THE GOD OF THE WOODS
by Liz Moore
Let me start by saying this was definitely not the right book to read a week after I signed up my daughter for her first-ever sleepaway camp. Yet despite the circumstances, I couldn’t put it down.
Set primarily at a co-ed summer camp in the northern woods, Moore uses many characters’ voices to weave the story of two different disappearances, 20 years apart. The first is a young boy, the son of the camp owners who live in a mansion just up the hill. Although his case was “solved,” and a man sent to jail, it is clear from the beginning of the book that there are many people who question whether the truth was ever discovered, since the body never was.
The second child to disappear is his sister. Born after her brother’s disappearance, she is now a teenager and attending the camp down the hill. One morning she is discovered missing and another search begins. But as new investigators are brought in, questions about the past become even more confusing and urgent to solve.
Moore does a wonderful job of jumping around in the timeline to reveal important details and history that keep the reader guessing and trying to solve both cases at once. I loved the variety of her characters and how she captured their voices and perspectives with such specificity. The God Of The Woods will raise your heart rate and keep you reading way past bedtime. (Lily)
