It’s easy to dilute the crux of Don’t Let the Forest In to just a story about monsters or yearning (since the romance doesn’t really end up romancing) but it is about both of those aspects and more. To me, the story read like a horror-filled revenge story where the protagonist is torn apart by his conflicting loyalties.

Hi. Welcome (back?) to another book review, this one, pretty spooky. If you’re new here, please know that I know if you’re looking for reviews, you’re looking for spoiler and I won’t disappoint you. You have been warned.

So I picked this book up solely based on the cover (it is a beautiful cover and the author made sure it was all over my timeline on Threads for the longest time, good marketing) and this book did not disappoint. The author promised botanical horror with queer representation and delivered.

This was my first C.G. Drews books and I went in not knowing what to expect beyond those two faucets of the plot. The writing and premise threw me off (ngl) as soon as I started reading. The story is set in a boarding school in the middle of a forest and there are homophobic bullies. I did not see the appeal in being stuck inside the head of an angsty teen who was struggling with his sexuality (he is asexual) and his feelings for his best friend who may or may not be in love with his twin (identical, I think). I was inclined to DNF. Then the storyline got me to the forest.

Being in Andrew’s head is a task. He is an unreliable narrator and you know this almost as soon as trouble begins to stir in Wickwood. When the monsters from the macabre stories he wrote and his friend, Thomas, drew started manifesting out of the forest and coming after them, I thought Thomas was delusional, schizophrenic even. Then it was revealed that Thomas has been fighting these monsters and keeping his distance from Andrew to protect him (source of endless angst in the first half) and I was sure those two were doing drugs in their room (they are roommates). Then people started to die.

There are closely-guarded secrets that don’t get exposed untill the very end.

Thomas’ parents have already been slaughtered by one of the monsters when the book begins and Thomas is the suspect. He has been blaming himself as the monsters seem to manifest from his sketches (there are sketches in the book) and has been fighting them in the woods every night before they reach the school and harm more people. But the forest does reach the school.

It begins with Andrew as he is haunted by a creature who others cannot see. Then people Andrew and Thomas don’t like start to die. Suspecting that Thomas is the cause, they set off to destroy all of his art. But Andrew keeps writing his stories. In fact, he writes gruesome stories to kill the monsters too, on tree barks in the forest, on the underside of dinning tables. And you know it, you feel it in your bones that it is Andrew the forest wants.

There are depth to all actions of the characters and events in the school in retrospect, so you might find yourself thinking of this one long after you have finished reading it. There are conversations around mental health, unhealthy coping mechanism, toxic and incompetent parents and homophobia. The sense of not fitting in is very strong throughout the book but you actually feel it and it’s not pick-me energy. You go through the emotional turmoils of Andrew as he tries to make sense of the world around him and falls short miserably. The evocative writing gets to you even in the short span of 330 pages.

The dynamics between the twins and their friends and how they are so vastly different from each other is stressed upon. As Dove, Andrew’s twin sister, excels at everything and breezes through life with her color-coded notes and thick binders, Andrew feels smaller and smaller. His insecurities about being dependent on his sister for academic and social assistance is excruciatingly familiar if you’ve ever been an introvert in a completely new place. As he fails to navigate his surroundings and clings to Thomas in the absence of Dove, you start getting a glimpse of this mutually parasitic relationship because Thomas is feeding off of Andrew’s presence as much as Andrew is off of Thomas.

Without giving away the main plot twist (do you see me trying here?), I noticed some plot holes that can be chalked up to a less detailed world-building. Being in Andrew’s head restricts the view of this world as the events unfurl around him and the lack of involvement from other people who were not his immediate circle felt a little off. Teachers were the least involved in the lives of students. Even following murders, there weren’t real investigations, and students sneaked into the forest regularly without ever getting caught sneaking or caring for a guard at night. Well, we’re choosing to believe tree monsters are real here, so I guess this is all part of the willing suspension of disbelief (she makes you believe the monsters, I was spooked). But did I love it? Hell, yeah.

As the forest burrows into Andew until he and the barks and vines and leaves are inseparable, the degree of horrors only rises. The forest wants a heart as a tithe, but which one? If you’re wondering about the revenge part of story, you’d have to rely on the author’s exquisite writing and narrative to find out (I’m doing you a favor, trust me).

This book is a little piece of spooky October that you can carry around. The gloomy setting and the intricate language sets up an enchanting read that is phenomenal. The queer representation isn’t there as an appendage and actually plays into the story and there’s real discussions around it as these teens sort out their identities (brownie points). I believe, this story will stay with me, as intended.