Don't Let the Forest In

“They'd devoured each other in this forest, these boys so ravenous and defiant and tearful, they'd not known how to stop. The way Andrew loved Thomas was terrible and eternal, but he couldn't remember if he'd ever said that out loud.”

this was one of my most anticipated books for this year and i'm so glad it didn't disappoint!! andrew and thomas' relationship was actually very sweet despite how much they suffered - i'm so glad this story didn't fall into the trap i see in so many ya novels where the main characters just don't have any chemistry. something i also did NOT expect from this book was detailed illustrations of the monsters, which i absolutely loved!! it added so much to the twisted fairytale theming!!

the ending, without spoiling, is open-ended, but doesn't feel cheap to me since i feel like you could pretty easily come to a reasonable conclusion about what happened. this book has such great atmosphere and i really loved how it was maintained up until the very end. there were a few parts where i felt the talks about andrew's sexuality were a bit jarring compared to the rest of the plot, but i do understand how important that is to his character and this book's audience.

overall, i highly enjoyed reading! the horror in this book is (as someone who's easily freaked out) not all that graphic, more haunting and uncomfortable than anything else. if that sounds up your alley, i definitely would recommend!