My bedside TBR pile is truly horrifying.
And I just keep making it worse. Whether it’s an indie bookstore purchase or a library find, it just keeps growing and growing. I grabbed Liz Moore’s “The God of The Woods” from the near bottom for two reasons: I saw my soon-to-be daughter-in-law enthralled with it on vacation, and becaue it’s kinda thick, I figured it might make a small dent in the TBR pile’s height.
I now understand why my DIL wanted to stay up after everyone headed to bed. Once you hit that magical 100 pages to go mark, you just have to know …. where is Barbara Van Laar and maybe just maybe is Bear still alive?
It was also about this point that I caved to check IMDB to see if the book has been optioned yet and … heck yes it has!
The God of the Woods is a perfect read for anyone that enjoys soapy familial drama, summer camp and a whodunit all wrapped into one. Set in the mid-70s in upstate New York, police are called to Camp Emerson when a young girl goes missing — and not just any young girl, but the daughter of the family that lives in an estate next to which the camp is situated, and the sister of a young boy who went missing some 15 years earlier.
The cast of characters is large but easy to follow:
Barbara Van Laar, the missing camper and daughter of Alice and Peter III;
The aforementioned Alice Van Laar, Barbara and Bear’s mother, and Peter’s wife;
Peter III, son to the still alive and kicking Peter II, whose own father was the founder of Self-Reliance, the estate built on the grounds 100 years earlier;
Alice’s sister Delphine. And that’s all I want to say about her;
Louise Donnadieu, camp counselor to Barbara and Barbara’s new BFF Tracy, and the self-proclaimed fiancee to John Paul McClellan, whose family is tight with the Van Laars;
John Paul McClellan, the physical embodiment of every rich lawyer’s kid cliche there is;
Judtya Luptack, a first generation police investigator just trying to make a mark in a field full of the phyical embodiment of every ’70s cop cliche you can imagine; and
Denny Hayes, the kindly senior investigator that takes Judy under his wing;
The Hewitts, Vic and TJ, who have been living on the grounds of Camp Emerson since its very beginning and are in some ways close to the Van Laar family;
and then there’s Bear — the 8-year-old son of Alice and Peter that goes missing during a walk in the woods with his grandfather.
And this is why I had to see if they were going to mini-series this into existence, because this screams “Give me the woodsy White Lotus treatment!”
I don’t want to spoil it for the three people that probably haven’t read this yet — I know I am late to the party. But I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to see Maya Hawke playing Judtya. I had a couple of ideas while reading it, trying to solve the mystery, and was only adjacently half-correct. It’s a page turner that does not disappoint, giving you characters to love and characters to actively root against.
There’s also something nostalgic about it for anyone who went to camp. Some things never change. Who amongst us hasn’t felt the pangs of first love? Or just simply wanting to fit in? Be one of the cool kids? Moore’s writing will take you back to being 12 years old and just desperately wanting the cutest guy in camp to like you. See you. Anything you.
Highly recommend this and if you need a summer addition to your book list, this is a great option.
LitzyDitz 