Book Description 

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

My Review 

I waited a long time for the audiobook version of this book on Libby, so I was very excited when I finally got the alert that it was my turn to listen. 

The mystery kickstarts with the disappearance of a camper from a sleepaway camp. As search parties begin combing the woods around the camp, the narrative splits into several different perspectives, each of whom has a connection to the missing camper and thus has something unique to offer. The timeline shifts from the present-day of the disappearance to a couple of months earlier.  

As the blurb mentions, the missing camper’s older brother also went missing, and was never found. This raises several questions, including the possibilities of a family curse and/or that the children have been nefariously targeted. 

I would absolutely recommend The God of the Woods. This was such a good book. The mystery was very satisfying, and not at all what I was expecting. The point-of-view characters are all interesting and I don’t think I preferred one over the other. They were all integral to the bigger picture: figuring out what happened to Barbara.