Okay now onto all the cool news!!

you can get your copy from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Indigo, etc, or your favourite indie bookstores

I’m so excited to announce that Scorpion Deep is a Book Of The Month add-on Selection for November! SURREAL TIMES OKAY. This makes my third book in a row that Book of the Month has so epically backed and I’m actually freaking out a little (but pretend I am professional!!) You can grab Scorpion Deep here from BOTM. And it’s also an audiobook pick too.

other cool things i need to tell you

• Scorpion Deep ended up ranking # 1 in TWO spots on Amazon…for monsters and depression. Which ok this is valid those are the two genres I write and I do feel seen right now.

  

• Also very pleased to say the B&N exclusive edition is BACK. Preorders were paused for a hot second because they were selling too fast. 🤭 It’s also currently a top # 20 YA bestseller on B&N!

• If you missed getting the Jonathan x Scorpion peorder art prints by Avenley and LadyEruArt, you can now grab them in their art stores! LadyEruArt’s piece is here and Avenely’s shop is here.

• Scorpion Deep is also on Kindle+ on Amazon UK!!

• AND he was a banner on the FRONT PAGE OF BARNES AND NOBLE ON RELEASE DAY (freaking out! absolutely freaking out!)

and other (non-Scorpion) things i must tell you

• There’s only 2 days left to enter the Goodreads giveaway for my next adult gothic horror This Is How You Lie!!

• Alsooo This Is How You Lie is currently READ NOW on Netgalley (so if you’re an ARC reviewer you can download it immediately without needing to wait for an approval). This is very cool and I hope you enjoy it if you grab it. This ends on November 4th.

• I also just got my physical ARCs and I’m softly screaming. Will definitely show them to you all soon.

• Listen I know you’re probably lying on the floor with your heart cut out thanks to Scorpion Deep but I am just softly tenderly reminding you that I have another book comign that will make everything worse fix you.

“He and the ocean have a history of salt and blood and brine together, and when the tide breathes out, Jonathan feels it in his lungs. It has always been this way between them: a love story, but the wrong kind.“

I don’t know if it will hit any bestseller lists yet, but I do know this book has slipped into a lot of hearts already and made readers feel both seen and haunted and that is everything I could ask for. I always just hope my books will find the person who needs them the most. And I’m also just so grateful to tell my horrible little stories about both the monsters you kiss and the monsters you see in the mirror.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

This is also my sixth published novel and my fourth published horror novel. And I officially have published four books in the last two years (and maybe lost my mind a bit but for a good cause).

(It’s also out today in Australia and in the UK on the 29th!!)

you can get your copy from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Indigo, etc, or your favourite indie bookstores

I’m genuinely blown away and so so happy with the early love this book has gotten. 1000 early reviews and a 4.5 average star rating is mindblowing to me (probably my highest rated book in the pre-pub lead up so far) and so so many preorders. It also went viral the most times of any of my books. It’s been a wild lead up to release.

Also okay, I confess: I maybe stress out with every new release, wondering if it will sell, if people will preorder, knowing I’m in for months upon months of intense promo to try and get it in front of readers’ eyes. This year has been insanely tough for a lot of behind-the-scenes reasons and I’ve been literally been working nonstop. But still, what a privilege it is to work so hard. I genuinely have found the best readers and I’m freaking out over you all. I am so lucky.

“Stories are shadows of things that have really happened, they are truths skinned and hung out to dry, they are the monsters that no one knew how to talk about so they made the bloody corpses fantastical in hopes someone might listen without flinching away.
Stories don’t have to be true to be real.“

scorpion deep behind the scenes secrets

1. I actually wrote the first draft of Scorpion Deep before I wrote the horror draft of Don’t Let The Forest In. In 2020, I wrote it as a fantasy and then rewrote the entire thing into a gothic horror in 2025. It’s extremely different now but it has always been about Jonathan and a monster called Scorpion Deep.
   The rewrite was also tough, I admit. I wanted the book to be perfect and the deadlines were eating at my bones. But the way this book came together is beautiful to me.

2. The sea monsters in the book are a combination of mythological monsters you’ll recognise (like selkies and krakens) and also ones I’ve made up (like merrowfins and tidebarrows). I described them and my artist Jana Heidersdorf brought them to life so perfectly. Jana does all the art in my books! The front and back covers and the interior and I’m actually obsessed with the way my YA horrors are branded. Literally SO freaking lucky.

3. This book contains a baby kraken in a bathtub and that was one of the first EVER concept ideas I had for this story. No matter how many versions I wrote and rewrote, that baby kraken in the bathtub stayed!!

4. I talk about this book being about a boy who falls in love with an obsessive sea god... but it’s also a story about depression, loneliness, and how people often look away from those having a mental health crisis because it’s “uncomfortable”. This book is dark and disturbing and haunting and it’s meant to be. Jonathan is not a perfect narrator or a perfect victim and there’s claustrophobia to being trapped inside his head. I poured a lot of my own heart into the depression rep and I was scared this book would not do well because depression is still so taboo to talk about. People don’t want to hear about persuasive, all-consuming sadness, they don’t want the mess, they don’t want to worry about someone going through suicide ideation or dark thoughts. But these things NEED to be talked about. This whole book is about how depression feels like drowning alone in the dark and how important it is to realise you want to and need to hold on. And you know what? Already, Scorpion Deep is so so loved. I think it’s finding its people and that means everything to me.

