I read and enjoyed The Unseen World a few years ago, and then sort of stopped paying attention to Liz Moore until someone at work mentioned that she was reading God of the Woods and I was like “Liz Moore, sounds familiar??” I was delighted to 1. remember how much I enjoyed The Unseen World, and 2. discover new books from Liz Moore! Wow!
I generally do not like “coming of age” books because I am grumpy and I think few people write about that age very well. So when I saw that the characters in this book were around 13-14 years old at summer camp, I was like ugh idk. But never fear! God of the Woods has a lot of themes that I almost always enjoy (extremely mild spoilers ahead):
1. murder-adjacent mystery
2. very little gore
3. clever lady detective and/or ladies getting sh*t done
4. infuriating egotistical dudes who you KNOW are NOT going to get away with it, but The System Protects Them and WHO is going to BRING THEM DOWN!?
5. bad choices whose effects span generations (see #4)
6. nice descriptions of the outdoors
So although I was skeptical about Coming Of Age, this didn’t stick with me as a Coming Of Age book, although definitely there were some touching Friends At Camp moments, if that’s your thing. It’s kind of a thriller-lite: a little literary fiction, a little mystery, a little summer camp, a little dark but not TOO dark.
It is a book about divisions and doubles: two siblings who are missing. Two bunkmates who go missing. Two grown sisters with very different stakes and personalities. Several iterations of obnoxious Peters. Lots of misdirection, and lots of confusion. It’s also a book about who actually does the work that keeps things afloat, and how they are allowed to be by the Powers That Be. Mrs. Van Laar is not allowed to be the parent she wants to be. Vic Hewitt is forced to be someone else in order to protect the Van Laars. The rich Van Laars literally live in a cabin called Self-Reliance, and can’t see that they are anything but. Related, it’s a book about how everyone else (working under the Van Laar’s shadows) takes care of each other “off the grid”– specifically, women helping women by teaching, keeping secrets, training, protecting, believing.
Moore is good at pithy little observations, too, including this little gem:
Rich people, thought Judy—she thought this then, and she thinks it now—generally become most enraged when they sense they’re about to be held accountable for their wrongs. (pg. 157)
Was the ending a little unrealistic? Yes! Was there a lot of nuance to the evil of the obnoxious Peters? Nope! Did I like it all the same? I sure did!
This is a pretty good little mystery that was fun to read and engaging, not gross, and had characters I was rooting for. 4/5 stars.