I’m still trying to process this story. It’s a roller coaster of a ride that tells a story between the past and present. It’s suspenseful and keeps you interested from start to finish, even if you are able to figure out what is happening. It kind of reminded me of what would happen if the Blair Witch met Jonestown. The author tells a fascinating story that many are sure to enjoy. I would recommend this to those looking for a unique story.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘝𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦 came across my radar several months ago, and the tagline of the synopsis really grabbed me. (“The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar” — @goodreads). Told in alternating timelines and POV, we slowly unravel the mystery of this small village, the residents who suddenly vanished, and the madness which descended upon them. In present day, a group of young filmmakers head to the town to make a documentary about what really happened. Eerie and dangerous things begin to happen, and the group begins to realize they are not alone. ⁣
I was utterly engrossed in this suspenseful tale. I felt a sense of creeping dread and was completely unsettled by this story. The descriptions in this book are haunting, and it will leave you glancing out of the corner of your eye for things that go bump in the night. A solid pick for any thriller/horror fans! ⁣

Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

An utterly riveting, chilling, and spine-tingling tale of an entire village that has been lost!

Welcome to Silvertjarn, the ghost village

Camilla Sten’s The Lost Village is one of those stories that gives new meaning to the word ‘creepy’. The fact that the book trailer gave me a perfect and clear picture to imagine the abandoned mining village and the surroundings literally frightened me out of my wits more than any horror story in the recent past.

The houses are still open, the cups are left in the sink to be washed, how can 900 people vanish without a trace leaving behind a woman tied to a pole, stoned to death, and a wailing newborn? The opening chapter is itself goose-bump worthy and from then on, it's one hell of a ride for Alice and her meager crew. Tone, Emmy, Robert, and Max have joined Alice in her life-long dream to make a documentary film on this village where Alice’s grandmother lost her entire family. The story alternates between THEN, thru Elsa, Alice’s great-grandmother, and the NOW thru Alice.

The documentary film was supposed to be Alice’s one final effort to get a foothold on her so far miserable life. Alice, Emmy, and Tone, each one of them has a past to contend with, but Silvertjarn has more than few surprises in store. From the moment, Tone and Alice visit the school, things take a downhill and the shadow of a ghost never seems to be far.

Elsa and the people in the village have to contend with a new pastor in their midst and as the mine closes down leaving the men wandering about, the future definitely looks bleak. The characters have been drawn out well showing the gradual weaving of the spider-web entangling all and sundry in the village. Birgitta and her difference create murmurs, of course, it is the 1950’s, people are less tolerant of anything different from the normal.

The Lost Village is sure to leave you with nightmares, each chapter is an episode in fear factor. The author has created an eerie and spooky atmosphere which unknowingly adds to the feeling of menace lurking just around the corner. The suspense keeps building to a fever pitch in both the timelines culminating in a shocking twist that left me gasping for breath!

A must-read for fans of thrillers, the Lost Village is gonna be in my year’s favorites just for the terrifying chills it gave me.

Still not convinced to pick this one, check the book trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiW3j2VsXkA

This review is published in my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India, and Twitter.

I chose this book as a thriller mystery but it ended up much more a sort of horror thriller. So not really what I would normally look forward to. I did think the story and backstory were fairly interesting but can only think a three star review is my decision.

I generally liked it, although I liked the section set in the past a lot more than the ones in the present. I thought the "Then" sections moved a lot quicker, for one thing. In addition, it was a compelling story of how a you-know-what forms.

As for the section set in the present, I found it kind of slow.

Alice's grandmother lost her family when the entire Swedish village of Silvertjarn disappeared - leaving behind empity buildings. Well, not the entire village- a baby was found alive. Now Alice, Tone, Emmy, Max and Richard are in the almost inaccessible mining town to film a promotional bit for a lengthier series Alice hopes to make. This is a creepy and atmospheric novel that will make you wonder where it's going. Is it a ghost story? A horror story? It's definitely a thriller where the tension amps up. No spoilers from me to explain the connections or what's going on as those are best discovered as you read. The present day narrative is interspersed with letters to and from Alice's grandmother as well as third person insight from Elsa as to changes in the village. The closure of the mine,. the arrival of a new pastor, the problem of Brigitte, all factor in. Well written and fast paced, it's a page turner. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This would make a great movie.