5. Don’t Let The Forest In and Hazelthorn and Scorpion Deep are all standalones but they’re set in the same world and I consider them a “trio”. I also tuck little easter egg references in the pages too because it amuses me no end heh. (Jonathan’s best friend is Laurie from Hazelthorn’s cousin.)
   All three of these books are also all in conversation with each other. They are about the monsters caged within your ribs and they are full of botanical body horror as a metaphor for mental illness. And they all ask the question, what makes a monster and what does a monster even look like.

6. Scorpion Deep took 6 years to sell. The first fantasy version did go out to a few editors (at this point Don’t Let The Forest In was also out being rejected lol) and was passed on quite quickly. My agent at the time didn’t really love the story nor saw the vision in it, so we shelved it early, which felt hard at the time but turned out to be the best possible thing. Because I love how it exists now. This version is honed and polished and unpacks the heart of what I wanted to say about monsters and mental illness and the agony of yearning for love when you feel unloveable so much better than the old version did. (I also feel this might be an encouraging origin story to other writers who have had books rejected: that does not mean the book has to be trashed!! I hung onto this book wretchedly and he made it, even if it took a while.)

I’m so excited that my third YA gothic horror is in your hands. Thank you thank you for supporting my books so that I can write more stories. May this book make you feel both seen and haunted, obsessed and horrified.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

MY BOOKS ARE ON SALE

Like basically all of them somehow!! It is my season though after all, the time of the rotten horrors and the Halloween creepies while you bargain your soul to the darkness— um, sorry typo, while you grab my books at bargain prices!

• Hazelthorn audiobook is 70% off right now in the US!! The narration by Michael Crouch is everything so do jump on that.

• But if you’re in the UK don’t worry, the Hazelthorn UK audiobook is also on sale for the entire month!! It’s only £5.99 on Audible.

• You Did Nothing Wrong ebook is currently only £0.99 on Amazon UK. Like hello I can haunt your house for CHEAP.

• You Did Nothing Wrong B&N Exclusive is 30% off for my US friends (though tbh B&N ships internationally too 👀)

• There’s a Goodreads giveaway happening rn for the new Hazelthorn paperback that you can enter too.

• BUT ALSO there’s the first ever Goodreads giveaway happening for This Is How You Lie!! You could get an ARC so early it’s ridiculous. I feel like I was literally just writing this book tbh.

• Scorpion Deep Waterstones Exclusive Edition is 15% off!! If you want my boy with bloody sprayed edges you need this.

Don’t Let The Forest In is also going on sale on the 18th as a Kindle Daily deal in the US if you want to watch out for it!!

Also we need to talk about the fact I HAVE HAZELTHORN PAPERBACKS IN MY HANDS. Losing my mind a bit because he’s so pretty and the edges are everything. This is the US paperback!

You can preorder the Hazelthorn paperback at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Books-A-Million, Macmillan, Powells, or your local indie bookstore!

I’m also super excited to announce that Scorpion Deep is an Indie Next List Pick!! This also means all three of my YA horrors have been Indie Next selections and excuse me while I get a little emotional. I’m so grateful to all the booksellers hyping and supporting my horror stories!!

You can preorder from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Indigo, etc, or your favourite indie bookstores! Also add it on Goodreads here!

And don’t forget to enter the preorder campaign to get two gorgeous art prints of Jonathan and Scorpion! The US/CAN one is here and the UK one is here.

He also has THREE starred trade reviews now.

“This suspenseful story is a true page-turner with its high stakes, brilliant foreshadowing, shocking revelations, and haunting conclusion that will leave readers wanting more.” KIRKUS

“Fans of Ryan La Sala and Trang Thanh Tran will devour this lyrical, atmospheric tale filled with nautical horrors and poetic prose. A necessary purchase for teen collections.” SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

“Drews once again crafts a riveting horror novel [...] Drews’ latest is a lurid homage to the vast unknowability of the ocean, sure to enchant readers of horror.” BOOKLIST

Also very very excited to share FaeCrate is doing an edition of Scorpion Deep too! The cover art is by TropicalGloom (who also did their edition of Hazelthorn) and I’m genuinely so obsessed I can’t breathe (which tbh is apt for the book, Scorpion loves it when people drown just a lil). I also got to hand-sign every copy! FaeCrate is currently on a waitlist for this edition here.

But if you’re keen for special editions with sprayed edges there’s a Barnes & Noble exclusive and a Waterstones Exclusive and they will sell out eventually but not too fast (I don’t think).

Ok I think that’s everything 🥹 Listen I told you a lot was happening!! I’m kind of scrambling madly to keep up and also forgetting to write myself lists of things to not forget, so forgive me while I lay on the floor and decompose for a little bit.

Lastly I shall leave you with this cute graph I made.

