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This Is How You Lie
Not yet published
Expected 16 Mar 27
The Housemaid meets The Haunting of Bly Manor in this relentless and claustrophobic gothic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author CG Drews.
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.
CG Drews’s Books
“VISCERAL, HAUNTING, AND BLISTERINGLY RAW.” - #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR AVA REID
“UNFLINCHINGLY DISTURBING.” – BESTSELLING AUTHOR JENNIFER THORNE
“CG DREWS WRITES MONSTERS LIKE NO OTHER.” – Dawn Kurtagich
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.
CG Drews’s Books
“VISCERAL, HAUNTING, AND BLISTERINGLY RAW.” - #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR AVA REID
“UNFLINCHINGLY DISTURBING.” – BESTSELLING AUTHOR JENNIFER THORNE
“CG DREWS WRITES MONSTERS LIKE NO OTHER.” – Dawn Kurtagich
336 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication March 16, 2027
About the author
C.G. Drews
14 books28.1k followersCG Drews is the award-winning NYT Bestselling author of Don’t Let The Forest In, Hazelthorn, and You Did Nothing Wrong. Their work has been translated into over 12 languages, was nominated for the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal, and won the B&N 2025 YA Book Awards, and are also Indie Next Picks and Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections. CG lives in Australia under a pile of unread books. Find on Instagram as @paperfury and TikTok as @cgdrews or at cgdrews.com.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Author
Hello! I am the author of THIS IS HOW YOU LIE. If you'd like a list of content warnings please see my website here.
isolated gothic estate
toxic love triangle with F/F and M/F (not poly)
haunted lake
forest rot aesthetic
psychological thriller/horror
The Haunting of Bly Manor x The Housemaid
isolated gothic estate
toxic love triangle with F/F and M/F (not poly)
haunted lake
forest rot aesthetic
psychological thriller/horror
The Haunting of Bly Manor x The Housemaid
Want to Read
August 10, 2026EXCUSE ME EXCUES ME I'M THE FIRST REVIEW?!?!?! DREWS IS WRITING ANOTHER BOOK?!?!?! WHATHAWHATHWTWHATHHWTHAWT ALREADY?!
*deep breath*
okay lets read this bitch
*deep breath*
okay lets read this bitch
Want to Read
October 1, 2026Andrea at St. Martin’s Press… you sweet, sweet angel baby that blessed me with a widget for this. I pray your coffee is always hot, your pillow is always cold, you never get sick, your money stays stacked, & your socks always match!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
CG Drews is a master of horror in this beautifully wretched fairytale.
“The lake is haunting her.”
Wren Ott is hired as a live-in nanny at the magnificent Cresswell House. The mansion is smothered in darkness and secrets occupy every room, surrounded by a gloomy forest and a glass lake. And Wren is hiding, haunted by her husband and a broken marriage.
“she has lost pieces of herself in the greenhouse of his rib cage, and she will never get them back”
This Is How You Lie is visceral as the story unspools. I never knew what was going to happen next or how this tale would end. I had so many theories and none of them correct. Certain parts found me reading through my fingers, the descriptive body horror making me deliciously uncomfortable.
CG Drews is an auto-buy author for me. Their prose and vivid storytelling is unmatched from the very first sentence to the mind reeling end. And though I sped through the book, I savoured every word.
“In the stories, there is only one thing to be done about monsters.”
Thank you to CG Drews for sending me this eARC and to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley!!
“The lake is haunting her.”
Wren Ott is hired as a live-in nanny at the magnificent Cresswell House. The mansion is smothered in darkness and secrets occupy every room, surrounded by a gloomy forest and a glass lake. And Wren is hiding, haunted by her husband and a broken marriage.
“she has lost pieces of herself in the greenhouse of his rib cage, and she will never get them back”
This Is How You Lie is visceral as the story unspools. I never knew what was going to happen next or how this tale would end. I had so many theories and none of them correct. Certain parts found me reading through my fingers, the descriptive body horror making me deliciously uncomfortable.
CG Drews is an auto-buy author for me. Their prose and vivid storytelling is unmatched from the very first sentence to the mind reeling end. And though I sped through the book, I savoured every word.
“In the stories, there is only one thing to be done about monsters.”
Thank you to CG Drews for sending me this eARC and to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley!!
October 3, 2026
✨Another CG Drews masterpiece!✨
Immediately as soon as I saw This is How You Lie announced I knew that I had to read it! I’m a huge fan of CG Drews books and this one is another favorite for me! I DEVOURED IT!!!
As usual with this authors writing style and descriptions, I was drawn in right away!!! I am so in love with the authors writing style!!! I can’t tell you how much it speaks to my gothic heart!! 🥹🖤 I don’t want to say much about the plot, just go into this one as blind as possible and enjoy!!
I was feeling the decay, the rot, and the dread from chapter 1. The writing is on point, the atmosphere is on point, the twists are on point… oh trust me the twists were TWISTING… I had no idea where anything was going!! I mean everything is absolute perfection! 👏 👩🍳 💋
Another incredible read solidifying (even more so) Drews’s spot as a TOP favorite author for me!!
