If you enjoyed Liz Moore's THE GOD OF THE WOODS or Chris Whitaker's ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, OR you just want an atmospheric novel set in the wilderness of Maine, you'll want to make sure you put this gorgeous literary thriller at the top of your TBR for 2025. Told from multiple perspectives, HEARTWOOD follows a search and rescue team in a race against time to find an experienced hiker who has mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail.

Wow! I never would've normally chose a book like this, and I am so grateful to Netgalley for that exact reason. It offered me something outside of my usual choice, and it was fantastic.

This book is extremely well written, and the concept is fascinating. I had no idea people went missing on the Appalachain Trail at all, let alone the countless ways that happens (ie. getting lost due to disorientation, breaking a bone and becoming immobile where no one knows you are, falling down a mountain after trying to get higher for cell phone service).

The story is gripping. The characters are well developed and with depth. Highly recommend.

A fascinating literary thriller/survival tale. I really enjoyed the take on the mother-daughter relationship and felt especially connected to Lt. Bev's storyline. I would read a whole book of Bev! I really enjoyed reading this and did gulp it down in just a few days. I 100% would suggest people read this, especially those interested in "survival" tales with emotional weight and strong writing.

Ugh, I wanted to love this so bad! But I felt like I just slogged through most of it. Throughout the story, I felt just as lost as the hiker (and not in a good way). It was slow most of the time and so many different characters and it was just too much going on without the payoff I was hoping for in the end.

The story revolved around a missing hiker named Valerie who went missing off the AT in Maine. I feel like the main character was moreso Lt. Bev who was the state game warden charged with the task of the search. Throughout the book, there are interviews with potential "suspects" and journal entries of Valerie, and also a random lady named Lena who you really don't know has a connection to this search for most of the book. Throughout the book, there were themes of love and loss and motherhood. And then a small but weird take on a government conspiracy/mental illness storyline with a kid named Daniel that just didn't flesh out well for me. The book did start picking up around the 65-70% mark. but that's partially due to me wanting to just finish it haha. I did appreciate the ending though.

I WILL SAY - I wanted to read this because I'm obsessed with Maine and the backwoods and all the dangers and mystery it entails. This part of the story did not disappoint. I loved hearing Bev's perspective on why she loves the backwoods, the descriptions of the wildness of Maine. I loved that part. Mainly why I gave the book 3 stars.

So, I'm a bit disappointed because I had such high hopes going into this book, but there was just too many storylines that dragged on for me to love it the whole way through.

Heartwood by Amity Gaige is a breath-taking novel about a search for a missing hiker on the Maine portion of the Appalachian Trail. The hiker, Valerie Gillis, is a registered nurse who is seeking solace from the trauma of caring for Covid patients. As she observes toward the end of the book, “I am crushed between empathy and impotence.” Several characters play important roles in the search for Valerie, including a Maine State Game Warden and her staff, an elderly woman in a Connecticut retirement community and an overweight man from the Bronx who hiked much of the trail with Valerie. Like Valerie, each of these characters is searching for solace in their own way. Gaige does an excellent job describing the ardors of hiking such a challenging trail (and distance) and an equally fine job portraying the rigors of searching thousands of miles of wilderness. All the major characters are well-developed and likable, and the plotting is propulsive. There is nothing not to like about Heartwood.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC in exchange for this review.

What would you do if you were lost deep on the trail? Would you know how to survive? This story was very believable and it was well told. Most rangers don't want to live in the far reaches of Maine but it works for hiding from your family until a high profile missing woman's case ends up in your backyard. As the woman in the wilderness stays lost, the harder the entire team must look to make it a search instead of a recovery. Based on a true story, this book definitely makes you think twice about taking a walk in the woods

This had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed the use of the wilderness and how it created a suspenseful atmosphere. The plot had everything that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall feel going on. The characters worked overall in the story and I cared about what was happening. Amity Gaige has a strong writing style and was invested in what was happening.

