A review by emilyinherhead
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This was easily my most anticipated book of the summer. And—I won’t drag this out—thank goodness, it lived up to the hype for me!

The God of the Woods is a mystery set at a summer camp in the Adirondacks in 1975, where a camper named Barbara Van Laar has just gone missing. Liz Moore tells the story through many different points of view, taking us back to the 1950s and 1960s to fill in necessary backstory about Barbara’s wealthy family (who owns the camp) and the folks who work for them. It’s very tangly and it digs deep into class inequality and money and reputation. I guessed one of the reveals toward the end, but there were other twists I didn’t see coming, and the whole thing wrapped up SO satisfyingly.

I love a well-written mystery for the plot, of course, but Moore gives us more (heh) than that—I wanted to keep hanging out in this setting, with these characters, almost as much as I wanted to find out what happened. The almost five hundred pages went by in a breeze, and I wouldn’t have minded if it had been longer. This was a completely compelling and immersive reading experience, a near perfect summer novel; I can’t recommend it highly enough.