I picked up The God of the Woods by Liz Moore right before the holidays. Of course, I wanted to be part of Taylor Swift’s unofficial book club!

One of my goals for 2026 is to write a review for all of my 5-star reads, and I’m happy to say that the year is off to a great start with this one! It was such a good read during the cold, rainy, winter days. I read the physical copy and listened to the audiobook narrated by Saskia Maarleveld. The wait via Libby was several weeks, so I used Everand’s 30-day free trial, it was great!

Let’s get to it, here’s why I loved The God of the Woods:

Mystery. I was hooked for the entire book and honestly had no idea how it was going to end. I definitely had to read during the day while it was light outside, It was outside my comfort zone, but honestly, not too scary!

Multi-generational family saga. This had all the family drama – inheritance battles, family rivalries, big parties with questionable guest lists, and best of all…family secrets.

Strong sense of place. In fifth grade, I went to a week-long camp in the woods and the descriptions, for better or worse, took me right back there.

Short chapters. Each chapter was from a different character’s POV and between 3-5 pages (a few were a bit longer & shorter). I love that concept because it feels like I’m really making progress and keeps up the momentum because I think “Just one more chapter…”

Clear timeline. I also appreciated the timeline visual at the beginning of most of the chapters. Since the story jumps back and forth and has so many characters in similar circumstances, this helped in my own understanding of where I was at in the story.

Character development. Despite the number of characters, the story was easy to follow because every character had a back-story and I could understand their motives.

Have you read The God of the Woods? What did you think? Otherwise, tell me about your first read of the year!