The God of the Woods

Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods (2024) opens with the discovery on an August morning in 1975 that 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar is missing from her bunk at Camp Emerson. She is a member of the elite Van Laar family, who own Camp Emerson, and her disappearance is instant cause for alarm because it echoes that of her brother, Peter “Bear” Van Laar IV, who vanished 14 years ago. As the search for Barbara intensifies, the narrative alternates between several different perspectives and timelines to reveal the secrets of the Van Laar family. The novel blends elements of mystery with conventions of the suspense-thriller genre and uses a character-driven approach to explore The Corruptive Influence of Wealth and Class and The Dangers of Keeping Secrets as the dominant female characters struggle with Navigating the Injustices of Misogyny in mid-20th century America.

Moore’s fifth novel, The God of the Woods became a New York Times Bestseller upon its release and was also the number-one best-seller among independent bookstores. Her fourth novel, Long Bright River (2020), was chosen for the “Good Morning America” Book Club and included on President Barack Obama’s list of favorite books of 2020. A television adaptation of Long Bright River will premiere in 2025, and the television rights for both The God of the Woods and The Unseen World have been purchased by Sony. Moore’s short fiction and nonfiction have also been published in numerous journals.

This guide refers to the 2024 hardcover edition published by Riverhead Books.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide include descriptions of alcohol and substance use disorder, domestic violence, misogyny, and the death of a child.

Plot Summary

The novel opens on an early morning in August 1975. Louise Donnadieu, counselor at Camp Emerson, wakes to discover that a member of her charge is missing from her bunk: Barbara Van Laar, the 13-year-old daughter of the camp’s owners—the prestigious Van Laar family. Because Louise and her counselor-in-training, Annabel, snuck out of the cabin the previous night, Louise fears she will be held responsible for Barbara’s disappearance. She informs the camp director, TJ Hewitt, who organizes the counselors into search teams and notifies authorities. TJ has grown up on the Van Laars’ property—known as the preserve—and her father, Victor, was the previous camp director and overseer of the Van Laars’ property. The relations between the Hewitts and Van Laars date back generations, but a rift has grown between them.

As Louise searches, she recalls the events of the previous night; she snuck out to meet Lee Towson, a member of the kitchen staff who, like Louise, is a local and regarded as insignificant by the Van Laars and their elite friends. Louise was caught by her fiancé, John Paul McLellan Jr, who is the godson of Alice and Peter Van Laar. He is poised to take over Peter Van Laar’s business one day and has been visiting the Van Laar home (called “Self-Reliance”) to participate in a party celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the preserve. A fight broke out between Towson and John Paul, but John Paul was no match for the scrappy Towson.

The narrative alternates among three distinct timelines: the 1950s, 1961, and 1975. This structure allows the author to establish key events that unfold within the Van Laar family history. The narrative reveals that in the 1950s, Alice, Barbara’s mother, weds Peter Van Laar III in an arranged marriage. She likes Peter well enough, but the marriage is for appearances only, and it quickly becomes clear that Alice’s role is to advance her husband’s social status. However, her life takes on new meaning with the birth of her son, Peter IV, whom they nickname “Bear.” Alice and Bear develop a special bond despite Peter’s admonitions against mothering him; Peter believes that this task should be left to nursemaids rather than to a woman of Alice’s class. Even so, Alice dotes on Bear and takes comfort in this connection when she discovers that Peter is having an affair with her sister, Delphine.

In 1961, Bear goes missing at age nine when the Van Laars host their annual “Blackfly Goodbye” summer party—a week-long gathering of elite friends. Bear’s grandfather, Peter II, asserts that he and the boy set out for a hike, but Bear turned back to retrieve a jackknife and never rejoined him. A search commences, but the Van Laars quickly focus on Carl Stoddard—a hired hand who admits to being the last to see Bear that afternoon. Carl passes away of a heart attack soon afterward, and although Bear’s body is never discovered, the common belief is that Carl was responsible for Bear’s disappearance.

After the loss of Bear, Alice becomes a shell of her former self, sinking into a depression from which she never fully recovers. Ashamed of her emotional state, the Van Laars send her to a state hospital, where she becomes dependent on sleeping pills. When she returns to her life with Peter, Alice goes through the motions of a normal life, even having a second child whom Peter insists on naming Barbara. However, Alice constantly grieves Bear’s absence; she insists that he is still alive somewhere and conjures visions of him to keep her company. Meanwhile, Barbara grows into an unruly, obstinate child whom Peter and Alice both resent. They send her to boarding school, where she develops a punk aesthetic that embarrasses her parents.

Much of the search for Barbara is presented from the perspective of Detective Judyta Luptack, a rookie who is the first woman in the Albany, New York force to become a detective. During her investigation, Judy uncovers suspicion surrounding John Paul Jr, who returned to the home bloodied and beaten in the hours before Barbara went missing and has since disappeared himself. When he is finally apprehended, a bloody camper uniform is found in the trunk of his car, and he insists that Louise placed it there. Louise is taken into custody on charges of drug possession and rigorously questioned. Certain that the powerful Van Laar and McLellan families are attempting to shift their potential culpability, Louise knows that she is powerless to stop them. The narrative provides flashbacks of Louise’s tumultuous courtship with John Paul Jr. and her troublesome home life with a neglectful mother.

As the search for Barbara unfolds, the narrative shifts between the present investigation of Barbara’s disappearance and the girl’s previous two months at Camp Emerson. In the timeline detailing the recent past, Barbara befriends her bunkmate, the shy and reserved Tracy Jewell, a first-time camper and a confidant. Barbara confesses to Tracy that she is sneaking out of the cabin most nights to meet a boyfriend—someone whose identity is unknown but quickly becomes a person of interest when Barbara later goes missing. Barbara and Tracy’s bond grows during the Survival Trip—a Camp Emerson tradition in which campers use TJ Hewitt’s lessons and training to care for themselves as a small group on an overnight trip in the remote part of the woods. Each group is assigned a counselor who shadows at a distance in the event of an emergency. This time, TJ herself follows the group, which consists of Barbara and Tracy. TJ’s aid must be called upon when Barbara suffers a serious cut on her leg. Later, a young camper reports seeing Barbara head to TJ’s tent each night during the Survival Trip, and this raises suspicions about the connection between TJ and Barbara.

As Judy interviews the various friends of the Van Laars, her investigation always leads back to Bear’s disappearance. Although some believed Carl Stoddard was responsible, others suspected Bear to be a victim of a local serial killer—Jacob Sluiter. Sluiter’s family, like the Hewitts, has a connection to the land now owned by the Van Laars. In the days immediately before Barbara’s disappearance, Sluiter escaped from the minimum-security facility that he recently tricked officials into transferring him to by faking a limp, suggesting himself to be largely immobile. Rumors also surface about the elder Peter Van Laar—Bear’s grandfather—whom Bear is said to have feared. The involvement of the Van Laars in Barbara’s disappearance is also supported by Carl Stoddard’s widow, Maryanne, who insists that Carl became an easy scapegoat when Bear went missing. Maryanne pays Louise’s bond, releasing her from police custody due to her certainty that the Van Laars aim to frame Louise for Barbara’s supposed death.

The pieces of the puzzle fall into place when Jacob Sluiter is captured in an empty house in northern New York. He confesses to knowing the location of Bear Van Laar’s remains, but he insists he is not responsible for the boy’s death. After some negotiation, Sluiter agrees to take police to the remains, which are located in a cave in a remote area accessible only by crossing a lake. Sluiter describes hiding and witnessing a man deposit the body there. Sluiter’s description of the man matches that of Victor Hewitt—the former caretaker of the preserve who is now frail and elderly and is cared for by his daughter, TJ.

Judy convinces Victor to reveal what occurred on the day of Bear’s disappearance. He explains that Alice had asked Bear to accompany her on the rowboat. Distraught over the infidelity of her husband, Alice was severely impaired by alcohol and pills. Recognizing this, the elder Peter insisted on taking Bear for a hike instead, but Bear turned back and decided to join his mother. When a thunderstorm popped up, Alice lost control of the rowboat, and Bear drowned. The Peters forced Victor to help them hide the body, and Victor, because his livelihood depended on his loyalty to the Van Laars, had little choice in the matter.

In the narrative present, charges are brought against the Van Laars, but a month goes by, and Barbara is still missing. Upon learning from Louise that TJ owns a small cabin on a remote island—the locale to which TJ plans to retire someday—Judy rows to the cabin and finds Barbara living alone. Realizing that Barbara has chosen to escape the neglectful life in which her parents had trapped her, Judy agrees to keep Barbara’s whereabouts a secret and leaves her there.