I have been waiting over a year to read Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods because the hardcover version was expensive, and I was not able to find it on sale. The paperback version finally came out at the end of October, and let me tell you, it was worth the wait to read this book.  

The God of the Woods is about a thirteen-year-old girl named Barbara Van Laar who goes missing from the summer camp owned by her wealthy family, the same place that her brother vanished from fourteen years earlier. The novel is told from various perspectives, including: shy, awkward, twelve-year-old Tracy, Barbara’s friend at summer camp, who knows that Barbara sneaks away every night to meet her boyfriend; camp counsellor Louise, who was not where she was supposed to be the night Barbara disappeared, and who becomes a scapegoat for her rich boyfriend who is a suspect in Barbara’s disappearance; Barbara’s mother, Alice, who has been absolutely destroyed by her son’s disappearance and does not have a good relationship with her daughter; Judyta, one of the first female state troopers in the US who was quickly promoted to the New York State Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and becomes involved in the investigation into Barbara’s disappearance; and even serial killer Jacob, who has escaped from prison and is in the area when Barbara goes missing.

The God of the Woods is a character-driven mystery novel, and you know that I love character-driven stories. It reminds me a lot of Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark in its focus on character almost to the point that the mystery becomes secondary. Moore takes the time to delve into her characters’ lives before they each end up at Camp Emerson, dropping nuggets of information about the Van Laar children’s disappearances along the way, and I found each character to be interesting.

Beyond the mystery, the novel is about class discrimination and how the Van Laar family, by virtue of their higher position in society and their importance in providing jobs for the residents who live near the summer camp, can manipulate people on a lower social stratum so there is no stain on the Van Laar reputation.

The God of the Woods is set primarily in 1975 in the Adirondack Mountains and as I was reading the novel I found myself absorbed into the setting. I could feel the summer heat and the quiet isolation of Camp Emerson. I tromped through the woods and drove along winding rural roads with the characters. I have never been to summer camp, but I know what it’s like now through Tracy’s experience of it.

If you like slow burn mysteries, then The God of the Woods is the perfect book. The ending is tragically heartbreaking but also satisfying. This is a novel I can definitely see myself coming back to.