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As the winner of Goodreads Readers’ Favorite Mystery and Thriller (2024), “The God of the Woods” tells the story and background of Barbara and her family, her disappearance from her family’s summer camp, and the unfolding of events during the years prior. While Barbara’s disappearance happened in 1975, her brother, Bear disappeared from the same summer camp in 1961. I gave this book 3.75 stars out of 5.

In the “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.”

Once the “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 readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances (Goodreads.com).”

The story alternates between the 1950s, 1961, and 1975. This gives the author a chance to show the reader what happened in Barbara’s family before her disappearance.

It took me awhile to get used to the skipping around of time periods, but once I was used to it, it was easy to follow. There are a few characters that the chapters go back and forth between and I liked the mix of characters.

There are a lot of side characters, but the reader never gets their full story. We hear about them during the story and then once their part is over, we don’t hear about them again. I liked the lead female detective, Judyta. She’s very compassionate and wants to find out what happened to Barbara. I really feel for Judyta working in a male driven work force in the 1970s.

As the book goes back and forth between time periods, I found the book to get better towards the middle. It took me awhile to figure out who everyone was. The mom, Alice felt so misunderstood and unwelcome in her own family. There is a reason why she is shown this way, but it’s not revealed until the end.

I had a hard time believing that the high status of a family would protect them from getting in trouble. It didn’t feel like their status was shown enough, it was just talked about. Maybe it was because it was set in a different time, but I wish the family was shown in a way that would’ve made it more believable. I know powerful people get away with a lot of things, but this family and their history didn’t quite make it believable enough.

There’s so many other things I could write about, but it would give away the ending and what’s a mystery if you already know the ending?!