Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Lost Village

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

46 reviews

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review

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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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mangosugar's review

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

the synopsis of this book definitely grabbed me, i think the concept and idea behind this was so inventive. i enjoyed the characters quite a lot; they all had glaring flaws that only made them more human and realistic, if not irritating at times.

alice, our protagonist, is a struggling filmmaker who’s been dreaming about figuring out the mystery of silvertjarn, “the lost village.” she’s got quite a lot of emotional attachment to it, seeing as her grandmother’s entire family disappeared along with the other residents and alice grew up with tales of the town and its descent into evil.

on her own, alice is not a particularly interesting or captivating character, but what does make her stand out is her dynamics with the other characters and her involvement in the mystery itself. she’s often overly emotional, though it’s understandable, and she’s just a walking “i’m trying the best i can” meme. my favourite thing about her is how honest she is with herself. usually, characters (and people) try to spin their mistakes and flaws around in order to justify them, but alice is really self-aware and i like her sincerity.

the other (arguably more present) protagonist is elsa, alice’s great-grandmother. the story moves between alice’s point of view in the present in certain chapters and elsa’s life sixty years ago, when silvertjarn began its own demise. those were honestly my favourite parts of the book.

unfortunately, the pacing is extremely slow. like i almost stopped reading many times bc i was so bored of the drawn-out tension. the last hundred or some pages fix that though, the action picks up and a very well-done sense of dread and panic sets in, it was very moving.

the plot-twist is pretty obvious, i don’t think it can shock many people, but it was coherent with the rest of the story so i still appreciated it. i was surprised at the very end though when an identity is revealed. it was actually pretty terrifying lmao the author did a great job as i said in creating an atmosphere of just pure frenzy, i finished the book on a crowded bus in the early afternoon and i was still scared shitless.

the secondary characters are alright lmao. with the exception of tonne, alice’s friend with her own connection to the town, i didn’t really care for them. i liked robert but we’re not given much from him, i just ended up with a lil crush 🧍🏽‍♀️

overall it was mildly entertaining though frustrating until the last 100 pages when things finally started happening, so i have it 3.5 stars, but i understand why some reviewers gave it less.

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dylpickles's review against another edition

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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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goatsrsexy's review against another edition

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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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ekmook's review

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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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gingersnap85's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Scared the bejeezus out of me in broad daylight. Loved it.

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marialise's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

This book was a quick read that was interesting enough to keep me turning pages. That's the good.

The bad is...this book was bland. I know that this comes down to my personal preferences. I don't particularly care for books where the answer is that Man is a Monster, so I was hoping that this book was gonna be weird and mysterious, unsettling, but it wasn't. It's also in first person, which I don't like much either. I got to the end and felt absolutely nothing for this book.

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