Being a teenager sucks, especially if you are even the least bit vulnerable. Sometimes you just want to be anywhere else other than where you are right then. Sometimes you just wish you could manifest someone or someplace that could handle you in all your cruelty and kindness; in all your hard and soft places. That could handle all of you, without reservation. 

 

Don’t Let the Forest In is an exquisitely messy tale of grief, queer love, coming of age, sexual identity, mental illness, creative genius, and pain that reached inside of me, grabbed onto my heart and guts from page one and didn’t let go until the last page was read. My guts still feel a little twisted and my heart bruised, but I’m better for it as a person (despite how many tears soaked my pillowcase and shirt). 

 

Author C. G. Drews has said it took five years to bring this book to the public, and it really shows. The storycraft shown here is a clear-cut case of laborious love. The prose has been groomed until it shines, the characters have been tended to until they resonate just right, the worldbuilding has been vividly etched, and the story itself has obviously been nurtured from a seed to a fully grown tree full of ripe fruit. The whole thing just shines with purpose and determination. 

 

The imagery and atmosphere of botanical horrormance books is something I cannot and will not get over. There’s something so enticing about stories that are just one step over the line from the notion of “ripe”, which is how some people choose to write about young adults. Botanical horrormance tends to deal with the imagery and notions of what happens when “ripe” goes wrong: rotten, spoiled, expired, trashed, ripped, exploded, squashed, torn, buried, and even so destroyed it just becomes part of the forest’s detritus. I don’t think this is a coincidence and I enjoy the juxtaposition. 

 

I had been waiting all year to read this book and it did not disappoint. I loved it even more than I thought I would. 

 

 I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. 

 

File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Coming of Age/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Fantasy/Romantasy/Horrormance/LGBTQ Fantasy/LGBTQ Horror/LGBTQ Romance/Paranormal Fantasy/Paranormal Horror/YA Fantasy/YA Romantasy/YA Fiction/YA Horrormance/YA Horror/YA LGBTQ Romance