I’m officially obsessed with C.G. Drews’s brand of environmental/forest horror. There’s just something intoxicating about the way she blends lush, lyrical writing with creeping dread and botanical menace. Hazelthorn feels like it’s set in the same eerie world as Don’t Let the Forest In (or maybe dreamed up by Andrew and Thomas), but it never feels like a repeat. Instead, it’s as though Drews knows exactly what we loved from her last book and has turned the dial up even higher.

Blurb

Evander has lived like a ghost in the forgotten corners of the Hazelthorn estate ever since he was taken in by his reclusive billionaire guardian, Byron Lennox-Hall, when he was a child. For his safety, Evander has been given three ironclad rules to follow:

He can never leave the estate. He can never go into the gardens. And most importantly, he can never again be left alone with Byron’s charming, underachieving grandson, Laurie.

That last rule has been in place ever since Laurie tried to kill Evander seven years ago, and yet somehow Evander is still obsessed with him.

When Byron suddenly dies, Evander inherits Hazelthorn’s immense gothic mansion and acres of sprawling grounds, along with the entirety of the Lennox-Hall family’s vast wealth. But Evander’s sure his guardian was murdered, and Laurie may be the only one who can help him find the killer before they come for Evander next.

Perhaps even more concerning is how the overgrown garden is refusing to stay behind its walls, slipping its vines and spores deeper into the house with each passing day. As the family’s dark secrets unravel alongside the growing horror of their terribly alive, bloodthirsty garden, Evander needs to find out what he’s really inheriting before the garden demands to be fed once more.

My Thoughts

The book opens with a classic hook: Byron Lennox-Hall is dead, and his ward Evander suspects foul play. It’s the perfect setup for a gothic murder mystery… except that’s just the bait. The real danger comes from the sprawling Hazelthorn estate itself: more specifically, the overgrown, bloodthirsty garden that refuses to stay outside. Before long, murder takes a backseat to something stranger and far more unsettling. Imagine Knives Out meets The Secret Garden meets botanical body horror, with spores and vines slipping under doors and into your lungs.

At the center are two boys who are as frustrating as they are compelling. Evander tested my patience early on: passive, withdrawn, and almost too resigned to his gilded cage. But as the story unfolded, I grew to understand his hesitations. And Laurie? My poor cinnamon roll. He’s going through it, but he’s magnetic and impossible not to love. I wish I knew more about who he was like in the outside world, but it almost feels as if nothing exists outside of the Hazelthorn estate. Drews captures that push-pull between craving control and drowning in self-hatred with a raw, unsettling honesty.

None of the characters’ choices made sense at first, but that’s part of the magic. Slowly, their motivations snap into place, and by the time I realized I’d been hooked, it was too late to put the book down. Surprisingly, there’s also a thread of delicious, seething feminine rage woven into this story about gay boys… and maybe that’s just my read on it, but it gives the book an added bite I didn’t expect.

Hazelthorn is, at its roots, a YA horromance (yes, horror + romance) about inheritance, secrets, and the monstrous beauty of nature unleashed. And C.G. Drews proves once again that nobody does creeping, vine-twisting, soul-crushing atmosphere quite like she does.

Verdict: If you like your gothic horror strange, gorgeous, and tinged with romance, you’re going to want to wander into this garden… just watch your step.

Out Oct 28, 2025