The Short Version
The God of the Woods, Liz Moore’s 2024 novel, suits a book club because it is a mystery that is really about who gets believed and whose child gets searched for. In August 1975, thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar vanishes from Camp Emerson, a summer camp on her family’s Adirondack estate, fourteen years after her older brother Bear disappeared from the same land.
Below are twenty questions: ten you can use before everyone has finished the book, and ten that spoil the ending. The novel has eight narrators across several timelines and a large cast, so it gives a group a lot to sort out together. It scores four out of five in our review.
Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group
Tell your group first. The book involves missing children and the loss of a child, an escaped serial killer, references to sexual violence including crimes against minors, domestic violence against a young woman, heavy drinking, pill dependence and cocaine use. If someone in your club may find that hard, say so before you pick it.
Spoiler-Free Questions
- The camp has three rules, and the most important is: when lost, sit down and yell. How does that rule echo through the book, even for characters who are not in the woods?
- The title comes from Pan, and the camp director explains that panic means making an enemy of the forest. Where did you see people panic in this story?
- Eight narrators tell the story across timelines running from the 1950s to 1975. Did the structure help you piece the puzzle together, or did it get in your way?
- Judy Luptack is one of the first women investigators in her job, and the men around her call her honey and send her to interview minor players. What does she notice that they miss?
- Tracy is so shy she scripts her questions in a journal, and Barbara notices her anyway. Did that friendship feel like the emotional heart of the book to you?
- Louise makes a bad choice in the first chapter that haunts her. Would you have judged her differently if you were a searcher in the camp?
- The Van Laars are a wealthy banking family; the local people in the town below do the work. How does money shape who is searched for and who is suspected?
- The suspects include the boyfriend, the counselors, an escaped convict and the family itself. Whom did you suspect first, and why?
- Alice is written as a portrait of grief and medication. How did you read her?
- Our review gives the pacing three out of five, with a slow middle and a big cast. Where did it test your patience, and was the payoff worth it?
Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)
- Barbara planned her disappearance with the camp director, T.J. Hewitt, and she is alive on an island. Was it right for her to choose this, and was it right for T.J. to help?
- Bear did not vanish. Alice took him out in a rowboat during a storm and he drowned, and his father and grandfather covered it up. Which part is harder to forgive, the accident or the cover-up?
- Alice was kept sedated and told “There was no boat. That was a dream.” What does the book say about protecting someone by lying to her?
- Carl Stoddard took the blame for Bear and died of a heart attack in custody, while the Van Laars let the town believe he was guilty. How did you feel about the family at that point?
- Barbara said she was meeting a boyfriend, but the secret outings were survival training with T.J. Did the book play fair with that misdirection?
- T.J. planted the bloody clothes in John Paul’s trunk. The planted evidence sent police the wrong way, pointed at a man who once beat Louise, and pulled attention back onto the Van Laars. Was that justified?
- The pink room hides a mural whose river waves spell the initials of Barbara and John Paul. The book lets you decide how deliberate it was. What did you decide?
- Judy swims half a mile across a cold lake, sees Barbara on the shore, and after a moment Barbara says yes when asked whether she wants to be left alone. Was Judy right to leave her there?
- Louise, from a poor town, is treated as guilty within the first hour. Who in the book is protected, and who is blamed?
- The plan lasts only until Barbara turns eighteen. What do you imagine happens after the final page of the pines closing around her?
What To Know About The Adaptation
As of October 2026, Netflix is adapting the novel as a series, reported to run eight episodes. Maya Hawke and Kerry Condon are reported in the cast, and Liz Moore is reported to be a co-showrunner. Netflix’s own site says filming started in June, and there is no release date yet. Your group could discuss who would play Judy and where the show should begin.
What To Read Next
If your club enjoyed it, our books-like-it list covers Long Bright River, In the Woods and The Dry. If you prefer to go in spoiler-free, start with our review, and use the summary and ending explained after the discussion.
