Set over two timelines, the two children of the Van Laars disappear 14 years apart. Are their disappearances connected or not?
The Van Laars are bankers who are rich, well-connected and regard themselves as better than the people who work for them and live near them. They regard their wives as chattels and expect to be obeyed. They are not likeable characters.
Bear disappears in 1961 and his mother, Alice, never recovers from the loss - Bear was her life and she spent as much time with him as her husband would allow. After his disappearance they have another child, Barbara, who is no substitute for Bear and who suffers accordingly.
The characters are well portrayed, the story is well told with twists and turns.
My first book by this author, not my last.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Liz Moore/HarperCollins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

This is almost a novel of two halves. Set in a summer camp in the Adirondack mountains, the story hinges on the disappearance of sixteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar from the camp which adjoins her parents’ lakeside summer house. It comes fifteen years after her brother also disappeared from the property. The first half focuses on the camp, some of the teenagers attending, and the young counsellors staffing it. The second half centres on the investigation after Barbara’s appearance, teasingly unveiling layer upon layer of detail and twists in solving not one but two mysteries.

Although the format is that of a thriller / police procedural, particularly in the second half, there is much more to this novel. The plotting and pace are impeccable, with chapters alternating between the years leading up to Bear van Laar’s disappearance in 1961 and the later vanishing of his sister in summer 1975, filling us in on the backstory of various characters - the two children’s mother, the families working for the wealthy Van Laars who are taken for granted by them, people in the nearby deprived towns, other residents and staff at the summer camp itself, and the young female detective who cracks the case and proves herself to herself as well as her male colleagues and her family. The author dissects a slice of social history, showing the unbridgeable chasm between rich Americans at rest and the realities that their wealth cushions them from, not least the enormous social and gender inequalities they perpetuate.

But coming back to the plot - I’ll say again, it is extremely well done and well written, and it kept me reading compulsively. I was interested and invested in the characters to the end, and admired the clever build-up and the way the momentum never flags. This is the perfect intelligent summer read.

Immersive and well written. Overall a good storyline and solid 3 stars - good vacation read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance digital copy

Nearly gave up on this book so many times as it is very, very slow. It jumps around timelines and narrators but the characters are the same so you need to be very aware who is talking when and about what! The representation of the class divides and treatment of women and children in the era was accurately portrayed but it is very hard to read about today. I think it was the ongoing mystery of 'what happened to Bear and Barbara' that kept me reading and I was glad I did as everything was satisfactorily resolved by the end of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this. My Kindle is quite old now and sometimes the formatting on it made it a bit hard to follow the timeline, but that's a minor gripe. It ends quite abruptly but entirely satisfactorily. thoroughly enjoyable.

I absolutely loved this book. So well written and complex - I could quite happily start to read it again from the beginning, right now. A paradise, of sorts, in the Adrionaks - owned by one wealthy family for generations at the expense of a family who were unable to make their living from it. Every year, summer camp is held there for children of other wealthy families; and during the height of the summer, family parties are held for Those who Belong, or Those who Might be Useful in future. Wealth has not provided happiness for the owners, the Van Laars. Having lost their son at the age of eleven (still, nobody knows what actually happened) the mother Alice remains separated from reality by pills and alcohol. The father Peter III or, Peter the third, is a cold man concerned only with reputation, business and appearances. Their daughter Barbara, means little to them and at sixteen she is on the brink of being sent away 'for her own good'. As if they would know what that was. Summer camp is underway, old secrets are being aired and an old name is on the loose - a serial killer who used to hunt the very same area. Planet are aligning.

Summer of 1975, Camp Emerson: Camp counsellor Louise notices that Barbara Van Laar is missing from the cabin she shares with other young girls. As if this isn't bad enough, Barbara isn't the only Van Laar child that has been going missing - fourteen years her ago her brother Bear vanished while going on a hike with his grandfather. Time is ticking and while everyone is searching for Barbara, family secrets and dramas will be revealed...

I have to be honest, normally I'm not the biggest fan of such family novels, because they tend to become boring so fast, but this one really captured me from the first page. The different timelines and POVs had such a huge impact on me and I just couldn't wait to find out what happened to not only Barbara but also her big brother Bear. It is a bit of a slow burn, but it was such a complex and detailed story - I wanted to peel each layer of to get to the dark heart of this story. Although she is introduced rather late in the novel Inspector Judyta "Judy" Luptack is by far my favourite character - a female character in 1975 that is pushing herself farther than her colleagues, her family and even herself expected her to go? I love her.

