This was the first book that I have read by Liz Moore.
Initially, I struggled with the multiple points of view and remembering everyone's names. But as the story developed I enjoyed the character of the female investigator and her background, and the role she played in the thriller.
Good twist at the end, too, when we find out what actually happened to Bear.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

thanks to net galley and the publishers for an advanced ecopy for a review. I liked that the book flicked between past from 1950s up to the present in the 70s. The book is told from a variety of characters points of views which I liked as you gradually were able to build a picture up from all their lives. The book is based around land in America occupied by woods and a camp. Follows the Van Laars family who have had their son go missing 12 years prior and now their daughter Barbara has also gone missing. I liked the female led roles especially Judyta who is the investigator in a male led career and environment. The books is full of families secrets and lies and this is different to other books I have read and very enjoyable I will be recommending.

Good read. Strughled in the beginning with all the characters but got into it. Page turner and get twist. Can't wait to too if a sequel

This book is well written, but so very long. I found it difficult keep track of the multiple POVs and the ever switching back and forward of the timelines. At times it was really confusing trying to decide who was in which timeline. The different stories around the missing children were not as gripping as they should have been. Eventually this book just became a real hard slog to keep reading, with the result that I skim read much of it.
This did not live up to the hype for me, I was disappointed.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

Thank you @lizmoorebooks for restoring my faith in reading! I've been dragging myself through a few books lately but they either bombed for me or were DNF but this was absolutely Fandabbidozzi!!

Summer camp+ missing kids+unsolved mysteries= a captivating thriller!

Loved so much about this perfect summer thriller! The story is set over numerous timelines (loved how all the timelines are listed at the beginning of each chapter with just the era concerned highlighted...see pic 2).
Two siblings go missing decades apart and its up to a fresh faced investigator named Judy to solve the deep twisted mystery. It bobs between timelines featuring a generous plethora of intriguing characters yet I never found it confusing..that could be because I devoured it I 48 hours! Literally COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN...its the first time a book has kept me up past midnight reading under the covers by kindle light in a loooong time

Highly recommend this to all but especially to thriller lovers and those after a dark and twisted summer beach read!

The God of the Woods came to me at the height of summer and felt preordained to be the right book read at the right time. I was engrossed by it, invested in the parallel storylines of missing Van Laar children in and around Camp Emerson, Bear in 1961 and Barbara in 1975.

I struggle to pinpoint exactly what it was that struck a chord with me. Character development is key, certainly. Particularly regarding Alice, and Judy, too. Intelligent capable women, both, one wealthy yet a prisoner of circumstance, the other working class but a smart, diligent worker who gave her all to break from expectation and societal limitations. The haves and the have nots bring into sharp relief a class imbalance within this text that weaves flawlessly within the mystery of these two disappearances. Those with money and influence can do no wrong whilst those hardly getting by seem to pay a steep price for their lowly status. This does feel strongly of that era, especially the casual sexism, though I suspect that imbalance is just as strong now as it ever was.

This is a bittersweet tale that gripped my imagination in a subtle way. Every tid bit of information in the search for the truth, as well as the children, themselves, was gently and thoughtfully delivered. There is an atmospheric power that ratchets the tension ever so slightly as the drama unfolds. Brilliant stuff well worth reading, I promise you.

The God in the Woods is set in the Adirondacks in 1975. The Van Laar family run a yearly children’s camp in the grounds of their estate and this year they have finally allowed teenage Barbara Van Laar to attend.
However, within a few weeks Barbara has disappeared, echoing the disappearance of her brother Bear 14,years before. Soon old secrets are unearthed and the police investigating have far more to deal with than they first imagined.
This is an intense and detailed read, close to 500 pages, it’s a pretty long one too. However, it’s is very absorbing and kept me reading. The sense of time and place is perfect as the book moves between 1961 and 1975. The details of the grand estate with its parties and the 70s children’s camp are beautifully drawn. The cast of characters is large and most are vivid, particularly Bear and Barbara’s tragic mother and the the young policewomen working the case. Both are women constrained by what society wants from them and either failing or succeeding to break free.
This is a really intelligent literary thriller and the end is satisfying in the strangest of ways.

An atmospheric and intriguing mystery set in a summer camp in 1975 that starts with the disappearance of a teenager. Interesting characters, great sense of time and place and the denouement is satisfying and concludes the story well.

