Don’t be put off by the size of Liz Moore’s “The God of the Woods.”
The door stopper of a literary mystery abounds with well-drawn characters across class and age. “The God of the Woods” focuses mostly on the lives of women and girls between the 1950s and 1975 in New York.
Moore gives these women period-appropriate interests and imbues each with unique perspectives that provide further insights into what transpires across the decades. Although the novel’s plot revolves around the mysteries of two missing children, it’s truly a well-crafted character study about privileged and struggling women during societal changes of the 1970s.
Character Analysis
Main Characters
Barbara van Laar
TJ (Tessie Jo) Hewitt
Alice van Laar
Judyta Laptuck
Tracy Jewell
Louise Donnadieu
Barbara van Laar, 13, is at the center of the female-led cast of characters in “The God of the Woods.” The second child of Peter III and Alice, Barbara rebels against her conservative parents by dying her hair black and embracing the punk aesthetic.
Her disappearance from Camp Emerson initiates a recovery mission for a van Laar child in recent memory. Barbara’s family wealth and her unusual style make her famous at Camp Emerson where she thrives at swimming and leading her team through the Survival Trip.
Camp Emerson Director TJ Hewitt, born Tessi Jo, has close ties to the van Laar family. The tomboy grew up with both Barbara and her missing brother, Bear, despite her family being from a lower class.
Now in her late 20s, TJ manages the summer camp and surrounding wilderness in addition to caring for her father, who’s infirm and suffering from memory loss.
Tragic maternal figure Alice van Laar spent her life believing herself a pawn in others’ games before enduring 14 years of endless grief for her missing son, Bear. At the behest of her overbearing husband, Alice transformed into an alcoholic to avoid being boring and is also taking sleeping pills from her psychiatrist.
Alice’s deep and unabiding grief for Bear eclipses any affection she ever had for Barbara. In fact, she believes it’s her duty to be her adolescent’s first serious critic, like her own mother does to her.
Trailblazing BCI detective Judyta “Judy” Laptuck joins the investigation into Barbara’s disappearance as the only woman on the team. She’s disregarded by most, but her mentor Denny Hayes listens to her and asks for her to observe and interview the van Laar family and their guests.
Judy’s outsider perspective also enables her to better understand the myriad of factors leading to Barbara’s disappearance and the response to it. Unlike the townspeople, camp employees, and the van Laars, Judy can logically process information and the contrasts between the 1961 search for Bear van Laar and the 1975 search for his sister.
At Camp Emerson, Barbara befriends the shy and awkward Tracy Jewell, who secretly idolizes the sophisticated punk heiress. Bookish Tracy is the only child of divorced parents, whose father has already moved on to a much younger woman.
She notices Barbara sneaking out of her bunk every night and returning in the morning exhausted. One morning in August Tracy realizes Barbara hasn’t returned. Tracy’s so distraught over the disappearance of her friend that she ventures into the woods alone without telling anyone on a mission to find her.
Camp Emerson Counselor Louise Donnadieu, 23, is a working-class Shattuck resident who relies on the job to provide for her and her younger brother, Jesse. She’s worked at the summer camp for years after securing the position through her wealthy fiancé John Paul McLellan Jr.
Plot Summary
“The God of the Woods” begins with the announcement of Barbara van Laar’s disappearance. The sullen 13-year-old is the only living child of the wealthy van Laar family.
When she’s reported missing from Camp Emerson in August 1975, the search unearths past mysteries in the small New York town of Shattuck tied to the van Laar family. The small summer camp’s located on the same property as the van Laar’s Swiss chateau.
Their show-stopping home was transported from Europe and reassembled in New York by local laborers. Once completed in the 1870s, the residence was named Self-Reliance in honor of philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The mystery of Barbara’s whereabouts slowly unravels across chapters from several characters over nearly 20 years. Hopping between August 1975 at Camp Emerson and going back to the 1950s when 17-year-old Alice Ward met Peter van Laar III.
Short close third-person chapters reveal high anxiety from Louise about her job, Tracy about her friend, and the van Laar family about controlling the narrative of another missing child at their summer home.
Alice’s upbringing as the pretty but dim younger sister auctioned off to a wealthy man 12 years her senior makes her a tragic figure. She lost her beloved son, Bear, in 1961 when he was 8 years old and has unending grief about never knowing what happened to him.
Her ongoing anguish about his demise leads her to being prescribed pills and encouraged to hide away from outsiders. Isolated with no one to support her, Alice takes solace in believing she can hear Bear and even places his old baby blanket over her face like a shroud.
In sharp contrast to her mother, Barbara is outspoken and is sent to Emily Grange, an all-girls school, at 7 where she’s left without spending money or adequate winter clothes. TJ Hewitt from Camp Emerson brings her supplies and looks after her as a penance for failing to do more about Bear’s disappearance. When she’s is spotted in Barbara’s room, the girl lies and tells the school officials it was a local boy.
