An experienced, female hiker goes missing on the Appalachian Trail. Valerie, will empty her soul onto pages while she reflects on the possibility of death and what her life has meant to her. What then follows is a search by many to find her, led by Beverly, who feels it in her soul that she must find Valerie. Enter Lena, an armchair sleuth living in a retirement home who slowly begins to unravel the pieces of the puzzle. These three women all face different challenges, together though they must rise to save Valerie in time.

Amity Gage wrote a heartfelt love letter to self and nature. She took these women and fused them together with careful detail. I definitely thought at one point it was heading one direction but I was completely wrong. Was it my favorite book, no. Well written, yes. Am I still a little confused, also yes. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Heartwood is a challenging read because of the various plots within the main plot of the disappearance of the hiker on the Appalachian Trail. The book does gradually come to a satisfying ending with the merging of the main characters' stories.

Heart-pounding action and thrilling to read. I loved the setting of this book and knew a lot of the places Gaige wrote about. That was a plus. I think the characters were well written and moved the story along at the perfect pace. This was hard to put down! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Amity Gaige’s ‘Heartwood’ is an intense story about a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail. You’ll get to know the characters from different points of view. I’m a sucker for books about humans and nature, suspense, and deep emotional connections. This book has it all!

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Heartwood, by Amity Gage, from Simon & Schuster /NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

You know how some books grow on you overnight, after you’ve finished them?

This one didn’t.

And that’s a shame, because I was super-excited to get an ARC of it just a couple of days after I had first heard of it and put it on my Want to Read list on Goodreads.

Unfortunately, what I read didn’t tip me off to the fact that it is considered “literary fiction.” Which is the sort of fiction that usually leaves me honking on about pretentious writing. And with a headache.

Sure enough, even thinking about it again today has me cranky. It was like Amity Gage took a page from Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series and another from The Thursday Murders Club by Richard Osman and threw in some pandemic-related navel gazing and Reddit stuff and then glommed it on top of the true story of a Geraldine Largay, a woman who went missing on the Appalachian Trail in 2013—and survived 26 days before dying (she kept a journal). Oh, and she mixed in some paramilitary stuff.

Why was this “literary”?? I guess because our idiot—and supremely unlikeable—hiker kept a journal, too? Or because it's easier for the publishing-industrial complex to promote?

Yuck. I can’t keep writing. I wish I could give this 1.5 stars, but because Goodreads won’t let me, I’ll go with 2 stars because I liked the Santos character and the assistant chiefs.

Links, Some Links
About the Anna Pigeon series: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

About The Thursday Murder Club series: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

About Geraldine Largay: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...

DESCRIPTION
“A riveting wilderness suspense novel by a novelist at the height of her powers” (Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Candy House), Heartwoodtakes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.

Heartwood is a “gem of a thousand facets—suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending,” (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker’s odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character’s interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.

This reviewer appreciates the concept of this book and the author's polished writing. The story construction, however, didn't work for me. Thank you for the opportunity.

I LOVE wilderness survival stories. I love them in books and movies. I was excited to read this. However, I soon became bored with the journal entries. For some reason, I got confused often as well. I enjoyed the Appalachian Trail snippets and just the overall feel of nature. 3.5 stars.

I enjoyed this book and especially all of the references to the Northeast states as I live in one of them and I'm familiar with a lot of the towns the author mentions. I liked Lt. Bev's chapters, Valerie's chapters and the interviews with the other hikers but I found some of the other POV's to be boring. I understand why the author added these but I would have liked this book more if it were a straight up survival book. The first half of this book was definitely more engaging than the last half but the build up was pretty good and the conclusion was great.

Also, the joke with the crotchety old Mainer and the dog had me laughing out loud.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I know I'm in the super minority on this one, but I thought it was a snoozer. I read it a few weeks ago, and looking at the cover now I couldn't remember a thing about it! Once I read the synopsis I was able to recall the storyline...but this one was a miss for me.

