Lost Village

Good solid thriller. Nothing earth shattering or to remake the genre, but entertaining with the right amount of spooky.

Interesting read. Spooky.

I wasn't sure how I would rate this book for a while. At times, it felt like it was dragging a bit, and I couldn't stand the main character, so I was thinking maybe 3 stars. But I was reading it at 4 AM and my heart was pounding because the atmosphere was just so well described, and I thought - okay, maybe it's more than 3 stars. 3.5 stars? idk.

I picked this book up because it made me think of the podcast Limetown, which I adore. From the beginning when they introduced the past scenes, I sort of figured out what was happening (not the specifics, but the overall jist of it). And I figured out the twist about the abandoned baby's secret identity and all that pretty early on as well, so none of that was really a surprise. The main character was the actual worst, and I just wanted her to go ahead and die most of the time, and I didn't love the main character in the past scenes either.

I definitely liked a lot of the supporting characters though, especially Emmy. She just seemed so feisty, and tbh, I understand a lot of what she went through trying to support someone through a major depression and ending out being drained because of it. I also spent a lot of time reading the book thinking about genetics because once it was revealed that Tone had a history of psychosis, that was when I figured out that big mystery. I'm not sure what I think about this book's portrayal of mental health. It wasn't like I hated it or anything, but idk there was just something I didn't love about it either.

What really made me give this book 4 stars on GR is the atmosphere, and how they made everything super spooky. Even though I was just reading (in the middle of the night, which may not have been the best idea), I was fully expecting something to jump out at me from the page or something. It don't normally read scary stories, but this was great in that regard. Now, if only I didn't hate half the characters lol.

Definitely a thriller. In two time periods but the same location. A young woman brings a filming crew to a deserted Swedish village, to make essentially a fundraising film so that she can investigate the strange happening there in 1959. Her grandmother’s family and the rest of the village just vanished one day and nobody knows what happened to them. We hear about things Now and Then. Things get very tense by the end. Maybe more of a thriller than I prefer, but very well written.

I got The Lost Village by Camilla Sten from Ink Drinkers Anonymous in Muncie, IN via their blind date with a book subscription. Since I like horror, they sent me this as my first blind date.

All 900 residents of Silvertjӓrn have disappeared except for a newborn baby, wailing in the school, and the body of a woman tied to a pole, stoned to death. Alice’s grandma is from that village and her mom, dad, and sister disappeared. All that are left are letters. Alice plans to make a documentary of the Lost Village but needs funding. She gathers a crew to stay at Silvertjӓrn for a week to get footage to entice sponsors. But things go very wrong. Are they alone? Could someone have stayed behind? Or is it one of them, sabotaging the movie?

The Lost Village has been isolated and silent for decades but something is terrorizing Alice and her friends. I’m not sure I’d classify this as horror but it was definitely creepy, with some WTF moments and a few gasps from myself. All in all, I really enjoyed this blind date!!