It’s 1975 and summer camp at a remote preserve in the Adirondack mountains, Northeastern New York, is drawing towards a close. Then one of the teenagers, Barbara, goes missing. But she isn’t just any camper, she is the daughter of the affluent Van Laar family, whose picturesque lands of forests and lakes around their grand lodge have hosted these summer campers for several generations. She also isn’t the first Van Laar child to go missing, with the disappearance of her brother Bear 14 years earlier.

Moving back and forth in time, and spanning three decades, The God of the Woods is a gripping literary thriller and family saga, centering around a powerful family that both looms above and remains intricately linked to the local, hard-working community around it, written in short propulsive chapters from a diverse mix of key perspectives. Louise, the camp counsellor who is trying to work her way to a better life than what she has come from, and who was in charge of Barbara when she went missing. Tracy, a shy and awkward camper whose summer is changed when the defiant but magnetic Barbara chooses her as a friend. Alice, Barbara’s mother, drawn into the Van Laar family at a young age. Judyta, the brilliant young investigator who has to fight for responsibility and respect. And several other characters, each one of whose storyline contributes new pieces bit by bit to this intricately crafted puzzle, as we draw closer to an end that I didn’t see coming until just before all was revealed.

From well-developed characters with compelling back stories, that we can’t help but become invested in, and vividly captured settings, to a fully immersive writing style and a clever, compulsive plot, Moore’s novel explores everything from privilege, misogyny and abuse of power, to complex families and betrayal, loss and trauma, well kept secrets, and the ties that bind and break people. I loved absolutely everything about this book, to say it’s a page-turner would be putting it lightly, and it was one of those ones that, as soon as I finished it, I wished I could start all over again for the first time. Highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the DRC.

Quite an intriguing read. A thirteen year old girl disappears from summer camp and echoes a past disappearance. There are many past secrets to be uncovered, together with a healthy dash of family pride and loyalties. As we might expect there is a lot of money at stake and jealousies.
I enjoyed the sense of mystery and desperation of the story and it was quite atmospheric. A recommend from me.

I thought this novel was an excellent page turner. Set in a small rural community a young girl goes missing just like her brother years ago. She is the daughter of the Van Laars , a powerful family who own a camp that young people go to , to engage in activities. In comes Judy who is investigating, she comes across a lot of hostility and a web of lies that span many years. I love the atmosphere of small communities where there are secrets galore. It is told from various people so you get a slow mystery where the plot is revealed over time. It is a novel about privilege and money and what it can buy you. It’s a coming of age story with consequences. It’s a story about family and loyalty, as well as love and grief. I have read Long Bright River by this author and loved it. I am definitely going to read more.

I remember reading Long Bright River by Liz Moore and enjoying it (although I can't remember a thing about it!) so when I saw God Of The Woods on netgalley I had to request it!

Let me tell you this book felt so long!! At 496 pages (and this number annoyed me so much as it's so close to 500 but goes in the 300-499 category on story graph 🥴). The story is slow. There are a ton of characters and a dual timeline (and the netgalley format made this so much more confusing than it needed to be!).

There are 2 missing children in this book. Barbara Van Laar has gone missing from summer camp in 1975. Back in 1961 her younger brother Bear Van Laar also went missing. The story was intriguing but it was so slow that by the time it was all revealed at the end, I wasn't really sure I cared!

It is very well written but I found I just didn't get invested into the characters and the story the way I was hoping to! In the end I found it a bit of a slog! Can't like them all I guess!

This is currently in my 'favourites of 2024' list. I couldn‘t put it down! The Van Laars own a camp in the middle of the woods. In 1975 Barbara, their daughter, is missing from her camp bunk. 15 years earlier her brother, Bear, also went missing in the woods and was never found. Are the two disappearances connected?

I loved all of the characters (or loved to hate some of them!) and there were so many twists and turns, which I didn‘t see coming at all.

Highly recommended!

This was a fascinating story with lots of ups amd downs. Well described characters that brought the story to life. I did like the conclusion, very clever!!

Police procedural family drama.
Set in 1975, Judy, the only female police investigators in her division, is called to help find missing teenager Barbara Van Laar who disappeared from her family's kids camp.
As she investigates, she reveals that there are questions about her brother's disappearance 14 years ago. But Barbara's family are powerful and rich and many locals rely on the estate for work. Somehow Judy needs to find the truth.

