I've been following this author's book reviews on Goodreads for years, which is how I found out she wrote a book and why I was interested in reading it. Her writing in her reviews can be gorgeous and lyrical at times, and I was hoping that would translate to her novel.
At times, it did, and at other times it didn't. There were moments of beautiful descriptions and lush prose, but sometimes it became too much, and the descriptions felt as if they were meaningless.
My favorite part of the book was the setting: a boarding school with a dark off-limits forest behind it. Unfortunately, most other aspects of the story fell short for me. The main characters seemed almost like caricatures, not fully fleshed out beyond their initial descriptions. The side characters read rather one-dimensional to me and I struggled to connect with any of them. Even now writing this review, about two weeks after I finished the book, I cannot remember any characters' names outside of Andrew and Thomas, the two main boys.
I liked the idea behind Thomas's monster drawings coming to life, but I also don't feel like it really made sense why that was happening. I don't know why I struggled so hard to connect to this book.
Overall, Don't Let the Forest In was fine but unmemorable for me. I don't think young adult novels hit the same for me as they did when I was younger and more in that age bracket, sadly. But if you don't mind YA books and you enjoy psychological horror novels with botanical elements and two boys who toxically yearn for one another, then you will likely enjoy this novel.
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