This is a gripping, suspenseful and propulsive story about Valerie who gets lost on the Appalachian Trail. The head of the search party is the Maine warden, Beverly. Lieutenant Beverly organizes a search and rescue mission. There are several points of view that are shared. Valerie‘s point of view is depicted in the letters she writes to her mother during this ordeal. The search and rescue process is fascinating. As the days slip by, you can feel the increased urgency and diminishing hope that they will find Valerie alive. The threat is palpable. I strongly recommend this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster for the advance reader copy.

Amity Gaige has written a novel I can't assign to one genre as it combines aspects of literary fiction, thriller, and a loving homage to Maine.

Bev is a Maine State Game Warden who is assigned the task of finding 42 year old Valerie Gillis who is lost somewhere in Maine on the Appalachian Trail. Valerie is an experienced hiker who is well-liked by others who have been traveling with her. Her trail name is 'Sparrow'. Bev has an excellent record of finding lost people on the trail, at least until now. As the days go by, and all sorts of ground and air searches come up empty, the searchers are tired and at a stalemate. Usually, missing people are found within the first 48 hours. Valerie has now been missing for over a week. Can she survive the hard conditions of the Maine forest? Does she have food or shelter? There are no answers to these questions as the search progresses.

Bev is a devoted game warden. She was the first, or one of the first, female game wardens to be hired in Maine. She loves her job and it defines her life. She can't give up hope of finding Valerie. She consoles Valerie's family and husband despite having doubts about the outcome. The part of the Appalachian Trail that ends up in Maine is a very difficult challenge, The woods. are so thick with trees and brush that it is difficult for the sun to come through. Is Valerie lying somewhere injured or is there something sinister about her disappearance?

Lena is a 72 year old woman living in a Connecticut retirement community. She chats on the internet multiple times a day with a 'friend' in Maine. This interaction is the high point of her constricted life, Does her 'friend' know something about Valerie's disappearance? Who is he in real life, off the internet?

Valerie, meanwhile, is fighting for her life in an unfriendly and inhospitable environment. She spends time writing in her journal in the form of letters to her mother. The connection of Valerie to her mother is very loving and poignant. It is very different from the mothering that Bev had as a child, Bev's mother was emotionally absent and Bev's role was to parent her two younger sisters.

The narrative in Heartwood is presented in different points of view. Some POV's are interviews by the game wardens as they contact people who were with Valerie on the trail and might have some clue as to what has happened with her. Other POV's are letters from Valerie to her mother, Bev's emotions and actions as she seeks to find Valerie and end this search successfully, and Lena's contacts with a mysterious person in Maine who may have a connection to Valerie's disappearance.

I enjoyed this novel very much but was sometimes frustrated by the multiple narratives which were sometimes difficult to connect. The description of the Maine forest transfixed me, both in its beauty and darkness. I thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an Advanced Review Copy of Heartwood.

Thanks so very little for making me want to cry. I miss my mom. I miss my mom everyday. If my mother made me the person I am today don’t thank her for that either.

It’s a great read. There were some portions where I deeply hoped that Valerie’s disappearance was not going they way I feared it might. And it didn’t. Still, it did end in poignancy for me. ‘Cause I miss my mom. 💧

I give lousy book reviews, sorry about that.

In this search for a lost hiker, we are introduced to the mechanics of a search and rescue mission. We see all the different points of view, from the lost hiker, to her loved ones, to those searching, right down to the general public. The author did a great job of capturing the hope of the searchers as well as their desperation as the time stretches on. We feel the sense of loss and impotence that plagues Jessica's family. We also get to see how terrible people are - those who are not involved but feel the need to project themselves into the spotlight. I have great respect for SAR personnel and don't feel that they should be criticized, and this story parallels what transpires during long searches. There were components of the story that did not seem to be related, such as Lena, but all is explained in the end. There is also a lot of practical information sprinkled into this tale that I will keep in mind. I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters, but I was transfixed by Bev and the realities of the SAR mission. This tale reads so much like a real-life account that it will leave echoes in my soul.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Simon & Schuster for the ARC of Heartwood by Amity Gaige.