Tropes:
⭐️Adult gothic horror/thriller
⭐️Forest rot
⭐️Haunted lake
⭐️F/F/M toxic love triangle
⭐️Nanny at a creepy isolated gothic estate
⭐️Unhinged spiraling
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is expected to be released March 16, 2027.
Immediately as soon as I saw This is How You Lie announced I knew that I had to read it! I’m a huge fan of CG Drews books and this one is another favorite for me! I DEVOURED IT!!!
As usual with this authors writing style and descriptions, I was drawn in right away!!! I am so in love with the authors writing style!!! I can’t tell you how much it speaks to my gothic heart!! 🥹🖤 I don’t want to say much about the plot, just go into this one as blind as possible and enjoy!!
I was feeling the decay, the rot, and the dread from chapter 1. The writing is on point, the atmosphere is on point, the twists are on point… oh trust me the twists were TWISTING… I had no idea where anything was going!! I mean everything is absolute perfection! 👏 👩🍳 💋
Another incredible read solidifying (even more so) Drews’s spot as a TOP favorite author for me!!
Tropes:
⭐️Adult gothic horror/thriller
⭐️Forest rot
⭐️Haunted lake
⭐️F/F/M toxic love triangle
⭐️Nanny at a creepy isolated gothic estate
⭐️Unhinged spiraling
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is expected to be released March 16, 2027.
Want to Read
August 20, 2026You had me at the Haunting of Bly manor.
October 2, 2026
ahhh I absolutely loved this book! cg drew is an auto buy author for me & when I got arc, I squealed.
this was so twisty, and creepy. I loooved haunting of bly manor, and this book had the almost exact vibe.
this was so twisty, and creepy. I loooved haunting of bly manor, and this book had the almost exact vibe.
September 24, 2026
Okay, this book had me questioning EVERYTHING. 👀
What starts out as Wren taking a nanny job to escape her own messy past quickly turns into something so much darker. The isolated mansion, the secrets, the strange behavior, the ghosts of their pasts… I was suspicious of literally everyone.
And then the twists started coming. 😳 Just when I thought I had figured out what was really happening, the story would flip everything on its head and make me question what I had just read.
I especially loved how each character is forced to deal with their own ghosts and the things they’ve been running from. Nobody is walking into that house without baggage, and those pasts end up colliding in some seriously messed-up ways.
The whole “two sides to the same story” aspect was SO good because hearing what happened from one person’s perspective doesn’t necessarily mean you’re hearing the truth. The same events can look completely different depending on who is telling them, and I was constantly trying to piece together what was actually happening.
What starts out as Wren taking a nanny job to escape her own messy past quickly turns into something so much darker. The isolated mansion, the secrets, the strange behavior, the ghosts of their pasts… I was suspicious of literally everyone.
And then the twists started coming. 😳 Just when I thought I had figured out what was really happening, the story would flip everything on its head and make me question what I had just read.
I especially loved how each character is forced to deal with their own ghosts and the things they’ve been running from. Nobody is walking into that house without baggage, and those pasts end up colliding in some seriously messed-up ways.
The whole “two sides to the same story” aspect was SO good because hearing what happened from one person’s perspective doesn’t necessarily mean you’re hearing the truth. The same events can look completely different depending on who is telling them, and I was constantly trying to piece together what was actually happening.
September 12, 2026
I had the absolute pleasure of getting to read this book ahead of time thanks to CG Drews themself, which I'm eternally grateful for.
This Is How You Lie had me on tenterhooks the entire time that I was running my fingers through its bloodied pages and devouring the gorgeous and evocative prose. As someone who struggles with aphantasia, I'm always so deeply appreciative of the care that Drews takes to provide lush descriptions that really help me to envision what is happening and where, and this novel didn't disappoint in that. On top of that, I found all of the characters to be fascinating, and I greatly enjoyed the lens this novel held up to the ideas of trauma and nurture, and the way these things impact lives with the thorns they embeds within someone.
As with the author's other work, expect complex characters, the gothic, and some excellent twists and turns along the way. This was a brilliant book, and I cannot wait for it to release so I can talk about it with others!
This Is How You Lie had me on tenterhooks the entire time that I was running my fingers through its bloodied pages and devouring the gorgeous and evocative prose. As someone who struggles with aphantasia, I'm always so deeply appreciative of the care that Drews takes to provide lush descriptions that really help me to envision what is happening and where, and this novel didn't disappoint in that. On top of that, I found all of the characters to be fascinating, and I greatly enjoyed the lens this novel held up to the ideas of trauma and nurture, and the way these things impact lives with the thorns they embeds within someone.
As with the author's other work, expect complex characters, the gothic, and some excellent twists and turns along the way. This was a brilliant book, and I cannot wait for it to release so I can talk about it with others!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I was elated to be offered an advance copy of a new book by one of my absolute favorite authors.
I've said in another review that Drews excels at writing soft, damaged children who just want to be seen, loved, and accepted for the scared and confused creatures they are - teeth, claws, scars, and all" and I'm so excited to see them explore the other side of that coin - the vicious, macabre fae-like creatures who feed on that exact vulnerability.
