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I read The God of the Woods because there were just SO many good reviews out there, some by people I knew. I’m glad I did because it ended up being riveting, though it took a while to really get into it.
It’s the end of summer and it’s almost wrap-up time for Camp Emerson, attended primarily by well-to-do or well-connected children and young teens. It was started by Peter Van Laar (the first), who came to the Adirondacks in the late 1800s and bought pristine land there. He built a grand home for his family, where they always stay during the summers. Now, his son and grandson (both named Peter as well) own the house, land, and camp.
Members of the family have never actually attended the camp themselves, but this year, 1975, Barbara, the only child of the (third) Van Laars, decides to go.
Now, it’s August, and one morning, it’s discovered that 13-year-old Barbara has gone missing. The search is on immediately, and it’s taken particularly seriously because it’s not the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Fourteen years earlier, 8-year-old Bear simply vanished. And his family, particularly his mother, has mourned him deeply ever since.
The story jumps around among four or five times, mostly within 10 or 15 years of each other. It slowly reveals the background of various characters, both the Van Laars and those from the area who work for them, and events. We get the points of view of a young investigator, a camp counselor, the young Van Laar wife, the teen Barbara. It can sometimes feel a bit haphazard, but each section matters.
We wonder if Barbara was murdered or kidnapped, if it was possibly by the same person who took or killed her brother. We wonder about motives, fault, guilt. The book digs into questionable behavior of pretty much any possible suspect. Anything does, in fact, seem possible. For a lot of the book, the story seems more about the dramas surrounding a wealthy, privileged family and those of people in the nearby community that work for and with them. But then in the last third, the focus narrows and the book becomes almost exclusively a mystery. And it gets gripping.
There’s a lot going on here, yet the book is tightly written. Liz Moore has it all under control. I would say that it could be a shocker of an ending, but I don’t think it was really meant to be such: there are enough clues to the reader to point to the end. I saw it coming. But it then reminds the reader that while it was a mystery, it was, again, a drama about the secrets of a wealthy family and the working-class community in their shadow.
The God of the Woods is almost 500 pages long and is pretty meaty. But it’s worth each page of reading. I also read Moore’s Long Bright River, which has mystery as an element as well but is not what I would call the primary thrust of the story. I found that quite good, but I personally enjoyed this one more. (This one is also cleaner reading, with fewer instances of profanity.)
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 6 uses of strong language, about 10 instances of moderate profanity, about 15 uses of mild language, and about 10 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There are references to affairs and to sex, but everything is closed-door, no or almost no details. Violence includes a death with few details, and mentions of blood and a possible murder or kidnapping.
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