Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Staden

I have a real pet peeve about publishers marketing books incorrectly. This novel was described as a mix of Blair Witch and Midsommar and all I can say is how? There was nothing paranormal about this book at all, nothing creepy or eerie, it’s just another mediocre “crazy” cult book. I figured out the twist less than an hour into the audiobook, so the whole reading experience was me hoping I was wrong because the “twist” is dumb. I was so excited to read this one, and despite some disappointing reviews I decided to still give it a try, I shouldn’t have.

Alice is attached to this old village where her grandmother grew up. Alice heard all these stories and is enthralled with figuring out what happened to everyone in the village. Who stoned this lady to death? Where did everyone go? Why? To answer these questions Alice gathers a film crew made of friends and acquaintances with limited experience to travel to this town and film a documentary trying to figure out what happened.

Weird but mundane things start happening, none of the characters are like able or even seem like actual people. Alice is also absolutely the worst, no redeeming qualities at all in my opinion. As the gang bumbles along they start to realize they might not be alone. The story jumps back and forth between Now and Then. You see how this town starts to turn into a cult, kind of. It’s more like everyone wakes up one day and decides to just be psychos. The author tries to create a scenario where this whole cult thing makes sense, but it’s just too weak. “They all lost their jobs and this new hot guy says he’ll be their hot priest so now they’re a cult” isn’t really a good set up for me…

I did not enjoy this, I was disappointed and just kinda irritated honestly. Positives? The audiobook was great, very well done and the writing was also great. It was just everything else that sucked.

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casslibraria's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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dgrachel'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? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Billed as Blair Witch meets Midsommar, this is not a graphic slasher-horror novel. Instead, there is a quiet menace the permeates each page, so the reader turns each one on high alert. It’s creepy, atmospheric, sad, but brilliant. I do think that if you liked Laws of the Skies by Gregoire Courtois, you’ll enjoy this, too. It has a similar tension to it - a slow relentless building of fear and paranoia then BOO! I loved it. But maybe don’t read it at night

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pamshenanigans's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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- “The Lost Village is a book about a lot of things—isolation, fear, the terrifying power of groupthink, and how desperation can drive us to do things we never thought we’d stoop to”
- “And maybe more than anything, it is a book about how society views women suffering from mental illness.”
- “There are three female characters in the book suffering from mental illness, and they are all perceived and treated differently. One of them has recovered, one is in recovery, and one was never given the chance. They are neither victims nor villains. They are just people, with differing needs and levels of functioning.”

Trigger/Content Warnings: cultism, depression, suicide, autism, psychotic disorder, death by stoning, sexual assault

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creepycrawlybookworm's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This was a great audio read, that had me hooked quickly. There were some more predictable plot points, but others that I didn't expect too! I became more invested in the characters as the story progressed, even though not all were loveable, that isn't an issue for me particularly, as I'd rather read about flawed, interesting characters, than sugar-coated ones.
There was also a good mix of creepiness and suspense amongst the characters themselves, as well as in the town, and it worked well alongside the group dynamic and documentary parts of the story.

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rachelunabridged's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

2.5

unfortunately, i thought this book was incredibly disappointing. the story was very predictable, and the characters were very flat and unlikable. i didn't like how the author

didn't want us to feel TOO bad about max dying so she had this inorganic scene where he tells alice that he funded her project to get in her pants? it just felt incredibly contrived and out of nowhere.

i was also disappointed by

how shallow and flat mattias was. she just kinda told us that he was a psychopath from the notes that alice had, but everything he did in the town was behind-the-scenes. the reader is told very little and is shown even less. i hated that.

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_thelitlibrarian's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

4.50 stars
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TW; Mental Illness, Murder, Death, Ableism, Violence, Religious Bigotry, Blood, Suicidal Thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis.
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Silvertjärn has been completely abandoned since 1959, it seems that an entire village has gotten up and just left everything behind - including a body tied to a pole and a baby crying, The story flips between then and now, and in present-day documentary filmmaker Alice wants to uncover the truth as to what happened all those years ago. With an interesting familial tie to what happened, she gathers a group as they plan on scouting the town to uncover hidden secrets.

I was hooked from the start, it was so eerie and gave off the Blair Witch Project vibes. As soon as the crew arrives at the small village some weird and unexplainable things start to happen. Just when you thought you'd figure out everything, something is thrown into the loop to throw you off guard. Once I started this book, I could not put it down as I needed to know what had happened.

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lanidon's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

Trash. Stop making mentally ill people villains. Boring, slow, unsatisfying ending. I find it genuinely immoral to call this horror

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