This was a story of survival, sort of. There was much more to it, which really didn't work for me. I found the chapters where Valerie talked to her mother boring. I enjoyed Beverly's point of view. But overall I didn't connect with any of the characters. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

A really lovely book. Each of the three perspectives was crafted with such care and I felt deeply invested in each thread of the story, as it came together. Gaige is also a master of setting and wilderness writing—no small feat. A beautiful, lyrical mystery for readers who want beautiful sentences and a immersive story.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview Heartwood.
Character development is excellent. The novel centers on three women who bring a unique perspective to the story.
A woman lost in the woods, a detective determined to find her and a disabled woman who is following the case of the missing woman.
Truly fascinating plot and fast paced.
This is suspenseful and very compelling.
Told in the POV aid the women I was engrossed in the book from the start.
A fast read and heartfelt.
3.5!stats
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"Heartwood" by Amity Gaige presents a gripping narrative that intertwines the lives of three women, making for a compelling read. The novel draws parallels to Cheryl Strayed’s "Wild," yet it uniquely centers around a missing person case, adding an intriguing layer of suspense.

The plot follows Valerie, a nurse who goes missing while hiking the Appalachian Trail after navigating the challenges of the COVID pandemic. Simultaneously, Lt. Bev, a Warden, undertakes the search efforts in Maine, while Lena shares a mysterious connection to both women.

Though this genre is outside my usual preferences, I found myself captivated and read the book in one sitting. The themes of maternal bonds and female strength resonated with me. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing the ARC.

Heartwood by Amity Gaige keeps you on the edge of your seat moving back and forth between a hiker who is lost in the woods of Maine, and those searching for her. I liked the way the author really dug deep into the personalities and lives of the voices in the novel. The author was very adept at giving the reader a real feel for the psyche of the hiker and those who were searching for her. I highly recommend!

Captivating account of hiking the Appalachian Trail, struggling through Covid and family dynamics. Read almost in one sitting as she held my interest so well. Great for book clubs as good topics for discussion.

Heartwood by Amity Gaige is a beautifully written novel about family, love, and self-discovery. Through a poignant and introspective narrative, Gaige explores the complexities of relationships and identity. A thoughtful, character-driven story that resonates deeply.

There is way too much going on in this book to allow the reader to become fully immersed the story. Between the point of view of the game warden leading the search, interviews with other hikers, a seemingly random woman who inserts herself into the search, and letters written by the missing hiker to her mother (which felt overwrought and a little too precious at the same time) the pace of the story felt like a dreary slog through the woods. Some of the writing was lovely, and the setting of the Maine woods was well presented, but this was mostly pretty disappointing.

To be totally honest, despite the fact that I saw a friend raving about this one, I went into it with very medium expectations. I am the opposite of outdoorsy and reading about the search for a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail didn’t sound like a plot I’d be invested in. Thankfully, I gave this a go and I’m so glad I did.

The story mainly focuses on three different women and each of these characters had such a distinct voice and personality it felt like I knew them all deeply and I was incredibly invested in each of their stories.

Beverly, the Maine State Game Warden (and one of my favorite characters!), leads the search on the ground for the missing nurse while Lena, a birdwatching enthusiast in a retirement home, dabbles in a bit of armchair detective work. Meanwhile, thanks to her journal, readers are able to witness firsthand what Valerie is experiencing in the middle of the Maine wilderness.

I wouldn’t call this a thriller but it’s definitely suspenseful and once I hit the halfway point I barely came up for air. Again, I adored these characters and think it’s so rare to find a book (at least the books I typically read) with so many genuinely decent people.

I loved the theme of complex mother-daughter relationships and at times I was blown away by the prose. The only thing I didn’t love was, not surprisingly, some of the nitty gritty outdoorsy stuff. I know one nurse that wouldn’t last a day on her own in the wild (me!)!

Written with "enormous literary ambition" per the blurb, Heartwood is genre-classed as a mystery/thriller, which both unnerved and intrigued me because I could see how it could easily go interestingly right or sloggingly wrong. And it went...more the first than the second, so okay.

Did that mean I loved it? I wouldn't go that far, but it was pretty good for all that it had a handful of moments that seemed to be yearning for the Women's Fiction shelf. I don't have much to complain about, this just wasn't really for me I think. But if you're looking for "enormous literary ambition" in your missing white woman story you'd probably like this a lot.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC.

Rather good. I had low expectations - that this would be a straightforward category offering. But it’s much better than that, finely written, suspenseful of course, but plangent too in its characters, relationships and atmosphere. A little too padded, now and then, but creative most of the time, atmospheric and not too sentimental. Well done.