Hazelthorn by CG Drews

Thank you so much to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends, and the author for gifting me a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Hazelthorn by CG Drews is a YA gothic, botanical body horror novel by the author of Don’t Let the Forest In. This book comes out on October 28th, 2025, and at 368 pages in hardback, this book packs a punch.

Told from Evander’s unreliable POV, this book explores the fallibility of memory and the extent to which obsession can go. Evander is the ward of the patriarch of the Lennox-Hall family, who is confined to the sprawling Hazelthorn Estate. But he can never leave the house or go out into the gardens, and he can never, never be left alone with his caregiver’s grandson, Laurie.

Laurie is home, kicked out of another boarding school, and Evander cannot help his obsession with him. When Byron Lennox-Hall dies under mysterious circumstances, and the gardens start to creep into the house, Evander’s only choice is to enlist Laurie to help him solve the murder and keep him safe.

5 Stars!