Ultimately this is a mystery, but it doesn't read like one.
First and foremost it is set in a summer camp. Where I spent some of my best years. And that's why I started reading it, and on that note it worked, but "The God of the Woods" is so much more.
Generally speaking I don't read genre books, because I find the endings unsatisfactory. There's an unforeseen twist, which makes you feel ripped off, angry you wasted so much time trying to figure it out.
Actually, I wasn't that invested in the mysteries of "The God of the Woods," the disappearance of two children. And thank god I didn't find out until the very end what happened to them, because these results were not as interesting as what came before. Which had to do with friendships, class relations, personal growth, individuality.
Yes, you have a multi-generational rich family. To what degree is it using its power to subvert justice. Or is it just playing at the level rich people prefer, which is essentially private. Rich people have their own means of travel, i.e. private jets, they have their own doctors, they vacation at places you can't afford, never mind know of, and they wield their relationships to pervert the course of justice. Real saints, right?
Actually, America reveres the rich and the poor, to be average is anathema. To have less is a badge of honor. If I had a nickel for every person who told me they grew up poor, and then let slip they went to a private high school and their parents drove luxury cars... And then there are the entitled rich who lord it over us. As if they deserve their perch. And then there are those who sit completely outside the system and don't want to be judged, just left alone.
So, the story is set in 1975, during the second disappearance. Although there are a lot of flashbacks to 1961, the first disappearance. And it is set amongst the upper-crust, who marry for money, in an era when women didn't even go to college, according to the book, anyway.
And you've got the woman who is nobody from nowhere who goes to college on a scholarship but still can't make ends meet and ends up going back home and doing low level jobs.
She believes she's the fiancée of a rich guy she met when she was at school. But he doesn't integrate her into his family.
And then you've got the new investigator, a female State Trooper afraid of getting it wrong but wanting to get it right.
Meanwhile, adjacent to the camp the owners have a mansion where they have an annual midsummer bacchanal to celebrate the disappearance of the black flies.
So there are all these players, all this history, what is the truth?
Well, it's ultimately revealed. But it's the characters who make the book so interesting.
And the setting, in the Adirondacks. It's got the feel of being off the grid. In a world where we're hooked up 24/7, where you can get signal everywhere, this is a different era, in the boondocks. The book has the feel of the woods, of a moist mountain morning. Reading it you will not contemplate your everyday life, you will be taken completely away. And it will not be long before you just want to sit down and read. This is the kind of book that you find hard to close, that you bargain with yourself over...just a few more pages, how tired will I be if I keep reading...
This is not literary fiction, but there are some insights. My favorite is:
"They'll be fine. The Hewitts—like Judy, like Louise Donnadieu, like Denny Hayes, even—don't need to rely on anyone but themselves.
"It's the Van Laars, and families like them, who have always depended on others."
In other words, the poor, the middle class, are independent, they're survivors, whereas the rich depend upon those on the payroll, and when left alone...
"The God of the Woods" is not the best book I've ever read. But it's still August, and if you're looking for something highly readable as opposed to the two-dimensional, simplistic beach reads, I'd put it near the top of your list.
Once again, "The God of the Woods" is readable, it does not take long to get into, and it will hook you.
From the time I read a review and reserved it a month ago at the library until it recently became available, "The God of the Woods" has become a huge seller, I'm not the only one.
Sometimes the wisdom of the crowd is right.
I reserved it because a reviewer compared it to Donna Tartt's "Secret History," which has a huge impact upon everyone who reads it. "The Secret History" is set at Bennington College, and the rest of the world might as well not exist. "The God of the Woods" has this same feel, but is not quite at the same level. "The Secret History" is a book you read and never forget, and I won't say "The God of the Woods" is forgettable, but it's written for everyone, not just the intellectual elite. You won't have to look up words, you won't feel like you can't relate to anybody...
You'll dig it.
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