Heartwood is a mystery-ish, suspense novel about a woman, Valerie, who is reported lost on the Appalachian Trail in the Maine wilderness; Valerie has a POV perspective in the novel as we read through the journals she is writing as she is lost. Bev, a Maine State Game Warden, is tasked with finding Valerie through Search and Rescue efforts. Meanwhile, Lena, an older woman in Connecticut, believes she may know more about the case as it hits the news cycle. It's a heartpounding search story to find Valerie in time.

I have been searching and searching for what feels like years to find more wilderness suspense novels that truly acknowledge the absolute beauty and danger of nature. Please note, this comment is a generalization from other stories and is not focused on the plot of Heartwood - it's just been my general frustration that has become more obvious since the man vs bear conversation took hold last year. So often a story is framed as wilderness suspense, but quickly turns into something else where the wilderness is just background in the end and it's more about literary fiction/reflections of character, or, worse, it becomes a crime novel, focused on horrible things humans do to other humans as opposed to the horrible things nature can do all on its own.

To me, this story felt like it was fighting to choose between telling a concise, gripping story about the search for Valerie and what may have happened to her/what is happening to her through her letters vs trying to create a strong interior reflection for Valerie, Bev and Lena on what it means to be lost.I felt like it couldn't choose strongly enough, or it couldn't transition well enough for me to ever feel emotionally connected to either of the three more than I cared about the mystery of whether or not they would find Valerie. I found those interior scenes and reflections to be strongly structured around motherhood-daughterhood, but while that may have been a strong emotion for each of these female characters, it didn't really line up for me as consistent across their life situations, so while it was a shared-ish experience, to me it didn't add anything to the overarching story of Valerie's disappearance.

I did really like the connections and reflections on hiking the AT during/after the pandemic, both with Valerie's reflections as a healthcare frontline worker, and with the conversations of those she met and the struggles they faced from the pandemic as well, like Santo with his antivax father. We saw the same with Lena as well when she reflected on nursing home deaths and not being able to eat with others and that enduring loneliness. I think the levels of feeling lost from that experience were more powerful than those around family that seemed to be the larger focus.

I also really liked the detail and the focus of the searching/search techniques/investigation -- I would read a whole Bev series of her finding people, I think that may have been more of what I was looking for with this book as opposed to the more literary elements -- which there is nothing wrong with and I can see why many people identify with them and feel strongly about them and their connection with the book, they just didn't land for me with this one.

When 42 year old Valerie Gillis goes missing on the Appalachian Trail in Maine, a frantic search begins. Our only perspective from Valerie herself comes from letters she writes to her mother as she tries to survive. There are other perspectives told in this book, Bev, the Maine Warden in charge of the search, and Lena, a crime obsessed bird watcher in Connecticut, and Valerie's trail hiking buddy Santo. I really liked this book in the beginning, but I felt it really slowed down and the story got away from itself in the middle and the end. I could have cut a POV or two and focused more on Valerie herself, but the setting of this book was really enjoyable and I liked learning more about AT hiking.

I was initially drawn to this book because it involved a search for a hiker lost in the Maine woods along the Appalachian trail. I like books that take place in the outdoors. The stories of the characters in the book drew me in. The three main protagonists are all women at different stages in their life. This book is about relationships and the natural world that the characters draw strength from, It's a thriller as well following the search for the lost hiker.

