Review by izzyvg - The God of the Woods

izzyvg 's review for:

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

I enjoyed this book; to me it kind of moved in a slower pace than expected. I appreciated the shorter chapters and the different perspectives. Personally, I wasn’t trying to guess who did it until the last quarter of the book- I felt like that’s when the book really picked up. The book did well in touching on issues related to class, status, and misogyny. It didn’t feel like it was too much in your face but it still left impactful lessons on how women are viewed and treated and how the wealthy can be out of touch. There was a paragraph on page 453 that basically shared that most of us can stand our own, be okay, and support ourselves where as wealthy depend on others to be able to make it far (to be even make it at all I would argue.) Which is interesting to me because those of us in a lower economic status are often said to be the ones to take the handouts and not work hard enough. For the ending,

the one “who did it” was unexpected but not surprising. I was comforted to know if wasn’t a vicious murder but it was sad nonetheless. I feel like out of all characters, Alice had the saddest life. And it makes me sad to think of how many more women out there are voiceless in their marriages and have no clue of who they are due to the belittlement of others, especially men who are supposed to love them.

Speaking of such, one of the characters (probably Louise) mentions how it seems as if rich men don’t like their wives..

Quote that stood out to me:

p. 57 “to be a human is complex, and often painful; to be an animal is comfortingly simple and good”

Content Warnings