The God of the Woods: A Novel

But it did start a little slow. Lots of characters very good book it kept you on your toes all the way to the end.

Solid novel that I thought about after finishing and not easily forgotten

This is an extraordinary novel. I did not want to stop listening too. I couldn’t even guess what was going to happen next it covers so many themes, social issues, and still has a compelling mystery.

So many vivid characters, twists and turns... This book is hard to let go. Sad I'm finished reading.

I didn't want to stop listening! This is the best book I've read (listened to) in a long time. Now I'm searching for others by this author or are related titles.

Reason read: this was a bookclub pick. I am catching up with it now. I enjoyed this mystery that is set in the Adirondacks at a summer camp. Lots of twists and turns to navigate. A boat load of characters and suspicious peoples. Maybe too many.

POSSIBLE TRIGGERS: Spousal abuse
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning. Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.
In 1975, at Camp Emerson, an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her parents, it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. Barbara could be called a "problem child "...her unhappy parents disapprove of everything from her goth appearance to her stormy, uncontrolled temper. One of Barbara's bunkmates knows that she secretly slips out every night shortly after bedtime. No one knows or seems to really care, where's she's now disappeared to. Speculation arises that she was taken by a local serial killer known as "Slitter".

"Slitter" was known as Jacob Sluiter, when he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and has recently broken out of prison. Most people say that he's who should have been prosecuted for Barbara's brother, Bear's, abduction, and not the gardener who was convicted.

The young assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, pushes on to uncover the truth. She's not convinced by her bully of a father...I wished he would have disappeared, nor her male colleagues...who I hated sight-unseen, that questions if "a little woman is really cut out for this work." GERRRR!

The Van Laars are not going to be wining the "Family of The Year" award, either. It comes to light that the children's father regularly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of her son...and the possible role she played in his disappearance...that she has not an ounce of love or concern left for her daughter, Barbara.

I like this author...a lot. She seems to like basing her books on the "lost families in search of themselves", theme. She's used it in several previous books, and I will admit that it draws sympathy to the characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, or psychological, abuse. The mystery element could easily be lost in this story, but somehow it isn't.... remaining solid until the end. This is an expansive, intricate, and emotionally engaging story that always seems to appear to have each piece of the puzzle neatly falling into place, and every character, be they major or minor, leaving a lasting imprint. Overall: There were many twists and turns that made the characters interesting and the ending unpredictable...but be aware that the story is loaded to the gills with trauma.

This is a story about a very wealthy family that runs a summer camp in the Adirondacks and which happens to have lost both of their children at that camp 13 years apart. The cast of characters is quite lengthy and the author provides a slow release of information from the numerous characters, fashioning a winding trail of storytelling that spans 25 years.

In the beginning I struggled a bit to keep all of the characters and timelines straight. I am admittedly really negligent when it comes to reading the chapter titles and associated dates in most books. I got better at that while reading The God of the Woods.

The writing style is pleasant. There is minimal extraneous information or dialogue. There is (IMO) heavy use of tropes and overused themes (awkward, friendless girl at camp, the angry, domineering father, the disastrously broken mother, the edgy, rebellious daughter), but the story itself works and kept me engaged throughout.

It’s not a deep or heavy read. I had minimal attachment to any of the characters. But it was enjoyable and came to a satisfying conclusion.

Very satisfying multi-voice, multi-timeline thriller.

I enjoyed this book since it was full of suspense and twists and turns. I was a touch disappointed in the ending, however. It's just a personal thing. The writing is excellent, and I read the book very quickly because I couldn't put it down.

Rich people bein' rich people always makes for a good story. Loved how the story unfolded. Loved Alice's chapters, I felt her anguish. Loved the Shattuck citizens.

Great mystery. Touches on topics of class and gender equality in a great realistic way. I thought it was a great read nd I didn’t want to put it down

This was a good book, but I think it went on a little too long and the suspense kind of leaked out of the tale. The multiple time frames were a little confusing at times, and the resolutions of both mysteries seemed a little "manufactured." I had higher hopes for this book but was disappointed to a certain extent.

It was a good book even though I felt like I was being tossed about from year to year and person to person.

Multiple timelines, multiple POVs make this a complicated tangle of secrets and mysteries when teenage girl goes missing from a summer camp in the 1970s. She's the daughter of the wealthy family that owns the camp, and years before her brother went missing and was never found. There's a killer on the loose after her escapes from prison, there's lies and betrayals and hidden histories. Takes a bit to get really going and has bits that feel flabby, but it all comes together very well by the end.