Heartwood by Amity Gaige is basically everything I want in a book: amazing female protagonists, a suspenseful plot, and rotating narration with an interesting structure. It hasn’t been easy, but Maine State Warden Beverly Miller is one of the state’s most respected search and rescue leaders with a 97% found rate. Their target, Valerie “Sparrow” Gillis, did not show up for an expected supply stop on the last leg of the Appalachian Trail as it winds through the dangerous woods toward Mount Katahdin. What happened to make Valerie so off the trail and will the team find her before it is too late? Heartwood is a lot more than a wilderness search book — it is about strong women, motherhood, and finding your peace at any age. Gaige’s writing includes beautiful passages of nature and inner musings combined with interviews, chat exchanges, and the building tension of a missing person case. Heartwood will appeal to many groups of readers — thrillers, nature, women’s lit, and anyone who wants a great page-turning book.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail from Harper’s Ferry, VA north into the Maine woods, Valerie Gillis disappears. What has happened to the charismatic, dearly loved nurse who seems to have reached a turning point in life? Has she run away? Met with an accident or misadventure? Is she dead, drowned in some bog or eaten by a bear? Lying injured and alone at the bottom of a cliff or crevice? Might her husband, the manager of her hike, be involved? Those possibilities, and many others, must be considered by Lieutenant Beverly Miller of the Maine State Game Warden’s Service as she organizes and manages the search for Valerie. Time is no one’s friend. The longer Valerie remains missing in the deep and dangerous woods, the poorer her chance of surviving.

Author Amity Gaige has given us a fine story, full of mystery and told from multiple points of view. We’re in the woods with Valerie as she struggles to survive; with Beverly at Sugarloaf Mountain as she pushes aside everything in her own complicated life to bring Valerie home; and with Lena, an elderly lady confined to a wheelchair in a Connecticut retirement home, who’s never met Valerie but is obsessed with the search and may or may not have a role to play.

Gaige tells her tale employing a variety of devices: third-person prose narratives (some quite lyric), taped investigator interviews, newspaper stories, letters and poetry from Valerie herself, and more. Gradually, we’re given leads to solving the mystery of what happened to Valerie and whether and where she might be found. Along the way, we learn much about hiking the Appalachian Trail, the beauty and dangers of the Maine woods, how easy it is to become lost, and the tremendous effort that goes into searching for those who have disappeared.

It's a fast-moving and very absorbing read that includes compelling characters and relationships, well-described settings, some surprises, more than a little suspense, and from time to time, some beautiful literary writing.

My thanks to NetGalley, author Amity Gaige, and publisher Simon & Schuster for providing me with a complimentary ARC. All of the foregoing is my independent opinion.

This is an excellent book. I just finished it and am still wrapping my head around all the feelings it brought me. I wanted to be out in the woods looking for Valerie. And in the home talking to Lena. And I even wanted to give Santos a reassuring hug.

Valerie is resolute in her quest to hike the Appalachian Trail, with her husband, Gregory, providing support. The book's narrative revolves around Valerie's ordeal of getting lost and her actions during this time. It features a cast of characters, each with their own narrative. Bev, the park ranger, leads the search efforts, while Lena plays a pivotal role in the story. Valerie reveals her resilience through letters written to her mother as a means of survival. The book captivates with its excellent character development, making it a commendable read for all.

I really enjoyed Amity Gaige’s novel the Sea Wife in 2020 so I was excited to receive this digital arc of her next novel Heartwood. Gaige has created my favorite kind of novel - a character driven mystery that kept me turning the pages while becoming attached to the three female main characters. Lena, Beverly and Valerie all share their conflicted feelings about mother/daughter relationships while involved in the search for Valerie who has gotten lost during her Appalachian Trail hike. I won’t spoil the ending, but I will recommend this to anyone looking for a gripping story with strong female characters and a strong sense of New England. Thank you to Amity Gaige and Simon and Schuster for this advanced copy!

Wow! This is a twisted read. Suspense, trials, righting of wrongs. Characters and storyline is compelling. I admire Bev and her perseverance to continue the search. Recommend highly. I was given this well written book by NetGalley as an arc and I am freely sharing my review