I was so thrilled to receive a copy of this book because I had just seen Midsommar and wanted to see how this book compared since it was supposed to be a cross between that and Blair Witch Project. I GUESS I can see the comparison, KIND OF. The story takes place in Sweden, that's true. There is cult-like activity, also true.

I enjoyed the story for the most part, but I take issue with the discovery of what happened to the villagers. I find it hard to believe that the initial investigation wouldn't have considered that particular scenario. I don't know. I didn't hate the book, by any means. I read it quickly and then moved on to a new book.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for the advanced copy.

This book is heralded as a mix between The Blair Witch Project (which I LOVE) and Midsommar (which... I still haven't made my mind up about) so I couldn't help but be intrigued.

This book is intense, dark, and set in a Scandinavian backdrop that just begs you to envision ghosts and ghouls and haunted houses galore. Despite the fact that I kind of guessed the ending, I still couldn't help but be reeled in.

Just like Blair Witch this book kind of starts off slow and then suddenly it's completely ramped up. One minute Alice and her crew are setting up to film a documentary, the next things are getting completely out of control. Mixed in are letters from those of the past, highlighting what happened leading up to an entire village seemingly vanishing off the face of the earth.

If you're not quite over the fact that the spooky time of year is long gone, this book might just be the pick for you.

The Lost Village was a fantastic reading experience. In 1959, an entire village of people disappeared without a trace. In modern times, filmmaker Alice Lundstedt is obsessed with the mystery and sets out to make a documentary with a small crew of friends.

As soon as they arrive at the amazingly creepy Silvertjarn things start to get weird. Equipment is destroyed, they hear weird noises, and people go missing.

Word’s I’d use to describe The Lost Village- addicting, unsettling, dramatic, fast-moving, intense, atmospheric and chilling.

Even more, I loved how this novel unfolded and found the ending very satisfying. Four stars!

Big thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Camilla Sten for an advanced copy to review!

Great book! I was hooked from the start, thank you so much for providing me a copy of this book to read. This is something I would love to purchase.

The Lost Village

Thank you to Net Galley and Minotaur Books for the ARC of The Lost Village by Camilla Sten. I’m a huge fan of Scandinavian Noir and was excited to get started on this story. Like many great suspense/mystery thrillers, it is set in present day but is grounded in a terrifying event of the past; in this case, the disappearance of an entire town of 877, marking it as Sweden’s only ghost town. A documentary is being filmed with the hopes of finding clues to what really happened in 1959; this alone sets the stage for quite the intriguing story, but just wait...
Nature, in both it’s sweet and scary forms, acts as a main character; it holds the town close to its bosom and is relentless in her presence, both during the current and past events. As the film makers start to explore the town, clues of other beings make themselves seen and heard — but just barely. Whispers, a sniff of breath, a small muffled laughter... just enough to make the readers’ nerves tingle but not jump. But in a place of such mystery, sadness and death, you know something is coming. Our fears are confirmed with an explosion, marking the beginning of the end of this documentary quest. Will the mystery of Silvertjarn be solved? The problem, I did want to find out what occurred to create this ghost town, but I did not care what happened to the present-day characters. I did like some of the characters from the past but the author didn’t manage to bond me to the film makers; this caused me to skim through some of those parts. But the need to know the truth pulls you through and it’s worth the wait!

A young woman goes back to a village that disappeared to film a documentary and to try to solve the mystery of what horrible thing happened to make everyone disappear except one woman found hanging and a baby abandoned. But her crew starts to hear voices, and then people start dying. At first they turn on each other, but they slowly unravel the mystery, but it may be too late, and they may disappear too.

A little bit ghost hunting and a little bit history told through the voice of one of the town's women, this book has a slow burn with unexpected chills along the way.

Good character development in both the past characters and the present. There is more to the characters than meets the eye, but the author only gives you a little bit at a time as if you are just meeting them and need to continue the conversation to get to know them better.

When I read the description of the book it said it was a mix between The Blair Witch Project and Midssomar. I didn't like Midssomar and The Blair Witch Project made me tired with all the shaky camera angles. What they should have said was this book is better than these movies. A pulled-together documentary crew goes to a tiny village where back in 1959 the people of the town vanished. No one knows what happened to them. The documentary maker, Alice has a connection to the town as well as one other member of the crew, but they still have no idea what happened and are excited to film the empty houses, school, and church and try to solve the mystery. When bad things start happening, the reader begins to wonder if there's something in the air or something supernatural cursing anyone who visits. The writer weaves this story with the historical story and masterfully leaves clues as to the whereabouts of the missing townspeople. Well written story to read late into the night!
I obtained this book through Net Galley and have left an honest review.

Well, this was wild. I could not put this down and was genuinely scared at some points.

I’m having a hard time rating this book because I did enjoy the reading experience at times, but it was predictable and there were many plot holes that seem very obvious.

But the real reason why I’m giving this such a low rating g is because I didn’t like how mental illness was portrayed throughout. I thought it was tasteless and I hated how it was demonized (even if part of the message may have been not to demonize it)

Overall this was a good book, but I think the “Blair Witch meets Midsommar” tagline really set me up with the wrong expectations.

A ragtag team of filmmakers set out to make a documentary about a secluded town where 900 people mysteriously vanished without a trace. – having a previous obsession with the lost colony of Roanoke, I was instantly hooked. I absolutely loved the spooky atmosphere and the picture Camilla Sten painted in my mind of the abandoned ghost town.