March 12, 2021
**3.5 stars rounded up for goodreads **

Decent folk horror. Those who are super into horror I do not think will find it very scary but there were a few creepy moments, plus I thought it was an original idea and fairly well written. I’d definitely read more from this author.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC I received.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the Advanced Release Copy in exchange for my honest review.

In 1959 hundreds of people disappeared from a small Swedish town. Left behind were only a newborn and the body of a dead woman. FSt forward to the present day, a film documentary crew goes back to that town to try and find out what happened there 60 years ago. Not long after their arrival it becomes abundantly clear that they are not all alone there.

The description of the town and disrepair that the buildings are in, allow you to really feel how eerie the dead city in the middle of nowhere is. You truly could picture the ghost town and feel it's emptiness.was. Will the documentary team find out the truth about Brigitta and the baby? Will they figure out what happened to all of the residents? Most importantly, will they be able to leave the Town?

This isn't a horror story in the usual sense of the world but has a gothic creepiness that keeps you on edge until the end. You won't regret giving this one a chance!

Every once in a while you read a book that creates such strong visual images that you feel you are watching a movie. Comparisons to "The Blair Witch Project" (1999) and "Midsommar" (2019) confirm the idea.

FIRST LINE: "August 19, 1959 - It was a stiflingly hot August afternoon, so much so that the breeze coming in through the open windows did almost nothing to lift the swelter inside the car."

THE STORY: Written in the first person (with flashbacks), we follow Alice Lindstedt and her four urban explorers as they set out to scout the location for a documentary they hope will discover why the residents of Silvertjärn, a small mining town, mysteriously disappeared in 1959. Growing up, Alice's grandmother had told her stories about the town where she was born and the family she lost.

Things start out well enough. The author sets up the story by laying out the project description complete with references to special benefits one would get for financially backing the documentary. Supplies are loaded into several vans and the group heads off on a preliminary exploration. There are some personality issues on the crew, but it isn't until unexplained events occur that things go from uncomfortable to nerve-wracking.

WHAT I THOUGHT: One reason the story works so well is because there is a disconnect between the decayed but once charming village and the ominous atmosphere achieved through careful choice of emphasis and description. The writing is colorful and the author creates a creepy atmosphere that keeps everything slightly off-kilter. Kudos to translator Alexandra Fleming for doing an outstanding job.

BOTTOM LINE: Keep the lights on while you're reading and beware of shadows. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

DISCLAIMER: A copy of was provided to me by Minotaur Books/Net Galley for an honest review.

Alice grew up hearing stories from her grandmother about Silvertjärn, a town that was suddenly abandoned, its people vanishing without a trace. She wants to find out what really happened to the town, so she gathers a small crew and treks out to the ghost village, hoping to film a documentary about the events that occurred there. However, as soon as they show up, weird things begin to happen that makes the crew believe they are not alone in the town. Alice is desperate to do anything to figure out the truth; will she be able to do it before it's too late?

While I did really enjoy the creepy atmosphere The Lost Village provided, I was a little bored for much of the story and not super convinced with the reveal at the end. There were some great descriptions of the abandoned town, and the chapters written in the past were certainly chilling; the characters were also super great and kept me not knowing who to trust. I do wish there had been more of a focus on the cult aspect of the story, as I think that would have been really interesting to include, and it was really only highlighted near the end. The Lost Village was a quick horror novel that had some great moments but was not my favorite overall.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC of The Lost Village by Camilla Sten!

Creepy, lonely and mysterious. An old mining town was nicknamed ‘the lost village’ because in 1959 all the residents mysteriously vanished, leaving only two people behind—a newborn baby and a dead woman.

Alice, a documentary filmmaker with a history of depression, comes to the village to fulfill her longtime dream of making a documentary about it and also finding the answers to the many questions about what happened. Alice also has family ties to the village. Her grandmother’s family had lived in the village when everyone disappeared.

