Title: The God of the Woods
Author: Liz Moore
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication date: July 2, 2024
Length: 490 pages
Genre: Mystery/thriller
Source: Library
Rating:

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

In The God of the Woods, an intricate timeline and multiple points of view bring to vivid life the story of missing children, a privileged family, and its influence over the working class people who depend upon them for their livelihoods.

The story opens at Camp Emerson, a summer camp located on the grounds of the Van Laar Preserve. The Van Laar family bought this vast property in the Adirondacks from loggers several generations back, and have turned it into their mountain getaway. Their huge house, named Self-Reliance, dominates the hilltop overlooking the lake; down the hill, the staff of the camp tend to the children of wealthy families each summer.

In the summer of 1975, 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar attends camp for the first time. She’s an independent-minded, punk rock-loving teen who’s happy to be out from under her parents’ control for the eight weeks of camp, and she quickly bonds with one of the other new girls in her cabin. But in August, Barbara’s counselor wakes up to discover that Barbara’s bed is empty, and fears the worst.

Fourteen years earlier, the first Van Laar child — named Peter (Peter IV, to be exact) but known as Bear, also went missing from the Van Laar Preserve and was never found, despite a huge search. Now, fears run high that the same fate has befallen Barbara, and news that a notorious serial killer has escaped prison and is on the lam in the Adirondacks only adds to the searchers’ desperation.

But there is so much more to the story than a missing person’s case. As each chapter begins, a different date is highlighted, and the narrative jumps between the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, as well as between different points in that fateful summer of 1975. The story is not told chronologically; confusing at first, but ultimately, adding to the depth of the character portrayals and giving readers plenty of clues and red herrings to chew over.

Beyond the dual mysteries surrounding Bear and Barbara, the book also is a portrait of the deep divide between haves and have-nots. The Van Laars are seemingly untouchable. They and their wealthy, powerful friends control the area, providing the only source of employment for the nearest small town since the paper factory shut down years earlier. No one can afford to get on the Van Laars’ bad side, even if it means looking away when bad things happen.

I was hesitant to pick up The God of the Woods, not sure that the genre and writing would appeal to me, based on comments I’d read here and there. I’m so glad I got past my concerns and gave it a try. After some initial struggles with the jumps between timelines, I became more comfortable with the book’s structure and ended up finding the chronology fascinating. As for the writing itself, it’s tense and illuminating, and doesn’t drag a bit — those 500 pages absolutely flew by.

With so many point-of-view characters, it may feel almost overwhelming at first to keep track of them all, but ultimately, having so many perspectives — some accurate, some not — on the events of 1975 as well as the earlier disappearance, only adds to the depth of the story. The depiction of the Van Laars and their guests, lounging about in satin pajamas even when a child goes missing, is a chilling portrait of cold power and indifference. And then there’s the setting itself, the beautiful, dangerous forests of the Adirondacks — where campers are taught to immediately sit down and start yelling if they realize they’re lost. The Van Laar home may seem luxurious and civilized, but it’s surrounded by wilderness, which ultimately holds more power than the people who come there.

My only quibble with this book is that the title seems like an odd choice to me. Yes, it’s somewhat clearer by the end, but generally speaking, it seems pretty disconnected from the overall story. On the other hand, the cover is brilliant. It’ll make more sense once you read the book!

I can’t say enough good things about The God of the Woods. By the time I passed the halfway mark, I couldn’t put it down and wanted nothing more than uninterrupted time to read straight through to the end. Don’t miss this well-written, thought-provoking, surprising, twisty book!