Scorpion Deep is out in only 12 MORE DAYS.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

Also before I hurl ALL the photos at you, I need tell you exciting things that are happening this month:

• Don’t Let The Forest In US ebook is on sale right now for only $1.99 because I want to slither into your ribcage and what better month to do so!! You can grab it on Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Nook, etc. This ends October 10th so don’t sleep on this!!

• Hazelthorn UK audiobook is ALSO on sale for the entire month! It’s only £5.99 on Audible. Also Michael Crouch’s narration is stunning so you def need to get this.

• You Did Nothing Wrong B&N Exclusive is 30% off right now!! Invite me in to haunt your house go on do it!!

• There’s a Goodreads giveaway happening rn for the new Hazelthorn paperback that you can enter too.

OKAY NOW would you like to see the baby—!!

MY SON 😭😭 Can’t believe it actually. I started writing this book in 2020, it got rejected and shelved, I actually gave up on it (and moved onto writing this little book called Don’t Let The Forest In idk you may have heard of it!!) So to finally be at the part where it’s finished and about to hit shelves for anyone to buy is SURREAL. I’m so happy.

Also as per usually Feiwel & Friends WON with all the design choices. It’s absolutely freaking gorgeous. I adore the silver foiling on the spine (THE LIL TENTACLES) and the shade of blue is perfection. As with all my YA horrors, the cover art and interior art is done by Jana Heidersdorf! I’m particularly obsessed with the sea monsters in this one.

Jonathan on the back cover making good choices!!

Scorpion Deep is…

🪸YA gothic horror
🖤queer monster romance
🪸sea monsters (and baby kraken)
🖤underground drowned secret society library
🪸gloomy mouldering Maine island setting
🖤friendship angst
🪸sea rot body horror
🖤rituals gone wrong
🪸asexual protagonist
🖤eldritch sea gods
🪸 depression rep
🖤 what if u gave the horrifying sea god a little kiss on the lips

PS If you preorder do enter the preorder campaign to get two gorgeous art prints of Jonathan and Scorpion! The US/CAN one is here and the UK one is here. (My publishers are running the preorder campaigns which is why they’re limited to these countries.)

You can preorder from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Indigo, etc, or your favourite indie bookstores! Also add it on Goodreads here!

(lays down on the floor)

We are officially at 26 days to go until release. I also need to casually finish writing a whole book before it comes out so I’m going to go…do…that.

But first let me keep staring at my book because it is so freaking surreal that it is a real book and in my hands. 😭😭 So many years and so much work lead to this moment and I can’t wait for my sea rot horror to be on your shelves.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

It’s officially out on October 27th (alongside Scorpion Deep!)

Voice note #41

00:23.71

These are the kind of things I daydream about during class while staring out the window at that fathomless dark forest. If we held hands would our fingers entwined like soft green roots as if they were made for each other? Are we the same height or have you stopped growing because you’re kept away from the sun? I’d ask you what your favorite flower is because it feels ridiculous that I don’t even know.

My favorite flower is you.

I’m very excited for you to have this new paperback edition (and also I’m excited to hold my author copies when they come; gnawing at my letterbox currently).

You can preorder it at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Books-A-Million, Macmillan, Powells, or your local indie bookstore!

If anything, the plants look even more viciously alive, their petals and leaves curved toward him as if, for lack of a sun, they are fixated on the bloody beat of his heart instead.

enter the Hazelthorn giveaway here

other cool things to know

• You can get the UK ebook of Hazelthorn rn for only £0.99 but only for ONE MORE DAY.

• Scorpion Deep preorder campaign is liveeee if you want to be gifted some gorgeous art prints! Enter here if you’re US/CAN and here if you’re in the UK!

• I’m currently giving away a sprayed edge exclusive edition of Scorpion Deep on instagram, open INTL! Enter here.

• This Is How You Lie (my next gothic adult horror 👀) is going live on Netgalley very very soon. Keep your eyes peeled. Literally, figuratively idk, both maybe.

• Also it’s only 28 days until my next gothic horror SCORPION DEEP comes out. I’m kind of definitely not freaking out about it.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

The walls are closing in on her perfect new life.

Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect.

Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are ‘hurting’ the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son? Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.

A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, YOU DID NOTHING WRONG examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family.

GET YOUR COPY AT…

Waterstones, Amazon UK, Blackwells (free shipping intl), HarperCollins, Bookshop, Foyles or at your local indie bookstore.

SHE’S PRETTY. She also has spot gloss on the bloody rose and it shimmers!

When I sat down to write the first draft of You Did Nothing Wrong it looked very different. It started off as a massive 130,000 word beast with split timelines and was more of a sibling story, but it was very unwieldy and also felt like it was missing something. My agent sent me notes on it, I tried to edit the book, collapsed in a heap instead and then crawled back to my agent and whispered, “Could I just rewrite the whole thing.” So glad she said go for it because You Did Nothing Wrong as we know it now was born.

I decided to mix my obsession with houses and the stories they tell with my fascination for motherhood horror books. Which I’d been reading in copious quantities at this time. It also felt like a good chance to do a prickly little commentary on this idea of the “perfect traditional family unit”, which I, as a queer nonbinary author, have thoughts about as we can see.

