The God of the Woods

A Novel

By: Liz Moore

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

"Riveting from page one to the last breathless word."—Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of I Have Some Questions For You

“Brilliant, riveting .. an epic mystery, a family saga and a survival guide...I loved this book.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

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 listeners into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains a map from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Liz Moore (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"An immersive reading experience that will draw audiences. Its explorations of class, crime, and family dynamics, in addition to Moore’s incredible storytelling, will appeal to readers of Lisa Jewell, Tana French, and Lucy Foley."—Library Journal, STARRED review

"Rich in background detail and secondary mysteries. . .this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint."—Kirkus, STARRED review

“Gripping and revelatory...The beautiful and dangerous wilderness setting enhances the suspense as the narrative builds to a dramatic final act...This astonishes.”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

a worthy but long read

4.25 stars is where the summer blockbuster mystery book fell for me when it was all said and done. I was tempted to just go with the masses and give it 5 stars like everyone else but to be honest it just didn't really tip into that 5 star realm. It is the story of a teenage girl, Barbara, who goes missing at a Wilderness Camp in the summer of 75. The two plot points in the beginning that set this story aside is that her family owns the camp and her brother, Bear, disappeared over ten years earlier and was never found. The setting was truly perfect - deep Adirondack woods in upstate NY. Both mysteries are very slowly told through past and present events and I would definitely say everyone agrees - this is a SLOW burn and not a thriller by any means. There are a lot of characters but the author takes her time in developing them and I appreciated that there were several strong female characters involved in the story including the first female investigator in the State of NY and the Camp Coordinator who has strong ties to the missing teen and her family. There was a little bit of historical fiction related to the history of that part of the woods and who was there first as well as the conflict between the original inhabitants of the land and the current wealthy owners. It's a LONG book but I was never bored or tempted to speed up my audio version. Great summer read and way above average slow burn mystery.

Almost really good

This book has so much going for it and overall, I really liked it. There were lots of great storylines and interesting characters. The plot twists were good and the ending was satisfying. Of course, the narration was excellent, as I expected. Where it fell short for me was the length and amount of backstory. I think it could have benefited from a good editor or from the author using Stephen King’s rule of going back and taking out 15%.

Too long

This was tedious to read. The book took awhile to get into and the flipping back and forth got confusing.

Great characters/ writing/ narration and story

Great listen!!! Great writing / characters/ narrator/
A true escape into summer in the woods. A portrait of loyalty/ truth/ class/ gossip

A god in the woods

A very well written story with wonderful character development. I enjoyed it from the very beginning!

nothing at all caught my attention

I normally like all the podcasts I listen to, but this one I had to stop listening to. The writing was very bland and didn't help me picture or feel anything for the characters or location. My experience of summer camp was much brighter, maybe because we were sober. Sad.

Engaging story

The story, setting and character development are very good. Descriptions of the area around the Adirondacks are spot on. The chapters jump back and forth in time so quickly, it can be jarring. The ending wraps up a little too quickly. After so much time spent developing Alice, we are left to only imagine how she handles the outcome, so it feels a little unresolved.

Great characters, setting, and story

Loved this book, set in the Adirondack Mountains. I really enjoyed getting to know TJ, Louise, Vic, Barbara, and Judyta. Really great characters.

Captivating

Great novels are like listening to someone’s tell their life story. This story of Barbara and Bear is gripping, well written and well performed.

Good mystery-

I enjoyed the book a lot. The only reason I didn’t give five stars was because I thought the ending was too quickly wrapped up.