This book kept me up past my bedtime! A gripping story of survival, featuring mothers and their daughters and the many ways that particular relationship can go. Valerie, Lena, and Lt Bev are the main characters, with a great supporting cast, especially the all too brief scenes with Bev's family. Valerie is the one who is lost on the AT, but the other two are equally lost and looking for their place.

This book would appeal to those who love dense storylines with lyrical writing. The storyline itself is compelling and full of twists and turns and Gage does a great job of building suspense. However, I struggled to keep my pace up with this one due to its weighty writing/content.

Thank you, Simon and Schuster, for the copy of Heartwood by Amity Gaige. I could tell as soon as I started reading Heartwood that I would love it. I’m not sure if it was the lyrical writing, the characterization of Valerie, Lena, and Beverly, or the realistic settings, but I knew I wanted to immerse myself in the story and never stop reading. The characters were so well-written that I felt like I could meet them in real life or see them on the TV news. I liked reading the interviews with Santo and the excerpts of the media coverage. The Appalachian Trail came alive and I could feel how grueling the hiking was. There are certainly readers who will be upset that this isn’t what they call a thriller: no serial killers, no shocking “twists”, or those other things popcorn thrillers are supposed to have. Instead, this is a well-plotted, suspenseful novel that I will remember for a long time. 5 stars

While I did find myself reaching for this book, which is the mark of a good reading experience for me, there were too many things that bugged me to prevent me from giving it more than a so-so review. The thing that bugged me the most was the ick feeling I got reading the Santo sections - I just couldn’t get past the way a white female author wrote this black man. In the acknowledgments she credits the book Black Faces, White Spaces by Carolyn Finney which is a study of the relationship between black people and the outdoors, and some of the ideas presented in Heartwood that stemmed from this read were interesting. But I just couldn’t get past the language she put in this character’s mouth. He felt like a stereotype and his sections pulled me out of the read. I also rolled my eyes a few times at some of the plot turns, particularly the big one at the end which I guessed early on (and I am not a thriller reader or generally good at this kind of puzzle reading!).

On the plus side, this book is a study in crafting a sense of place and the extensive research the author did into the game wardens in Maine showed.

Overall, if you’re looking for a tension-building read and love a forest/woodland setting, you might enjoy this, but I’m not going to be recommending this one.

Amity Gaige’s **Heartwood** is an engaging blend of survival, mystery, and self-discovery set in the stunning Maine wilderness. The story follows Valerie Gillis, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker who mysteriously disappears, sparking a gripping search.

The book features three perspectives: Valerie’s letters to her estranged mother, Beverly, a dedicated Maine Game Warden, and Lena, a retired birdwatcher turned amateur detective. This mix boosts the tension and explores themes of resilience and obsession.

Valerie’s letters reveal her struggles and determination, while Beverly highlights the realities of search efforts. Lena adds warmth and intrigue, making the story even richer. As their narratives intertwine, it raises questions about whether Valerie’s disappearance was an accident or something more sinister. **Heartwood** offers a thoughtful look at finding peace in nature and meaning in unexpected places, making it a great read for literary fiction and mystery fans.

I was truly blown away by the writing in this book. It's often that I'm impressed with the STORY, but its RARE that I'm truly impressed and taken aback by how beautiful the writing itself is. This is why I love literary novels. Literary fiction is defined as "novels that emphasize style, character, and theme over plot." This is 100% the case here. The plot itself is captivating, but the writing truly stole the show, in the best way possible.

I loved every second of reading this book. I was immediately captivated, I never lost interest, and I cried at the end. I really can't ask for anything more in a book.

The way that this story is told using a variety of mixed media will keep readers turning pages. Some of it is told in letters, interview format, first person POV, online chats, reddit posts, etc. I'm telling you this because I know many, like me, are a SUCKER for mixed media books! I'm sure this will also be amazing on audio, so I'll have to do a re-read when it comes out!

The very surface level plot is that the story revolves around a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail and the desperate search effort to find her.

This one is going to be hard to to top for favorite book of 2025 and it's only January!

A contemplative read about mother's and daughters and what happens when you feel loved and seen and heard. While the story itself is about a woman who is missing on the Appalachian Trail, it's really a story of how these women see themselves in the lives they lead and how they view their relationships with their mothers and how those relationships seemed to color a lot of the way they moved through the world. And as deep as that may sound (or not), it was not as profound as I thought it would be...interestingly enough. I enjoyed it and found the ending to be satisfying, but I think I was hoping for some sort of deep truth, and that didn't happen for me. Instead what I got was a solid read that was entertaining and thoughtful.

Got excited because I love Maine, and I saw a documentary on Geraldine Largay years ago with my dad that I was interested in, don't want to say I enjoyed it, a woman died, but I still remember it years on. Either way, this didn't hit me

Valerie Gillis, a middle age nurse, has decided to hike the infamous Appalachian Trail solo. Before she knows it she becomes totally lost. The search and rescue department of the Maine Game Warden bureau puts their best person, Warden Beverly, in charge of the search. Meanwhile, an elderly resident at a nearby retirement facility, Lena, is pulled into this tragic dilemma.

The author weaves this story line among these three woman and brings, in my opinion, a female overview to the entire narrative. Mother Nature is also front and center as the beauty, lushness and danger of the Maine woods overshadows the search. How do they all contribute to the final outcome? The author deftly pulls the reader through the debilitating search as these women maneuver to a striking conclusion.

2025 is the year of literary fiction/thrillers! I am loving this writing style a la "The God of the Woods" and this was a blast to read! The pace was great, and I enjoyed the mixed media of chapters, journal entries, and interviews. My only criticism is that there wasn't a ton of follow up on the military training camp. I wish there was more of a why to that being the reason of the missed hiker. It felt like the author just made that up as a reason rather than connecting it more closely to other characters.

Heartwood is a story about a woman, Valerie Gillis, lost in the woods but it is really more about the people searching for her than Valerie herself. During the search, we hear from Valerie herself in the form of letters she writes while lost. Lt Bev is the game warden in charge of the search. She is my favorite character. And there is Lena who is an elderly woman who accidentally joins the search through an internet friend. I love the setting and the variety of characters contributing to the story, but it also ended up making feel a little detached from them. I wanted to know more about some of them, I just didn't feel as connected to them as I would have liked. I liked how they all tied together at the end. Overall, a good book that I didn't want to put down! Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of Heartwood.

An experienced, female hiker goes missing on the Appalachian Trail. Valerie, will empty her soul onto pages while she reflects on the possibility of death and what her life has meant to her. What then follows is a search by many to find her, led by Beverly, who feels it in her soul that she must find Valerie. Enter Lena, an armchair sleuth living in a retirement home who slowly begins to unravel the pieces of the puzzle. These three women all face different challenges, together though they must rise to save Valerie in time.

Amity Gage wrote a heartfelt love letter to self and nature. She took these women and fused them together with careful detail. I definitely thought at one point it was heading one direction but I was completely wrong. Was it my favorite book, no. Well written, yes. Am I still a little confused, also yes. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Heartwood is a challenging read because of the various plots within the main plot of the disappearance of the hiker on the Appalachian Trail. The book does gradually come to a satisfying ending with the merging of the main characters' stories.

Heart-pounding action and thrilling to read. I loved the setting of this book and knew a lot of the places Gaige wrote about. That was a plus. I think the characters were well written and moved the story along at the perfect pace. This was hard to put down! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Amity Gaige’s ‘Heartwood’ is an intense story about a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail. You’ll get to know the characters from different points of view. I’m a sucker for books about humans and nature, suspense, and deep emotional connections. This book has it all!

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Heartwood, by Amity Gage, from Simon & Schuster /NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

You know how some books grow on you overnight, after you’ve finished them?

This one didn’t.

And that’s a shame, because I was super-excited to get an ARC of it just a couple of days after I had first heard of it and put it on my Want to Read list on Goodreads.

Unfortunately, what I read didn’t tip me off to the fact that it is considered “literary fiction.” Which is the sort of fiction that usually leaves me honking on about pretentious writing. And with a headache.

Sure enough, even thinking about it again today has me cranky. It was like Amity Gage took a page from Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series and another from The Thursday Murders Club by Richard Osman and threw in some pandemic-related navel gazing and Reddit stuff and then glommed it on top of the true story of a Geraldine Largay, a woman who went missing on the Appalachian Trail in 2013—and survived 26 days before dying (she kept a journal). Oh, and she mixed in some paramilitary stuff.

Why was this “literary”?? I guess because our idiot—and supremely unlikeable—hiker kept a journal, too? Or because it's easier for the publishing-industrial complex to promote?

Yuck. I can’t keep writing. I wish I could give this 1.5 stars, but because Goodreads won’t let me, I’ll go with 2 stars because I liked the Santos character and the assistant chiefs.

Links, Some Links
About the Anna Pigeon series: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

About The Thursday Murder Club series: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

About Geraldine Largay: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...

DESCRIPTION
“A riveting wilderness suspense novel by a novelist at the height of her powers” (Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Candy House), Heartwoodtakes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.

Heartwood is a “gem of a thousand facets—suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending,” (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker’s odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character’s interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.

This reviewer appreciates the concept of this book and the author's polished writing. The story construction, however, didn't work for me. Thank you for the opportunity.

I LOVE wilderness survival stories. I love them in books and movies. I was excited to read this. However, I soon became bored with the journal entries. For some reason, I got confused often as well. I enjoyed the Appalachian Trail snippets and just the overall feel of nature. 3.5 stars.

I enjoyed this book and especially all of the references to the Northeast states as I live in one of them and I'm familiar with a lot of the towns the author mentions. I liked Lt. Bev's chapters, Valerie's chapters and the interviews with the other hikers but I found some of the other POV's to be boring. I understand why the author added these but I would have liked this book more if it were a straight up survival book. The first half of this book was definitely more engaging than the last half but the build up was pretty good and the conclusion was great.

Also, the joke with the crotchety old Mainer and the dog had me laughing out loud.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I know I'm in the super minority on this one, but I thought it was a snoozer. I read it a few weeks ago, and looking at the cover now I couldn't remember a thing about it! Once I read the synopsis I was able to recall the storyline...but this one was a miss for me.