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.