Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - El dios de los bosques

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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deliberate_dreamer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

4.25-4.5 / 5.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 —— The God of the Woods weaves together a fascinating mix of:
• Gone Girl-style regionalism/pacing (minus, thankfully, the depths of sadism),
• Baby Sitters’ Club Mystery girl-power nostalgia (leveled up for their original fans now grown),
• Thoreau references to appreciate & chuckle at, and
• multi-decade elite entourages & class commentary à la The Great Gatsby’s Buchanans.

In The God of the Woods, Liz Moore cinematically carries out a solid, multi-perspective, multi-timeline organizational style. Character development balances intentional voice-building with ownership of its clichés. The God of the Woods also nicely works to subvert expectations of the semi-thriller/mystery genre while intuitively exploring generational submission vs. empowerment, as well as issues of patriarchy vs. matriarchy, legacy, classism, mental health, instinct, and closure. I found at least 90% page-turning and worth 4.5+ stars — but at times longed for the author to take more chances or make things messier even more.

Are all of the characters likable? At times, all them I detest; other times, all of them, I appreciate in their own way. All of them earn their keep. As I read, I chuckled often to think to one GoodReads review noting so much dislike for the characters that they declared “Let her be lost; let all of them be lost, actually” (@brend). In answer to that review, I sense this aggravation was intentionally part of Moore’s goal: to generate in us Gatsby-level disgust for the whole lot, yet challenge is to preserve their humanity, too.

All in all, I found this to be an engaging, mostly-satisfying read. It was also the first time my library surprised me a rare “skip-the-line loan” of an e-book, so cool!

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ejjira's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

3.75

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grunbean's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

This book feels like a trip in to the woods, with the twists and turns that come with the trees. I wouldn't call this dark, but a step in to the shade. A lot of dark themes are touched on, but it stays on the periphery. I think a deeper exploration could have brought this higher, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

The last few chapters couldn't be put down. Some parts of the ending didn't make the most sense to me, but there were interesting choices that could see coming from the clues.

I think the characters and the care and depth with which they were written is the best part. Sometimes it can be overwhelming when you have lots of different perspectives, but I feel this author balances it well. Some characters I love and feel sympathy for, and some I am apathetic for. But those I had apathy for were still interesting to read!

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