Scan barcode
notsowellread's review against another edition
dark
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? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Mental illness
Moderate: Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
sunshinestark's review against another edition
4.0
The Lost Village is an eerie, atmospheric thriller with unexpected twists and turns that will have you nervous for what will come next. In 1959 the nearly 900 residents of Silvertjarn, a village in Sweden, disappeared without a trace. That is, all but 2. Left behind were a woman who had been murdered and a newborn baby. Many years later, Alice is consumed by theories of what happened to the villagers all those years ago. For her, it's personal - her grandmother's family vanished there. Now, intent on discovering some clue as to what may have happened, Alice heads to Silvertjarn to film a documentary. With so little information to go on, she knew it wouldn't be easy. But she didn't expect for things to fall apart quite so quickly. With a seemingly ghostly presence making itself known, Alice begins to question whether they're truly alone or if her mind is beginning to break. The truth isn't anything she could have possibly imagined.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Murder
willowy's review against another edition
dark
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
3.5
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
Length: 352 Pages
Genres: Horror and Mystery
Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Length: 352 Pages
Genres: Horror and Mystery
Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
A special thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an ARC of this book
"The church looms large over the small buildings on the eastern side of the village, its tall, proud spire topped by a slender cross that glistens, impossibly bright, in the light of the setting sun. The houses look almost as if they've sprouted from the church like little mushrooms, falling and moldering to form walls and silhouettes along the coppery-red river running down to the small woodland lake that village its name: silvertjärn, silver tarn."
Trigger Warnings in this book for a Suicide Attempt, Gore and Violence, Abuse of a Disabled Person, Discussions of Mental Illness, and Implied Rape
Alice Lindstedt has one goal in life - to make a successful documentary about the lost village of Silvertjärn, Sweden. Her grandmother grew up in the village, and her parents and younger sister were among the 900 people who vanished without a trace in 1959. All that was left behind was a newborn baby, and the body of Birgitta Lidman, stoned and strapped to a pole in the middle of Silvertjärn.
Alice brings Tone, a troubled friend who has her own links to Silvertjärn; Max, the backer of the project, and Emmy and Robert, who have filming experience. Emmy just so happens to also be a friend of Alice's from college that she hasn't spoken to in years and their troubled past crackles through the rest of the group like electricity. Soon, they start to experience strange things - a sighting of a figure out in the rain, strange laughter over the walkie-talkies, and a explosion that leaves them trapped and without resources as they come to the horrifying conclusion that they are most definitely not alone.
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and I have to admit I was a little let down. I absolutely loved the setting of the spooky and remote Swedish village, with all the identically colorful little houses, looming church and creepy mines. It even contained one of my favorite tropes - the evil and seductive priest. However, I feel that The Lost Village was really let down by its writing, which came across amateurish and telling, especially in the "Then" chapters, which followed Alice's great-grandmother, Elsa. It did improve over the course of the book and I wonder how much of the problem has to do with translation, as the author is Swedish herself.
Another main issue I had was with the character of Birgitta. She is guessed at by Alice and the others as being Autistic, or having a "chromosomal problem", and is shunned by the majority of the villagers. Her storyline greatly disturbed me, and I could hardly read the chapter that details her death.
I think as a society, we need to move past using mental illnesses as a crutch in horror. It's not a "Gotcha!" moment, and for me, comes across as a cheap tactic to inspire shock. Alice, Tone, and Birgitta all have mental illnesses and the handling of them all seemed ham-fisted at best. While Alice and Emmy's relationship is one of the most interesting of the book, I couldn't quite bring myself to understand or forgive Emmy's actions, and I didn't especially like the way they were framed in the book, as if Alice was the one truly at fault.
Overall, I think of The Lost Village as a scary B movie - entertaining and light, nothing more, nothing less.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Rape
literarilythrilling's review against another edition
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
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Ableism, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, and Body horror
Minor: Alcoholism
fictionmajorette's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
full thoughts: https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-lost-village-camilla-sten.html
The first thing I'd like to address is that there are some really heavy topics/tropes used in this book that center around disability and mental health. I know this content may be divisive for readers, but in my reading experience I thought they were handled well. In both cases, the characters involved were treated with empathy and had other characters advocating for them. However, both cases did have the characters being blamed for bad things happening and in one case are treated pretty horrifically because of this.
The pacing of this book was phenomenal. I would categorize this as a straight-up thriller and it has been a while since I've read one of those (most of my reads end up being mystery with a bit of thriller at the end). Once you get past the set up, creepy stuff starts happening pretty much immediately. There's a bit of a question at the beginning as to if there's something supernatural going on but that is quickly rejected once more concrete threats happen. I was expecting this book to be much more creepy and atmospheric (which is what it started out as) so I was surprised when it took a turn where the characters are focusing on surviving this outside threat until they can either go get help or help arrives.
This book is a split timeline with chapters showing us the months in the past leading up to the villagers disappearing. These chapters in the past are much more quiet and disconcerting once we get an inkling to what is going on. They work as a nice balance between the more direct threat in the present day. It was also interesting where the present day characters would find something and then that same thing was discussed in the past. The chapters in the past are a bit short so the reader is quickly put back into the present timeline but the information we find out in the past really helps ramp up the tension in the book because the reader knows how the village ends up but no one ever figured out why or how almost 900 people just disappeared.
For all the tension and build up, I did find the actual reveal at the end regarding what happened to the villagers to be a bit more basic than I was expecting. I think the reveal made sense but was the most obvious (at least to me) option. I was hoping the real answer would be something a bit more unexpected or have a twist on what I was expecting. I think I feel this way because I guessed the ending about halfway through and thought there's no way that's it. So maybe if other readers don't guess, then maybe the ending would have been more of a surprise. I do feel that the ending was well hinted at and developed, I just wanted something a big more surprising at the end. The reveal about what is happening to the characters in present day was interesting and a bit surprising. This part, I felt does ask the reader to suspend some disbelief which I've seen some reviews feel this part got into plot hole territory. I personally liked how we didn't get too much detail into the how and why because our main characters weren't concerned with the details since they were busy trying to stay alive so it felt like the reader was in that situation as well.
I really enjoyed the character building in this story. We're following a 5 person film crew in present day and the web of connections and relationships was really interesting. They are all interconnected so when things start to go south on their trip, it really heightened the danger/suspense for me. I enjoyed how some of the connections we knew right from the beginning but others were slowly revealed over the course of the story which was really fun. Sten did a great job showing the reader the tension between some characters and hinted at something happening in the past which, again, ended up as a source of tension later in the story when stress levels were high.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.
Expected publication date: March 23, 2021.
The first thing I'd like to address is that there are some really heavy topics/tropes used in this book that center around disability and mental health. I know this content may be divisive for readers, but in my reading experience I thought they were handled well. In both cases, the characters involved were treated with empathy and had other characters advocating for them. However, both cases did have the characters being blamed for bad things happening and in one case are treated pretty horrifically because of this.
The pacing of this book was phenomenal. I would categorize this as a straight-up thriller and it has been a while since I've read one of those (most of my reads end up being mystery with a bit of thriller at the end). Once you get past the set up, creepy stuff starts happening pretty much immediately. There's a bit of a question at the beginning as to if there's something supernatural going on but that is quickly rejected once more concrete threats happen. I was expecting this book to be much more creepy and atmospheric (which is what it started out as) so I was surprised when it took a turn where the characters are focusing on surviving this outside threat until they can either go get help or help arrives.
This book is a split timeline with chapters showing us the months in the past leading up to the villagers disappearing. These chapters in the past are much more quiet and disconcerting once we get an inkling to what is going on. They work as a nice balance between the more direct threat in the present day. It was also interesting where the present day characters would find something and then that same thing was discussed in the past. The chapters in the past are a bit short so the reader is quickly put back into the present timeline but the information we find out in the past really helps ramp up the tension in the book because the reader knows how the village ends up but no one ever figured out why or how almost 900 people just disappeared.
For all the tension and build up, I did find the actual reveal at the end regarding what happened to the villagers to be a bit more basic than I was expecting. I think the reveal made sense but was the most obvious (at least to me) option. I was hoping the real answer would be something a bit more unexpected or have a twist on what I was expecting. I think I feel this way because I guessed the ending about halfway through and thought there's no way that's it. So maybe if other readers don't guess, then maybe the ending would have been more of a surprise. I do feel that the ending was well hinted at and developed, I just wanted something a big more surprising at the end. The reveal about what is happening to the characters in present day was interesting and a bit surprising. This part, I felt does ask the reader to suspend some disbelief which I've seen some reviews feel this part got into plot hole territory. I personally liked how we didn't get too much detail into the how and why because our main characters weren't concerned with the details since they were busy trying to stay alive so it felt like the reader was in that situation as well.
I really enjoyed the character building in this story. We're following a 5 person film crew in present day and the web of connections and relationships was really interesting. They are all interconnected so when things start to go south on their trip, it really heightened the danger/suspense for me. I enjoyed how some of the connections we knew right from the beginning but others were slowly revealed over the course of the story which was really fun. Sten did a great job showing the reader the tension between some characters and hinted at something happening in the past which, again, ended up as a source of tension later in the story when stress levels were high.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.
Expected publication date: March 23, 2021.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual assault
isadorawonder's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Sexual assault
stephblair's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Ableism, Religious bigotry, and Mental illness
More...