"The Van Laars were meticulous about anyone they brought into their life, and ruthless about those they excised."

I'll never forget reading Long, Bright River for the first time and the way that it made me feel. As an older sister, the story echoed inside of me in a truly profound way. I wondered then if I loved the book so much because I could relate to it or if it was because Moore is just that talented of a writer. After reading The God of the Woods, I now know it's more of the latter.

There is very little I want to say about this book because I think it is truly enjoyed best when you go in completely blind but what I will say is that it is more than just the mystery that the entirety of the story is wrapped around. It is a study on social class, feminism, gender roles, our relationship with nature as a society, motherhood, and so much more.

I walked away from this story truly breathless, endlessly impressed, and with a new favorite book added to my shelf. I am calling it now; this will be my favorite book of 2024.

Thank you to Penguin Group & NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Penguin Group Riverhead, for an ARC of this book.

The God of the Woods showcases what Liz Moore does best- creating multi-faceted, distinct characters. I really enjoyed this novel as much as I’ve enjoyed Moore’s previous ones. If you haven’t already, check out Long Bright River. The only real drawback for me was the time jumps between (and sometimes within) chapters. This produced a disjointed, often confusing, narrative. It probably didn’t help that I had to start and stop at random intervals (first time mom life is hard, ya’ll!)

Camp Emerson is a summer camp primarily attended by elite friends of the wealthy Van Laars, who own the camp and spend the summer in a massive mansion on the property. 13 years ago, their young son, Bear, disappeared and the case was presumed to be closed. But when their 12-year-old daughter, Barbara, also goes missing from the camp, old family secrets resurface. Spanning the 1950s through 1975, this book touches on major themes as it works through the dual mysteries of Bear and Barbara's disappearance - dysfunctional families, addiction, gender roles, and the power dynamics of the wealthy.

This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It is the perfect blend of page-turning mystery with enough literary heft and character development to keep the reader engaged. I’ve seen it described as “compulsively readable” and that hits the nail on the head. “Literary mystery” is my favorite genre but often when books are described that way I find it means they are very interior, slow, or just not engaging. But this one is! I would particularly recommend it to fans of Tana French.

This is definitely a case of, "it's not you, it's me".

While I did enjoy this book, the slow burn was much too slow for my liking. There were a lot of added details and characters backgrounds that felt completely unnecessary. This book would have benefited from being about 100 pages shorter.

Still, I enjoyed it. The ending was satisfactory and the reveals did surprise me.

All around 3 stars.

Set in the Adirondacks in 1975, everyone is having a great summer at Camp Emerson. Until one morning, Barbara, the daughter of the camp owners, goes missing. Her being gone is scary enough, except that her brother, Bear, also went missing from the camp 14 years earlier and was never found. Can detectives figure out what happened to Barbara and bring her home safe before it happens again?

This was a great summer slow-burn mystery. I always wanted to go to a summer camp like this one, but maybe now I’m glad I didn’t. 😂 There’s teenage angst and drama, frustrating rich people, family secrets, and spooky woods people tend to get lost in.

Definitely add this one to your TBR this summer! I think it may be a little confusing on audio with the time jumps, but I didn’t have any issues following along with the print version.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @netgalley and @riverheadbooks for the free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

August 1975, Barbara Van Laar is missing. She's supposed to be in her bunk at camp, but she isn't there. Barbara isn't a normal camper, she's the 14-year old daughter of the camp owners, and one of the richest families in the area.

14 years earlier, a differen Van Laar child went missing.

Liz Moore has written a slow burn thriller that you can not put down. This is a book of trauma, addiction, sexism and class warfare. This is rich people and the people who care for them. The haves and have-nots.

Moore is able to take both disappearances and weave in and out, connecting and moving the tragedies together. Each person is almost a character study. Each person is dealing with a heavy burden, a heavy history and a heavy present.

This is The Secret History, camp edition. I loved every page.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Overall, I very much enjoyed my first book from Liz Moore. This is a slow-burn mystery told in multiple timelines. I appreciated the chapter length and pacing, and I think the writing was masterful. The exploration of each character was well done. Moore managed to introduce many questions and then skillfully answer every single one by the end of the book, making for a very satisfying mystery reading experience.

However, there were some aspects of the reveal of one of the two central mysteries that left me wanting a bit more. After such a slow-burn climb to the finale, the ending felt a bit underwhelming. Nevertheless, I think Moore has an incredible talent for writing literary mysteries, and I look forward to her next book. I will definitely venture into her backlist.

This is it. This is THE book of the summer, if not one of the books of the year. If you enjoy stories with rich, honest character development, a mystery and social commentary set in the most atmospheric location, you need to drop everything and pick this up.

This story is about the disappearance of Barbara Van Laar during summer camp. What makes her disappearance especially notable is not only that the Van Laars own the preserve the camp is held on, but that her brother Bear also disappeared a number of years ago.

Told in multiple POVs across the 1960s and 1970s, this is so much more than a “whodunnit” mystery. As you get to know the characters, the layers start unfolding revealing dark family secrets. It may be confusing at times to juggle all of the players, but even the minor characters serve important roles. Ultimately this book speaks volumes about misogyny, classism, troubled relationship dynamics, generational trauma, mental illness, and the lack of social mobility women experienced at the time. Detective Judy is especially emblematic of the extra work women had to put in just to gain half of the recognition their male counterparts had.

This book is long, but Moore’s use of language is so economical and intentional and it had me lingering on every single word. The story almost didn’t feel long enough. Though I foresaw one of the “plot twists”, the final reveal was one I didn’t catch onto until literally a few sentences prior.

This is one of those books that will stay with you for a while. Long Bright River is one of my favorite books of all time, and this might join its ranks. HIGHLY recommend

More than I expected. Interesting story. I will recommend it to patrons. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I have been looking forward to this book for a long time after absolutely loving LONG BRIGHT RIVER in 2020. It did not disappoint! The 1970s Adirondack camp setting and Moore's masterful characterization and plotting through timelines and perspectives are the real stars here. While there is a mystery at the center of the story, I would describe this more as a suspenseful family drama. If you're going on vacation (especially to the Adirondacks!), this would be a great book to sink into!

Wow! I read this all in one sitting because I was so engaged. Moore¡s tale is one of old money and privilege, and the ways it can steer people wrong.
The Van Laars are an old New England banking family, well accustomed to entitlement, whose summer home includes Camp Emerson. Sweet 8 year old Peter Van Laar the Fourth disappears one day, and everyone in the nearby town volunteers to search the woods for him. But despite the use of search dogs and the state police, Peter's body is never found. His mother retreats into a haze of drugs and alcohol, and ignores her daughter Barbara.
Many years later a teenaged Barbara also disappears from Camp Emerson. The locals believe the Van Laars know more about the missing children than they’ve ever admitted. And a new state investigator decides that it's time for the secrecy to end.
Well told. My only complaint is with the extensive cast of characters.

I requested to review this book because of the location - a camp and community in the Adirondack Mountains in my home state of New York - and also because of my childhood fascination with sleep-away camp. The financial and social circumstances of my family were not those that made the possibility of sleep-away camp possible, but that didn’t stop me from reading everything I could find about camp experiences, both good and bad. The mystery here is as bad as you can get - a camper disappears. And not just *any* camper, but the daughter of the wealthy family that owns the campground. The ensuing story covers the full-on search for the camper but also expands to recount the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the camper’s brother 10 years prior.

Told in short-form alternating viewpoints, I admit I sometimes found it hard to keep everyone straight. However, the stories of two people provided the thread holding it all together - those of Judyta and Tracy, a rookie cop and the closest friend the lost camper had on-site. Tbh, I have little sympathy for “poor-little-rich-girl” stories given the lack of morals often displayed by those of that class, but Moore does a decent job of humanizing the women in this story, especially Alice, TJ, and Barbara. I found the end very satisfying, for both plot lines - the death of Bear Van Laar and the disappearance of his sister Barbara. I found myself whipping through the final 80% of the story just to find out what happened.

Definitely recommended.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc copy of God of the Woods.

The book follows many different characters and povs- but the real stories are the mysterious disappearances of the Van Laar siblings, Bear and Barbara 20 years apart.

The family dynamics as well as the running of the camp that is connected to the Van Laar family takes you through many twists and turns- with many different possibilities of who could’ve abducted the siblings.

With phenomenal storytelling - even as a slow burn I was engaged and wanted to know the truth of what had truly happened not only to the missing siblings but each character in the book.

This is definitely a favorite read for me so far this year & worth the commendation to mystery and suspense story lovers!

The God of the Woods is a quiet, literary mystery about a teenage girl who goes missing from a summer camp in the Adrionacks, unraveling years of secrets and lies.

I really liked this! This was a solid 4 star read except for 2 of the Parts in the middle that were based solely in the past that were just utterly boring. I found both of these parts to be meandering, following strictly characters I cared nothing about. If these parts had been shorter, my enjoyment would’ve been higher.

However, besides that, this was so intriguing!! The last 30-40% I could NOT put this down. I liked most of the characters we followed. Short chapters and multiple POVs made the majority of this fast-paced.

Thank you to Net Galley and Riverhead books for letting me read a copy of this early!

I will be posting my review on my bookstagram (linked below) on Release Date (07/02) and I will be interesting in purchasing and promoting this title at my library.

This is a big, deep, twisty, turny novel about family, lies, loyalties, and power.
It centers around the wealthy Van Laar family who lives in a compound that includes a summer camp in the Adirondacks.
At the core: the disappearance of 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar, the daughter who was also attending the camp. Her disappearance follows that of her brother, Bear, who went missing 14 years before at age eight.
Are the two disappearances connected? If so, how? And who is responsible?
Be ready to stay up all night reading deeper into the story and waiting for the answers. This book kept me guessing until almost the end!

A really good page turner.. perfect for a summer read.
Set in 1975 at a sleep-away summer camp in the Adirondacks.
13 yr old Barbara Van Laar disappears from her cabin overnight .., the same camp that her brother Bear disappeared from many years before. Her wealthy parents own the camp as well as all the land surrounding and the huge waterfront house on the hill above the camp.
There are many characters and secondary mysteries.
I enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Riverhead for the ARC!

On sale July 2, 2024

Wow, what a beautiful book.

This was completely different than I thought this book was going to be and I'm so glad.

I thought I was jumping into another summer thrilled but instead I got one of the most accurate views of small town dynamics I've ever seen.

I don't want to say much on this because this slow burn tale you just have to experience. You won't be disappointed, it's such an intriguing and great tale.

The author also did the best job with multiple timelines and POV I have ever seen. There's 6+ timelines and more POV than I can count. The author painted the people and times so well that I never once questioned who was talking or where I was in the story. The chapters with a brilliant timeline made it so easy too.

Seriously one of the best books I've read, it's really a must read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverhead for allowing me to read this ARC.

Wow. This thriller is truly beautiful, heartbreaking, and intriguing.

Told from multiple perspectives with multiple timelines, the author does a really great job of character development so it’s easy to follow the cast of many characters. You will hear a LOT about this book this summer.

This is the perfect summer thriller/mystery. I had not read Long Bright River and have now bumped it up on my TBR. Moore’s writing invites you in and has you fully invested in her story. So so good!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this advanced copy!

This was SO good. Seriously, if you need a slow burn mystery, pick up this book. It was so well written and absolutely engaging. Multiple narrators can be hard, but in this book’s case, it was necessary and added so much dimension to the story. One of my favorites this year, for sure!