Sidekick Short Review: Don't Let the Forest In (2024) by CG Drews

cover image of Don't Let the Forest In by CG Drews, published by Feiwel & Friends, 2024.

The Basics

Page Length: 336

Audiobook Length: ~8.5 hours

Grade Reading Level: 8+

Target Audience Age: 13-18+

Goodreads Score: 4.06 out of 5

Buy it HERE

Setting: Contemporary boarding school, Wickwood Academy

Genre: Young Adult Psychological Horror

Topics: Dark Academia, LGBTQ+, Asexuality, Gothic, Supernatural, Forest, Monsters, Grief, Mourning, Mental Health

Plot: Andrew Perrault, his twin sister Dove, and his best friend Thomas Rye have been inseparable since they started at Wickwood Academy, a boarding school they entered together in middle school. Dove is the popular star student—brave, outspoken, and admired. Thomas is the troublemaker—bold, defiant, and always standing up for what he believes in. Andrew is the opposite: quiet, anxious, and unsure of himself, fitting in nowhere except with them.

Andrew copes with his anxiety by writing dark, macabre stories about monsters lurking in their beloved forest—each one reflecting his inner pain. Thomas illustrates the stories, showcasing his artistic talent, while Dove edits them.

When the new school year begins, something is wrong. Dove grows distant, and Andrew doesn’t understand why she and Thomas have stopped speaking. His anxiety worsens when Thomas begins acting strangely—and then his parents go missing. Following Thomas into the forest, Andrew discovers the impossible: the monsters from his stories and Thomas’s drawings have come to life.

As Andrew and Thomas fight to survive, Andrew must also confront his inner demons—school bullies, including teachers; his confusion about his sexuality and his feelings for Thomas; and the growing rift between himself and his twin sister. This is a moving story about a boy confronting his deepest fears and learning to face the truths his heart has long buried and forgotten.

You might like this book if you like:

• Creative Writing and/or drawing/sketching

• Exploring psychological topics

• Moody nature exploration

• Gothic/macabre vibes

• Books like: The Honeys, A Lesson in Vengeance, My Dearest Darkest, House of Hollow, Rules for Vanishing, Your Blood, My Bones, The Society for Soulless Girls, Truly Devious

• Shows like: Yellowjackets, The Haunting of Hill House, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Sharp Objects, Hannibal

• Movies like: Black Swan, Interview with the Vampire, Blair Witch Project, The Ritual

  
  

Other books written by this author: Hazelthorn (series), The Boy Who Steals Houses (series), The Girl Who Steals Christmas, A Thousand Perfect Notes

Content

• Language: infrequent, moderate language

• Sex/Romance: the main character struggles to define his sexuality and relationship with his best friend. He is asexual, but has a deeply emotional and somewhat romantic relationship with his best friend. There are a few kisses, nothing more, and no graphic descriptions. Though there is language describing fear of intimacy.

• Violence/Scariness: This book talks a lot about mental health and self-harm. There is also discussion of eating disorders and panic attacks. Definitely some gore. This book contains lots of violent monster attacks and death. Characters fight and kill monsters in the forest, and at school. One character's parents die, a classmate too, and a teacher. Their deaths are described quite graphically. Lots of blood and description of violence. Sometimes this book is described as "body horror" as lots of the violence is committed by the forest itself, decaying characters from the inside out.

• Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: none

  
  

Book Talk Read Aloud Section

*What is a book talk? (Watch a how to video here. Read my blog post here)

If you have the physical book, read pages 1-4 (through paragraph 4 "Andrew searched for Thomas. Nothing.")

If you don't, read the same pages in the Kindle reading sample here.