Review - The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Title: The God of the Woods*

Author: Liz Moore

Rating: 4.75 stars / 5 stars

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Favorite Quote: “The strange thing, the awkward thing, was what to do with a single woman who was not there to be beautiful or to entertain.” Moore, Liz. The Good of the Woods. Riverhead Books, 2024, pg. 106.

Review: One of my first reads of 2026, and I know this is will already be the one to beat this year. Part of my goal this year is to read more books off my shelf that got there before 2026, and this was the first to check that box. And I am so glad it did.

Ostensibly, The God of the Woods is about the disappearance, and subsequent search, for Barbara, the daughter of a wealthy family who lives on the same land as a summer camp where she is attending at the time of her disappearance. But this multi-layered, multi-timelined, multi-perspectived novel is so much more than that. It is a story about finally solving the disappearance of Barbara’s older brother, known as Bear. It is a story about Barbara’s friend Tracy, her camp counselor, Louise, and the head of the camp TJ, all of whom have secrets and lives of their own. A periphery of other characters, too, build towards the book’s climax and it’s end. 

Here’s what’s working: I LOVE a multi-perspective book and I LOVE a multi-timeline book, but both are hard to accomplish effectively in a way that readers will remain invested in all the characters and all the interweaving stories. Moore does this with precision and expertise. Each character whose perspective we read is integral to the story, though never quite the way we expect. And to tell a multi-generational story means knowing not just the characters, but also the time as it changes.

The novel also explores the complexities of gender, poverty, substance use, domestic abuse, and familial expectations. Alice, in particular, is a study in how being wealthy can mean being used as a pawn to make her family even more wealthy/recognizable. Though far richer than many of the other characters, her autonomy is almost non-existent. But her subsequent substance abuse doesn’t justify her treatment of Barbara (or the secret that is ultimately revealed by the end of the novel). She is both a victim and a villain, as are many of the other characters. 

So why not 5 stars? - While I appreciate the many twists and turns, and think that most of them build towards the books climax, I do think one or two were extraneous. For instance, the cook with the statutory r*pe conviction was kind of a red herring for readers, but he was on the page so little that, had he ultimately been a culprit, it would have likely left readers feeling meh about its ending. 

About that Quote: Ultimately, at its core, this book is about gender. A wife/mother whose pain is ignored. A daughter who is an ill-suited replacement for her sanctified brother. A camp counselor ignoring mounting issues with domestic violence in an attempt to pull herself and her brother out of poverty and away from her mother’s substance use. A camp director tasked with caring for her ailing father, burdened, as readers ultimately discover, with a secret as a child that no child should have to bear. For her, too, there is the intersection of gender and maybe sexuality, which, in the 70s, would have been an even greater challenge than it is today (at least in America). And finally, a law enforcement officer, breaking free of family expectations and social ones, all while trying to prove herself in a male dominant field. So what is there to do with a single woman? Especially one whose existence is not for beauty or entertainment?

Incomplete list of TWs: child death, eating disorders, domestic violence, r*pe, statutory r*pe, substance use disorders

Have you read The God of the Woods? Share your thoughts below!