Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

53 reviews

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

When I stumbled upon this book, I was trying to find a book that was serious but also not so serious in terms of older American literature. At that time I have read many old American literature books that were borderline depressing, and made me feel the same way. In spite of that, I still read them because of the serious material that showed complexity behind it, that didn’t take important topics and problems out to be a joke. This American contemporary literature book, was the perfect balance between serious and not borderline depressing. It handled serious topics surrounding spousal emotional abuse, child neglect, spousal assault, classism, and sexism beautifully. When I read the synopsis, it gave me the same impression that was proven correct after reading it. Not only that, but it had a nice ending that neatly tied things up. There was some plot holes, but nothing actually big or important, just general insignificant details here and there. I like how it’s also a historical fiction that throws you  into the world of the 1960s-70s, a time not so long ago from today’s 2025, and yet something so starkly important in showing how much progress we’ve made within a century. Love it love it love it!! 10/10 highly recommend! 

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I don't really know how I feel about this one. It was readable? I didn't DNF it, so that's something. 

I actually like mystery-thrillers as a genre because I enjoy the suspense and putting the pieces of the mystery together, but I feel like they are often quite cynical in their portrayal of characters and the world in general, so I avoid them for that reason. Much of this book is just about how awful and powerful rich people (mostly men) are. I am well aware that the world is full of corruption and greed at large and small scale. I just want to read a summer camp murder mystery to get a little creepy thrill and maybe feel clever for figuring out the crime before the reveal. I did figure one of the cases out pretty early, but it was more depressing than satisfying. The actual ending to everything is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Some character perspectives were harder to read than others. Alice and Louise make some awful decisions, Alice out of dull acquiescence and Louise it seems because the plot demands it. Tracy's chapters are like a painful concentration of the worst parts of being a 13 year old girl. Even for chapters from characters that are a little more reasonable, like Judyta, everything around them still has to be seeped in misogyny, bigotry, and classism. 

Saskia Maarleveld is always a great audiobook narrator. It would have been cool though to have different narrators for all the perspectives.

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mysterious slow-paced

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

every so often I pick up a popular crime thriller just to see if I might like them. I never do. 

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Set against a summer camp in 1975, something is amiss at Camp Emerson. The Van Lars are an old money family who own the camp, and employ most of the locals, but when their daughter goes missing secrets will be unearthed…


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