This is one that I was going to read for book club last year and never got around to.
The God of the Woods
Liz Moore
Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
Some said it was tragic, what happened to the Van Laars.
Some said the Van Laars deserved it. That they never even thanked the searchers who stayed out for five nights in the freezing forest trying to help find their missing son.
Some said there was a reason it took the family so long to call for help. That they knew what happened to the boy.
Now, fifteen years later, the daughter the family had in their grief has gone missing in the same wilderness as her brother. Some say the two disappearances aren’t connected.
Some say they are.
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I had heard a lot about this book, but I might not have picked it up if it hadn’t been picked as a book club read…even though it was from quite some time ago. My interest was piqued, though, after hearing so many good reviews for it.
What I read was not quite what I was expecting. I knew it was a mystery story, but I was not expecting this languid and atmospheric journey. There is a mystery to be solved, two in fact, but this is also an exploration of family or what it means to be family in different walks of life.
The book is told from multiple POV and I did enjoy it to an extent. I enjoyed the different opinions this offered up. It also jumped around in time a little, which gave a lot of good context to the story.
However, I did find at points that there was too much time spent with certain characters, including details that, whilst reading, I wasn’t sure how relevant they were to the overall story. There were times when I was a little disappointed to find that the next chapter started with the same character, which did slightly hinder the pacing for me.
In some cases, the information proved to be relevant and added depth to the story, especially as we drew closer to the end and began to uncover what happened to the Van Laar children. However, in hindsight, I do feel like some of it could have been left out whilst still holding the same impact.
The characters were complex and exactly the type you need for this kind of story. They all have flaws, so they all seem guilty of something, which is good in such a character-driven mystery. I feel that out of all of them, I was always looking forward to reading Judyta’s chapters because she was piecing the puzzle together.
I won’t say much else about the story except that it was well written and heartbreaking, but also hopeful. Whilst I did feel the pace suffer at points, I was always keen to get back to this story because it was captivating and because Saskia Maarleveld did a marvellous job of narration. This book is definitely worth a read.
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