I don’t read a lot of horror, especially when it involves body horror, but something about this just book just called to me. And I did enjoy it! It was one of those creepy, somewhat surreal, weird kinda stories.

I liked the writing. It was dramatic and flowery. Not in a way that was hard to understand, just in a way most real people don’t talk. But I enjoy that when it suits the story, and it did suit this one.

I liked the codependent, intense, would do anything for each other friendship/love the two boys had. And there were some quotes I loved about the way Thomas felt about Andrew. I’ll put them below, hidden because they don’t spoil the plot but you might prefer to encounter them for yourself while reading.

“I like how you are. There’s an entire world of ink and magic stuffed inside your head, and I think it’s beautiful. I just wish everything didn’t hurt you so much.”

“And you know less about Andrew if you think he’s some delicate wallflower that you need to ball up in cotton wool. He could cut me to bloody pieces if he wanted. I couldn’t stop him even if I tried.”
[…]
Everyone saw Andrew as shattered and fragile, and maybe he was to them. But when Thomas looked at Andrew’s sharp edges, he thought them dangerous and beautiful—not weak.
He could cut me to bloody pieces if he wanted.
Andrew hated the way he loved those words.

I loved the ace rep. It didn’t feel forced or take over the book, wasn’t just a definition a character explained to another character for no apparent reason. It felt like it fit, and as someone who might be ace, I related to this portrayal, to Andrew’s feelings and worry.

Obviously there are horror elements. A lot of creepy foresty stuff. Fighting monsters. Some body horror. Also just this general feeling that things are wrong.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say Andrew is an unreliable narrator. He’s clearly not ok, and it’s apparent early on that there’s more to a certain story than he seems to remember. I’m not even entirely certain what was real and what wasn’t. I really wanted to know other people’s interpretations of the ending but couldn’t find any, so I’ll add my own. *MAJOR SPOILER* I think the monsters were real. Symbolic of Andrew’s emotions and struggles, in a way, but real. The school acknowledged the forest destroying part of the school and the sleeping episode in the dining hall, someone else saw the mushrooms in Andrew’s pocket, and Thomas was around for all the monster fighting. Andrew was an unreliable narrator, but too many people interacted with Thomas for me to think Andrew was imagining him there or imagining all his interactions with others. But at the very end, I think Andrew killed Thomas and then died himself. It’s very heavily implied he cut out Thomas’s heart, and if he actually had vines and flowers bursting out of his stomach and eye, that doesn’t sound very survivable. But it’s also possible the weird forest magic allowed them both to live. Or that Andrew survived and hallucinated Thomas still being alive. Or that none of the monsters happened and Andrew was even more unreliable of a narrator than I thought. *END SPOILER*

I also enjoyed the audiobook by Michael Crouch. His voice and style seemed to suit this character really well, and he sounded natural. To be honest, I forgot to take notes about this, but I think he did a slight difference in voice, just enough to differentiate characters.

Overall, I liked these characters who were very much not ok, their intense love for each other, and their creepy, somewhat surreal story!

*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2024 // Format: Audiobook*