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A review by esdeecarlson
The Resting Place by Camilla Sten
3.0
[This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review]
3 stars
For a mystery thriller, The Resting Place is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s in large part saved by its dual timeline (half occurring from Eleanor’s perspective in the present, half written in Anushka’s diary in the 1960s); the present-day pacing is slow and a little stilted, and so glimpse’s into the past as told by Anushka give us a more satisfactory sense of narrative progression.
What’s a little frustrating is that very little is done by our main character, Eleanor, to advance the plot or solve the mysteries of past and present; she and her companions stumble by total chance into plotlines and answers. Eleanor is also a highly unsatisfactory character, which is a real shame, because her setup has a great deal of potential: she’s a young woman with prosopagnosia, a complex grandmother who she both loved and feared, and who has ostensibly made a life for herself outside of her family only to be dragged into the mysteries of her family’s past due to her grandmother’s untimely death. Unfortunately, in the book Eleanor doesn’t live up to this potential; we never hear about any of her life or identity outside of her family and her trauma from witnessing her grandmother’s death. She has no personality outside of being Vivianne’s granddaughter and not wanting to be murdered. I understand that the author really wanted to examine a main character who is unreliable and traumatized, but the way she’s written in practice is just uncompelling.
The ending and wrap-up were also disappointing, in my opinion. The ‘twists’ can be seen coming a mile away, in part because there’s nothing interesting going on outside of those characters, but their ‘twists’ just happen without feeling very psychologically justified, and barely plot-justified. I think I might have been more excited about them if Eleanor and Anushka, our narrators, had more going on in their personalities and lives outside of their being pulled into Vivianne’s orbit, but as it stands, this book feels a little thin to me.
The book gets major points for its setting. I’m a sucker for a grand house in the isolated wilderness, and a snowstorm and blocked road and trope candy to me. If you love an isolation thriller with secrets from the past, this may be a good choice for you to pick up.
3 stars
For a mystery thriller, The Resting Place is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s in large part saved by its dual timeline (half occurring from Eleanor’s perspective in the present, half written in Anushka’s diary in the 1960s); the present-day pacing is slow and a little stilted, and so glimpse’s into the past as told by Anushka give us a more satisfactory sense of narrative progression.
What’s a little frustrating is that very little is done by our main character, Eleanor, to advance the plot or solve the mysteries of past and present; she and her companions stumble by total chance into plotlines and answers. Eleanor is also a highly unsatisfactory character, which is a real shame, because her setup has a great deal of potential: she’s a young woman with prosopagnosia, a complex grandmother who she both loved and feared, and who has ostensibly made a life for herself outside of her family only to be dragged into the mysteries of her family’s past due to her grandmother’s untimely death. Unfortunately, in the book Eleanor doesn’t live up to this potential; we never hear about any of her life or identity outside of her family and her trauma from witnessing her grandmother’s death. She has no personality outside of being Vivianne’s granddaughter and not wanting to be murdered. I understand that the author really wanted to examine a main character who is unreliable and traumatized, but the way she’s written in practice is just uncompelling.
The ending and wrap-up were also disappointing, in my opinion. The ‘twists’ can be seen coming a mile away, in part because there’s nothing interesting going on outside of those characters, but their ‘twists’ just happen without feeling very psychologically justified, and barely plot-justified. I think I might have been more excited about them if Eleanor and Anushka, our narrators, had more going on in their personalities and lives outside of their being pulled into Vivianne’s orbit, but as it stands, this book feels a little thin to me.
The book gets major points for its setting. I’m a sucker for a grand house in the isolated wilderness, and a snowstorm and blocked road and trope candy to me. If you love an isolation thriller with secrets from the past, this may be a good choice for you to pick up.