Don't Let the Forest In
C.G. Drews
Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him. High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality—Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more. But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won’t say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork—whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew’s wicked stories. Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster—Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator…
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Overall I enjoyed this - I'm a sucker for woodsy gothic stories - but I thought the prose, though lovely, was occasionally overdone, and that there wasn't quite enough to it all, story and style alike, to stretch out over a full book's length. I did like the ending a lot, though.
0**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**
CG Drews presents their take on YA horror with Don't Let the Forest In. Readers follow Andrew as he returns to his senior year at Wickwood Academy. Everything is the same. Same bullies. Same teachers. Same Thomas. Thomas, who is the prince of his stories and is made of monsters. Andrew writes, and Thomas draws. But Dove, Andrew's twin, is refusing to talk to them now. Before, it was the three of them. And Andrew has new scars on his hand that no one wants to talk about. Andrew knows he needs Thomas, but doesn't he need his twin, too? When the monsters of Thomas' drawings start crawling out of the forest and attacking students, Andrew and Thomas have to do something. Who will pay the tithe?
This novel is curling up in a library and viewing the comfort of academia from just slightly out of frame. Until ink bleeds onto the picture and makes it something macabre and wicked. It is gore and body horror and the dread of things watching from the dark. This is everything I could have hoped for from a book like this.
Andrew and Thomas are codependent and toxic,and I love them so much. Each of them are exploring their queerness and what that means for them. Not individually. They are inherently intertwined and can't be separated.
I see where this book won't be for everyone. But it is absolutely for me.
For those of you who were swept away in the mind games of The Wicker King, the poetry of If We Were Villains, and the burrowing dread of Summer Sons. This one is for you.
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