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nancykz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
3.0
A bit slow — the pacing really lagged in the middle. An okay, spooky read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Violence
beetitnerds's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
A good mystery with some pacing issues. I'd recommend this to someone just getting into the cult/folk horror genre, but maybe not to people who are already fans. For what it's worth, this is way more Limetown and Midnight Mass than Blair Witch or Midsommar.
I liked all the characters in this book, I liked the jump between perspectives, and the answer to the mystery is good (if predictable to genre-familiar readers). The Epilogue was one of my favorites I've read in a long time. I loved the thoughtfulness with which the author wrote about mentally ill and disabled characters, and I loved the strong and distinct female cast.
My biggest criticism in this story is the pacing. It's a rather short book, and there was a lot of exposition to get through. I enjoyed the exposition, and I enjoyed getting to know the characters, but it meant that the setting- which is almost its own character- didn't get to shine as much as it could have. We didn't get to spend much time building up the suspense and creepiness of the location, which is a shame, because I think this story could have used the documentary framing device to its advantage to give us an excuse to actually see the ironworks, for example. It's also a shame that we didn't seethe mine until the very very end, because scary mines in an abandoned mining town sounds like a no brainer, and frankly, if I found out 900 people suddenly disappeared, I'd have absolutely assumed they went into the mines. The fact this never comes up in-universe as a conspiracy theory is distractingly unrealistic. Anyway, the plot takes place over about 4 days, so I understand why things starts popping off so quickly, but we're introduced to locations and then immediately have those locations turn into threats. It would've been nice to have some time for suspense to build.
I liked all the characters in this book, I liked the jump between perspectives, and the answer to the mystery is good (if predictable to genre-familiar readers). The Epilogue was one of my favorites I've read in a long time. I loved the thoughtfulness with which the author wrote about mentally ill and disabled characters, and I loved the strong and distinct female cast.
My biggest criticism in this story is the pacing. It's a rather short book, and there was a lot of exposition to get through. I enjoyed the exposition, and I enjoyed getting to know the characters, but it meant that the setting- which is almost its own character- didn't get to shine as much as it could have. We didn't get to spend much time building up the suspense and creepiness of the location, which is a shame, because I think this story could have used the documentary framing device to its advantage to give us an excuse to actually see the ironworks, for example. It's also a shame that we didn't see
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Sexual assault
shinysarah28's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Violence
Minor: Rape
Saneismthelovelylibrarylady'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
3.0
This is a classic example of a novel that is perfect… until it isn’t. I truly thought I was going to give The Lost Village a five-star rating until I got to the very last chapters. The characters were well-developed, the eerie setting was expertly described, but the ending was just atrocious. It actually makes me irrationally angry now that I am reflecting on the story as a whole. I do not know why the author decided to end the novel in the way she did, but it completely ruined my reading experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Ableism, Violence, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Emotional abuse
Minor: Rape
absolutelyfatal's review against another edition
dark
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I am surprised to see there are so few people saying this book contains ableism. I fully believe authors who write about racism/sexism/ableism etc are generally not those things themselves but this book and this author??? This author doesn't seem to recognize the ableism weaved throughout, she acknowledges people being mean to Vergida (spelling is probably incorrect due to listening to the audiobook) but throughout ableism is what fuels the characters to look at one another through a lens of "you're the *bad* one".
One example: Even though several of them (3/5) had seen "someone else" in town when one of them goes missing it comes out she has a mental illness which is a personality disorder (a very stigmatized subgroup of mentally ill people) so she's now the culprit of all of the terrible shit happening, including killing one of the crew, despite the fact she's never been violent and they have PLENTY of evidence to the contrary.
Three people in this book are neurodivergent and/or mentally ill and there is ableism towards every one of them. The author seems unaware of how awful all of it looks when she does nothing to show that ableism is wrong.
Outside of this, the book failed to meet the potential it had and I'll probably avoid any of the authors' future work.
One example: Even though several of them (3/5) had seen "someone else" in town when one of them goes missing it comes out she has a mental illness which is a personality disorder (a very stigmatized subgroup of mentally ill people) so she's now the culprit of all of the terrible shit happening, including killing one of the crew, despite the fact she's never been violent and they have PLENTY of evidence to the contrary.
