The God of the Woods, a review by Kristin

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The God of the Woods
By: Liz Moore

Publication Date: July 2, 2024
Published By: Riverhead Books
496 pages

Find It On: Amazon | Goodreads

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“To panic….was to make an enemy of the forest. To stay calm was to be its friend.”

At Camp Emerson in 1975, Barbara Van Laar goes missing. But she’s not just anyone, she’s the daughter of the family that owns the camp, and the sister of the boy that went missing before she was born. As the search unfolds, so does the fact that maybe the police got it wrong the first time when the boy went missing.

The book started off really well. I read the first 45 pages in 45 minutes; I mean I was flying through the book. Well, I flew through the Part I of the book. Then it started to slow down from there, unfortunately. This is one of those books that likes to be verbose without adding much to the story. There is SO much backstory included here that just didn’t push the story forward. Moore writes beautifully and if that’s what you like, then you’ll love this. But, as I’ve always stated, I don’t want words for the sake of words. I want there to be a reason, I want the words to help push the plot forward.

The story went back and forth between people and time periods making it a little hard to follow – almost like you needed a timeline! When it got back to the main story line of Barbara, or even the subplot of the little boy, the book was interesting again. But that was short lived because inevitably the next chapter changed directions.

The ending was a little unsatisfying as well. I don’t want to say more than that because I don’t want to give anything away to those who haven’t read it. I am glad I read this book. It’s a good book, but it would be better if it was just edited down.