it was one I’d had my eye on for a while and was so excited to see I’d been approved.

from the very first page you are just dipped into such a beautiful, well written world that truly does absorb you into it. I absolutely adored the dark academia elements- the rich boarding school surrounded by tradition where it students whom don’t fit the perfect ideal are left behind and forgotten about. following a trio made up of twins and a strange boy. all of them so wildly different but finding a home within each other, a safe space to truly escape with one another. the found family elements within this book were one of my favourite things, I think the characters had such a deep, emotional relationship to one another that was so flushed out and beautiful to read.

I thought the plot was so cool. I was really into the gothic horror vibes of our mentally ill main characters realising their monsters are not just in their minds, but something they’ll have to fight each night to save not only themselves but everyone around them. I thought the drawings throughout were so cool and a really great help to the girlies like me who can’t imagine things. I was truly just so in awe of the entire world, each creature with their own stories and unique appearances. the combined with the obsessive, codependent relationship between the two male characters? yeah you had me there. every time they defended one another or shared how they felt, I swear to you the quote pulled my heart out of my chest and showed me everything I’ve ever wanted.

This book was truly beautiful. Dark and evocative, much like the forest, this gorgeous book will find its way under your skin. Andrew is returning to his exclusive boarding school, alongside his twin Dove where he wants to join up with their best friend Thomas, only this year, everything is different. Thomas is already being questioned by the police and the school has fenced off the forest where they all felt their safest.
This novel is beautifully written with dark, obsessive characters. I was pulled into Andrew's world and held there watching the horrors of the Eldritch forest come closer and closer. I don't usually like horror, but this was so well done and so beautiful I couldn't help but love it. Drews is going to be one to watch in the coming years. A really enjoyable read that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on edge!
Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an honest review.

A story about two boys - one, who shapes a completely unknown and dark world through his writings, and another, who brings these stories to life through painting.
And what do they create? A living forest whose monsters haunt them so dreadfully that this book is packed with heavy feelings and tender moments neither the boys nor the reader understands.
With its added illustrations of magical nature creatures, metaphorical descriptions of the haunting forrest and the angst filled and dark emotions, this book however pleases my inner nature aesthete to the core since everything perfectly aligns to portray this dark fairytale thrown into reality.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. A twisted and dark yet beautiful story.
The book focuses on Andrew and Thomas, two students who are very much outsiders. We know that something happened in their previous year, and whatever it was has resulted in other students gossiping about them. They overlook this, gathering comfort from their friendship, but the events referred to continue to haunt them.
For reasons I’m still not entirely sure about, they are both haunted by creatures from their nightmares. Creatures they have created in their stories and drawings. Creatures that are growing ever powerful, and which they have to fight.
Large parts of this story were disturbing. A lot of graphic description. I thought the forest was a symbol of their grief, but then got confused when a couple of characters ended up losing their lives (don’t worry, they were thoroughly unpleasant so not mourned).
Though I still have so many questions, this was a captivating read.

A lovely, atmosphericoming of age horror with a queer romance and a dark academia feel. This was utterly compelling and great fun.

There are not words to express my deep love of this book!

Don't Let The Forest In follows Andrew, an Australian teenager at a boarding school in America who loves to write short horror stories, when his best friend Thomas's drawings of monsters start to come to life inside the forest next to their school. Andrew and Thomas sneak out every night to kill the monsters, but the monsters start to adapt and hunt the teachers and students inside the school.

"To write something nice, he'd need something nice to say. But his ribs were a cage for monsters and they cut their teeth on his bones."

The relationship between Andrew and Thomas is at the heart of this book and it was done beautifully, as was the exploration of Andrews sexuality. Andrew's mental health also plays a big role in the story and what makes this book so hauntingly dark is that you are made to question if everything the boys are experiencing is real or not - and if it is, then what is bringing the monsters to life?

"Their Story had begun in a forest, a collision both violent and beautiful"
"There's an entire world of ink and magic stuffed inside your head, and I think it's beautiful. I just wish everything didn't hurt you so much."

The prose was so descriptive and beautiful I adored every word of it! Honestly this may be my favourite horror book of the year.

I would recommend this to fans of House of Hollow and Society for Soulless Girls

rep: asexual MC and mlm romance

I don't think I can put into words how beautiful and haunting this book is. I haven't read a book this beautifully written in a while.

The plot is dark and twisted and well paced. The setting is genuinely eerie and the writing style made it so emersive.There is also some great LGBTQ+ representation in this book and some really raw emotions around what that meant for the characters.

Definitely a book that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

An absolutely beautiful, macabre coming of age story. Reading at times like a descent into madness, I found myself questioning whether the horrific creatures presented in the prose were really there or whether Andrew and Thomas were imagining the monsters stalking them. With the added subplot about Andrew coming to terms with his asexuality, and him trying to unravel whether Thomas was a friend or could be something more, it was tension filled and kept me gripped throughout. It was an excellent decision to have the reader unsure how much of the stalking doom was actually inside his mind. There were so many questions to be answered, and keeping the single POV meant that every character kept their secrets for as long as possible!

Perfect for lovers of House of Hollow and For The Wolf, the imagery and the pervading sense of ruin and rot make this an unsettling story for teen readers and adults alike.
I absolutely loved it, and will be shouting from the highest branches - though I am sad that I haven't yet found a special edition copy in the UK!

This is atmospheric horror that creeps under your skin. The central characters are complex and the horrors well-crafted, with a central theme that has a great impact. However I didn’t massively enjoy the ending.