It took me over a week to read the first 30% of The God of the Woods. Once I hit 30%, I blew through it! This is a slow, slow burn. Until it isn’t. Great writing, great character development. I loved it.

THIS BOOK!!! the God of the Woods was propulsive, the quality literary writing that I feel is often (very often) missing from modern thrillers. I loved the various characters and Moore's deep insight into class issues and sexism. The short chapters made the book very propulsive and kept me guessing.

Deeply engrossing and richly written book. Intriguing mystery.

This is a book you will want to take your time with, but it is so captivating you won't be able to put it down. Set in multiple timelines, the reader is transported to various events that lead up to the present day situation.

The morning of 1975, a teenage camper at a New York summer camp is missing. Barbara Van Laar, the daughter of the owners of the camp, is nowhere to be found. Told from various points of view in various timelines, we get to know the events prior to the situation leading up to the present day investigation through the eyes of her counselor, Louise, her best friend and bunkmate, Tracy, the young police detective working the case, Judyta, and Barbara's mother, Alice. Each character provides different perspectives and pieces to the puzzle, which when fully assembled is a stunning and complex story.

There are so many themes explored here, but the overarching theme is that of generational wealth and privilege and the role of women within that framework. Every character is richly drawn and adds a unique perspective to the tale. I connected with many of the different characters at various times, because many of their stories are more universal that it seems on the surface.

This novel has a true sense and depiction of its time and place, the situations and the ways they play out fit the time period perfectly. This experience transports the reader back to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with all of its biases, prejudices, and societal rules and norms.

There are a couple of different mysteries throughout this book, and I was captivated to learn the resolutions to each of them. This is definitely a book to read and savor.

An atmospheric thriller that kept me wondering what happened to Bear and Barbara the entire time. This book makes you think about the role class divide can play in a community and explores gendered family roles of the 19602-1970s. Highly recommended if you are looking for a thriller that pushes you think about the world around you.

Incredible story. I was riveted! Ms. Moore was a bit more descriptive than I like, but her backgrounds were interesting and did add to the story. It was quite a roller coaster ride.

The God of the Woods is fine, but your enjoyment of it is dependent on your ability to manage multiple characters' POVs and shifting timelines. It's a great summer read!

Put your summer romance books down and pick up this summer camp thriller asap! This book twists and turns through different characters and timelines and it’s so good! When Barbara goes missing from summer camp, all the memories from her missing brother come back as well. This book is atmospheric, nostalgic and intense. Can’t recommend this book enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

This book was so good. Moore is so careful and articulate with her characters, and this was such a poignant study of the intersection of so many lives (particularly women’s’) at a time in history when so much changed for women and what was expected of them. Really a quiet, tragic book but I couldn’t put it down. Moore has definitely secured herself as an auto-buy from me going forward. What a great follow up to Long Bright River. I am looking forward to reading the eat of her prior catalogue.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
Wow! This one gripped me from the beginning and the mystery surrounding the missing camper and her wealthy, but vastly, unhappy family was a great ride! This one can be devoured in a few days and I can see it being a great bookclub pick!

The God of the Woods is a riveting story about a disappearance at a summer camp. Barbara, a camper, has vanished one morning. A search ensues, but she is nowhere to be found. Coincidentally, her brother also disappeared into these woods years ago. Are the disappearances connected? And if so, how?

There are many fascinating characters in this book, and that is what keeps the story developing. The layers of secrets and history between the characters kept me guessing at the ending throughout the story.

I rate this book 5 stars, this may be my thriller of the Summer!

Thank you to Riverhead/Penguin Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC copy.

The God of the Woods
Pub Date: July 2, 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The God of the Woods is set in 1975 at a summer camp in New York, where camper Barbara Van Laar mysteriously vanishes from her cabin. What heightens the intrigue is that Barbara’s brother, Bear, also disappeared from the same camp a decade earlier.

As the search for Barbara unfolds, the story dives deeper into the complexities of the Van Laar family and the supporting characters.

Told from various points of view and across multiple timelines, the narrative effectively reveals each character’s backstory. Despite initial concerns about potential confusion, Liz Moore’s seamless storytelling and perfect pacing make it easy to follow. Just when I thought I had figured out the ending, the surprising twist took me completely off guard.

Well done!

#thegodofthewoods
#lizmoorebooks
#2024books
#riverheadbooks

The God of the Woods takes place at a summer camp in the Adirondacks in alternating timelines where two siblings go missing 14 years apart. Liz Moore is a master storyteller and I felt transported to the setting. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and I was surprised at how much I cared about the good ones by the end. As the two mysteries unravel and intertwine, the God of the Woods had me racing to the finish line.

I received an ARC from PENGUIN GROUP Riverhead | Riverhead Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The God of the Woods starts out at a summer camp in the summer of 1975 when Barbara Van Laar, the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp and the surrounding estate, goes missing. Through three decades and eight different perspectives, Liz Moore unfurls a masterful, multi-layered mystery that explores the impact of class and privilege.

When I started out, I had a hard time keeping track of the cast of characters and how everything and everyone intersects. On the face of it, there is a lot going on, but I quickly eased into the flow and the world of Camp Emerson and the Van Laar Preserve. The character development throughout the story was very well done - I enjoyed seeing through Judyta and her struggles as she comes into her own as an investigator. Delving into Louise's background and how her story ended was particularly satisfying. Although TJ wasn't a perspective character, she was one that I found myself thinking about the most and how integral she was overall to the Van Laar children.

