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The God of the Woods by Liz Moore Review: A Riveting, Intricate Mystery-Drama
The God of the Woods is a New York Times bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year — a multi-threaded novel set in the Adirondacks that weaves a decades-spanning family mystery with sharp domestic drama, earning starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and a spot on Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2024.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who love character-driven mysteries with historical depth — particularly those who enjoy crime fiction, family sagas, and literary suspense intersecting in a single expansive narrative set against a richly evoked 1970s backdrop.
Worth it if
The breadth is worth it if you have patience for a large cast and interlocking timelines and are drawn to novels that operate simultaneously as crime fiction, historical fiction, and multigenerational family saga — and where the critical consensus about ambition matched by execution holds real weight.
Skip if
Skip it if you prefer tightly focused, single-protagonist thrillers, or if depictions of domestic abuse, parental cruelty, and psychological trauma are topics you need to avoid.
What readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews, which named it one of its Best Books of 2024, praised the novel as "ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging," noting that its plotting never feels overplotted and that every character leaves a lasting imprint. The book landed on the New York Times bestseller list and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, as confirmed across multiple retrieved sources including kirkusreviews.com and barnesandnoble.com.
“Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.”
— Kirkus ReviewsIn This Review
- What Works & What Doesn't
- What the Novel Is About
- The Family at the Centre
- Critical Reception and Significance
- What the Novel Does Well
- Who This Book Is — and Isn't — For
What Works & What Doesn't
What Works
- Named a New York Times bestseller and New York Times Notable Book of the Year, with starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist
- Kirkus Reviews named it a Best Book of 2024, praising its intricate plotting as never overplotted and every character as leaving a lasting imprint
- Draws together crime fiction, historical fiction, and family saga into a single, expansive narrative set in the 1975 Adirondacks
- Builds on Moore's established thematic strengths — families fractured by abuse and loss — while scaling up to her most ambitious canvas yet
- People magazine named it its number-one book of the year, underscoring its broad commercial and popular appeal
What Doesn't
- The novel's large cast and interlocking timelines demand patience — readers preferring tightly focused, single-protagonist thrillers may find the scope a stretch
- Contains depictions of domestic abuse, parental cruelty, and psychological trauma that make it a difficult read for those sensitive to those themes
A richly constructed, emotionally engaging novel, The God of the Woods confirms Liz Moore as one of American fiction's most ambitious storytellers.
What the Novel Is About
Set in the summer of 1975 at Camp Emerson — a sleepaway camp in the Adirondacks owned by the wealthy Van Laar family — the novel opens with a disappearance. Thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her bunk one morning. Barbara is a problem case in her parents' eyes: her goth appearance and stormy temperament have earned her their disdain, and one bunkmate knows she had been slipping out every night after bedtime. Her absence ignites speculation that she was taken by Jacob Sluiter, a local serial killer convicted of eleven murders in the 1960s who has recently escaped from prison and is known to locals as Slitter. What gives the disappearance its deeper charge is the shadow of a prior tragedy: Barbara's older brother, Bear, vanished from the same camp years earlier — an abduction for which a gardener was framed, while Sluiter, many believe, was the true culprit. It falls to Judy Luptack, a young and unproven assistant investigator, to press forward in uncovering the truth, even as her bullying father and male colleagues question whether women are suited for the work at all.
The Family at the Centre
The Van Laars function as the novel's dark gravitational core. As Kirkus Reviews details in its assessment, the portrait that emerges is deeply unsavory: the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so consumed by grief over Bear's loss — and her own possible role in it — that she has no love left for Barbara. Moore draws on themes she explored in her earlier novel Long Bright River, extending her concern with families fractured by spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. The book has been described by its publisher as a story in which the dynastic tensions of the Van Laars echo a world where money, land, legacy, and inheritance shape every relationship — and where the blue-collar community working in the family's shadow carries its own layered secrets and second chances.
Critical Reception and Significance
The novel arrived with substantial critical momentum. Publishers Weekly awarded it a starred review, describing it in terms that, per the web record, close with the words "This astonishes." Critical coverage, also in a starred review, called it "a compulsively readable novel that will appeal to fans of mysteries and historical fiction alike." Kirkus Reviews named it one of its Best Books of 2024 and praised it as "ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging" — finding that it "never seems overplotted" and that "every piece falls skillfully into place." The novel became a New York Times bestseller and was named both a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of the Times's best thrillers and best crime novels of the year. People magazine named it its number-one book of the year. Rebecca Makkai, writing in blurb form captured in the publisher's record, called it "riveting from page one to the last breathless word," adding that it "flew by at lightning speed, but will stick with me for a very long time."
