The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

I was really on the edge of my seat about The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. Birchie hated it, Stephany, Sarah, and Lisa loved it, and I was convinced I'd never get a copy because I was #200 or something like that on the waitlist. Anyway, it came in! How did it go?

It was so good! I found the first 80 pages or so really confusing with the multiple characters and multiple timelines. I really liked the way the author had the timeline at the beginning of the chapter, though, so you could tell who was the narrator for that chapter and where you were in the story. I found the visual super helpful and think I would have lost my mind if it had been an audiobook. 

What we have here is a mystery. A girl goes missing from a summer camp, a place where her brother had gone missing some years earlier. What's going on? We follow several different characters from the missing girl's bunkmate to the police officer to the mother of the missing children. 

I'm not sure what makes this book so riveting, but I just kept wanting to turn the pages. It felt like every chapter was a mini-cliffhanger and I needed to know how it would be resolved. The writing was good, but not great. I didn't write down any lines of note, for example. There were still loose ends at the end of the book, but that didn't stop me from finding the ending satisfying. I didn't guess the ending at all and was surprised by it, so that's another point in the book's favor. It was really a solid book for me to read while I was in bed for a day when I wasn't feeling well. 

4.5/5 stars

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He wore his hat indoors. (page 83)

Delphine had put on a hat that Alice had never seen before...(page 84)

"Vic?" she said, and he turned, embarrassed, his fisherman's hat in his hands. (page 105)

It was then that Carl remembered his hat, a floppy felt thing his wife had given him several birthdays ago. (page 118)

Louise, in her park and hat, felt like a friendly snowman. (page 253)

...inside she finds several articles of androgynous clothing and a neat row of fishing hats. (page 381)

The women wear small hats. (page 423)

Wearing a fishing hat with a floppy brim...(page 423)