I read Liz Moore’s more recent novel, God of the Woods, earlier this year. That novel captured my attention right from the start with its compelling prose and intriguing cast of characters, but ultimately I felt Moore had let the story get away from her, unable to properly balance the various sideplots and backstories. The ending, too, was a tremendous disappointment. This novel finds Moore focused on a smaller band of characters, but similarly splitting focus between the present and the past. Her protagonist, Mickey […]

When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar disappears from her bunk at the summer camp her family has owned for years, the incident stirs up unhappy memories for her parents and the town at large. Fourteen years earlier, in 1961, her brother Bear had disappeared after being separated from his grandfather during a hike, and he was never seen again. Barbara’s disappearance is relayed in Moore’s text through it’s impact on the people around her, her bunkmate Tracey, a shy girl trying to get through her parents’ […]