After having this book highly recommended by friends and other reviewers, I finally read this one for our staff book club. I really enjoyed this book and found it so different from any other mystery or thriller I have read recently. The characters and setting were well developed and written with such great imagery. I can see why this book is being classified as a literary thriller because of the artful writing.

I will admit that at the beginning (up until page 50 or so) of the book I was quite lost because of the multiple character perspectives we read from in addition to the time jumping but eventually I caught on and it helped that as you progress through the book there is a timeline at the beginning of each chapter to center readers.

Now I am going to get into some spoilers so beware! I really loved how the book layered clues that really gave each character the plausible motive to be involved in Barbara and Bear's disappearances

and I was truly surprised when I found out that Alice was responsible for Bear's death. For most of the book I believed that the McLellan family was involved so that they could take over the Van Laar bank business. I was not a big fan of having Alice responsible for the death because it felt like she was the only one who cared for him but after debriefing with my book club, I recognize now that everyone was guilty of creating the situation Alice was in which ultimately led to her alcoholism and Bear's death. Likewise, I found it so interesting that Liz Moore never needed to write specifically that TJ was gay but readers could deduce it from how she was treated by the Van Laar family and her distance from living in the town. I found it so sweet that her father wanted to keep the camp as a safe place for TJ so that she could continue to be herself and keep her passion of nature.

This book truly speaks to the themes of social class and how the wealthy could not survive without the "local" working class and how the locals could not survive without the jobs that the wealthy provide on their estates. Likewise, the misogyny that the female characters face throughout this book was really interesting because at times it felt that the book took place much earlier than the 1970s with how they were treated by the men in their lives.

Barbara truly represented the new age of women who want independence and power. I am so glad to see that she was able to take to herself in the woods and be the god of the woods.

Overall, a really amazing literary mystery to read! It is 470+ pages so it is a commitment, but I never found that the details Moore gave were too much or unnecessary. If you are a reader of historical fiction, mysteries, thrillers, or general fiction I think that there may be something for you in this book.


Highly recommend listening to this short (spoiler free) interview of the author and her inspiration behind the setting and characters: https://www.npr.org/2024/07/06/nx-s1-4699446/liz-moore-on-her-novel-the-god-of-the-woods