What the Novel Does Well
Kirkus Reviews identifies a quality that many ambitious multi-character novels fail to achieve: genuine balance. Every character, major and minor, is said to leave an imprint, and the novel's intricate plotting resolves without feeling engineered. Moore layers the central mystery with secondary mysteries and rich background detail, while maintaining clear emotional stakes — Judy Luptack's battle against institutional sexism, Barbara's alienation from her own family, a mother paralyzed by guilt. The novel has also drawn comparisons to Donna Tartt's The Secret History for the way it, per the publisher's record, "transports readers so deeply into its richly peopled, ominous world that, for hours, everything else falls away." Moore has described this as her most ambitious and wide-reaching novel to date, and the critical consensus suggests that ambition is matched by execution.
Who This Book Is — and Isn't — For
Readers who gravitate toward crime fiction, historical fiction, or family sagas will find all three registers operating simultaneously here. The 1975 Adirondacks setting, the institutional sexism that Judy Luptack must navigate, and the multi-generational Van Laar secrets give the novel a scope that rewards patience with a large cast and interlocking timelines. Readers who prefer tightly focused, single-protagonist thrillers may find the breadth demanding. The novel also contains mentions of domestic abuse — a content note flagged in the publisher's materials — which prospective readers may wish to weigh. For those drawn to character-driven mysteries with genuine emotional weight, however, The God of the Woods represents exactly the kind of novel whose critical reputation is hard-won and well-supported.
Frequently Asked Questions
is The God Of The Woods (Paperback) Book by Liz Moore worth reading
If you enjoy crime fiction, historical fiction, or family sagas — especially when all three operate at once — the critical consensus strongly suggests it is. Kirkus Reviews named it one of its Best Books of 2024, calling it "ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging" and noting that "every piece falls skillfully into place," while Publishers Weekly closed its starred review with the words "This astonishes." The one honest caveat: readers who prefer tightly focused, single-protagonist thrillers may find the large cast and interlocking timelines demanding.
what is The God Of The Woods (Paperback) Book by Liz Moore actually about
On the surface it's a 1975 mystery: thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar vanishes from Camp Emerson, a sleepaway camp in the Adirondacks owned by her wealthy family, and suspicion falls on Jacob Sluiter — a local serial killer known as Slitter who has just escaped prison. But beneath the whodunit is a decades-spanning family saga, because Barbara's older brother Bear disappeared from the same camp years earlier, a gardener was framed for it, and the Van Laar family's secrets — shaped by money, land, legacy, and a father who cruelly abuses a mother paralyzed by grief — form the novel's dark gravitational core.
is The God Of The Woods (Paperback) Book by Liz Moore similar to The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Comparisons to Donna Tartt's The Secret History do appear in the publisher's record for this book, specifically for the way it "transports readers so deeply into its richly peopled, ominous world that, for hours, everything else falls away." Both novels share an immersive, atmospheric quality and a willingness to build a large, fully realized world around a central act of violence — so if The Secret History is your benchmark, this is a reasonable next read.
does The God Of The Woods (Paperback) Book by Liz Moore have triggering or dark content i should know about
Yes — the book contains sustained depictions of domestic abuse, parental cruelty, and psychological trauma throughout, which the publisher flags as a content note and which prospective readers may want to weigh before picking it up. Specifically, the Van Laar children's father is portrayed as cruelly abusing their submissive mother, and Barbara's alienation from parents who regard her with disdain is a central emotional thread. Liz Moore has explored similar territory in her earlier novel Long Bright River, so readers familiar with that book will have a sense of the tone.
is The God Of The Woods (Paperback) Book by Liz Moore hard to read with all the different characters and timelines
It is ambitious — Moore layers a central mystery with secondary mysteries, a large cast, and interlocking timelines spanning decades — but the review notes that Kirkus Reviews singled out its "genuine balance" as something many multi-character novels fail to achieve, finding that the novel "never seems overplotted" and that every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint. That said, the review is honest that readers who prefer a tightly focused, single-protagonist thriller may find the breadth demanding.
how does The God Of The Woods (Paperback) Book by Liz Moore compare to Liz Moore's other books
Moore herself has described The God of the Woods as her most ambitious and wide-reaching novel to date, and the review notes that the critical consensus suggests that ambition is matched by execution. It extends themes from her earlier novel Long Bright River — particularly her concern with families fractured by spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse — but expands the scope considerably with a multi-generational mystery, a 1975 Adirondacks setting, and a much larger cast.
who is The God Of The Woods (Paperback) Book by Liz Moore best for
It's best suited for adult readers who enjoy character-driven mysteries with genuine emotional weight, and who are comfortable reading across crime fiction, historical fiction, and family saga simultaneously. Rebecca Makkai called it "riveting from page one to the last breathless word" and noted it "will stick with me for a very long time," which captures its dual appeal — fast-paced enough to compel, but substantial enough to linger. Readers who need a single-protagonist thriller with a narrow focus, or who want to avoid sustained domestic abuse content, may want to look elsewhere.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- 1
Liz Moore, Wikipedia
- 2
kirkusreviews.com
- 3
bookofthemonth.com
- 4
bookbrowse.com
- 5
magpiebyjenshoop.com
- 6
lizmoore.net
- 7
booksthatslay.com
- 8
penguinrandomhouse.com
- 9
barnesandnoble.com
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