Tall Tales from Kansas

I just finished listening to The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld. It was 15 hours of “good book love”… as in I couldn’t wait to get in the car to go run an errand so I could listen. I put this on my list of books to read after I read a review of it somewhere, probably the NYT book review. After reading it, while looking for an image of the book to use for my post, I ran across some reviews that were less than favorable. Such a great example of how a good meal, a walk, a painting, a piece of clothing, and finally a work of fiction can be such a different experience for every person that encounters it.

This is the story of a young teen-ager who disappears in the woods while at a summer camp. Her brother disappeared from the same woods 14 years earlier. The reader moves back and forth in time between the 2 searches for them and the impact on the family, the camp, members of the community where the camp is located etc.

I was very engrossed in the story from the get go. I loved the setting in the Adirondack mountains and the idea of the summer camp where kids learn some good life skills. Let me also say that I was a young teenager in 1975 and kids today are not like the kids of 1975. I feel like we were much more self sufficient, but maybe that’s as dependent on how we were parented as the times. One of the criticisms I read was about the “believability” of the book, to which I would reply, “It’s a work of fiction“. There were also comments about the ending, which I actually LOVED.

Personally, I highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed my time listening to it. The narrator has a wonderful reading voice that was a pleasure to listen to.