Three people in this book are neurodivergent and/or mentally ill and there is ableism towards every one of them. The author seems unaware of how awful all of it looks when she does nothing to show that ableism is wrong.
Outside of this, the book failed to meet the potential it had and I'll probably avoid any of the authors' future work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
audreyd93's review against another edition
3.25
I didn't hate it but I didn't love it. The ending kinda ruined the whole thing for me. I was left confused still. About halfway, I started enjoying the "Then" part more than "Now" and wish it wasn't so far in between. I love a good cult. While the "Now" part was fine, it got annoying. I was not a fan of the main girl.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, and Rape
oheyitsthatgirl's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Rape, Death, and Pregnancy
j_squaredd's review against another edition
dark
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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Ableism and Sexual assault
chouxlette's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
It has weak character development with uninteresting main characters. The side characters are more interesting even though they only show up in flashbacks. I cared about getting to know about them more then I did about the main cast. Some of whom are forgettable and one dimensional. Things happen to them, but there’s nothing attaching me to the characters that I don’t care what happened to them.
At first I was like there’s no way these characters are older than 20, but Alice says she’s 29 so I’m guessing everyone else is around that age. It’s first person perspective, but Alice talks like someone who is much younger than she actually is hence why I didn’t believe she was close to 30.
The writing style eers on the YA side and it feels like this was written as a YA novel then the author later decided to age up all the characters. There needed to be more showing of certain actions, emotions, feelings etc rather than just telling.
The plot is the most interesting aspect of the book and the only reason I kept reading. I was hooked and needed to know what happened and why. It feels like the author wrote this with the intention to get it turned into a film or tv show. Some parts of the book feel like instructions to a camera which is weird considering this is a novel and not a script.
Comparing this to Midsommar and Blair Witch Project is definitely a bold choice. The novel isn’t bad—I finished it after all. It definitely needed more character development, stronger sentences as well as description.
I wouldn’t recommend this to older readers or anyone who reads above a high school reading level.
The YA crowd would definitely eat this up as well as anyone who likes a creepy story or is just bored.
Lastly, The authors note at the beginning shouldn’t have been there. In my honest opinion, we should be able to know a book is about mental illness without being told it’s about mental illness and how women get treated due to their mental illness.
The author note forces the reader to already have that conclusion and not question the very questionable representation of mental illness. If the author really wanted it in the novel, it could have gone at the end, but setting up a novel like that almost makes me think the author had no real confidence in what was being written about.
At first I was like there’s no way these characters are older than 20, but Alice says she’s 29 so I’m guessing everyone else is around that age. It’s first person perspective, but Alice talks like someone who is much younger than she actually is hence why I didn’t believe she was close to 30.
The writing style eers on the YA side and it feels like this was written as a YA novel then the author later decided to age up all the characters. There needed to be more showing of certain actions, emotions, feelings etc rather than just telling.
The plot is the most interesting aspect of the book and the only reason I kept reading. I was hooked and needed to know what happened and why. It feels like the author wrote this with the intention to get it turned into a film or tv show. Some parts of the book feel like instructions to a camera which is weird considering this is a novel and not a script.
Comparing this to Midsommar and Blair Witch Project is definitely a bold choice. The novel isn’t bad—I finished it after all. It definitely needed more character development, stronger sentences as well as description.
I wouldn’t recommend this to older readers or anyone who reads above a high school reading level.
The YA crowd would definitely eat this up as well as anyone who likes a creepy story or is just bored.
Lastly, The authors note at the beginning shouldn’t have been there. In my honest opinion, we should be able to know a book is about mental illness without being told it’s about mental illness and how women get treated due to their mental illness.
The author note forces the reader to already have that conclusion and not question the very questionable representation of mental illness. If the author really wanted it in the novel, it could have gone at the end, but setting up a novel like that almost makes me think the author had no real confidence in what was being written about.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Ableism, and Sexual assault
Minor: Miscarriage
ahixon1's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Abandonment
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Death, Grief, Rape, Suicide attempt, Gore, Medical content, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit