A gripping and utterly enthralling novel from Drews that will take you by the throat until the last page. Every sentence is as sharp as a knife, and I couldn't put it down once I started. This is a story that will haunt me for a long time.

DNF at 10%

I'm afraid this one wasn't for me - I could tell early on from the writing style and the characters. I think this one will find its audience with people who enjoy boarding school stories and contemporary YA that are looking to dip a toe into horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Hodder Children’s Books for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

TW: abuse, body horror, gore, death, bullying, self harm, blood, panic attacks

Andrew Perrault has always found sanctuary in the dark and twisted stories he writes, especially because he’s writing them only for one person- his best friend Thomas Rye. This is a boy who takes Andrew’s words and turns them into beautiful, haunting art, seeming to understand everything Andrew is trying to say without any effort. After a summer of isolation and misery at home, Andrew is eager to return to his boarding school, Wickwood Academy, even if his twin sister Dove is barely speaking to him. Reunited for their senior year, Andrew discovers that Thomas has changed- his abusive parents have gone missing, he arrived at the school with blood on his clothes but worst of all he’s no longer interested in his art. He refuses to talk to Andrew and spends all his time lurking in the forest, haunted and ignoring the attention of the police seeking his parents. Determined to discover what’s wrong with his beloved friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the forest one night- and discovers him battling a monster from Thomas’ drawings. It turns out that everything Andrew has written that Thomas turned into art has come to life, and is now killing anyone Thomas is close to. Forced to battle these monsters nightly, Andrew and Thomas grow even more obsessed and intertwined with each other. Unfortunately, this makes the monsters even stronger, and soon enough Andrew has to consider the possibility that the only way to end this is to kill the monsters’ creator: Thomas.

This book is so dark and gorgeously written, it makes you want to wander into the forest and just get lost. I first wanted to read this book because of this gorgeously haunting cover, but I was pulled in by the atmosphere and tension of Andrew and Thomas’ deeply codependent and beautiful relationship and the horror that they find in the woods. One of the highlights of this for me is that Andrew is asexual, but he’s also in love with Thomas and gradually coming to realise what it is he wants- as someone who is ace, I resonated and related to him so much, especially because he’s really trying his best. The connection Thomas and Andrew have is so deep, they share their words and art with each other, and you can feel it through every single line. Some of the monsters, especially the thistle fairies, were genuinely scary and I found the illustrations really effective. The idea that Andrew's words and Thomas's art brought them to life is so original and genuinely scary because it's their coping mechanisms. I love the combination of YA and horror here, Thomas and Andrew feel so young sometimes and I think the balance is handled powerfully. The ending threw me a little as it’s so vague and cuts off suddenly, I wish we’d had more of a clear conclusion, but I loved the twist. A brilliant, haunting book!

YA is something I am very selective with these days.
But queer gothic horror in an academic setting? Sign me up.
This book was so good 👏
Pure poetry coming off the page, hauntingly beautiful and I could picture everything so clearly.
The illustrations were *chefs kiss*
I want quotes from the book to be put on a monstrous art print and hang it on a wall.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher
5 ⭐️

It's been a few days since I finished this and it's really stuck with me. Part dark academia, part monster horror, part queer YA love story - there's a whole lot going on here but it comes together so well. Andrew arrives back to school, eager to see Thomas after a long summer. But on day one it turns out Thomas's parents are missing. It goes from bad to worse when Andrew finds Thomas fighting a monster brought to life from his drawings in the school forest. Intoxicating and a total headspin by the end, I loved every minute of this. It brought out all of the big feelings, I came away both teary and questioning everything.

Don't Let the Forest In follows Andrew, a young man at an elite private school who discovers that his closest (and only) friend, Thomas, is accidentally bringing monsters to life through his art. When Andrew catches Thomas fighting a creature in the forest outside their school, he vows to help him by fighting the monsters each night - but when the monsters keep coming, and the attacks become more dangerous and more vicious, the two begin to wonder if they need to do something more drastic to stop the attacks once and for all.

Words cannot express my love for this book. It's been so long since I became so completely engrossed in a story, but the combination of realistic representation (with an asexual, queer protagonist) with a stunning love story and a plot that seamlessly blends fantasy with reality is unlike anything else I've read recently.

There aren't a huge amount of characters in this story, but the ones that the author takes time to explore - mainly Andrew, Thomas, and Andrew's sister, Dove - are all so unique and well-developed that it makes up for it. I especially loved Thomas, and the way we see him entirely through Andrew's love-struck eyes.

As a fan of gothic horror, I was also SO impressed by the dark fairytale-esque monsters and the sometimes gruesome scenes that occurred when Andrew and Thomas encountered them. On top of that, both the boarding school setting and the forest setting have certainly been well-used in dark YA in recent years, but even they felt fresh and especially creepy in DON'T LET THE FOREST IN.

I absolutely adored this book, and have already started recommending to everyone who'll listen. If you like fairytales, horror, thrillers, or any kind of dark YA, you'll love this.

I had high hopes for this book, and it has more than exceeded them. The plot alone is intriguing with gut wrenching twists, one which is fed in throughout the book and when it hit me, it really hit me with a devastating blow. What takes this book to the next level is Drews incredible, poetic writing style, not just the words themselves but the layout as well, I really enjoyed these little details and it definitely enhanced the experience. On top of this you've got absolutely horrifyingly beautiful illustrations throughout. Sexuality and mental health is very well represented, in a sensitive yet realistic manner. It's dark and at some times traumatic, it makes you feel intensely for Andrew and just want to scoop him up and tell him he's going to be ok.
I've never felt grief, depression and eating disorders represented so well, using 'inner monsters' come to life to explain the horror & catastrophe it can feel like to the person experiencing it.
C.G Drews will now be an auto buy author for me and I'm very excited to get my hands on their future work.

This book is dark. Really dark. Think 'Pan's Labyrinth' type fantasy. Darker than the kind of book I usually read if I'm honest and I nearly had to stop reading it more than once because of violent images but yet the characters and the story were so complelling I felt as though if I didn't finish reading it to its conclusion then I would be forever haunted (if you read this book then you'll be able to see how well that turned out for me)! The obsessive creative, fantastical world that the two boys create is so very disturbing yet weirdly beautiful. Their characters so well drawn, the plot so unexpected. Read it if you dare!

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.