While I enjoyed how the mystery played out, some of the false directions felt off right away. In particular, the threads on TJ and Vic being involved nefariously, which made it less believable for me and took me out of the story a bit. I also didn't fully understand where the fear with Bear and his grandfather was meant to go and it felt slightly unresolved. However, the final turns were well built up and the ending was incredible satisfying.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a layered mystery and is willing to dive into a full cast of characters. Thank you very much to NetGalley and Riverhead Books for the advanced copy.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The title of this book is extremely misleading. I honestly can’t figure out how it’s supposed to make sense with the story. This book is about a girl, Barbara, who goes to summer camp and goes missing. She is the daughter of a rich family who owns the property that the camp is on, and before she was born, her brother went missing on the same land. There’s a lot going on in this book. There are a lot of red herrings and a lot of people with secrets. You have an escaped serial killer that had been in the area during her brother’s disappearance and is potentially loose in the same area now. You have a very cold father and grandfather. You have a disturbing number of older men in their 20s and 30s(?) who are having relationships with or trying to have relationships with teenage girls. This book takes place in the 70s and I guess that’s its way of trying to make the age inappropriateness OK? The missing children’s mother is like a decade younger than her husband, so it’s like a big theme in this book. We also have multiple points of view. We have flashbacks and flash forwards. This book was decent, but I had to force myself to finish it because it was just so all over the place. I figured out what happened to Barbara 50% through, so everything after that was like the author was trying to make me change my theory. I figured out a lot of the other twists probably sooner than I was supposed to so the very ending was kind of a letdown. I don’t think this book is awful. I just think it wasn’t my kind of book. I could see a lot of other people really enjoying it.

I love how this author writes familial relationships - the ones we’re born into and the ones life brings us. Especially love how she writes brothers and sisters and their loyalty, both in this book and her previous one, Long Bright River.

This one was at first hard to track, with so many characters and alternating timelines. So worth it though for the second half. It’s about a disappearance at a summer camp in the Adirondacks, and about the lengths people will go to protect family. The mystery is tightly woven and hard to guess, and the character development along the way is so well done.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book.

The God of the Woods is a decades-spanning, double-layered mystery. Our story begins with a camp counselor waking to discover that one of her bunks is empty. Its occupant, a thirteen year-old girl, is missing. Barbara, the aforementioned missing girl, is not just any camper; she is the daughter of the Van Laars, the owners of the camp. Not only that, but she’s not the first child to vanish from this massive plot of land in the Adirondacks. Fourteen years ago Barbara’s brother, only eight at the time, also vanished. And he was never found. With this foundation in place, we begin moving back and forward in time, watching as investigations for both children unfold.

I’ve seen others label this book a thriller, and I allowed that description to inadvertently impact my expectations. I would not consider this a thriller; the pace is far too deliberately meandering. Instead, The God of the Woodscan more accurately be described as a mystery. The tension does build as the plot progresses but, for the most part, this is a quiet story. There is little actual action and much internal questioning and inferring.

This is the first Liz Moore novel I’ve read, and I really enjoyed her writing. The characters were interesting and varied enough in their thought patterns to keep straight, in spite of the abundance of perspective characters, almost all of them female. Moore also did a wonderful job balancing her setting in place and time against the central stories being told. Both the camp and Self-Reliance, the family mansion on the same land, are beautifully rendered and easy to visualize, as are the forests surrounding them. The year, the month, and sometimes even the day of each chapter are highlighted at the beginning, which is really helpful for readers as they try to keep track of where exactly they are in the timeline. All of the years included, from the 50s to 1961 to the summer months of 1975, felt true to the time.

I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t quite love it. One of the reasons I didn’t connect with it on an even deeper level is a very subjective one; I don’t like stories about rich people. The problems of the wealthy, their tendency to look down of the rest of the world and see the less affluent as pawns instead of people, drive me completely crazy. I also couldn’t help but compare this book a bit to one of my favorite books of 2024 so far: All the Colors of the Dark. Both of mysteries surrounding the search for missing children in the 70s. Both are big, chunky books that span decades and have expansive casts. Both are beautifully written. But All the Colors of the Dark spoke to my soul in a way that The God of the Woods couldn’t quite manage.

The God of the Woods is going to be one of the books of the summer, and I can absolutely see why. It’s a compelling mystery, and the setting being a summer camp is going to speak deeply to the nostalgia most everyone feels in varying degrees when school is out and the days get hotter. The fact that it’s largely set in the 70s will add even more to that nostalgia factor. As for the mysteries at the heart of the book, they are not easily solved. They kept my attention in spite of the slower pace of the story, and I didn’t fully guess the ending. If you’re looking for a big, meaty, nostalgic, tense mystery to sink your teeth into this summer, The God of the Woods might be exactly what you’re looking for!

Liz Moore tore apart the layers of a family tragedy and built a complex family deep within itself. At the heart of the story you have a disappearance that moves the plot. Throughout, the reader also receives views from several involved in the incident and how they came to be. This is a lot of back and forth timeline as well as viewpoints. Extremely slow burn that was well constructed. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy.

The God of the Woods was an intricately woven historical page turner written from many perspectives. Each story had me captivated and eager to find out how they all fit together. This is the best book I've read so far this year.

Best book I’ve read in 2024 so far.

Most often books I read that starts with a missing child usually are dark, twisted, and fast.

That’s not what between these pages.

This story is weaving back and forth between points of view, timelines, and tragic stories.

It was slow moving and compelling. I wanted to know everything the entire time I was reading. Not a single thread wasn’t tied in an interesting way.

Phenomenal. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed reading The God of the Woods. Recommended for mystery lovers. Characters are well defined. A lost child destroys many lives only to be repeated again with the second ‘replacement’ child. The corrupt rich attempting to get away with crime.