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A review by obsidian_blue
Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
2.0
Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
I stopped and started this book s many times. I can't really say much outside of it being confusing for a good 80 percent of the book and I didn't like Thomas at all. The whole book is just about the main character's obsession with him. And there was just no development. It was 99 percent overly emotional angst talking about Thomas's eyes, lips, hair and I was just over it. The "horror" elements didn't even make sense in the end. And the little stories we get in between some chapters didn't make sense with the reveal we get in the end.
"Don't Let the Forest In" follows high school senior Andrew. Andrew is dealing with the fallout of something (it takes forever to even find out) that happened between him, his twin sister Dove, and their friend Thomas. Andrew doesn't know what happened and why Dove won't just talk to him or Thomas and instead has made new friends and refuses to make Thomas better. When Andrew follows Thomas one night though, he finds him fighting monsters in the woods. Andrew decides he will do whatever he can to help Thomas.
Andrew was exhausting. Being in his head for this long, for this many weeks was painful. Things are revealed, but I have a lot of questions about so many things, but am too tired to point out the plot holes. Also, Andrew is confused about his sexual identity and honestly the only part of the book that felt true and sounded "right" was him hanging out with Lana and Chloe and talking about it. Anytime he is near Thomas is just becomes Thomas, Thomas, Thomas.
Thomas is just pretty awful. I don't see why Andrew was focused on him and their "backwards" friendship. He's also not developed at all, neither is Dove. But for Thomas being the main focus for Andrew, it's a mistake that Drews didn't develop him better.
The main reason why I gave this two stars is that the conversations that Andrew has with Chloe and Lana were the saving graces of the book. I know some reviewers mentioned they didn't know if this was a coming of age story, a coming out story, or a horror story and I agree. Drews didn't do a great job with the horror aspect and maybe if that was stripped away this would have made for a better book.
The overall "plot" was a mess and the flow was terrible. The writing was just purple prose to the 10th power and I got really sick of reading the sentences after a while.
Spoilers..
I wish the setting of the school had been scary, but honestly it read as pretty blank and I got confused about how big it was and how big the forest was too.
The ending was not well done, probably because I knew where things were going and there were still too many plot holes to be believed.
I stopped and started this book s many times. I can't really say much outside of it being confusing for a good 80 percent of the book and I didn't like Thomas at all. The whole book is just about the main character's obsession with him. And there was just no development. It was 99 percent overly emotional angst talking about Thomas's eyes, lips, hair and I was just over it. The "horror" elements didn't even make sense in the end. And the little stories we get in between some chapters didn't make sense with the reveal we get in the end.
"Don't Let the Forest In" follows high school senior Andrew. Andrew is dealing with the fallout of something (it takes forever to even find out) that happened between him, his twin sister Dove, and their friend Thomas. Andrew doesn't know what happened and why Dove won't just talk to him or Thomas and instead has made new friends and refuses to make Thomas better. When Andrew follows Thomas one night though, he finds him fighting monsters in the woods. Andrew decides he will do whatever he can to help Thomas.
Andrew was exhausting. Being in his head for this long, for this many weeks was painful. Things are revealed, but I have a lot of questions about so many things, but am too tired to point out the plot holes. Also, Andrew is confused about his sexual identity and honestly the only part of the book that felt true and sounded "right" was him hanging out with Lana and Chloe and talking about it. Anytime he is near Thomas is just becomes Thomas, Thomas, Thomas.
Thomas is just pretty awful. I don't see why Andrew was focused on him and their "backwards" friendship. He's also not developed at all, neither is Dove. But for Thomas being the main focus for Andrew, it's a mistake that Drews didn't develop him better.
The main reason why I gave this two stars is that the conversations that Andrew has with Chloe and Lana were the saving graces of the book. I know some reviewers mentioned they didn't know if this was a coming of age story, a coming out story, or a horror story and I agree. Drews didn't do a great job with the horror aspect and maybe if that was stripped away this would have made for a better book.
The overall "plot" was a mess and the flow was terrible. The writing was just purple prose to the 10th power and I got really sick of reading the sentences after a while.
Spoilers.
Spoiler
I think I just felt bad that Drew doesn't do a great job of depicting an asexual character. I think I ended up disliking Thomas the most when he tells Andrew he's not asexual, he's just scared.I wish the setting of the school had been scary, but honestly it read as pretty blank and I got confused about how big it was and how big the forest was too.
The ending was not well done, probably because I knew where things were going and there were still too many plot holes to be believed.