All in all it was an intense read with a lot of emotions and a lot of atmosphere - you could really travel back in time in your mind. I would give this 5/5 stars and I will definitely look into reading more of Liz Moores books!

A totally absorbing, twisty, character led story of privilege, power and resentment that alternates between different times and characters. Life in the Arondirack mountains in the 1970s is having to change, it’s the modern world, but some like it more than others. A missing boy, the disappearance of his sister decades later and some strong females give an excellent read with a satisfying end.

I really struggled with this book. It was a very slow burn and, although it is well written, it just didn't hold my interest. I DNF at 21%

The story is set in the 70s, on the private grounds of a wealthy banking family in North Eastern US. The catalyst is the disappearance of their 13 year old daughter, bringing up memories of the disappearance of her younger brother, before her birth. At the mystery unfolds, the author exposes a heavily patriarchal and corrupt society, which benefits the wealthy, penalises the poor, and diminishes women. As with the author's previous novel, this one also highlights how structural "trap" lead good people to act badly, corrupting their souls in the process.

This is not an easy book to read - it often made me furious at the unfairness of it all, and the few options that people have to change their lives and run away from unfavourable circumstances. The book can be read as how a series of these compromises, each one made with the best on intentions, leads to a great evil for everyone involved, and, naturally, the unhappiness of the protagonists themselves.

While slow going, the book is extremely engaging and energetic. It's not a high octane thriller, but rather one that moves at the pace of life. It's elegantly written, and sensitively described. All the characters are vivid and lifelike, and none appear artificial.

I also liked the actual mystery. It kept me hooked, and its resolution was not expected. From that perspective also - it was an excellent read.

My only dislike of the book was the overly on-the-nose moralistic aspect of the book. Reading it on its surface, it appears that all wealthy people are self centred, money-crazed, and manipulative. At the same time, all the poor people are manipulable victims. Life is a bit more complex that this, and while there are, of course, situations and people who are well represented by the author's characterisation, it feels a bit shallow and over-politicised. Perhaps there are people who are good, and others who are less good, and everything is a bit more complicated than it seems. More of this nuance would have made the book stand out more - leveraging its exceptional qualities in nearly every single other dimension.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Dark, brooding and absorbing literary thriller

I was captivated by this, start to finish. The only reason I rated it 4.5 raised to 5 rather than immediate 5 was because, on reflecting for this review, there were a couple of decisions which didn’t quite make sense. I can’t/won’t spell them out because they would be minor spoilers

This is set in an isolated, and prestigious, summer camp in the isolated Adirondacks, with a constantly back and forth shifting time-line between 1961 and 1975 – brilliantly managed. The camp is owned by the wealthy, secretive and autocratic van Laar family. The trajectory of the book follows the disappearance of a young eight year old boy, Peter van Laar IV, affectionately known to all as Bear, in 1961 and then the later disappearance of his feisty, stroppy, rebellious early teens sister, Barbara from the same summer camp in 1975

The van Laars are a cold, powerful, moneyed family – or at least that is true for Bear and Barbara’s father and grandfather. Something powerful and rigid is being stated where males bequeath their forename, over and over, to the eldest son. It inevitably smacks of a refusal to allow a child to grow into their own identity.

Although Bear’s young mother had loved her son obsessively, as the only source of joy in her life, she had never found her strong, independent daughter appealing. Her father actively disapproved of Barbara.

The camp itself, and the van Laar family house are served mainly by relocated people from the surrounding area, some of whom lost their traditional livelihoods when the van Laars originally bought the land 3 generations earlier, and built their domain. Inevitably there are deep divisions between the haves and have nots, the wealthy despoilers and the deprived locals.

It turns out that many of the large cast of characters have histories they are wanting to hide, and this includes some of the investigators brought in, either when Bear disappeared, or in the search for Barbara. A convicted murderer and rapist, possibly linked with Bear’s disappearance has also recently escaped from jail…

This is a beautifully constructed book, in its depiction of the landscape itself, the complex dynamics of class, families, and the particular challenges of children, teenagers and their barely older trainee counsellors or counsellors and catering staff running the camp and its activities.