This is How You Lie was such an intense and chilling exploration of the different ways we mistreat and misuse each other in the name of love, as well as the varied, sometimes unexpected, forms that addiction and toxicity can take.
While the character profiles differed quite a bit from previous books, our main characters still possess that multifaceted quality that left me struggling to know who to root for. Drews knows how to tease out some portion of every dark piece of the human soul, and I so look forward to what's next.
Thank you so much for the opportunity, it's always a joy.
I've said in another review that Drews excels at writing soft, damaged children who just want to be seen, loved, and accepted for the scared and confused creatures they are - teeth, claws, scars, and all" and I'm so excited to see them explore the other side of that coin - the vicious, macabre fae-like creatures who feed on that exact vulnerability.
This is How You Lie was such an intense and chilling exploration of the different ways we mistreat and misuse each other in the name of love, as well as the varied, sometimes unexpected, forms that addiction and toxicity can take.
While the character profiles differed quite a bit from previous books, our main characters still possess that multifaceted quality that left me struggling to know who to root for. Drews knows how to tease out some portion of every dark piece of the human soul, and I so look forward to what's next.
Thank you so much for the opportunity, it's always a joy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book has everything I want in a dark read. It’s unsettling and beautifully written with consistent pacing and enough gore to make me stop reading while eating.
This story starts out strong and just keeps going. The tension builds organically, a steady drip of dread that never feels like it’s stalling just to keep me guessing.
Then halfway through, the timeline and POV shift, and I was completely sold. It’s such an original way to tell this story, giving you an entirely different lens without losing the atmosphere or momentum.
There are characters here I hated to love and loved to hate, and a story that manages to be both poetic and deeply disturbing.
I’m definitely picking up more books by Drew.
Grateful to NetGalley for the ARC and for their ongoing courage in letting The Hateful Reader judge things. Thank you to St. Martins Press for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Pub date: Mar 16 2027
This story starts out strong and just keeps going. The tension builds organically, a steady drip of dread that never feels like it’s stalling just to keep me guessing.
Then halfway through, the timeline and POV shift, and I was completely sold. It’s such an original way to tell this story, giving you an entirely different lens without losing the atmosphere or momentum.
There are characters here I hated to love and loved to hate, and a story that manages to be both poetic and deeply disturbing.
I’m definitely picking up more books by Drew.
Grateful to NetGalley for the ARC and for their ongoing courage in letting The Hateful Reader judge things. Thank you to St. Martins Press for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Pub date: Mar 16 2027
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC. This is my honest review.
“She was used to cutting her teeth on boys and leaving bloody bruises shaped like a heart. Boys enjoyed that sort of thing. And she enjoyed her boys a little broken.”
This is my third CG Drews book and my second to ARC read and let me just say I’m a fan. Their use of descriptive writing entrances me every time. The world and the characters come to life through vivid imagery. The twists, the way you will question what you think is happening and the intention of each character and the way a person can be guilty and a victim at the same time. I love how the author keeps me on my toes and thinking right up to the very end.
“She was used to cutting her teeth on boys and leaving bloody bruises shaped like a heart. Boys enjoyed that sort of thing. And she enjoyed her boys a little broken.”
This is my third CG Drews book and my second to ARC read and let me just say I’m a fan. Their use of descriptive writing entrances me every time. The world and the characters come to life through vivid imagery. The twists, the way you will question what you think is happening and the intention of each character and the way a person can be guilty and a victim at the same time. I love how the author keeps me on my toes and thinking right up to the very end.
September 30, 2026
First and foremost thank you to the fine folks who made this ARC happen for me. I’ll be talking about it nonstop until March. Now on to the heart (lol) of things:
WHAT A TIME goodness gracious great balls of fire.
What is there to say other than that without spoilers? It’s so intensely atmospheric that it’s easy to forget these idiots are all like 21-25 and it is full on modern day.
I’m obsessed. Ilysm CG Drews 🫶
WHAT A TIME goodness gracious great balls of fire.
What is there to say other than that without spoilers? It’s so intensely atmospheric that it’s easy to forget these idiots are all like 21-25 and it is full on modern day.
I’m obsessed. Ilysm CG Drews 🫶
October 3, 2026
Wow. My first book by C.G. Drews and definitely won’t be my last. I actually have no other words for this review.
I’ve been thinking that this reminds me a lot of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which I haven’t stopped thinking about since I read it over 15 years ago. I suspect it’ll be the same for this one.
Thank you NetGalley and Saint Martin’s press for the ARC.
I’ve been thinking that this reminds me a lot of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which I haven’t stopped thinking about since I read it over 15 years ago. I suspect it’ll be the same for this one.
Thank you NetGalley and Saint Martin’s press for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is my second book by this author and it did not disappoint! I love the writing style and the imagery is so vivid I felt like I was inside the House with them. The whole book was creepy start to finish and I love me a morally gray character and this had plenty to choose from!
Want to Read
August 22, 2026ANOTHER ONEEEE WE ARE GETTING F E D
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews