A summer camp in the Adirondack mountains is the setting for a mystery when a young girl goes missing. In a frightening coincidence, her brother went missing over a decade before and the suspected murderer has recently escaped from prison. A story filled with twists and turns, strong character development, and red herrings had me turning the pages. Well done.

So good! It didn’t feel like 500 pages at all, the pacing was great. The multiple POV chapters and timelines weren’t confusing. Definitely recommend this. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Semi-mystery, semi-campfire scary story that follows the generic outline for these kinds of stories. The only way this works is to set it in the era before cell phones and over-connection (although using the Adirondacks could allow you to edge closer to the modern age, since wifi and cell coverage really didn't arrive until later and is still patchy in some areas).

Only towards the end is there anything new. There was one thing I picked up on early and expected to be The Answer to Bear's disappearance - I was wrong. It does come into play later, in a way I didn't expect. So one point for that!

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

Talk about slow burn. It takes a good chunk to get a handle on everyone and I will be recommending physical over audio for that reason. Rich people behaving badly and a long history but feels over told in a way and I found it predictable and a little flat in the end. Definitely not as compelling of a read as her last which I found more emotional. I lacked an investment in the story and outcome.

My third Liz Moore book, and I continue to amazed. Her characters are complex and nuanced. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the book. The book’s setting and time periods felt so real. The story felt like a powerful tale of a time when women had little control over their lives - Judyta, Alice, Barbara, TJ, Tracy - all living and surviving within the constraints society put on them and trying to find their way.

When a camper goes missing from her bunk in the Adirondacks in 1975, secrets from the past and present are unearthed. 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar has gone missing, and unlike the other campers, her family owns the summer camp. 14 years prior, her brother, Bear, was also missing from the grounds and never found. Is someone targeting the family, or is the cause something more sinister?

The God of the Woods wasn't exactly what I was expecting it to be, and because of this, I loved it more. My one issue was it was somewhat difficult to track the multiple timelines, as the ARC e-file made the year of each chapter hard to decipher.

Thank you NetGalley and and Penguin Group Riverhead for this ARC!

This is a book by a new-to-me author that I found hard to put down. The story has stayed with me ever since finishing it some weeks ago.

I enjoy dual timeline stories as this was. The characters and descriptions of the beautiful surroundings were very well developed. The author kept you in suspense with both timelines very good book!

I received the book from the publisher via net galley in exchange for an honest review. Four stars.

This was probably my most anticipated book of the year and I can confidently say it will end up in my top three. There are quite a few characters and timelines, but Moore does a great job keeping the reader in the loop, skillfully weaving the different stories together. Part family drama, part mystery, the novel centers around the disappearance of Barbara from her family’s camp in the Adirondaks. This event dredges up painful memories of her older brother Bear, who vanished fourteen years earlier. I was utterly captivated, losing myself entirely in the setting and its complicated characters; finishing the book felt like emerging from another world. Long Bright River was a favorite, and a book I can still recall with surprising detail. And somehow she did it again, and this one might be even better.

4.5 stars! Really enjoyed this book! Loved the double mystery/timeline aspect of this book. The twists were perfectly spread out and I enjoyed the overall pace of the book. Really well written. The only part that kind of confused me was I was getting the female character POVs mixed up and I was reading on Kindle so the bold dates didnt stand out so sometime I would get confused with the timeline for certain characters. Overall really enjoyed this!

1975 A girl disappeared from a renowned summer camp. There are two mysteries as her brother disappeared before she was born. There is a slow burn of suspects and secrets that evolves into a Read that was above average. The rich and the help are examined as the search continues and the brothers case is reopened. Things are not always what they seem. this includes people and places. A thorough investigation allows for many twists and turns.

Copy provided by the publisher and Netgalley

This book...I don't even know what to say. It was so dang slow, no like really, painfully slow. But I couldn't put it down. Every slow-@$$ page, I said, "ok, well, just one more." 400+ pages later, here I am: confused, but I understand, happy but traumatized, vindicated yet betrayed...

It gives The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo vibes, and they are filming a season of True Detective on the set of Dirty Dancing. I don't know what you want from me.

I don't even know if I liked it, but I definitely can't give it fewer than 5 stars. Did I like any of the characters? Maybe, but then they do something awful, sneaky, or stupid. How do you even summarize this book? Okay, let's see, 🤔 The God of the Woods is Why Women Choose the Bear is a narrative form. It will dredge up every awkward, hurtful, loathsome feeling you've ever felt since you were 12 years old, make you look it dead in the eye, and then have it walk away smiling. But it is a great reminder that men are awful (not all men 😒).

