Earlier this year I read Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews and absolutely loved it. So, I was really excited to read the next release from this author: Hazelthorn. While these books are not part of a series, they both are Young Adult Horror with botanical body horror. I am so thankful to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends and Netgalley for allowing me to read this early. I had already been planning on reading this and have the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition pre-ordered for when its released on October 28th. So, getting the opportunity to read this in advance was amazing especially since it’s spooky season. With that being said, all thoughts are my own.

Synopsis

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.

Book Details

• Published: October 28, 2025
• Page Count: 368 pages
• Genre: YA Horror

Thoughts on Hazelthorn

I devoured this book in a single day. With its eerie, haunted mansion setting, twisted murder mystery, and a sinister garden full of secrets, the atmosphere alone had me hooked. The story is told from the perspective of Evander, a seventeen-year-old boy who has spent most of his life confined to a locked room, drugged, and told he’s gravely ill. He also has little to no memory of life before a mysterious “incident.” But when someone unexpectedly unlocks his door, Evander steps into the mansion beyond his prison and almost immediately stumbles upon his guardian (Byron Lennox-Hall) being poisoned.

After Evander is named the heir to the estate, he begins to unravel the dark secrets of the mansion and the Lennox-Hall family. Despite being warned that Laurie is the very reason for his supposed illness and the multiple surgeries he’s been subjected to, Evander cannot stay away and tries to get his help in solving the murder. Even as fragments of Evander’s memory return, revealing that Laurie once tried to bury him alive, he still can’t bring himself to stay away. And the two form an uneasy alliance when other Lennox-Hall family members start to arrive at the mansion in the wake of Byron’s death.

With the butler missing and his guardian dead, there’s no one left to administer his daily medications. And as days pass without them, Evander begins to realize that everything he’s been told may have been a lie. Especially as he uncovers more about the dark, unsettling history of the garden and the twisted purposes the Lennox-Hall family once used it for. It causes more of his memories to resurface that don’t align with what he was told before and what he’s learning from the few estranged family members that arrive at the mansion. Questions begin to claw at him: What really happened to his parents? Why was he warned to stay away from the garden? Why can’t he remember anything from before he was buried alive? Why does the garden keep growing around him and calling him back? Why is he so goddamn hungry all the time, to the point of eating dirt? And above all, why was he named the heir of Hazelthorn by Byron?

Once the garden has a taste, it wants the rest.

I felt so bad for both Evander and Laurie after learning how horribly they were treated by those who were supposed to protect them. And my god, the rest of the Lennox-Hall family are monsters. More so than the garden. I can totally see why it rebels against them after the way they treated it. Honestly, I was rooting for the garden and the boys to get their revenge. Especially Evander, as he was denied autonomy over his own body, gaslit and abused into thinking he should feel ashamed for being emotional and different. Laurie was also experimented on and abused by his family for being different and trying to tell the truth about the horrors of Hazelthorn. I especially loved Laurie’s quote to Evander about processing and expressing what happened to them:

“Who tells you to be quiet all the time?” Laurie’s words are a low, thickened spill of warm honey. “Pain is meant to take up space or else we wouldn’t know how to scream. Fuck making your agony silent to avoid disturbing others. Maybe they should be disturbed.”

I loved how this book played the lines of being a psychological thriller, horror, and murder mystery all at once. One second you think you have it figured out, then more details come in that make you question those predictions. Evander being an unreliable narrator, due to his faulty memory, helps add to the mystery and tension. I don’t want to give it away, as I think you should go into the book blind to get the full impact of the ending, which was so satisfying.

Overall, I seriously loved this book and would highly recommend. It was easily one of my favorite reads this year and I loved all the illustrations of the various plants found in the garden. Thanks again NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends for providing me with this ARC!

Love ya,

Mae Polzine

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