4.5/5 Rounded Up
Since reading Don't Let the Forest In, I was waiting to be back in a world written by CG Drews. This book was the angry, queer, gothic story that I've been waiting for. Between a haunted garden and anger in droves - this book kept my attention from page one.
Hazelthorn is lush, gothic and sickly sweet in a rotting kind of way. More so, it's a dark story about body autonomy and choices that are often taken away from those consider unwell. Evander, my sweet boy, just wants to know what's wrong with him and to discover what has been calling out to him. He's been told he's sick his whole life and has been forced to hide those feelings. But now he has a voice for it, learning how to embrace his pain and his thoughts. And LAURIE MY SWEET LAURENCE I LOVE YOU SM. Laurie, with his hard devil may care attitude, when he in fact cares so deeply that it's killing him. The connection between Laurie and Evander was everything to me in this book.
The atmosphere of this book was so well done. You can feel Evander's claustrophobia and choking in his environment. The "Not everything as it seems" story telling is beautifully written, with a prose that wraps you up and suffocates you. The house and garden, Evander's personal nightmare, is a character its self, looming over your shoulder waiting to strike.
An amazing book that I know will stick with me like vines in my lungs.
Thank you Netgalley, MacMillan Children's Publishing Group and CG Drews for an eARC. All thoughts are honest and my own.