Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - El dios de los bosques

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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wisconsingrrrl's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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lexcellent's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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forestmoonmage's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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sapuri123's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Overall I enjoyed the book and it had a satisfying ending. However I felt the timeline really hard to follow with all of the jumping around. I did like that each chapter had a timeline at the beginning that showed when it was taking place, and I hope other books do that moving forward. But in this case even with the timeline it was still hard to follow.

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chelsn99's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This was definitely a fun and winding read. The story follows a wealthy family whose young son disappears over 10 years ago and in the present time (1975), their daughter also mysteriously vanishes, leaving everyone pondering whether or not these two cases are linked. Moore definitely did a good job of leading the reader down rabbit holes and teasing the final reveal.

The story is told through multiple perspectives, which are broken down into 6 different time frames. I see the logic for why the storytelling was framed this way, but as a reader, I was also left frustrated at times because as soon as a perspective got interesting or something was about to be revealed, the POV shifted to a different person or time. Definitely kept me on the edge of my seat trying to guess what comes next.

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apslp's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

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selendrea's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I went into reading The God of the Woods knowing that it had tremendous hype behind it and feeling quite excited to uncover its plot. While I did enjoy it, I wouldn't say it's a perfect book.

Moore's writing is incredibly strong, with her best talent being how she brings characters to life on the page. The beginning of the novel is particularly captivating, and the setting is both cozy and intimidating. I did have a difficult time putting the book down. Additionally, I appreciated how Moore subtly included several callbacks throughout the text to earlier themes and phrases.

This novel is more of a slow burn than a fast-paced thriller. I do believe it's too long, and some superfluous scenes could have been trimmed. The time skips and myriad of POVs weren't confusing, but I did find them to be unnecessary. At times, it felt as if Moore utilized this unconventional timeline and multiple character perspectives so that she could leave every single chapter in a cliffhanger. With all of this combined, I felt that the plot meandered near the middle of the novel.

While this story had many interesting characters, such as T.J., Judy, and Alice, other characters felt less compelling. Jacob, in particular, did not need to have his own chapters. They added nothing to the story.

In fact, I felt that he was a very weak red herring for the mystery.

The conclusion to Bear's story was enthralling, but Barbara's conclusion was a pretty significant let down for me. This is very subjective, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Overall, the shining success of The God of the Woods is how it explores women's experiences in several different contexts. However, I think the plot could have been unraveled in a more coherent way if some extra fluff was cut.

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