There was a particular brand of humor employed by twelve and thirteen-year-old girls, especially when they weren’t in the presence of boys: it was at once disgusting and innocent, bawdy and naive. When it wasn’t being used for ill–when no one was its target–this type of humor delighted Louise. From the wall, she watched them quietly, fondly, recalling what it was like to be in this moment of life that was like a breath before speech, a last sweet pause before some great unveiling.
Part 1: Barbara, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Table of Contents
Preamble
I am pretty damn sure I heard about The God of the Woods back when it first came out in 2024. I don’t recall who exactly mentioned it when it came out but I have a vague recollection of hearing about it. At the time I did not put this book in my to-be-read pile.
The book resurfaced as a book club pick for the lexi aka newlynova book club for the month of October 2025 so I went ahead and read it. I had to buy an ebook copy of the book because there was quite the number of holds on the book in the Toronto Public Library system. 392 holds with 150 copies to be precise. So no way I was getting that hold in time for the end of the month.
As a bit of fun coincidence, last month’s book club pick was Bury Our Bones in Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab which I happened to finish reading just before I become a member of the book club. Participating in a book club such as this gives me motivation to read books I normally wouldn’t read and as such widens my horizon.
Without further ado, let’s get into the book.
The Book
The God of the Woods is best described as a historical mystery/thriller set in an Adirondack summer camp (mostly) in the 1970s with a few jaunts into the 50s/60s. The primary mystery at the core of the book is the disappearance of one Barbara Van Laar, the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and a secondary mystery of the disappearance of her older brother fourteen years before Barbara’s disappearance.
The story follows a large cast of characters – counsellors, campers & their family members, law enforcement and one serial killer. The story is told from the POV of a few of them – Alice Van Laar, Louise, Tracy, Judyta and the serial killer Jacob Sluiter. I think the story overextended a little bit with the amount of characters, I especially felt the serial killer character was an uninteresting addition that I could have done without.
The number of character POVs also made it difficult at first for me to really get invested in any one character’s story. Ultimately, the story I ended up caring the most about was Alice Van Laar’s rather tragic story. The way the story wove the tragedy of Alice’s life from her marriage, to the birth of her children left me feeling quite sad and with a lot of sympathy for Alice.
I think did the story did an alright job managing the multiple POVs, most of the POVs (with the exception of Jacob) were interesting and the author did a good job of fleshing out the characters. I am beginning to think that I just don’t like the serial killer character archetype. That said, unlike Bury Our Bones in Midnight Soil there weren’t any POVs that I really disliked reading.
That brings me to themes, this book deals with some heavy themes – the loss of a child, domestic abuse, and grief/trauma. There are also underlying themes of misogyny/sexism, and there is depiction of mental illness and institutionalization. There is also the theme that I am calling “rich people being assholes” which runs throughout the book.
This book’s strength is in the way it weaves all its thematic threads into a story that was effective at being both a mystery and a family drama spanning decades. Balancing those two genres is a delicate act and I think the book did it well. The puzzle pieces all fit together quite nicely.
The prose does a good job of setting the right vibe and atmosphere but in places it can be a bit too purple or the author made use of a word that I think came from thesaurus overuse rather than a genuine need to use the word. A word that I made note of as an example was “abstemious“. While I appreciate learning a new word, it still felt unnecessarily formal and didn’t fit the vibe of the book.
My primary criticism of the book would be that it has a slow start. The first 25% of the book felt like it was dragging on as the book put all of the elements of the story into place and built the framework of the story. Once I got over the initial hump of the first 25%, the book became a lot more intriguing and I found myself enjoying my time with the book.
Conclusions
I generally had a good time reading The God of the Woods. Once the book gets its gears into motion, it becomes a very compelling mystery with interesting characters and lots of complicated family dynamics. I found the ending to be…decent. I never figured out the major plot reveals before they happened and the ending felt satisfying.
I am looking forward to discussing the book further with the other folks in lexi’s book club at the end of the month to see how others felt about it. It is genuinely quite exciting to be in a book club, it is something I wanted as part of my book hobby to make it more of a social hobby.
I am also happy to report that this is the 52nd book I’ve read this year which means that I have reached my 2025 reading goal of 52 books. I originally set the goal to 52 as a way to set a pace of one book for each week in the year but I ended up reaching the goal months ahead of schedule due to reading a lot more during the summer when I had nothing else to do but to stay indoors by a fan and read a book.
This is your irregular reminder to go follow/friend me on Storygraph if that is something you use. That’s all from me, see y’all in the next one.
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