Alice and a small crew arrive in the spring and set up camp for a week’s work on the film. Almost immediately odd things begin to happen. At first they believe one in their group is responsible, but they soon figure out that there must be someone else watching them.

I kept having to remind myself that this happened in 1959 because it seemed like it was in a more distant time due to the isolation of the village. I enjoyed the historical sleuthing that went on in the story. Also, there was an aspect of horror lurking about, but this wasn’t the sort of horror that is what I consider full-blown. All in all, I enjoyed the story and readers who like mystery, with a touch of horror should consider this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press Minotaur books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give an honest review.

Camilla Sten delivers a can’t-put-it-down thriller with “The Lost Village.”

Alice Lindstedt has always been fascinated with Silvertjarn, a Swedish village where all 900 residents disappeared in 1959 — except a newborn baby and the dead body of a woman. Alice’s grandmother grew up in the village before moving away, but lost her entire family in the mysterious disappearance. Now Alice wants to dive into the strange occurrence to make a documentary and solve the enigma. Where did all the people go? And who are the dead woman and newborn?

But as strange and deadly things begin to occur to her crew while in the isolated village, Alice must fight for survival for herself and her team.

Told in short chapters that vary between “Then” in the voice of Alice’s great-grandmother Elsa and “Now” from Alice’s perspective, “The Lost Village” is an incredible thriller that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Sten throws in enough twists and misdirections that the ending will shock you. It is also a story of secrets and the impact they can have.

Fans of suspense thrillers, authors like Ruth Ware, or even closed-door mysteries will love “The Village.”

One disclaimer: this novel, which is due out March 23, does contain coarse language throughout.

Five stars out of five.

Minotaur Books provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

There were some moments in this that definitely freaked me way the heck out, and I can see how reminiscent it feels of Blair Witch (a movie that definitely messed 14 year old me up). I think the challenging part is that the historical parts of the book moved very slowly until the last 1/4 or so, and I think a lot of the present time reveals were anticlimactic. But, if you're looking for a definitely unsettling and spooky story, this does deliver, just at a slower pace.

Even though I love to read psychological thrillers, I don't usually request books that have a horror element to them, but The Lost Village really reminded me a lot of The Blair Witch Project which I was completely fascinated by even though it scared the poop out of me.

Once Alice and her small crew get to the town, the story does come across with those creepy elements that keep you on the edge of your seat, but outside of that, this story was just very boring, and there were some things that were just not believable, even with suspending belief.

So many things just didn't really make sense. Alice wants to film a documentary, but once she gets there with her crew, no one films anything? None of the characters were especially fleshed out, and I really didn't care much for Alice at all. I wasn't particularly fond of the way the author treated the issue of mental illness in this story. I felt like we were supposed to automatically assume that those characters were unstable and probably dangerous? There is already a stigma attached to people who suffer mental illness, this story didn't help their cause.

Super let down and bummed with this book. I was really excited to read it. Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

🏞The fine line between imagination and reality: fascinating thriller!😲

4.5🌟 stars
This story, a mixture of mystery and horror, kept me enthusiastically turning the pages as five documentary makers flail around in dangerous, isolated territory in rural Sweden chasing a mystery never resolved. Two of them have family connections to the lost village and a driving need to learn the fate of their family members who lived there.

Mortal danger in an empty, long abandoned village in the woods? Five days of site scouting or heart-pounding survival and phantasmagoria as everything goes pear-shaped? Sten used alternating time periods moving back and forth from the present to the last months before the villagers disappeared inexplicably and en masse in 1959. The action moves unpredictably from one creepy moment to the next in both the past and present.

I loved the building tension and hysteria, the atmosphere of dark foreboding and the shifting dynamics between the five film crew. The author meticulously sets the scene with details of the abandoned buildings and furnishings that enhance the feeling that something really bad sours the atmosphere. But I did find a major element in the ending answer strained credulity in a big way. Still, the journey was the main draw and it was a winner!

Thanks to Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

Thank you Minotaur Books for the advance copy!

