Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

79 reviews

secanno's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Ableism, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Blood, Suicide attempt, Rape, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Alcoholism

bookedbymadeline's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book grabbed me from the beginning and didn’t let me go! I liked the premise and found the book unsettling. The writing was atmospheric and eerie, with suspense slowly building throughout the book. I’m always a fan of stories about unsolved mysteries and abandoned towns!

As always, I love switching POVs and timelines. The alternating timelines added to the suspense of the story. We see the present day as filmmakers go to the old mining town to make a documentary about the murder of a woman and disappearance of nearly 900 residents from the 1950s. The other timeline takes place during 1959, revealing the events that led up to the murder and disappearance.

I also liked the characters. They were complex and well developed, even the supporting characters! The plot twists usually caught me off guard and a couple I was able to guess. But the ones I guessed were the only logical solution as things became revealed so I wouldn’t call them predictable or cliche. 

There are one or two things that were left open ended and wish would’ve been addressed more. But I can’t say more without spoiling it 😅

The only other thing I didn’t like was the way mental illness is handled; it wasn’t great and was fairly problematic. The author uses the character’s misunderstanding of mental illness as a plot device. I don’t want to go more into it and give away any spoilers but there were several statements that just didn’t sit well for me. This made me drop a star from the overall rating.

It’s a perfect spooky season read given the concept and suspense. I’d recommend if you enjoy ghost stories or unsolved mysteries! If you choose to pick this one up, be aware of the use of mental illness and the other trigger warnings (there’s a lot). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Gore

Minor: Alcoholism and Miscarriage

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, Ableism, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

dylpickles's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Brain washing

goatsrsexy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

4.0

An entire town goes missing and no one knows what happened to them, 60 years later a young woman with connections to the town has been fascinated by the story and the mystery her whole life and wants to figure out what happened also as a way to feel closer to her late grandma who lived in the village as a child but moved before the incident. 

The mystery of the story is pretty predictable but I don't think that's a big issue. It's a very fascinating and sad story about fanaticism and about mental health. I did feel a certain characters 'psychotic break' that happened seemed a bit outlandish 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Bullying, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

ekmook's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

kt2e56's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This was such a disappointment for me. A solid premise and genuinely creepy atmosphere ruined by an impossible ending, ableism, and an asshole of a main character who doesn’t even try to use logic when making decisions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Ableism, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

chronicallyplotting's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The Lost Village was about a film team scoping out an abandoned town in Sweden in hopes of figuring out what happened to the town. All while half of the characters conveniently have connections to the people who went missing. 

This book kept my attention and did have some suspenseful parts. But I also felt it went flat when it came to wrapping the story up. The answers to many elements seemed to all come at the same time. There were also a few things that didn’t make sense, but that is fiction for you. 
One of my biggest what they heck moments, without giving anything away, was when one person died. Why did no one attempt cpr? I still think about that the most. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, and Rape

_terah_hansen_'s review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Bullying, Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Death, and Confinement

i_mina_i's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Ableism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Murder and Mental illness