I was looking forward to Liz Moore's new book and it did not disappoint. Two disappearances, Barbara, a twelve year old in 1973 and her brother, Bear who disappeared a year before she was born. Both from the same camp on their family's private preserve. Well done, it held my interest from beginning to end. Another excellent book this summer for me!

Good summer read mystery

I didn’t want to put this one down. Good writing, excellent characterizations, good story, insight into human behavior, and mystery. Who’s the bad guy? I was surprised. At first I was confused by all the characters, but as I read and became familiar, I liked how I could see the story from each person’s perspective.
A girl goes missing from summer camp. The problem is that her brother went missing several years prior and was never found. And these two are from a very wealthy family.

A mystery-family drama worth of Eudora Welty or John Steinbeck. The Adirondack town and it's deeply interconnected families come to life as the novel's mystery unspools.

Set in the Adirondack Mountains, this story centers around the wealthy Van Laar family, who have owned and operated Camp Emerson for children on the shores of Lake June for decades. In August of 1975, their independent daughter, Barbara, goes missing, which reopens the case of their son, Bear, who vanished years earlier. With two missing children, the Van Laar family comes under intense scrutiny from the State Troopers tasked with finding Barbara.

The narrative shifts back and forth in time, revealing clues surrounding the investigation and unearthing complex, tangled relationships between the family and their friends. Judyta Luptack, the only female trooper on the investigative team, takes the lead and demonstrates her keen investigative skills while confronting workplace bias, overprotective parents, and the intimidating Laar family.

The book is well-written and features an engaging plot; however, the author's use of time shifts is sometimes confusing.

Much like Moore's previous book, [Long Bright River], [The God of the Woods] is a character-driven suspense novel with complicated family dynamics and a central mystery that is slowly unraveled. The set-up takes a while, and the beginning dragged a bit for me, but once the investigation of the missing person got going, the read really took off. I appreciated the various perspectives (though I don't think including a couple of sections from Sluiter's POV added very much) and the shifts in the timeline were handled deftly. Ultimately, this was a satisfying read, even if I didn't love it as much as [Long Bright River] or Moore's much earlier novel, the very different [Heft].

4 stars

Well-crafted story with enough twists and turns and character development to be satisfying and enjoyable. Spooky guys in the woods, rich family with a tragedy, wide cast of characters. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Various characters tell the story about siblings who go missing, one in 1961 and one in 1975.

Plenty of complexity and well written to keep me interested, although kind of predictable. The characters were disappointingly unoriginal. From my uniformed and unsophisticated perpective, I think Liz Moore peaked in creativity in 2012 with "Heft"

A teenage girl goes missing from her swanky summer camp in the Adirondacks, which is the catalyst to recount the life stories of a lot of her family members and the camp staff. The girl's older brother also disappeared in the same forest many years before, and although someone was convicted of murdering him, the case was never satisfactorily closed. The wealthy family of these two children, who also own the summer camp, have a lot of family secrets.

This is an engaging slow burn of a thriller. There are a lot of characters, but Moore writes them with enough depth and clarity that it's easy to keep them all straight. The flashbacks of all of the various characters come together into a satisfying climax to the story.

The two children of a wealthy family disappear nearly ten years apart. Stories from both time lines weave together to solve the mysteries.

This is a propulsive read with many interesting characters. In the early morning of 1975, Barbara Van Laar is discovered to have gone missing from her cabin at camp. Her well off family owns the camp, and sadly her elder brother, nicknamed Bear, also disappeared during a hike nearby some fourteen year prior, never to be found. This was a fascinating read as we got to know the sad story of Barbara and Bear's distressed mom, Alice, her less than kind father, and the many troubled members of the family. Meanwhile, young investigator Judyita is doing her best along with other of the police force to track down the whereabouts of Barbara. A mystery, a story of troubled families, friendships, and conflicting social circles.

I really just wanted this to be at least mildly interesting. But there was no God of the woods, just a neglected teenage kid who ran away with the help of a camp counselor who was a family friend. Wish that I would’ve read this at two times the speed to make it go quicker.

This book had good characters and a nice setting, but the plot was slow and not super enticing for a mystery/suspense novel.

A few plot holes and highly improbable details made this book just okay for me. The author seemed more intent on making sure that the reader didn't figure out the mystery than in fully committing to a character driven tale.