This is a well-written psychological thriller which keeps you turning the pages right up to the end. This double mystery weaves two timelines together about the community surrounding a summer camp. Told from multiple perspectives this clever novel interrogates themes of misogyny, agency, coercion and class. Twisty and intelligent - a good summer literary thriller.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

It’s 1975 and Judy is investigating the disappearance of Barbara, a teenager from an outdoor camp on her home property.
Alice, Barbara’s mother, has never got over the disappearance of her son Bear in 1961.
As the investigation team get to work, questions come up, secrets hidden for so long come out.
Initially, it took a while to get into. The characters grew as the book went on, and I came to feel really invested in them, rooting for some.
Easy to read and the pace really picked up as I got into the book. Twists and turns and deadends made the book interesting and engaging.

Let me start by saying I’m really not normally into thrillers. I often find them too simplistic and not sufficiently character-driven – they are often the kinds of plots I’d much rather experience in a movie than a book. But I had a blast with “The God of the Woods.” Although I ultimately wasn’t bowled over by the mystery, I think this is an exhilarating, sensitive and truly addicting drama that many readers will adore diving into.

In August 1975, Barbara Van Laar disappears from her wealthy family's summer camp, echoing the nightmare of her brother Bear's disappearance 14 years earlier. As the search for Barbara begins, the Van Laar family’s ugliest secrets – and those of the local community – start to emerge. We jump from the time around Bear’s disappearance to that of Barbara’s, piecing together what happened through various characters’ perspectives. What quickly becomes clear is that this prominent family is built on some very shaky foundations.

Liz Moore’s writing is blunt, seamless to read and suspenseful; her short and enticing chapters make putting this book down virtually impossible. She builds convincing inner worlds for characters of all ages, classes, and even mental states, and I never dreaded spending time with any of them – even if I despised them. Far from being one-dimensional placeholders in a pacy thriller, these characters are complex, sympathetic and often surprisingly vulnerable people; seeing how the disappearance of a child from an affluent local family could foreground both their best and worst qualities was a fascinating ride.

While I did find the start of the novel to be uncomfortably “info-dumpy,” this might simply be my lack of experience with thrillers. I found myself wishing we lingered longer with certain key characters’ reflections and memories, rather than picking apart the facts of the mystery. As for the “big reveal,” I found myself genuinely torn – was it knock-me-off-my-feet clever and sufficiently unexpected? Definitely not. Did it leave me with a lump in my throat, breathless even though I could see what was coming? Yes.

Readers looking for an intricately spun mystery that will blow their minds might want to look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for a riveting summer read that will also get you thinking about class, childhood, fragile familial ties and gender, I’d heartily recommend “The God of the Woods.”

Many, many thanks to HarperCollins for the review copy.

A summer camp, a big house, a family, two disappearances.

Is there a connection between the disappearance of a young boy and the disappearance of his sister several years later? And what is really going on at the summer camp? A diverse cast of characters - the troubled mother, the rebellious teenage daughter, camp staff who may not be what they seem - what are the connections, and what might they know about the disappearances?

A well-woven mystery with some nice twists and turns.

I found this story hard to follow. It is elaborated and winding and I found it hard to concentrate on it. There are also multiple timelines and so many characters to tell apart and put in their right time. There is much going on but somehow the plot felt thin. The only person I could connect with was Judyta.



Fifteen years ago, Bear, the only son and heir to the Van Laar family went missing. He wanted to take a walk with his grandfather but turned back to the house to get something and he was never to be seen again. Some people say the search for him was not intense enough. It seems as if the Van Laars already know what happened to be boy. So, they got a replacement child, Barbara. But Barbara is not like Bear. She is different. She wants to spent the summer in the summer camp the Van Laars own. But there she goes missing, too.



I found it hard to keep track of the timelines and which person belongs in which. The story is multilayered and tragic. There are so many subplots. The story is set in 1961 and 1975 and the differences in class and especially how women were treated then seems accurate but it is infuriating to read about it today. The mystery about the disappearance of the two children kept me reading but overall, I was a bit disappointed that although there is so much going on, the story itself fell flat for me. And for my taste it was way to slow and it surprisingly lacks dept.