This was just so damn good. I love a case that is compelling, keeps you hooked and has humanity at the heart of it.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

A deliciously slow burn thriller that had me hooked from the beginning. The Van Laar family has owned the Camp Emerson for generations. Set up in the Adirondacks, for 9 months out of the year the grounds are largely home only to the family and their guests, but come June Camp Emerson transforms into a summer camp - and in 1975 it's a temporary home to 91 campers, including the Van Laar's thirteen-year-old daughter, Barbara.

June bleeds into July bleeds into August and the campers are settling in, being taught to build traps, make fires, and find shelter, learning to survive in woods that are unforgiving and yet generous in their way. When one morning Barbara is discovered missing from her bunk, a search ensues as panic sweeps the camp, for Barbara is not the first Van Laar child to go missing. Fourteen years earlier, her brother, Bear, vanished from the same woods, and neither he nor his body have never been found.

By jumping between years and timelines, as well as points of view, the story expertly builds a mounting sense of fear as new pieces of information come to light. Filled with a well written, complex, and varied cast of characters, this story will leave you furious and heartbroken, frustrated and proud. Touching on family, community, acceptance, and love, The God of the Woods is an intense read, and - perhaps at its core - simply a tale of survival.

Thank you to Riverhead Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I've been going through a bit of a good book drought and this has quenched my thirst. I really loved how the story line was woven together, the characters who you were supposed to root for I was rooting for, the ending was satisfying. The writing style was lovely, so much better than a lot of thriller mystery that is out today. I highly recommend this book! I also loved the cover.

The God of the Woods is a slow burn thriller about Barbara Van Laar, a 13 year old girl who disappears at a summer camp in the Adirondacks. The search for Barbara makes everyone (her family, the police, the camp staff, and the residents of the surrounding town) relive the disappearance of her 8 year old brother, Bear from 15 years earlier - which may or may not be solved, depending on who you ask. The story is told through multiple POVs and timelines which did take some getting used to but ultimately drew me in to this complex and character driven story. This book kept me on my toes and guessing until the very end - couldn't put it down! Thank you NetGalley and Riverhead for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5-5⭐️From start to finish, this was so well written. It was a slow burn mystery that took place between two timelines. The short chapters made it easy to get caught up in the storyline and characters that crossed over each timeline. The stories run together seamlessly as they involve the same characters and setting. There’s so much more happening than the mysteries that are unfolding throughout the story and Thank you Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A literary summer-camp thriller, perfect for someone who wants a beach read with substance. I thought the pacing was strong, the writing was solid, and Moore successfully juggled multiple POVs - I particularly loved hearing from Tracy and Judyta.

That said, I'm not sure how I feel about the ending or the interweaving of Bear's story with Barbara's; I found myself much more compelled by the sections set in the novel's present-day, though I understand and appreciate how the two stories intertwine.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as I was reading it (though it didn't quite rise to the level of "can't stop thinking about it" when I wasn't) and feel confident about stocking it at the bookstore. Thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was such a great thriller. It felt like a mixture of a Separate Peace, Virgin Suicides, and is also all its own.
Powerful pacing, wonderful character development, and such unlikeable rich people. Slow burn into an explosion!

This mystery is so compelling with excellent character development. The setting is so vivid and fascinating. I loved all the plot twists. Highly recommended for summer reading or book clubs.

God of the Woods by Liz Moore is a story set in 1975 the Adirondacks. The Van Laars are a wealthy banking family who have owned a summer home and Camp Emerson on the property for generations. Barbara Van Laar, age 13, attends the summer camp in 1975 for the first time and goes missing towards the end of camp. Flashback to a previous story 14 years prior, when Bear Van Laar, then 8 years old, went missing from their summer home. This weaves the two stories of then and now intricately together and the truths are slowly revealed.
We are introduced to many characters, both in 1975 and in 1961. Judy the investigator now; Carl the volunteer fire brigade in 1961; Louise the camp counselor in charge of Barbara’s cabin; TJ the head of the summer camp; Alice, Bear and Barbara’s mother; Jacob a prisoner who has escaped and is on the run. There are a lot of unlikeable characters, and even unlikable actions by likable characters. There is a clear divide between the upper class and the locals that seemed honest and real. There was no perfect person in this story, but rather lots of flawed emotional characters. The Adirondacks make for an idyllic setting, the mountains and lakes, the camp cabins all described so that you could actually picture being there. Themes of family, love, motherhood, class are all expertly depicted that make this an engaging read.
Fans of The Paper Palace or Tom Lake would like this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Riverhead for my ARC.