Hazelthorn by CG Drews | Horror Fiction Review

Botanical horror is having a moment and it's a beautifully disgusting thing.

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Hazelthorn by CG Drews

Released October 2025

Source: Netgalley

Get it at your local library or see more @ Goodreads

Hazelthorn includes everything that bugged me a little about Don’t Let the Forest In because I am she of little patience, including the endless pining, the memory gaps and small glimpses of pained but forgotten histories and it is very angst heavy, but I loved all of it. Maybe I was just in the right mood? Or perhaps it's just a very good book. It’s earthy and mysterious and sometimes pretty bloody and gross and all of it is pretty damn haunting.

Evander is a lonely, sickly teenage boy who has been wasting away in an old mansion. His door is locked until one day it isn’t . . .

The writing is beautifully evocative. Or at least I think so. At one point Evander thinks about himself, “He is an autumn leaf. Meant to be pressed between the pages of an old book and forgotten.” and I felt so much sadness for him.

Laurie is his nemesis but at one time they were friends. He is the grandson of Evandor’s benefactor. Laurie has returned home just in time for the death of his grandfather whose death is mighty suspicious.

The two are both as suspicious as I am and when the awful extended family returns to grab whatever they can, the teens do all of the things they aren’t supposed to - like leave formerly locked rooms and traipse through the forbidden gardens looking for the truth and finding unimaginable danger.

Hazelthorn is a gorgeously written tale of a gothic mansion and a terrible garden filled with secrets but it’s so much more. It’s lush and grotesque and imaginative and filled with physical and emotional pain and it all comes together in the loveliest way. I think you'll very much enjoy it if you’re a fan of darker things. Narrator Michael Crouch does a perfect job portraying both its young and older characters. The fear and the longing and the absolute despair were voiced to perfection. I so much enjoyed having this botanical nightmare in my ears for a few days.

Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher Plot Synopsis 

CG Drews, acclaimed author of Don't Let the Forest In, returns with another deeply unsettling and yet hauntingly beautiful tale of murder and botanical body horror, perfect for fans of Andrew Joseph White and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

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.