A. W. Slack

The following is my book recommendation for The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is a literary thriller centered on the disappearance of Barbara Van Laar from her family’s summer camp in 1975. This event mirrors the mysterious disappearance of Barbara’s older brother, Bear. The narrative, told through multiple perspectives and timelines, unravels the secrets of the wealthy Van Laar family and the blue-collar community around the Adirondack estate. It explores themes of class and privilege, the stages of grief, and family dysfunction.

This book is hard to place a genre on as it is a great mix of mystery, thriller, and historical fiction. It jumps through multiple characters’ points of view and spans across years to tell its story. Even so, I found the story easy to follow and the author’s subtle direction of the plot was very well-written.

You start with the disappearance of Barbara Van Laar, the 13-year-old daughter of the wealthy Van Laar family. She disappears from the summer camp that resides on her family’s estate. Her disappearance comes fourteen years after the unsolved disappearance of her brother Bear, who was 8-years-old.

I thoroughly enjoyed the use of multiple storytellers in this book! The story is told from the perspective of several characters who have vastly different backgrounds and lifestyles. You have:

• Tracy, Barbara’s outcast bunk-mate and friend sent to the summer camp after her parents’ divorce and who admires Barbara’s confident personality
• Louise, Barbara’s camp counselor who is wrongly framed for her disappearance
• Alice, Barbara’s pill-addicted mother who is suffering from long-term PTSD after her son’s disappearance
• Judyta, the first female investigator for the police department on Barbara’s disappearance case and who navigates mansplaining with far more grace than me
• Carl, the groundskeeper for the Van Laar estate and the last person to see Bear before his disappearance
• Jacob, a convicted serial killer who has escaped from prison and is hiding in the woods due to excellent survival skills taught to him as a child

Each character had great growth throughout the story and it was stunning to watch them interweave more and more as the plot drew to its climax. I found the different POVs easy to follow and enjoyed Moore’s ability to build each character’s personality so they were easy to separate. She also did a great job of using the characters to fill in the blanks throughout the plot, often unfolding a small mystery from the previous character’s story-telling with another directly afterwards.

One character I was surprised to resonate so well with was Alice. Some of her chapters where she is going through the stages of grief were absolutely heartbreaking. From a mama with little boys, I felt physical heartache when she hears Bear’s small voice crying for her, both when he is with his night nurse and once he has disappeared. If I could have stood beside her in those moments, I know for a fact Peter would have been backhanded several times over. Ugh! Wonderfully chilling writing by the author.

Though I liked the character changes and their overall arcs, there was a ring of similarity between some of them, especially Louise and Alice. Each came from very different backgrounds and are decades apart in age, but they both bothered me in the same way: they dumbed themselves and acted weak to appease the men in their life. Men who were abusive, condescending, and unfaithful.

The other issue I had concerning the book was the final big mystery’s reveal (don’t worry, no spoilers here!) The story had several small twists throughout it and many red herrings — some answered, others not so much. But the two big reveals at the end? *crickets*

I did not see one of those resolutions coming and I honestly am not sure how I feel towards it. I thought I had the answer figured out about 70% through the story, but the actual twist was a bit outlandish for me.

Even with my feelings towards the resolution of this book, I found the story to be engrossing. The hours reading and listening to it passed quickly. The numerous clues and theories kept me on the edge of my seat until the final pages of discovering whodunit.

From someone who lived for summer camp throughout her childhood and became a camp counselor once aged-out, Moore does a great job painting the realities of fear there is to watch several children in a wild, wooded setting. It was a great read and one I am happy to say I have added to my “completed” library.

WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO A FRIEND?

Yes! The author does a great job developing her characters and writes an engaging story that will keep you on the edge of your seat until its final pages.

Have you read this book? Find me on Instagram @wordsandash and comment on my post there so we can discuss more! (Please do not reveal any spoilers in the comment section here in case other readers still have this book on their #TBR.)

Find this book on Amazon.
Find this book on GoodReads.
Find my book reviews on GoodReads.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.