Synopsis

Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him.

Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality—Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won't say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork—whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew's wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what's wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster—Thomas's drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator...

*Blurb taken from the StoryGraph

Review

This review contains spoilers.

Characters: I love both a fully fleshed out cast, as well as an unreliable narrator, and we get both in this story! The way that Andrew views and navigates the world provides an eerie whimsy to the narration of this story, fueled by the fact that Andrew himself is a writer. I was drawn into Andrew’s head within the first few paragraphs and felt an immediate connection to him, which was imperative in a character-driven tale. When following an unreliable narrator who has a surrealist view of their experiences, the prose risks getting convoluted and confusing, but Drews does a fantastic job of grounding Andrew in his best friend/love interest, Thomas, as well as the mystery of the monsters and the happenings at school. The growth of our protagonist very much fits the idea of monstrous woods, as Andrew blooms into a reflective creature who reckons with loss, mental illness, and the darkness within himself and Thomas. I love that Andrew didn’t shy away from any of these things, but embraced them as a part of his story. I also felt Andrew’s search for identity, especially in his acceptance of being ace, was handled with much grace and care.

Thomas is a character that’s harder to speak to since this ending is ambiguous and open to interpretation. That being said, I do think he killed his parents, though I also believe it was either an accident or an act of self-defense. I would devour a retelling of this novel from Thomas’s perspective, as he had his own demons that he was fighting alongside Andrew. The devastation we witness this character go through deserves a story of its own. His self-awareness and growth parallels Andrew’s, evident as Thomas undergoes apparent stages of grief. The battles in the wood, while we’re lead to believe are wholly invested in Andrew, also seemed to be a source of penance for Thomas.

The intertwining of these characters and how they interacted with the surrealism of the plot was masterfully done.

Plot: Just like the vines that collapse a portion of the boarding school Andrew attends, there are a plethora of interwoven plots in this tale. The main points follow the mystery surrounding the monsters in the wood, the falling out between Thomas and Dove, Andrew’s search for identity and understanding, as well as the budding romantic affections between Andrew and Thomas. This novel was brilliant, which is why when I started to wonder how we were missing depth to Dove—an intrinsic character— I trusted the author to have a reason for such an odd lapse. The reveal that Dove was dead and Andrew’s anxiety and grief had formed hallucinations had me ripping through the final pages of the novel and reevaluating everything I had believed up to that point.

At the heart of this tale is a commentary on mental illness and grief. It’s difficult to work through the plot of a book as ambiguous and open-ended as this one, so I can only speak to my interpretation of the following questions:

Were the monsters real? Did Thomas kill his parents? Are certain characters actually dead? Do the boys die together in the wood, or do they live on as monstrosities themselves?

In a literal take, no, I don’t think the monsters were present. Vines didn’t eat Andrew’s bully, nor did the beast kill his teacher. But in a metaphysical take, yes, these monsters were very real and existed as physical beings for Andrew (and, perhaps, Thomas, who was fighting his own darkness throughout the text). Any characters who died, I think are truly dead, though not necessarily the way we experienced through Andrew’s narration. And as for the end … I truly don’t know. I’ve thought on this novel a lot, and every day my interpretation of the final moments changes. But that’s what makes this book both devastating and beautiful. Drews’s take on mental illness was as captivating as it was honest, and the darkness in these pages felt like a truth.

Craft: Can we take a moment to applaud the poetic framework here? This book starts with Andrew writing a tale that insinuates he would cut his heart out for Thomas, but ends with Thomas cutting his heart out for Andrew. The lyrical prose and masterful imagery make this an excellent read from a craft standpoint. Drews pulls readers directly into Andrew’s head and we experience the story alongside him. No notes. This was executed so well and I was captivated from start to finish.

Audio: If you enjoy audiobooks, I would recommend this one mainly because it was lovely to here Drews’s prose spoken aloud. That being said, there was no vocal distinction between characters, which I prefer, and the use of Andrew and Dove’s Australian accent was thrown in a bit haphazard. It could have been better, but it wasn’t bad by any means.

Overall Thoughts: If you loathe ambiguous or open-ended novels, this one will drive you mad. I, for one, enjoy the insanity of such storytelling and thought this was a brilliant piece centered on grief, mental illness, and the ways we embrace darkness. The intensity of this book held until the very end, and I inhaled all of it it in a single day. Not only was the storyline immersive, but the characters captured my heart. This book made me pause and think. Difficult topics of loss, mental disorders, identity, and more we tackled in an eloquent manner that didn’t shy away from the gritty, messy side of such a discourse. The use of stories, art, and folklore to create even more separation between the logical and the fantastical drove the atmosphere into a surreal, gothic imagining. These characters are hooked in my mind, just the way they were intended to be. Consider me an unequivocal fan of C.G. Drews and their craft.

Content Note

You can find more content warnings at the author’s website and the Trigger Warning Database.

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