cornerofmadness

Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another four point five read that I didn't round up for reasons, though admittedly some of those reasons are that Laurie felt less well drawn but what can you expect from a tight third person pov?

Evander (and Laurie) are deeply abused young men (There's your content warning, long term physical and psychological abuse of children and oh, blood and gore but I suspect if you're reading horror you're okay with that). Evander is kept virtual prisoner in his room within the decaying walls of Hazelthorn mansion with three rules, never be alone with Laurie, never go in the garden and he can never leave the estate. Seven years ago Laurie tried to kill Evander in the garden or so he's been told Evander's memories are swiss cheese.

Now at seventeen Laurie is back having been kicked out of school and Evander is drawn to him in spite of their past, remembering how they played together as children until that terrible night. But Byron Lennox-Hall, Evander's guardian and Laurie's grandfather, the billionaire owner of the manse drops dead in front of Evander who suspects this is murder.

Dawes, a strange young lawyer comes with the will and the only one to inherit is Evander, cutting Laurie (who wants Hazelthorn) out along with Aunt Oleander, Aunt Azalea and cousin Bane who have been banned from the mansion for years. Who, along with other Lennox-Halls are arriving to deal with Evander and this terrible inheritance.

The family members are used to great advantage tension wise. There are things deeply wrong with this family, even Laurie who may or may not actually be on Evander's side. It's quickly revealed that Evander, who believes his health issues plus his autistic 'episodes' are why he's been locked away for years. He is determined to find out who killed Byron and to keep himself out of Oleander's clutches (because even though she has relatively limited page time is a very effective villain)

Of course the real meat of the story is what really happened with him and Laurie and what is the secret of the garden and why Evander was really locked away. While I worked out a lot of that long before the reveal, it was still a satisfying journey. Evander and Laurie are compelling characters and that's about all I can say there because anything else would spoil it.

So why not five stars? Some of it was a little repetitive with Evander's issues and his history with Laurie without adding anything new to that. But also the queer attraction seemed to come too late? Felt tacked on? Even though I expected it from the beginning (knowing this author) it just didn't feel quite there until suddenly it was in the last third. Again this might be an artifact that we're only in Evander's head and he doesn't have much basis for sorting out these sorts of feelings or reading body cues.

Still at the end of the day that was a minor issue and the ending was a good one (though one that only works because of Byron's billions coming to Evander). I very much enjoyed this book. Looking for more from Drews.



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