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten is such a spine tingling and spooky read! It is beyond creepy. It definitely has those Blair Witch Project vibes. Told in both Then and Now perspectives, Camilla Sten writes a plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

One dislikes is the pacing of the book. The pace switched from being super fast to super slow often. I was all in when the pace was fast but felt the plot drag when in a slow period of the plot. My only other dislike is the translation for Swedish to English didn't translate well enough in portions. It needed to be a bit smoother.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to horror readers, fans of The Blair Witch Project and/or fans who love all things creepy.

Overall, this book didn't interest me as much as I wish it did. The switch back and forth between "then" and "now" didn't work as well as I had hoped. I think it would have been better off just being in the "now" timeline and then we discover pieces of the past through that lens, but that's just my own preference. I was interested in how it ended, and it all wrapped up pretty nicely. There were a lot of characters to manage, so I think character depth was sacrificed to balance the cast as a whole. Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book was engaging. It was terrifying. I had no idea what was going to occur from one moment to the next. The story takes place in an old (Swedish?) mining town, where an entire village disappeared, with the exception of one woman who was stoned to death in the middle of the town square. The main characters visit the town in order to figure out the mystery of what occurred. The book was absolutely enthralling because I had no idea what to expect. A true thriller. I found myself picking it up at odd hours just to get a few pages in. Definitely an edge of your seat book!

Alice is a filmmaker trying to figure out the mystery of what occurred to her family members in the town, and upon arriving there, things start to go HORRIBLY wrong. If you enjoy a good thriller that is perfect for a cold night, this is definitely the book for you.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

SpoooOOOooooky… “The Lost Village” by Camilla Sten follows five documentarians as they venture into a village that mysteriously disappeared ages ago. Alice, the creator of the project, has a personal connection to the village, as it’s where her grandmother grew up. Despite her grandmother leaving the village before the mass disappearance, there are still questions that Alice needs answers to. What happened here? And why? How do nearly 900 people just vanish without a trace? As the team remains in the village longer and longer tragedy befalls them at every turn. Will they even make it out alive?

Wow, this book. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. Where to even begin? Immediately you catch that something sinister has happened in the town, no one just disappears, and definitely not 900 people. The advantage of being in the audience is that you get a front row seat to the past, watching each little nugget of untruth fall. This book was impossible to put down because each page held more and more clues to just what happened. Add that with the present day danger and you’ve got yourself an addictive read.

The thing I liked the most about this book was the way the clues were timed out. I felt like I could predict answers to big questions, but I didn’t solve everything all at once. The twist at the end was a bit of a surprise, but ultimately made sense. I can’t comprehend why the villagers did what they did, but crazier things have happened, so it was a satisfying ending.

In the end, I gave this book 4 stars. It was quick, thrilling, and overall a satisfying conclusion. If you’re looking for a quick, spooky ride, this is it! This book comes out March 23rd, make sure you check it out!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is a fun, creepy little mystery/thriller. It's the horror movie premise we know and love since the days of The Blair Witch Project: amateur film crew heads out to a remote location that is the epicenter of a historical mystery to make a documentary, but encounter more than they planned.

In this case, the film crew is shooting initial teaser footage to drum up crowd funding enthusiasm, and the mystery is the disappearance of nearly every person in a small mining town a half century ago. The narrative bounces between the present -- following the film crew as they explore the abandoned, mouldering town, and the past -- as we watch the events that led to the townfolks' disappearance slowly unfold.

Naturally, things cannot be what they seem on the surface, and increasingly unsettling things begin to happen to our modern day protagonists. But are they the victims of a cursed town? Of restless spirits? Or did they bring the evil with them?

I really enjoyed this book. The story is tightly woven and the author does a great job of balancing both the past and the present narratives. The characters are well-written and, even when not sympathetic, are compelling. In these cynical ages, it sometimes seems too easy to guess the various twists and turns in a typical thriller plot; that ground has been so well trod the past decade or so the tracks tend to be easy to see. I'm pleased to say that The Lost Village defied my expectations in that respect. I was legitimately kept guessing through most of the book.

So, for anyone wanting a solidly-written thriller with a supernatural bent, this is a great book for you.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.