Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Staden by Camilla Sten

61 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

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

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

Minor: Alcoholism and Miscarriage

thesapphiccelticbookworm'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

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

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

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

Brain washing

ekmook's review against another edition

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

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

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

patchworkwitch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

This book was emotional and heartbreaking and suspenseful and I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape

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

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

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: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

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, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence