Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

El dios de los bosques by Liz Moore

15 reviews

mbourggraff's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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vireogirl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Sped through this in two evenings at home, both nights due to a cold and the second due to snow and ice. The different timelines was well executed. I appreciated the prominent role of the women characters. 
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dub828king's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

An enjoyable and plot heavy book about a missing teenage girl at a summer camp in the woods. Although the characters are fairly one dimensional, the book is intricately plotted with lots of characters, reveals, and hidden details. The book is full of twists and like any book where there are lots of twists and turns, how much you like or dislike certain twists can really impact how you enjoy the book. 

The most engaging parts of the story are the investigation surrounding the disappearance of the girl, but there is lot of plot dedicated to the back story of many of the character 15 years before this book takes place. These sections are more character focused with some investigative plot elements, and do a lot of heavy lifting setting up the major themes of the book, namely what is "Self Reliance," the despicableness of the wealthy, and the virtues of "the poor people." I think that this book maybe fetishizes the poor and downtrodden more than necessary, and the themes of wealth inequality are a little on the nose, making its message a little messy. 

Overall, an engaging mystery read with some heavy handed class inequality messaging that gets to make fun of Emerson. I think this book would ever be interesting to reread due to the large number of small references, connections, and hidden information that is hidden from the reader the first time through. 
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mittan's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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kbone's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Not normally into mysteries but I really liked this one, although it was in a way quite sad. Told from many different perspectives, maybe one too many haha. The author did a good job of jumping time constantly while still keeping us in the plot. 
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percab3ths's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Where do I start?

Going into this book, I had no idea what the plot was. Characters, setting, relationships. I went in completely blind. All I know was that this book was set at a summer camp, surrounded by the mystery of one family with generations long problems. That is ALL I knew.

I came across this book thanks to a YouTube video by one of my favorite book channels to watch. It was on her ‘honorable mentions’ list of 2024, the book she opened the video with actually, and I was immediately taken by the way she’d described it.

I’m still processing what I’ve read. Maybe I’ll be able to articulate my words better when the shock of reading this absolute masterpiece wears off. 

From the characters (Louise, Bear and Tracy my beloved, you deserve the world), to the INSANELY clever plot; everything was so thought out—The Van Laar family history, the character backgrounds, the setting that provided so much mystery and intrigue, you had absolutely zero idea what you were getting yourself into walking into those woods—The way that NO CHARACTER was useless, every person named provided a crucial piece of information. 

We need more Liz Moores in the world. And god forgive me that I hadn’t picked this book up  sooner.
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greersiegel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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kaitlyncookies's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I thoroughly enjoyed The God of the Woods. I don't think I've read something quite this long this fast before, but Moore has crafted such a compelling, twisty novel with 2 mysteries unfolding simultaneously that it is near impossible to put down. This book threads the needle so well and managed to be not only a page-turner filled with suspense but also an excellent piece of literary fiction. The setting of this book is so vivid from the summer camp to the imposing property owned by the rich Van Laar family, referred to as "Self Reliance". Each character was fascinating and while in a multi-POV novel it's hard to make readers care about each perspective, I enjoyed each of them. I definitely didn't see the ending coming and it left me satisfied.
Although there are so so many red herrings
Lastly, LOVE the name of the book, really makes sense once you've read it, and the cover is great also!
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sjanke2's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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valenwhite's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Even though it has a slow start, I enjoyed the story a lot! It took me a bit to get used to the time jumps and the names, even more when they introduced new characters and I had to really pay attention before I understood who they were and their place in the story, but it was amazing. The story made me cry and smile and sometimes be so angry, the ending was very satisfying, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about the characters for a while. Really enjoyed this!
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