Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - El dios de los bosques

I had high hopes for this book. I saw it being recommended all over the place this summer by people whose book recommendations I typically enjoy. Plus I liked Moore’s first book, Long Bright River, so I figured I would enjoy this one too. BONUS: Reading it the week of Halloween? A slam dunk, surely.

NOPE.
To be fair, I think a lot of this was due to the fact I listened to this book instead of physically reading it. As a voracious audiobook listener, there aren’t many audiobook experiences where I will gladly admit the physical form of the book is better. This is one of those times.

Please, just pick it up. Sure, there’s a map at the beginning, but more importantly, as the book goes on, at the beginning of each chapter, it outlines where at in the story you are. There are so many timelines to keep track of and honestly, it became a little overwhelming and confusing. I relistened to so much of this book to try and figure out where I was and I finally just gave up and hoped for the best. This truly impacted my enjoyment of the book and I think I would have liked this book so much more if I actually read it.

On a separate note, for a book that was sold to me as a mystery worth reading, I found the ending of both mysteries (two siblings disappearing many years apart) to be so much of a let down. I don’t want to say too much more than that for fear of spoiling the book, but dang. Not at all what I was looking for when I signed up to read this one.

One character I really liked was Judyta (Judy). What a strong female character and a strong woman in a time when women weren’t respected for doing their jobs correctly and doing their jobs well. She also was so incredibly brave when it came to standing up for herself and her independence with her parents. I loved every single chapter I got to read where we followed Judy’s journey as an investigator looking into Barbara’s disappearance. There’s just something about strong female characters, especially set in a historical time where they aren’t seen as equal, that makes me love a book.

Fingers crossed you’ll like this book more if you physically read it. 🤞🏼

Content Warnings

gwenswoons's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is very good, but I did not enjoy it. I think somehow the literary thriller thing veered into something so slow that it often felt preachy and pedantic, endless, often incredibly pretentious somehow. The writing is good: the setting is definitely captivating and vivid; the characters are compelling, even as they are basically all pretty awful. I guess for me a cast of totally awful characters (whether in books or TV shows) never feels satisfying — so I may simply not be the reader for this. But I will say that this book felt interminable to me, almost from the beginning (I definitely should have DNFed, but it’s gotten so much praise from people I trust that I expected it to turn around into something miraculous! It did not, for me). The pace is so unbelievably slow, the timelines and POVs so sprawling — these are things (even a slow pace!) that I actually usually love in a book, but that felt like such a drag here, I think because the motivations of every person aroused so little sympathy and investment. Certainly others may not feel this way.

I will say that I somehow loved the ending, and found it so beautiful, with such a light touch — odd after this book that felt so heavy-handed to me. It was absolutely not worth it for me but I somehow was still quite enchanted by it even as I was so ready to be done. So the writing is definitely remarkable in some way, even though for me this is not going to be a writer I return to again.

Content Warnings

emma_sky's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

Content Warnings

jw000's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

starstuff's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

What an incredible ride! I can’t remember the last time I felt real anxiety while reading a book.

Content Warnings

safeblanck'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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The God of the Woods is a compelling mystery that is beautifully written. A missing person's investigation soon turns into a complex mystery about the past, the people that live in it and those who moved on. The multiple-povs made the story even more engaging, I found the structure of the book to be very unique. I liked the ending, but also I want to know what will happen next. First time reading Liz Moore, but definitely not the last. Worth reading!

Content Warnings

bootsmom3's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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