This, in turn, leads her father to demand she be transferred to the abusive “behavior modification” Elan School in Poland, Maine. What Alice and her husband fail to realize is that TJ and Barbara are aware of the plans.
In the midst of the van Laar family drama, Louise Donnadieu is barely containing her excitement that the family is hosting her fiance and his family at Self-Reliance. John Paul McLellan Jr. is an abusive drinker and drug user who leveraged his family contacts to help Louise get the summer camp job.
Louise feels a sense of obligation to him, even after he attacked her during an intoxicated fit and forced her to flee in the middle of the night. TJ found her hiding in an abandoned cabin and nursed her back to her health. The two remained professional after Louise returned to work at the camp.
Some suspicious activities from her counselor-in-training Annabel Southworth give her pause, especially when she learns John Paul has been sleeping with the teenager. The pair have been sneaking off together, then setting up Louise to take the blame for Barbara’s absence.
When Louise is arrested and held on suspicion of harming Barbara, she’s forced to reevaluate her life and choices. She also shares some pertinent information with Judy that helps the detective understand what happened to Barbara.
As Barbara’s only true friend at camp, Tracy feels compelled to find and return Barbara to prove their closeness and maintain their friendship. Instead, she gets herself turned around and causes the camp to be shut down early.
Tracy remains enamored of Barbara even as she gets her wish to spend time alone in her father’s home reading under the fans.
Taking in the disappearances of both Bear and Barbara from an outsider’s perspective, new investigator Judyta “Judy” Laptuck begins piecing together the puzzle of how TJ’s family interacts with the van Laars.
She speaks with a local history teacher and his wife who help her see how the two families entered into an understanding that covered up Bear’s disappearance and may have enabled Barbara to escape her negligent family.
Judy returns to an abandoned slaughterhouse on the grounds at night and finds TJ caring for her seriously ill father, Vic Hewitt. The elderly man confuses the BCI officer for Barbara and tells her she can’t be there.
His statements give credence to her ideas about the connections between the two families. Vic eventually tells her what happened to Bear and why the family insisted upon deceiving everyone for 14 years.
Once Vic’s statement is taken, Judy and the team move forward with indicting Peter II and Peter III with criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Plot Spoilers
Bear’s disappearance official story: Peter van Laar IV, 8, disappeared after returning home after collecting his pocketknife to take on a walk with his grandfather. The boy’s body was never found after extensive searches of the woods surrounding Self-Reliance.
Bear’s disappearance true story: the boy joined his deeply intoxicated mother in a rowboat during a rain -storm and drowned when the boat flipped over. Alice was able to swim to shore safely, but her son remained trapped under the boat. His body was collected and TJ’s father, Vic Hewitt, spoke with Peter II about burying him on an island on the other side of the lake, a distance from where the search party would look.
Alice was immediately sedated after the boy’s body was recovered. No one ever told her what happened. Instead, she’s forced to believe Bear remains missing in the woods while slowly descending into clinical depression and hallucinations.
As “The God of the Woods” concludes, both Alice’s husband and father-in-law face prosecution. But she evades any involuntary manslaughter charges because the statute of limitations has passed.
Barbara’s disappearance official story: John Paul McLellan Jr. is initially suspected of killing Barbarara after her bloody clothes are found in his trunk, along with illegal drugs in his car. Police link Louise with John Paul because the two dated and she was Barbara’s camp counselor.
Barbara’s disappearance true story: She and TJ trained her for long-term survival in a cabin the Hewitt family owned more than an hour’s drive from Camp Emerson. They met nearly every night during camp to prepare and took advantage of a cut Barbara sustained during the Survival Trip to soak some clothes in blood and frame John Paul.
Only Judy takes time to learn about the Hewitts’ modest home and pay a visit. She swims to the cabin after seeing Barbara, then asks if she wants to be left alone. The teen responds with a clear year, so Judy swims back and leaves her in peace.
Barbara becomes the god of the woods to survive her family and stay true to herself.
Final Thoughts
“The God of the Woods” is a blend of several genres – family drama, mystery, and historical fiction– but namely literary fiction. The lengthy tome requires patience and attention to detail from its readers.
Moore’s newest novel is recommended for those who can embrace unlikable but intricately drawn characters from different time periods piece together puzzles. Alice’s tragic story will appeal to readers who understand her pain and limitations, while others may be heartened by the optimistic but unrealistic ending Moore creates for Barbara.
“The God of the Woods” should be read and savored for all its delightful character and period details. It would also make an outstanding book club selection.
Rating
My rating is 4.25/5 stars.
Book Details
Title: “The God of the Woods”
Author: Liz Moore
Year of Publication: 2024
Number of Pages: 476
