AUDREY'S ONE-SENTENCE BOOK REVIEWS [PLUS A FEW SENTENCES MORE] 

Found myself wishing for ONE paragraph without a metaphor in it, just one. "You'll cut me open and find a garden of rot where my heart should be" OK champ go back to math class

For me, this book came across as indecisive. the poetic abstractions are out of place with the grounded setting. The dialogue & actions of our characters are so unrooted in reality that it's hard to treat them with real stakes. The coming-of-age story demands that Andrew expand his social circle with fellow students who understand him; the queer horror fairy tale demands that the prince of the forest and his lover make a sacrifice to appease its dark appetite. If the forest is symbolic of Andrew's grief, then did that symbol actually cause the death of several people? It felt like I was reading two completely unrelated books, neither one complete or convincing.