I was delighted to be offered this as an ARC and will be buying Moore’s previous titles. Plot, character and themes are excellently woven together, and, particularly the female characters are wonderfully complex and far from types or cliches

The Van Laars have already lost a son and fifteen years later their daughter is now missing.
In the same woods as her brother and the theory is they are connected. But are they?

Oh my goodness; this was hard going. I didn't think I would ever finish it. The story was good, once it got going, but I found it hard to get into. The characters were portrayed well and it was quite easy to identify with most of them.
The Kindle download of this advanced copy wasn't organised well, as the chapter titles were ambiguous for day and date, which made it hard to follow at first.

The Van Laars son went missing in the forest but there are rumours that the family took too long to ask for help. The same rumours say they knew what had happened to the boy. Fifteen years later and the daughter born out of grief has gone missing in the same forest. Are the disappearances connected? Some say they are.

This started off a bit slow and also it jumps between many characters to the point where I was getting confused as to which character was which. It is set within 2 timelines, the past in which the son Bear goes missing and then 1975 when the daughter Barbara goes missing. Saying this though it did pick up at around the 30% mark and it definitely picked up. Some of the characters were likeable but others not so. The last 20% of the book wrapped it up nicely and I liked the ended. Overall an interesting read.

A book I could not put down. The plot started right at the beginning and continued right to the end. A good bit of storytelling that kept you engrossed.

Twists and turns with bears disappearance and then his sister's disappearance at the annual camp. Wealthy people who think that the law does not apply to them and the measures that they take to keep things in the so called family. The exploitation and control of Alice, Bear's mother is highlighted in the book.

Will Barbara be found dead or alive and will they escape justice again?

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book. The story was slow and although I finished it, it was not my cup of tea.
A girl goes missing years after her brother also goes missing. There was nothing in the story to catch my attention, and this is the sort of story I usually love.

This was a beautifully written literary thriller, extraordinarily compelling with a melancholy, emotional plot and a surprising, heart wrenching finale.

It is a novel of cause and effect in a lot of ways, a small community with the haves and the have nots, two missing children divided by time and this is a very human drama unfolding on the page.

I loved it. Its the type of story that stays with me..

4.25 stars.

This is a slow-burn literary family drama and mystery told in multiple timelines from the 1950s to 1975. There is a lot of moving around between timelines and points of view but this does not detract or distract from the story as I was able to keep track of what was going on relatively easily.

This well-written novel touches on family dysfunction, wealth and power, betrayal, sexism, classism, and generational trauma. There are various plot elements including missing children, a fugitive serial killer and a young female police investigator, and at times it seems like there is a lot going on. However, the pieces do come together nicely near the end of the novel.

A character-driven story, this novel unfolds slowly in the first half with faster pacing towards the end, including some twists. I did find the novel could have perhaps been a bit shorter. At the same time, I thought that the perspectives of some of the male characters could have been included to speak to their motivations (most of the perspectives are those of the female characters).

Overall, a very well-done novel!

Thanks to Harper Collins UK for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

I am sorry but this was a DNF for me. I got to 25% through the book. I just found it very confusing and did not like the timeframe keep switching around, or the very slow pace of the book. I am sure many will love it but it was just not for me

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is an engaging and gripping novel from the very start. The story revolves around the disappearance of 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar from a summer camp in 1975. Moore's use of multiple timelines and perspectives from various protagonists is brilliantly executed, adding depth and intrigue to the narrative.

The characters are richly developed and complex, each contributing significantly to the unfolding mystery. The alternating timelines between the 1950s and the 1970s, along with occasional glimpses into the future, enhance the drama and emotional impact of the story. These elements reminded me of Fredrik Backman's Beartown, one of my all-time favorite books, and the connection to "Bear" in this novel felt coincidental yet fitting.

Moore's writing style is captivating, bringing the setting and characters to life in a vivid and immersive way. The rich, multi-layered plot and exceptional characterization make this book a standout. Even the subtle references to the future are perfectly placed, adding to the overall depth of the narrative.

In summary, The God of the Woods is a masterfully written novel that combines an intriguing plot with complex characters and a beautifully executed narrative structure. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a well-crafted mystery with emotional depth.

Thank You NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a Review Copy