About The God of the Woods

In August 1975, thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar is missing from her bunk at Camp Emerson, a summer camp in the Adirondacks owned by her wealthy family. Everyone who knows the Van Laars remembers that this has happened before. Fourteen years earlier, Barbara’s older brother, Bear, vanished from the same land, and he was never found. Liz Moore moves between the two summers and among a wide cast: Barbara’s bunkmate Tracy, a counsellor named Louise who was not where she should have been that night, Barbara’s heavily medicated mother, Alice, and Judy Luptack, a young investigator whose senior colleagues barely take her seriously. An escaped killer hiding in the woods gives everyone an easy explanation. The truth is closer to home. The novel spent many months on The New York Times bestseller list, and it works so well for circles because the mystery is only half the book. The other half is about who is believed, who is protected, and who pays.

Discussion questions for The God of the Woods

Moore tells the story through many narrators and two timelines, 1961 and 1975. Whose chapters did you look forward to most, and whose perspective changed your understanding of the case?
The Van Laars own the land, the camp, and much of the local economy. How does their wealth shape the investigation, from who gets questioned to what gets written down?
Barbara is described mostly through other people’s eyes. Who did you think she was before the ending? How close were you?
Tracy is lonely, eager, and fiercely loyal to Barbara. What does her friendship with Barbara reveal, and what does her own night in the woods add to the novel?
Louise, the counsellor, is quickly made vulnerable to blame. How does Moore use her to show the way institutions look for someone low on the ladder when something goes wrong?
Judy Luptack is one of the few women in her field and is underestimated at every turn. How does she use that underestimation, and what did you make of the choice she faces at the end?
Alice Van Laar spends much of the novel sedated and dismissed. How did you feel about her once you understood what happened in 1961, and about the men who decided what she would be told?
Jacob Sluiter, the escaped prisoner, looms over the community as the obvious suspect. Why is it so convenient for everyone to believe the danger came from outside?
When the truth about Bear finally emerges, who do you hold most responsible, and does the novel let anyone off the hook?
Carl Stoddard, a local man, was blamed for Bear’s disappearance years earlier. What does his story say about who gets sacrificed so that a powerful family can keep its name?
T.J. Hewitt turns out to have quietly cared for Barbara in ways her parents never did. What does the novel suggest about the difference between family and the people who actually raise a child?
The ending resolves the mystery but leaves one decision unspoken in public. Did it satisfy you? Would you have made the same choice as the person who makes it?

Themes in The God of the Woods

Class and the architecture of protection

The Van Laars do not have to lie very often. Other people do it for them: police captains, employees, family lawyers. Moore shows how wealth creates a buffer of loyalty and fear around a family, and how that buffer can hide a death for years. The novel is patient about the mechanics of it, which is what makes it chilling.

Women who are not believed

Alice is sedated rather than heard. Judy is patronized by colleagues. Louise is dismissed as careless. Barbara is written off as a problem child. Across both timelines, the women and girls who see most clearly are the ones least likely to be listened to, and the novel builds its suspense from that gap.

Two disappearances, two kinds of lost child

Bear and Barbara vanish from the same land fourteen years apart, and the novel treats them as mirror images. One disappearance needs to be exposed. The other, it turns out, may need protecting. The book asks what a child owes a family that failed them, and what a family owes a child it lost.

The woods as witness

The Adirondack setting is more than scenery. The forest hides people, keeps secrets, and teaches survival to anyone who pays attention. Moore uses it as a place where the rules of the Van Laar household do not quite reach, for better and for worse.

