THE FOREST DEMANDS ITS DUE By Kosoko Jackson

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Forest Demands Its Due by Kosoko Jackson
Published by Quill Tree Books on 10/3/23
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Horror & Ghost Stories, LGBT, Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 426
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Regent Academy has a long and storied history in Winslow, Vermont, as does the forest that surrounds it. The school is known for molding teens into leaders, but its history is far more nefarious.

Seventeen-year-old Douglas Jones wants nothing to do with Regent's king-making; he’s just trying to survive. But then a student is murdered and, for some reason, by the next day no one remembers him having ever existed, except for Douglas and the groundskeeper's son, Everett Everley. In his determination to uncover the truth, Douglas awakens a horror hidden within the forest, unearthing secrets that have been buried for centuries. A vengeful creature wants blood as payment for a debt more than 300 years in the making—or it will swallow all of Winslow in darkness.

And for the first time in his life, Douglas might have a chance to grasp the one thing he’s always felt was missing: power. But if he’s not careful, he will find out that power has a tendency to corrupt absolutely everything.

A

Short and Sweet Review

Douglas attends Regent Academy, which is known for making its students into leaders. There’s also a forrest around the campus and Douglas can hear the forest talking to him. Douglas is just trying to make it through school, but one day a student is murdered and no one else seems to remember who that student was except for Douglas and the groundkeepers son, Everett. Douglas is determined to find out what’s going on around the school and the forest and he gets more than he bargained for.

The beginning of the book really pulls you in and makes you curious and eager to learn more about the forest and what’s going on with the student that was just murdered. Douglas is our main character and he has a bit of a reputation because of something that happened in the past, he didn’t have many friends and its also hard to be the only black student at the school. Douglas ends up going to the headmaster who informs him that he knows all about the forest and students being murdered and its because of a curse, and Everett and his mom and sister are like the protectors of the border. Anyway Douglas is dragged into all of the magical things going on and learns that things called perversions are escaping the forest and killing students. When students are killed no one on campus remembers that they even existed. Through this journey Everett and Douglas become closer and we see a romance form. The romance was okay I wasn’t invested in it, it felt like because they were both in this position to save the school that they gravitated towards each other. Douglas was tasked with breaking the curse on the school and we see him, Everett, and Emma go into the forest and deal with all the creepy things that are in there. I feel like in the middle of the book the pacing was a bit off. The ending was okay but also bittersweet.

Overall, the book was okay but it wasn’t anything I was wowed by. I’m not sure what I wasn’t vibing with while reading this book but the main thing was the pacing. There were some good moments with action and all the questions were answered so there’s that.