Reviews with content warning for Death - De verdwenen stad

Reviews tagging 'Death'

De verdwenen stad by Camilla Sten

50 reviews

in_love_with_bookish's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The Lost Village wasn’t a spectacular read by any means but it wasn’t bad either, It just sits there in the middle: decent but average.

It would have been nice to explore the alleyways by myself in this silence, to capture the village as I see it now, this first morning. Dormant and untouched. It's like a living photograph, a relic of a bygone age.

I think this book could work perfectly for readers new to the genre but for others who are well-read when it comes to mysteries or thrillers, I think the book will feel lacking and familiar.

I was really intrigued by the synopsis and I was so excited to start reading the book, It has some of my favorite elements in thrillers like different timelines, a decade-long mystery, and the documentary style. I really expected to fall head over heels in love but I just felt that something was missing for me and that hindered my enjoyment.

Recovered, in recovery, or struggling, we are still people. Sometimes that truth can feel like a fever dream.

I still find the events that happened in the past timeline to be really chilling and unsettling but at the same time predictable. While the present timeline was more suspenseful and fast-paced, I still felt unable to care that much.

I think the main character was better written than the others that came with her on this journey to film the documentary and I think the dynamics between certain characters were also compelling while other dynamics are underdeveloped or overlooked. I actually would’ve liked it if we got to see the POVs of all the characters so we can really witness how the events of the book are affecting them all. I think seeing the events unfold from different perspectives could've added a layer of tension and despair

We perceive women suffering from mental illness with a sort of paradoxical double-sidedness; both victims and monsters, simultaneously infantilized and feared.

This was not a bad book, not at all, I think it had great moments that filled the book with dread and menace but after years of reading thrillers and mysteries, this book just felt too easy, too formulaic for my tastes. But let me just be honest and say that even though the story didn’t work out for me that much, I still really enjoyed the writing style, It was perfect at creating this atmosphere of being trapped with no plan of escape. I think it complimented the story really well. The writing style made it easy to translate the fears and the breakdown of characters as they start to lose control the more intense and scary things get.

The ending however felt strange to me, like it didn’t fit the tone of the story, I also didn’t feel convinced by some of the explanation at the end. I honestly think I would’ve enjoyed a more ambiguous ending than the one we got.

So all in all, this was not a new favorite of mine but still decent enough to recommend to anyone who wants to start exploring the genre.

Content Warnings

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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caseydoten's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.0

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kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

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whatskatiereading's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

caidyn's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I requested this book, I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into. Just that it looked really creepy. This is a one-sitter kind of book. I read it in two because I was too tired to keep reading, but it's one that you want to binge through. It's told in two perspectives, one from Alice in the present about their investigation of a village where 900 inhabitants went missing and the second from a woman at the heart of that fateful day to show what happened.

This would have been a solid 4-star read, but I wasn't in love with the mental health rep in it. Just because someone is taking an anti-psychotic, it doesn't mean they are psychotic. I get that it's a common misconception, but it wasn't challenged in the story. Not to mention some other mental health things that were in the story.

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literarilythrilling's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.0

Content Warnings

thrillofthepage's review against another edition

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dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was everything I wanted it to be...it was creepy, atmospheric, and spine tingling. As soon as I saw the comparison to The Blair Witch Project I requested it immediately!

The Lost Village follows Alice, a documentary filmmaker, and her small crew to an old, abandoned mining village in Sweden. Alice longs to find out what happened to the almost 900 people who vanished from the village in 1959, including her great-grandmother’s entire family. Everything was left as though the townspeople would return, but 60 years later Silvertjärn stands empty. The only people left in the village were a woman tied to a pole, stoned to death, and a newborn baby.

The setting was absolutely incredible and the way Sten crafted the village made it a character itself. As soon as the crew saw the town I got goosebumps just from the anticipation of what was to come. The vivid descriptions of the homes, the church, and schoolhouse were so creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat. Books where the setting is its own character are some of my favorite and this was no exception.

The Lost Village is told through dual timelines, Then and Now. For a majority of the book I loved the Now timeline because that’s where the action was. However, the closer I got to the end the more invested I was in the past timeline. It was fascinating to witness the changes in the village and I thought the reveal was perfect.

If I had one critique it would be that I wanted a little more from the ending. I liked the ending, but it did seem a little far fetched and I did figure it out. This was the only thing that kept The Lost Village from being a five star read for me.

I loved this book and think it would make an amazing Netflix series! If you enjoy spooky, sinister stories then I highly recommend The Lost Village by Camilla Sten!

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