Thank you to Minotaur Books and Camilla Sten for the complimentary advance readers’ edition of THE LOST VILLAGE for an honest review.


THE LOST VILLAGE is set in a remote ghost town, once a mining town in Sweden where the local population all disappeared without a trace in the 1950s. Alice is a documentary filmmaker who has been obsessed with what has become known as “The Lost Village” as her grandmother’s family was among those who went missing. All that remained was the body of a woman stoned to death and an abandoned baby.

Alice has gathered a group of friends and crew to spend a few days in the village to try to search for answers others may have missed and to piece together a pitch that will get her funding to make a full fledged documentary. Things very quickly begin to go wrong, but they have no phone reception to reach the outside world. With a pressing need to finish what they started and complete the project, they must continue to try to find out what is going on.

I flew through this book! The isolated setting and the ghost town vibes really gave this book a chilling atmosphere which was exactly what I was hoping for when I saw the synopsis. We are given the present day action and also flashbacks to the past through letters that Alice’s grandmother received from her family after she had moved away. The steady descent of the people into darkness becomes clear as the story unfolds though the author keeps the reader guessing what really happened until the end.

I really enjoyed this read and suggest you keep an eye out for THE LOST VILLAGE when it is released 3/23/2021!

**Slight potential spoilers ahead / trigger warning.**

There were a few issues about mental illness that struck me as being a bit off. There are statements made by characters about mental illness and medication interactions and the impacts of taking/not taking one’s meds that I knew not to be true. These statements furthered the plot and one can read them as the characters’ being poorly informed themselves so it didn’t completely throw me out of the story, but I did want to point that out in case there are potential triggers for people in that. Feel free to DM me if you want more about what my concerns were, I’m trying to be vague to avoid major spoilers.

The Lost Village is a creepy story which reminded me of the Blair Witch story. This genre is not my normal type of read but I thought I would try something new. Unfortunately it just didn't grab me, I felt it was a little slow for my taste and the ending didn't satisfy me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Lost Village was creepy and I don't scare easily. This book almost felt like I was reading a movie script. Very thrilling, but not the scariest book I've ever read, that's for sure. Still a good read, like I said, It was like watching a movie.

3.4 stars!

Alice Lindstedt wants to make a documentary about the Swedish village of Silvertjarn. Her grandmother had grown up in the village, but had moved away before 1959 when almost 900 people disappeared from the village, leaving only an abandoned newborn baby and a dead body in the town center. She and a small crew travel to Silvertjarn for get some preliminary footage to entice potential investors in the project. Alice starts out excited and full of hope for the future, but then tensions between the group members, one of them an estranged college friend of Alice’s. Then, strange things start happening that start out annoying, but escalate so much that the co-workers begin to fear for their lives.

I have had an interest in ghost towns in the American Southwest, so the idea of an abandoned mining town in Sweden intrigued me. To tell the story, the book switches between the event leading up to the villagers disappearing and the present. The chapters from the past have a slower pace than those in the present which are full of tension and foreboding. The events described in the past seem to be taking place in the 18th century instead of 1959 and I had to keep reminding myself of that.

I like the eerie atmosphere of the book which makes for a scary, suspenseful, and sometimes sad story. The ending was surprising and somewhat downbeat. However, I enjoyed this unique, creepy tale. I would definitely read more by this talented author.

I received this ebook from NetGalley through the courtesy of Minotaur Books. An advance copy was provided to me at no cost, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

This book held all the suspense. I was at the edge of my seat throughout and dying to know what would happen next. I will say i had guessed a few of the “twists” if you will. I felt like the clues were a tad obvious. I wouldn’t say that it took from the story tho.

This just had such an eerie feel. All the creepiness. I loved the character development and learning about them and i think that their storylines only added to the creepiness. I couldn’t help question them throughout. I think i had expected more of a ghostly feel to it or more haunted than it ended up being.

I had not expected the ending tho! I think the ending lost a little of the suspense and i was just wondering in what direction it would head in. At the end, i was hoping for a little more. But overall this was a creepy, eerie, suspenseful read & it was exactly what i needed!

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the gifted copy of this eARC in exchange of my honest review!!

OMG!! Why did I just read??? I am so spooked and frightened right now!! This book was so mind blowingly scary and freaky with scandavian horror! Horror is not my comfort genre, but I was so engrossed in the story, that it was hard to put it down!!

Alice along with a film crew of 5 members, camps out in a ghosted village named Silvertjarn, to make a documentary to find out what happened in this village. In 1959, around 900 of its villagers including Alice’s grandmother’s parents and her sister disappeared in thin air, with no trace of a single body under mysterious circumstances. Only a dead body of a woman named Gritta, was found tied to a pole by detectives and a newborn was heard crying in the church. This miracle newborn, now has girl named Tone who grows up to be Alice’s friend and accompanies her in this expedition.

As the crew camp out in the main area in front of church, horrifying things start to happen. Some incidences written are so terrifying and horrific, that I could not help but put down the book for a while as I was so spooked. As the crew unearths the realities, you cannot fathom, to what great length can someone go to burry the truth.
Towards the end this book was really super fast paced and the big reveal was kind of expected but still very terrifying!!

This was a 5 star read for me and I would highly recommend this book to any horror/ thriller/ mystery fans out there!!

This book has one of the most profoundly stupid endings I've encountered in reading.

It starts off with promise. I'm a sucker for this new trend of Scandinavian gothic/horror novels. There's just something about a cold, barren landscape and some unpronounceable Nordic character names that brings the atmosphere. An entire village of people goes missing in 1959 after a mysterious murder and the town remains completely abandoned, decaying back to nature. Four twenty-somethings go to this spooky town in order to make a documentary about the disappearance. It has all the makings of an updated version of The Blair Witch Project.

I inhaled the first half of the book. But then the main character, Alice, started to grate on my nerves. She was selfish and at times painfully naive. Another character undergoes a complete psychiatric change that never really makes sense. The story became less interesting as it progressed, but what really ruined it for me was the Big Reveal. Some readers might find it clever. I did not.

In the end, this is a book the failed to deliver on it's promise.

In The Lost Village, aspiring filmmaker Alice is determined to solve the mystery that’s hovered over her grandmother’s life. When her grandmother was a young woman, her parents, younger sister, and their entire town disappeared. The only clues were a woman that was stoned to death and a crying unclaimed baby. Alice is crowdfunding her dream to travel to the village to find answers for this mystery, and she brings along a small crew with their own motives. As soon as they get to the village, things start to go wrong.
The tagline for The Lost Village immediately caught my eye. I am a big lover of scary movies, so the “Midsommar meets The Blair Witch Project” mashup had me convinced I needed to read this book. Lucky me, this book was scarier than I had expected. The short chapters had me stopping frequently and making sure that all my house settling noises were just that. At one point of the book, for every noise, I had to stop and listen Not scared but spooked out. Excellent, scary, one of my favorite reads of the year. Perfect reading for a night in when you want a creepy read. I really appreciated this book’s deeper history as we flashed between the present and the town’s past. Even though I was sure I had the backstory figured out, I was still surprised by the ending.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

I was won over by this book claiming to be "Blair Witch Project"-esque. And it is! And that made me happy. However, that could have fallen flat very easily in written format, so I was so pleased to discover that Camilla Sten's novel is fast-paced, fun, and fully fleshed out. The characters and situations all felt real, and the consequences felt weighty. This doesn't get bogged down by the gloom of some Nordic noir novels, and I would recommend this for anyone who likes a good creepy time with their books.

This book gave me the creeps! And given that was the intention, you gotta give it credit for that. I'm not a huge fan of horror movies, so I may not be the best reviewer for this book. However the ambiance created mixed with the characterizations of mental health were killer... literally? After all, history does repeat itself.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

In 1959, a Swedish mining town mysteriously vanished. Police only found the body of a woman stoned to death in the town square and a crying baby. Now, filmmaker Alice Lindstedt sets out to make a documentary and hopefully solve the mystery of what happened to the village, and her grandmother's family.

While The Lost Village wasn't an edge-of-your-seat thriller like Riley Sager's or Stephen King's books, I enjoyed the mood the story sets. You're enveloped in a sense of dread as the small group explores the abandoned village and feels like they are being watched. The big reveal was an interesting twist that felt well with the rest of the story making this a delightfully spooky read.

I’m usually not a fan of horror, but the summary of this book drew me in. Alice envisions a documentary about the village where her grandmother grew up. A village where all 900 residents, save two, disappeared in 1959. One of those two had been stoned to death and the other was a baby. She and her team turn up in the present day village to film a quick trailer, hoping to raise the money necessary for the full documentary. It doesn’t take long for things to start going very wrong. There’s a definite sense that they’re not alone. I have to laugh that at times, this reminded me of the GEICO commercial (why can’t we just get in the running car?). Some of the team’s decisions seemed idiotic.
The story alternates segments between the Then and the Now. We are given the story of the lead up to the disappearance. We learn of the new minister to the community and how he drew in the congregation. The Then segments were much more interesting than the Now, because they were written more like a psychological thriller. The Now segments lacked the suspense and tension needed for a good horror story. And the ending failed to wow me.
My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book

Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an advanced copy for review.

I have a feeling that The Lost Village is going to be one of those books that stays with me for a while. I went in expecting a horror story with plenty of scares, but what I got ended up being so much more. I did not expect that ending, and while I won't say anything further for fear of spoilers, suffice it to say that what it lacks in a typical jump scare, it makes up for in the psychological suspense department.

Alice, a young Swedish filmmaker hopeful, has dreamed about making a documentary about what happened to the people from her grandmother's hometown. All of them vanished without a trace, seemingly overnight. The only ones left behind were a woman found stoned to death and a newborn girl found in the local school. Alice gathers up a team and ventures to the town to scout the location and gather up whatever it is that they want to film. But they don't get very far before they start noticing the odd noise, seeing things that shouldn't be there, and then experiencing freak accidents that are meant to sabotage their production. And once that rising action started happening I literally could not pry my eyes away from my tablet. I NEEDED to know what was going to happen next.

I think this book deserves a place with the great horror books coming out this year. Fans of psychological suspense, horror, drama, and twisty endings are going to devour this book. The only reason I rated it four out of five stars is that there were some loose threads that did not get tied up neatly, but all in all I found it a truly fantastic read.

I’m a helpless sucker for the setting of this tense thriller: an old abandoned town with dishes still on tables, clothes on lines, like the residents suddenly vanished in thin air. What I would give to be able to explore and share such a frozen moment in history. Alice Lindstedt, an ambitious new documentary filmmaker, gets just that chance. She assembles a crew of assistants and they travel to the little village off the beaten path, setting up camp and attempting to adhere to a very strict and limited time and expense schedule.
From an alternate point of view, we follow Alice’s grandmother Elsa as a child living in the village in 1959. She describes the environment of the town in the weeks leading up to the final tragic discovery by the nearby police. The close-knit community is slowly evolving due to pressure from the handsome and young new preacher.
With these two very different stages of time intertwining, one supporting the findings of the other, the tension grows. The author does a fantastic job of creating the atmosphere, developing the characters, ensnaring the reader in the increasing tension as the oblivious young film crew learns they’re not at all welcome and the village isn’t as abandoned as they thought.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The release date is March 23, 2021.

I had high hopes for The Lost Village but sadly this just didn’t work for me, at all!

The premise sounded promising, a group of young adults are headed to a deserted village to make a documentary about the mystery behind how hundreds of these villagers simply vanished in the 1950s. I was hoping for some action and to be completely creeped out, but this story just moved incredibly slow. By the time any action took place- it was too little too late and I just didn’t care anymore. I don’t mean to sound so harsh, but that is honestly how I felt. I had no feelings about any of the characters and was left feeling disappointed with the ending.

One of the main characters mentioned in the history of this village, was nonverbal and most likely autistic, but back then she was viewed as psychotic. I struggled not only with the way she was described but with the horrific things that happened to this character.

I don’t have much more to say on this one.

Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur Books for this advance reading copy. This book will be published 3/23/21.

I finished this book yesterday and I am still trying to put my thoughts into words. This book was hyped up by others that I truly couldn’t wait to read it. The premise of making a documentary about a town the disappeared was super interesting but that’s where my excitement ended.

I realize this book was set back in the 50s so there were definitely different ideas and circumstances back then but I don’t think some of the ideas were necessary to bring up here. The major problem I had with it was the pace, to say it was slow going would be an understatement. There were for sure times I was creeped out by the environment and the settling of anywhere deserted makes for a perfect thriller environment.

With that being said I appreciate dual timelines and think they provided more for this story. This definitely provided the cult idea which in itself I find extremely fascinating and always love reading about.

Overall this one missed the mark for me 🤷‍♀️

A fast paced, horrifying yet exciting unputdownable horror story. That I couldn't leave alone. An intriguing story about a haunted and abandoned village called Silvertjarn. All of the 877 residents just disappeared, nothing left behind. Vanished into thin air leaving only a multitude of conspiracy theories behind.
A documentary crew of 5 members arrive in the village and it doesn't take them long to realise there is something wrong with the village. They feel they are being watched and they hear weird creepy voices and screams. This is just the beginning!
An absolutely brilliant scary and exhilarating book! It incorporates everything needed in a scarefest! The story even timeslips to 1959 then back to present day giving us the history of the village and the people. A very clever plot and it ticks every box for a horror story.
I was on the edge of my seat with my heart in my mouth during the majority of this book! An absolutely absorbing book!
Thanks to NetGalley for the book.

Alice and her friends are producing a documentary on the old mining town dubbed The Lost Village. In 1959 all the residents mysteriously vanished leaving behind a baby and a woman hanging in the town square, stoned to death. Alice has been obsessed with the mystery surrounding this town because her grandmother’s family also vanished that day. When the friends arrive, unexplained things begin to happen. Strange noises, damaged equipment and the disappearance of one of their own. It seems that perhaps they are not alone.

The author delivers an atmospheric and eerie book with elements of horror and suspense. I enjoyed the characters, their dynamics and interactions. And I especially liked the two time lines which eventually collide for a heart pounding coclusion. If you’re a fan of gothic type mysteries with some good spooky and cult vibes, I would definitely give this one a read.

In The Lost Village, Alice is haunted by the mystery of what happened to her grandmother’s family more than 60 years earlier in a small mining town.

I really enjoyed the switch in perspective between Alice and her crew exploring Silvertjarn and Elsa’s experience in 1959. I did not expect the twist towards the end, but I was interested in the story until the end!

I remember as a child first learning of the lost colony of Roanoke (in NC in the late 1500's) and being mesmerized by the thought of an entire community disappearing into thin air. So I absolutely jumped at the opportunity to read a pre-publication ARC of The Lost Village by Camilla Sten that follows a documentary team shooting at the site of a village in Sweden that similarly disappeared in 1959. Such a fantastic premise, and one that Ms. Sten masterfully brings to life.

The lost village in this story is named Silvertjarn. In 1959 all 877 residents of Silvertjarn disappeared, leaving behind the body of an old woman who had been stoned to death and a newborn infant. No clue is left as to the reason for the disappearance nor what became of the residents. The documentary filmmaker is Alice Lindstedt, who was actually raised by a grandmother whose parents and sister were among those lost to history. Alice is obsessed with the story of the lost village and determined to finish the film by shooting onsite, despite the myriad obstacles involved in doing so. Right away the film crew starts have strange experiences, hearing noises, and feeling as though they're being watched. Basically, it's a case of whatever can go wrong will go wrong.

The story is told through the lens of the filmmaker in the present and the events of 1959. It is part noir, part mystery, and part horror (but not really scary). It is tremendously atmospheric, and I was hooked from beginning to end. Sincere thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I loved it.