Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

48 reviews

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

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

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

marialise's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide attempt

niamhdee'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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide attempt, and Murder

herbivorehaunts's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I'd say this is more Blair Witch meets Midnight Mass- I got nothing of Midsommar from this book in terms of tone/plot. 

I had an enjoyable time reading this and really enjoyed the audiobook. The ending was a little bit of a let down for me but I enjoyed the ride leading up to it. The author's note about her personal experience with mental illness and mental illness in horror/history was very interesting and I felt like it added to the book experience. The alternating timelines is usually not my preferred format for a book but thought the two timelines were balanced very well.

I wish this would have been written found footage style in parts, some of the horror elements involving the technology and the crew catching things on camera at the beginning of this book sent shivers down my spine and would have loved to have had more of that throughout.  I look forward to reading more horror from this author!! 

Not the book's fault but I'm begging just once let a "ghost story" be actual ghosts, you blurb it as Blair Witch and I'm expecting found footage with ghosts. The ending really dampened my enjoyment and I felt like the book just ended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Child abuse

rapgamenancyreagan's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Blood, Death, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcoholism

spacecadelliot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Medical content, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

a_big_badger'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? Yes

3.5

The Lost Village handles a two timeline story as well as any book I've read that attempted it. The sense of foreboding and the mystery at its heart is compelling, pretty much up to the very end. It's ending drops the ball a bit, at least for me, as it had given me higher expectations than what ultimately resulted. The story suffers from

the horror trope of people doing the dumbest option possible and not leaving a bad situation

(light spoiler) which didn't ruin my reading, but may for others.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape

sorry_imbooked's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault