A review by happi_mess
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

2.0

“I feel a shiver run down my spine. Out of the corner of my eye I can feel the houses watching me through their dark eye sockets.”

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In 1959, around 900 people vanished, leaving a dead body in the square and a crying baby in a school. Alice is struggling to find her big break in the media industry and her latest project involves The Lost Village of Sweden where her grandmother grew up. As she and her team arrives at the place, they began to uncover mysteries about where the lost people had disappeared to.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Rating: ★★.5

Long story short about my review: (if you're interested to know more read the rest)

The writing was a little wobbly. I think it went overboard with being descriptive and creating these images in the reader's mind. The premise is great. The plot, not so. I did not know what I was expecting with the ending, but it was definitely not that and it was a little underwhelming. One of the stronger points of this book is probably the characters, I would say that they are mostly well-developed. The author also wished to incorporate mental health illness in this story and I think she did a good job with it. Still, it had been an enjoyable read and it kept the mystery to the end.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I am a huge fan of American Horror Story where I first encountered the story about Roanoke. I think, despite the many criticisms, it was one of their better seasons. I remember being so entranced about this whole village disappearing. I fell in love with the story and never clicked faster when I saw that Buzzfeed Unsolved did an episode about this. If you're a fan of this book, or not, I'll recommend you check those out.

Now, considering that I have a background about this kind of story, I came in this book with enthusiasm on having another take of a mysterios group of people disappearing and did not leave tracks.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The things that I like

☽ The premise
I fell in love almost immediately knowing that there was a take on one of the unsolved mysteries of the world. I thought it was very interesting and the idea behind this was a little bit on the surface but makes sense.

☽ The characters
They have their own characteristics. At some point felt real. Not that cliche. Everything was within reason, there were not much stupid decisions made. However there was a number of characters so it might be hard at the beginning to keep up with it.

☽ The incorporation of mental health and mental illness
I honestly think that the author did a job well done in this aspect of the story. It remained true to the facts and is very relevant. It also gives a glimpse of not what only happens to the person with the mental illness but to the surrounding people as well. It's a good place to spread awareness.

☽ The ending
I cannot believe I am including this but we give credit where it's due. Although the plot in itself fell short, everything at the end was wrapped up nicely. And you get closure as well. The biggest mystery could be seen in the last few pages. Which I think is good for this book as it really forced the reader to finish reading