And something about the story just flowed, it was oddly easy to write and I felt like I could take the brakes off and go all out unhinged with this book since it was adult. Up until now the only horror book I’d written was Don’t Let The Forest In, and so my top thought was “hmm I could be worse.”

Reader, I was so much worse lmao. This book has some dark spirals and more than a little blood spraying across the walls.

It was 2023. I wrote the new draft in just 2 months. It sold by the end of the year in the quickest deal I’d ever had (and also for the most I’d ever sold a book for at that point). Utterly. downright. SURREAL.

I adore writing about houses (god I have like four books now that significantly feature houses as a character) and I wanted to crawl through the bones of a haunted house and use it as a metaphor for a character’s internal struggles. The more you peel back layers of the rotting house, the more you peel back layers of the rotting character and all the secrets they’re keeping.

I also wanted to write a very raw and cutting critique on both the way autistic children’s needs are so often ignored or demonised but also balance it with a discussion about unsupported mothers of high needs children. As an autistic author myself, I just wanted to really pull apart the complexities of being autistic and show different angles. This is obviously a dark and twisted little horror book and that layers in bloody and creepy elements—but it’s also about the devastation of being unable to break cycles of generational trauma and of love so obsessive it corrodes everything it touches.

Elodie is meant to be a polarising narrator and I loved writing her. The entire book is told solely in her POV, which brings a claustrophobic energy to the page as we’re ensnared in her messy, unravelling, unreliable mind. As you read, you are trapped in her perspective just as she is trapped by her rapidly escalating paranoia about this horrible haunted house that she slowly begins to believe is alive. Elodie wants to be a good mother, she wants to reinvent her life and outpace her dark secrets, but she also cannot face what is haunting her. Writing morally grey women can come with a lot of judgement (“can’t connect” and “she’s so unlikeable”) but I will always gravitate towards writing imperfect characters and doing deep dives into explore their psyche on page. I don’t want my characters to be perfectly likeable, I want them to be deeply, deeply interesting.

Thank you for picking up You Did Nothing Wrong and giving my adult debut a chance. It’s different to my YA, maybe a little sharper and more prone to make you uncomfortable as you face the questions we’re not meant to answer and the inner monsters we’re not meant to release. But I’m deeply proud of this book and so pleased to lay it in your hands and ask you if you heard something whispering in the wallpaper.

Is the house alive? Is that why you can hear it breathing?

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

I am offering you a fun time of

A) kissing a lightly homicidal sea god
B) trying to feed your crush to a poisonous carnivorous garden
C) trying to renovate a sentient house that wants to eat you
D) getting a job on a gothic estate with a haunted lake and fucked up rich people

I only write nice things 🤗 letsgoooo

ps Scorpion Deep just hit 36,000 adds on Goodreads if you want to add it to-read too!! genuinely helps it’s visibility so much.

PREORDER — SCORPION DEEP

The Barnes & Noble exclusive edition is heeeere and he’s so pretty I can’t cope. It includes stunning teal stained edges, exclusive designed sea rot endpapers, and an annotated chapter (in my handwriting!).

Out October 27, 2026. Preorder the B&N Exclusive Edition here or the Standard Edition here. (Both are illustrated!)

ALSO if you’re in the US/CAN you can enter the preorder campaign here and get free art prints!

PREORDER — HAZELTHORN (new paperback)

The new US paperback edition is almost here and omg listen: it has red stencilled garden edges and bonus content of unsent love letters from Laurie to Evander. Just Laurie, yearning wretchedly for several pages.

Out October 27, 2026. Preorder it here.

PREORDER — THIS IS HOW YOU LIE

This is my next adult book!! It’s a gothic thriller x horror and it has my favourite forest rot aesthetics and an isolated, claustrophobic gothic estate and three main characters locked in a twisted F/F/M toxic triangle dynamics. If you liked You Did Nothing Wrong, this is going to be similar.

Out March 16, 2027. Preorder it here.

PREORDER — YOU DID NOTHING WRONG (new paperback)

This is the US paperback edition, coming out next year. It’s my gothic haunted house horror that is very very dark and has apparently stressed everyone out quite a lot so far which is nice!!

Out February 16, 2027. Preorder it here.

Don’t forget to use PREORDER25 at the checkout to get your 25% off from Barnes & Noble!

Thank you thank you for preordering my books. 😭 I’ve been working my guts out this year and it just means the world to me to see you all hyped for my work. Plus preorders help so much (they signal to the publisher that the book has interest and also help the chances of it being stocked in bookstores).

thankyouthankyou

Also I have lots of exciting art to share for Scorpion Deep and some cool news coming soon—!! Also only 48 days until it comes out!!

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

(I also have some other cool sale news and merch things below btw.)

Preorder your hardcover copy of SCORPION DEEP and submit your receipt right here to receive two art prints of Jonathan and Scorpion Deep, with art by LadyEruArt and AvenleyArt!

Submit your preorder receipt HERE

This preorder campaign is open to US/CAN! (More news to come for my intl friends! And also just so you know I do frequent intl art print drops to my Patreon readers if you want to hang out with me there too.)

My publishers is running this preorder campaign and all the rules/details are in the form. The US standard hardcover and the Barnes & Noble Exclusive Editions are both eligible!

You can preorder from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, or your favourite indie bookstores!

I’m absolutely obsessed with the art of my gothic rot boys and cannot wait for you to have your own prints of them.

other cool things to know

• You can get the UK ebook of Hazelthorn rn for only £0.99 which is a real steal. You could get bitten by Evander and his thorny gardens for cheap!

• You Did Nothing Wrong is still 50% off on Barnes & Noble WHICH IS WILD REALLY.

• 36,000 people have added it on Goodreads 🥹🥹🥹 I’m so so honoured.

• LitPins & Co are doing officially licensed MERCH of my books (this is surreal?!) so if you’d like to check out their collection it’s right here! They’re doing prints, stickers, washi tape, socks, tote bags and more so go seeeeee.

Scorpion Deep is my YA gothic horror about a boy who awakens an obsessive eldritch sea god who falls terrifyingly in love with him. It’s a disturbing and intoxicating siren tale of ocean rot, coming October 27, 2026.

54 days to go !!

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

A dark, intoxicating and deeply unsettling queer YA horror about a lonely boy and a sinister sea god risen from the deep, from the New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Let the Forest In and Hazelthorn. Perfect for fans of Frances Hardinge.

The only thing Jonathan wants from the mouldering isle of Kelcarrow is to escape. Summer is ending, and when his friends leave for college on the mainland, Jonathan will be alone with nothing but the ocean’s haunts.
In an act of wild desperation, Jonathan pays a tithe to Scorpion Deep – an eldritch sea god – and, to his horror, awakens him from the murky depths. As scales grow down his spine and Scorpion Deep’s obsession darkens, Jonathan realises the only way to end the nightmare is to destroy the monster.
But the price must be paid in blood.

Preorder the Waterstones Exclusive Edition here!

You can also preorder from Hachette UK, Waterstones, Blackwells, Foyles, Bookshop, Amazon UK, or your local indie bookstore!

If you’re a book reviewer or bookseller, you can request an ARC through Netgalley here.

Scorpion Deep is a standalone but if you’re keen to catch up on Don’t Let The Forest In and Hazelthorn, they’re actually on Kindle Unlimited in the UK too! And PS don’t forget You Did Nothing Wrong hits shelves in the UK on September 10th.

🌟 “Fans of Ryan La Sala and Trang Thanh Tran will devour this lyrical, atmospheric tale filled with nautical horrors and poetic prose. A necessary purchase for teen collections.”

School Library Journal STARRED review

So so stoked for my first UK bookstore exclusive!!

ONLY 2 MONTHS TO GO

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

Art and animation are done by @endymion_wii and you can also watch the trailer on my instagram here!

Literally obsessed with how spooky yet beautiful it is. This book is going to crawl out from under your bed at this rate.

Out now in the US and coming September 10th in the UK/ANZ!

preorder the UK edition at Waterstones or Amazon UK

Be sure to grab a copy of the B&N exclusive edition while it’s only $14.50!!

This edition features a unique cover, limited-edition sprayed edges, and an exclusive look at an alternate chapter by Jude’s POV.

I’ve been seeing a lot of love for YDNW lately and also people whispering “wtf” at me so am just here to say this is all beautiful and I am grateful.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

Use the code SUMMER26 to get the 25% off.

SCORPION DEEP (preorder here) is about a boy who awakens an eldritch sea god who becomes horribly obsessed with him. it’s YA gothic horror and ocean rot and there is a baby kraken. Out October 29.

YOU DID NOTHING WRONG (preorder here) is my adult gothic haunted house horror where the house might want to eat you and im so glad it’s finally coming out in the UK!! She is unhinged and lovely. Out September 10.

You should read Scorpion Deep if you like…

🪸 YA gothic horror
🖤 queer monstrous romance
🪸 sea monsters (and baby kraken)
🖤 underground drowned library
🪸 gloomy island setting
🖤 friendship angst
🪸 sea rot body horror
🖤 dark rituals gone wrong
🪸 asexual biromantic protagonist
🖤 eldritch sea gods

preorder at Waterstones here

sale ends on the 24th!

97 days to go until Scorpion Deep i’m freaking stoked it’s finally getting closer

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

Also in more news of me being nice, I have made some shitposting textpost memes (as is my true life skillset) and I think you’ll love them.

Ebook $2.99 sale today (July 17) only!!

Grab your copy at…

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Macmillan, Bookshop.org, Kobo, and Apple Books.

See here for content warnings (spoilers apply) and read more about it on my website.

I may write simply horrible twisted little gothic books but I will also shitpost about them lovingly to my heart’s content. ☺️

Thank you so much to everyone grabbing a copy of the ebook while it’s on sale! It’s incredibly appreciated.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

I’m also about to torment you across the seas with my adult haunted house horror YOU DID NOTHING WRONG. It has a slightly new cover too. Ready to see it?

Very excited to be working with Charlotte Trumble and the teams at HarperVoyager and Magpie!! I’m always really really happy if my books get picked up in the UK because it means a chance of me seeing them in bookstores here in Australia too. 🥹🙏 The announcement is live on The Bookseller here. I’ve also shared the whole article on my Patreon and Instagram.

Here is the UK paperback edition of YOU DID NOTHING WRONG! Could not be more thrilled. She’s stunningggg.

Ebook and audiobook out July 2nd.
Paperback out September 10th.

Preorder it at…

Waterstones, Amazon UK, Blackwells (free shipping intl), HarperCollins, Bookshop, Foyles or at your local indie bookstore.

A relentless and disturbing haunted house horror for fans of PLAY NICE and WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS, by No. 1 New York Times bestselling author CG Drews.

The walls are closing in on her perfect new life.
Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect.
Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are ‘hurting’ the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it-something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son? Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.
A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, YOU DID NOTHING WRONG examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family.

Bren & Elodie art by Akkito_

Okay so much exciting news I’m 🥹😭 definitely overwhelmed with gratefulness right now. Cannot wait to share more about Glass Monsters with you and I’m also working on another secret project that I might be able to talk about soon. (You’re going to freak out. I’m freaking out.)

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

GOTHIC HORROR ERA LETSGO.

(ps there’s currently a goodreads giveaway happening for Scorpion Deep if you want to enter that too.)

PREORDER — SCORPION DEEP

The Barnes & Noble exclusive edition is heeeere and he’s so pretty I can’t cope. It includes stunning teal stained edges, exclusive designed sea rot endpapers, and an annotated chapter (in my handwriting!).

Out October 27, 2026. Preorder the B&N Exclusive Edition here or the Standard Edition here. (Both are illustrated!)

PREORDER — HAZELTHORN (new paperback)

The new US paperback edition is almost here and omg listen: it has red stencilled garden edges and bonus content of unsent love letters from Laurie to Evander. Just Laurie, yearning wretchedly for several pages.

Out October 27, 2026. Preorder it here.

PREORDER — THIS IS HOW YOU LIE

This is my next adult book!! It’s a gothic thriller x horror and it has my favourite forest rot aesthetics and an isolated, claustrophobic gothic estate and three main characters locked in a twisted FFM toxic triangle dynamics. If you liked You Did Nothing Wrong, this is going to be similar.

Out March 16, 2027. Preorder it here.

PREORDER — YOU DID NOTHING WRONG (new paperback)

This is the US paperback edition, coming out next year. It’s my gothic haunted house horror that is very very dark and has apparently stressed everyone out quite a lot so far! 10/10 I’m very pleased!

Out February 16, 2027. Preorder it here.

Don’t forget to use PREORDER25 at the checkout to get your 25% off from Barnes & Noble!

— Scorpion Deep, canon scene

I’m so so freaking grateful to anyone preordering my books. Genuinely means a lot to me and is so important for a book’s future (helps signal to publishers and retailers that they need to stock this book and it’s anticipated) so 🥹🙏 thankyou thankyou for preordering and supporting me.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

A dark, intoxicating and deeply unsettling queer YA horror about a lonely boy and a sinister sea god risen from the deep, from the New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Let the Forest In and Hazelthorn. Perfect for fans of Frances Hardinge.

The only thing Jonathan wants from the mouldering isle of Kelcarrow is to escape. Summer is ending, and when his friends leave for college on the mainland, Jonathan will be alone with nothing but the ocean’s haunts.
In an act of wild desperation, Jonathan pays a tithe to Scorpion Deep – an eldritch sea god – and, to his horror, awakens him from the murky depths. As scales grow down his spine and Scorpion Deep’s obsession darkens, Jonathan realises the only way to end the nightmare is to destroy the monster.
But the price must be paid in blood.

Preorder the UK paperback at Hachette UK, Waterstones, Blackwells, Foyles, Bookshop, Amazon UK, or your local indie bookstore!

The ocean is more familiar than his own heartbeat and twice as true, and it soothes Jonathan in a way nothing else does. The fact it will one day drown him and pack him down among reefs, take out his eyes with salted fingers and make a shipwreck of his bones only makes him love it more.
It’s madness to love the sea, but at least it loves him back.

Also here’s just a little look at all my UK covers together!! Super cute. I love how they are gradually just having a worse and worse time with less eyes.

Also I am currently rotting away under too many things to do while fighting my deepest desires (to lie down and nap) so am just going to hurl a few updates at you before I head back to editing.

• the UK edition will be going up on Netgalley very soon!! Will let you know when it’s available for requests.

• Goodreads giveaway is happening right now for Scorpion Deep (this is US only)

• You Did Nothing Wrong is currently 49% off on Amazon US which is a steal quite frankly.

• Also did you know Don’t Let The Forest In and Hazelthorn are on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon UK? Because they are and it’s very nice.

• LitPins Special Edition for Scorpion Deep is selling out very fast. All the signed editions are gone but there’s some unsigned ones left if you’re keen.

• I got a very cool trade review for Scorpion too so I’m super excited to share that when I can 🥹 and I also got more fun just internal/industry news for it which is encouraging. Don’t Let The Forest In and Hazelthorn both had pretty big boosts from being B&N book club picks or being in the Book Of The Month box, and Scorpion Deep doesn’t have anything like that this time, but lots of you are preordering and I’m really hopeful that this book is going to hit right and find its people. I freaking adore this book.

Hope you like the UK edition too and I’m excited for readers to have it.

139 days to go until the sea gets us.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

SCORPION DEEP ARCS ARE IN.

Also I need you to appreciate the baby kraken on the spine because that has literally made my life. And like all my YA horrors, this one is illustrated as well with pages from the sea encyclopedia!! All the art is by Jana Heidersdorf and, as always, I’m freaking OBSESSED. It is unreal to be able to make up horrible little monsters and then watch them be brought to life.

Also gives me so much happiness seeing the “also by CG Drews” page. 😭😭😭

Anyway, big fan of my little ocean horror. This is also a slight conclusion to my botanical/eco-horror trio, which I just realised I have some feelings about. 🥹 My next YA isn’t botanical or gothic, so it’s a slight detour from this vibe, but maybe my fifth one will be back to rotting down with the roots and moss. We shall see what mood strikes. Right now I’m just immensely pleased to have three books in conversation with each other, about monsters and identity and folklore and ruinous love. Don’t Let The Forest In, Hazelthorn, and Scorpion Deep are all standalones but all definitely connected in my heart.

I think Scorpion Deep is maybe one of my most raw books. It’s bloody and heartbreaking and so intrinsically about feeling lost and being loved at your worst. Put my heart in this one.

The monster’s eyes meet his across the room and they churn with the furious pleasure of a thousand remorseless sea storms. The ocean has never felt sorry for a kill. It is the risk you take, playing with ancient fates on indigo waves.

Scorpion Deep is a YA gothic horror about a boy who awakens an obsessive eldritch sea god who falls terrifyingly in love with him. It’s a disturbing and intoxicating siren tale of ocean rot, coming October 27, 2026.

You can request an eARC on Netgalley too and requests for physical ARCs need to be directed at my publisher (Feiwel & Friends or FierceReads on instagram). I’m also currently giving away an ARC here on Patreon!! I’ll definitely do more giveaways leading up to release too.

OCTOBER 27TH, COME FASTER.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

I also have special edition news for Don’t Let The Forest In and Hazelthorn so read on if you want to eat pretty books whole!!

Preorder the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition here!

It will have bonus content of an annotated chapter (done by hand by me!), these gorgeous dark teal sprayed edges, and absolutely stunning exclusive endpapers. This edition is only available at Barnes & Noble and there is a limited print run so once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

Scorpion Deep is a YA gothic horromance about a boy who awakens an obsessive eldritch sea god who falls terrifyingly in love with him. It’s a disturbing and intoxicating siren tale of ocean rot, coming October 27, 2026.

see the B&N Exclusive Edition

You can also add it on Goodreads!! And you can preorder the standard hardcover edition at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Blackwells, Waterstones.

There is currently a Goodreads giveaway running so if you haven’t entered that, please do! And you can request an eARC to read/review over on Netgalley.

I’m also super excited to announce the LitPins Collector Editions for Don’t Let The Forest In and Hazelthorn are back in stock!

Super thrilled to be collaborating with LitPins & Co on these incredible editions. They’re also doing Scorpion Deep too and all three covers will match and compliment each other. Also must warn they keep selling out really fast and this is the last restock they’ll be doing. They’re UK based and ship internationally!

Don’t Let The Forest In & Hazelthorn come as a set and there are unsigned editions left. Find them here.

Scorpion Deep is available solo as both signed and unsigned editions. Find them here.

Dust jacket art by @avenleyart⁠ and endpapers by @912moose15⁠ and edges by @buttercup_grove. The art is EVERYTHING. Scorpion Deep will have the same artists plus @ladyeruart and I cannot wait to hold them.

LitPins is also doing merch which is SO VERY COOL. So far the art prints have gone live, but there is more to come too! You can find all the merch here.

Okay that’s all my special edition news for now!

I will tease that there’s another Scorpion Deep special edition in the works but I can’t say anymore than that for now! And B&N exclusive editions of Hazelthorn and You Did Nothing Wrong are still available.

I’m also dropping a big announcement very soon 🤭 I’m kind of a nest of secrets at the moment heh. Also currently drafting a new YA horror and it’s slow going so far but it is going.

Thank you for being excited with me. Literally fills my heart that I am this lucky to have these cool editions and so grateful to you for wanting them!!

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

Introducing…This Is How You Lie.

A claustrophobic and relentless gothic thriller that’s like The Haunting of Bly Manor meets The Housemaid, about a nanny who starts work at an isolated gothic estate and realises if she wants to protect the lady of the house then she needs to get rid of her darkly ruthless husband.

Haunted lake.
Forest rot.
Twisted toxic trio.
Queer gothic.
Someone is lying to you.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Housemaid meets The Haunting of Bly Manor in this relentless and claustrophobic gothic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author CG Drews of Don’t Let The Forest in, Hazelthorn, and You Did Nothing Wrong.

When Wren Ott takes a job as a nanny to a one-year old baby boy, she’s practically desperate. She’ll do anything to avoid being homeless again. Anything to hide from her marriage that went south and the husband that still haunts her. The excellent salary and luxurious home are just a bonus.

