The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is a psychological criminal and mystery thriller novel. With over 30k+ reviews on Amazon sitting at 4.5 stars along with high praises from practically everyone in the literary world, I couldn’t wait to begin. Upon taking just a few days to complete, I can confidently add my opinion to the mix that yes, this novel is definitely well deserved of those high praises and awards. This is a novel that is rich in family drama, teenage friendships, injustices, and hidden secrets, along with a heavy dose of deception and lies from all around. It’s also about rich people’s privilege and how things get passed on from one generation to the next, for better or worse. While the cast of characters is not entirely complex themselves, the author is still able to have you guessing at every turn due to how well everything is put together. And it all starts with a missing girl from a rich family during a camping excursion set in the mid-1970s.

For starters, I should point out that if you are going in blind on this novel, I highly advise and suggest that you do not look at the table of contents for whatever reason. Not only is it usually unnecessary, but I discovered that it hinted at a potential spoiler. For the most part, the story will flow between four and five different characters. In addition, it will jump between timelines from when the girl is lost in August 1975 to the early 1960s as well. This can be a bit jarring for some, but I don’t believe it’s anything that complicated once you get into the flow of things. And trust me, you’re going to finish this novel fairly quickly without even knowing it. There are definitely some things that you should pay particular attention to, as with how all mystery novels go, but for the most part, you’ll likely find yourself just turning page after page to advance the story.

One of my main wishes is that I would have liked to see dedicated chapters to Peter II, Alice’s husband. We do spend a lot of time with Alice, but her story is really, really depressing and not much changes throughout the novel. We obviously ache and feel her pain and struggles. What would have balanced this out, I believe, would be for the readers to read from her husband’s point of view as to why things are the way they are and specifically, why they should be justified in his eyes. As it stands, the story of the Van Laar’s is very one-sided. Mixing in more intrigue to provide the tug of war of emotions would have, in my opinion, kept the readers more on their toes in regard to the suspense later in the novel.

Although I’ve personally begun to stick with non-fiction reading for the year 2024, I’m extremely glad to have chosen and read The God of the Woods as one of the few fictional novels on my list.