Main characters in The God of the Woods

Barbara Van Laar: the thirteen-year-old who goes missing from Camp Emerson in 1975. Her disappearance starts the novel.
Bear Van Laar: Barbara’s older brother. He vanished from the same land in 1961, when he was eight, and was never found.
Alice Van Laar: Barbara and Bear’s mother. She spends years sedated and shut out of the truth about her son.
Peter Van Laar III: Barbara’s father, heir to the family bank and the land.
Peter Van Laar II: Barbara’s grandfather and the head of the family. His choices in 1961 shape everything that follows.
Judyta “Judy” Luptack: the young state police investigator who is underestimated by her colleagues and solves both cases.
Tracy Jewell: Barbara’s bunkmate at camp. She is lonely, keeps Barbara’s secrets, and goes into the woods alone to look for her.
Louise Donnadieu: the counsellor in charge of Barbara’s cabin, quickly lined up to take the blame.
T.J. Hewitt: a camp worker and the daughter of Vic Hewitt, a longtime Van Laar employee. She quietly looks after Barbara.
Carl Stoddard: a local man blamed for Bear’s disappearance. He died in custody.
Jacob Sluiter: a convicted killer who escapes prison and hides in the woods. He is everyone’s easy suspect.

The God of the Woods ending explained (spoilers)

This section gives away the whole ending. Skip it if your club has not finished the book.

What happened to Bear Van Laar? He was not kidnapped and Carl Stoddard did not harm him. Bear drowned in the lake in 1961 on a night when his mother, Alice, was drunk and out on a boat. His grandfather, Peter Van Laar II, found him and chose to protect the family name. With Vic Hewitt’s help, he buried Bear on the property and let Carl Stoddard take the blame. Alice was kept sedated so she could not tell anyone what she remembered. In 1975, Jacob Sluiter, who had seen the burial years before, tells investigators where to dig, and Bear’s remains are found. Both Peters are charged over the cover-up. Alice is not charged, because too much time has passed.

What happened to Barbara Van Laar? She is alive. Barbara ran away on purpose, with help from T.J. Hewitt. The nights she was “sneaking out to see a boy” were nights with T.J., who was getting her ready to live on her own. T.J. had stocked a remote cabin on an island in the Adirondacks, and Barbara plans to stay there until she turns eighteen and her family can no longer control her. Judy Luptack finds her, asks if she is safe and if she wants to be left alone, and keeps the secret.

Who is Tracy in The God of the Woods? Tracy Jewell is Barbara’s bunkmate, a shy first-time camper who becomes her friend and confidant. When Barbara vanishes, Tracy goes into the woods to find her, gets lost, and is led back to safety by a stranger. Later she tells Judy what she knows about Barbara’s night-time trips. She is not part of either crime. She is the outsider who sees how the Van Laars live.

Clubs tend to argue about two things. First, Judy’s silence: is letting Barbara stay hidden an act of respect, or a failure of duty to a child? Second, the plausibility of a young teenager living alone in the woods for years. Some readers find it hopeful. Others find it hard to believe.

Suggested book club format

Length: About 490 pages, roughly eleven hours of reading.
Session count: Two sessions are ideal, especially if members want to avoid spoilers. Break around the midpoint, once the 1961 timeline has shown what happened on the night of the Van Laars’ 1961 summer party. Save the endings of both mysteries for session two.
Icebreaker: “Did you ever go to summer camp, or somewhere like it? What is one thing the adults never knew about what happened there?”
Moderator note: The cast is large and the timeline jumps. A short list of names, with a line on who each person is, can save a lot of flipping back. The book includes child death, sexual harassment, and emotional abuse, so name those gently at the start.

How a real club read this

Share how your circle discussed The God of the Woods: tell us about your reading circle.

More books like The God of the Woods

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane: a missing daughter, a community that closes ranks, and a mother who will not stop asking. Small Mercies discussion guide.
North Woods by Daniel Mason: one patch of New England forest across centuries, where the land keeps its own secrets. North Woods discussion guide.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton: a thriller set on a remote piece of land, where wealth and idealism collide with dangerous results. Birnam Wood discussion guide.
Trust by Hernan Diaz: a wealthy family’s story told several ways, where the question is who controls the official version. Trust discussion guide.

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The God of the Woods