Cadence Cresswell seems disconnected and lost in the massive, isolated Cresswell Mansion. She has little interest in the baby. Her mood swings are terrible. And her husband, the ruthless Lucien Cresswell, is only home when it suits him.

But Lucien is playing a dangerous game, and Wren is onto him. Now it’s up to Wren to protect the lady of the house and her young charge, before Lucien’s actions push them past the brink of their sanity.

Or at least that’s what you’ll think.

Add it on Goodreads, and preorder it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Target, Blackwells, and more to come! Coming March 16, 2027.

This cover is SO ME, I’m truly obsessed. I have again won thanks to the cover gods—or more accurately, I have been incredibly lucky to work with my fantastic publishing team at St Martins Press and massive thanks to Ervin Serrano for designing the cover!!

This Is How You Lie is another standalone, but it will fit nicely next to You Did Nothing Wrong on your shelves and in your the little nook I’ve carved out of your heart so I can nest all my rotten books there.

They look so good together!!

I’m so, so excited for this book. It comes out March 16, 2027.

I hope you like the cover and can’t wait to tell you more about my new gothic thriller as I finish up edits. Thank you to everyone supporting my books so I get to keep tormenting you with new horrible little stories. 😌☺️

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

Get you a boyfriend by dredging him up from the depths of the ocean ok.

Go here to enter the Goodreads giveaway. There are 50 ARCs to be won!!

You can also request an eARC for review on Netgalley here.

Scorpion Deep is a YA gothic horromance about a boy who awakens an obsessive eldritch sea god who falls terrifyingly in love with him. It’s a disturbing and intoxicating siren tale of ocean rot, coming October 27, 2026.

You can also add it on Goodreads!! And ofc preorders are the best thing for a book and help it’s future chances so much. So if you’d like to preorder you can find it at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Blackwells, Waterstones.

“Why would I deign to answer any of your pathetic questions?” He bares those needle-sharp teeth. “Do you not know what I am?”

Jonathan lets the pause stretch. “Cranky?”

“A god!” Scorpion snaps. “I am a god! Of the sea!

Don’t forget to enter the Goodreads Giveaway here!

Actually freaking WILD that it already has 9,000 adds on goodreads and over 100+ early reviews. You are all the best. I’m so glad you are excited for this and thank you to everyone preordering!!

Also not to tease too loudly…but I will be dropping a big reveal for my next adult horror on the weekend. We’re talking title, blurb…AND COVER. I’m so freaking excited for you to see it and know what I’ve been writing like a wild thing since December.

Will leave you with these as a teaser for it: gothic thriller. creepy lake. F/F/M love triangle. isolated estate. someone is lying to you.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.

Scorpion Deep is set on the mouldering, gloomy island of Kelcarrow and follows Jonathan Covey who wakes an obsessive sea god who maybe loves him a little too ravenously. It’s horromance meets gothic decay and sea rot body horror and I’m deeply obsessed with my newest dark little book.

If you’re a book reviewer and you’d like a chance to read it early, it’s now on Netgalley and Edelweiss for request!

Also extremely surreal that it’s already #1 Most Requested in both the Teens & YA and also the Horror categories. WILD.

(It’s not yet on Netgalley UK but it will be coming soon and physical ARCs will be available in the future too but aren’t ready yet. Also have to note that I’m not in charge of approvals or anything, my publisher is taking care of that!)

ABOUT THE BOOK

CG Drews, New York Times-bestselling author of Don’t Let the Forest In and Hazelthorn, weaves a disturbing and intoxicating siren-call in Scorpion Deep, about a lonely boy who accidentally awakens an obsessive eldritch sea god.

The only thing Jonathan Covey wants from the gloomy, moldering isle of Kelcarrow is to leave it. Summer is ending, and his friends are looking forward to college on the mainland, unaware that Jonathan was not accepted to join them. He’ll be left behind with nothing but the ocean’s haunts and a rising dread of being abandoned.

In an act of wild desperation, Jonathan pays a tithe to Scorpion Deep, an eldritch sea god who many of the locals have dismissed as myth. He wants to forget the past, he wants to follow his friends, and most of all he wants to finally escape.

To his shock and horror, the ritual works—Scorpion Deep awakens. And despite his terror, Jonathan can’t help but feel drawn toward the ageless entity that seems just as mutually obsessed with him. As scales start growing down his spine and Scorpion Deep’s adoration of him turns bloody, Jonathan realizes the only way to end the nightmare is to destroy the monster one way or another.

But once a god has awoken, the only way to be free is to pay a price of blood.

You can also add it on Goodreads!! And ofc preorders are the best thing for a book and help it’s future chances so much. So if you’d like to preorder you can find it at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop, Macmillan, Books-A-Million, Blackwells, Waterstones.

Super stoked right now and so so grateful for all your hype!! It has been pretty wild to have my debut adult horror, You Did Nothing Wrong, come out only 1 week ago and now suddenly Scorpion Deep is being read too. Feels a little bit like sprinting through the trees for my life but you know!! I’m simultaneously excited and scared.

I’m on 700 deadlines right now so I guess I’ll go workkkk.

Find me: instagram, twitter, threads, tiktok, patreon, website

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! My DMs are always open on instagram and my email is on my website.