There’s a lot going on in the plot. We learn about some awkward relationships amongst the crew, spooky unexplained things are happening, we get some flashbacks to the original townsfolk, it’s a bit of a slow build up until BOOM one big event changes the pace of the book. After that it’s a rollercoaster ride of twists and thrills!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly attached to any of the characters so in the end the desire to find out what happened to the village was really the driving force that kept me invested. I appreciate that there was an explanation in the end, but again with the “Blair witch meets Midsommer” tagline I expected a little more creepy-church-cult and/or witch content built into the storyline.

Big thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Camilla Sten for an advanced copy to review!

The Lost Village follows a crew of five individuals, off to film a documentary about the village of Silvertjärn. They aim to uncover why a whole village of 900 people just disappeared in one night, with only two people left. Items go missing and creepy sounds emit from their walkie-talkies. They soon discover that they are not alone in this abandoned village.

I was slightly disappointed, but this is only due to my high expectations and predictable ending. The premise was so fascinating and I ate it up. I really enjoy creepy villages with unexplained occurrences. This makes for an excellent horror. This book, however, was not straight-up horror, but the feeling of unease creeps up on you and you're left with so many questions plaguing your mind. Was it something supernatural? Was there a logical reason?

The Lost Village was told in two timelines, "Now" and "Then". I found this to be written really well but towards the end of the novel, the time jumps got too frequent that it took me out of the story. As soon as I was getting into one timeline, the next chapter would jump back. It was disorientating.
The characters were not that likable and I found Alice to be very impulsive. I had wished the characters were more fleshed out because they were all complex and interesting. Sadly, I did not care for them throughout the whole novel.

Overall, this was a really spooky read, perfect for fans who enjoy fast-paced narratives and ghost towns.

This book blew me away! I was unable to but it down. Perfect, dazzlingly, very well written. The details the author described throughout the book was so amazing. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

This thriller has a creepy aspect bordering on horror that I enjoyed. I also liked the documentary aspect and the flavor of The Blair Witch Project.

There were a couple of gruesomely violent incidents that might bother some readers. I also found that the dual timelines didn’t always work, and the past became a bit tedious, particularly the use of some very long letters that seemed simply a device to tell a string of events.

There was some good suspense in this book and there were some thrilling twists. Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this advance copy of The Lost Village by Camilla Sten. Synopsis: Alice is an aspiring young documentary filmmaker who's aspiration is to make a film about Silvertjärn. Silvertjärn was a small, remote mining village until 1959, when all of the residents of the village suddenly disappeared without a trace, except for a mentally handicapped woman named Brigitta, who was found by police in advanced state of decomposition, apparently lashed to a post and stoned to death. The police also found a single living newborn in the village. This mystery of what happened to the villagers and Brigitta has remained unraveled for 60 years and has fascinated Alice all her life. Her grandmother grew up in Silvertjärn and told Alice the lore and stories of the village until she passed away. She had moved away shortly before the villagers disappeared - her parents and sister were among the lost. Alice has assembled a film crew on a shoestring budget and hopes to film her documentary and find the key to the mystery while camping in the village for 4 days. The village is so remote that it is completely cute off from cellular signals or any kind of traffic. I found this book to be very creepy and compelling. The isolation of Alice and her crew felt very real and chilling - I have to agree with the tagline I read noting that it evoked some feelings similar to the Blair Witch Project - filmmakers in over their heads and terrifyingly cutoff from any hope of assistance. I enjoyed how the timeline flipped between the past and the present to move the plot forward and bring us toward and understanding of what happened. The characters and their relationships were rich and fairly complex. I was kept guessing on the fate of the village until the last few chapters. There were for me some minor believability issues, but overall I thought this was a good, solid book with a very dark and creepy feel. I will look for more of Camilla Sten's work to read in the future.

This book was just okay for me. I have read so many better horror novels that I had a hard time being wow'ed by this. I'm sure there are people out there that would find this amazing but for me it wasn't great.

The Lost Village from Camilla Sten was a whole experience, one that fully sinks you into the chilling and dark ghost town of the Silvertjärn, a Swedish mining village whose entire population disappears without a trace, seemingly overnight in the late 1950s.

Alice is well out of film school, but while she watches everyone she schooled with finding their dreams, she is still stuck in a dead end job. Her pet project, something of an obsession of hers, the dream of a real in depth documentary about the village of Silvertjärn, is something she has been painstakingly working on for years and now is finally the time to travel there and do some preliminary work. She and four others arrive in Silvertjärn and Alice is beside herself with giddiness.

Alice has a strong connection to this lost village, since it was the home of her grandmother, Margareta, who had left the town shortly before the rest of her family's disappearance. Armed with all of her grandmother's stories and a handful of letters to Margareta from her younger sister, Aina, Alice is determined to find some new piece of evidence to break this whole case wide open and truly make her documentary a gleaming success.

But, there is something off about Silvertjärn, which they can all feel almost immediately. It's not just how strange and incredibly empty of movement and sound this vacant town is, but even more eerily is the fact that it ISN"T... There is something or someone in this town and people in the group start getting hurt or going missing. Their stuff gets tampered with and it becomes clear that they are not exactly welcome. It doesn't help that there is not much trust between the group. The team of people she brought with her all have their secrets and some of them have a past with one another, a past that doesn't garner much acceptance and understanding. Add the fact that they all seem to be experiencing strange phenomena in the town, but are not willing to be fully truthful with one another about what they are experiencing, creates a whole level of suspense.

Camilla Sten has a way of writing that starts out slow and firm, with the suspense and thrills steadily increasing until its this crescendo of tension that is so incredibly addicting! This was one I absolutely stayed up into the wee morning hours to finish, while jumping at every sound and shadow moving around.

"The Lost Village" is a page-turner of a book that keeps you guessing until the very end. The premise was captivating. I thought the tags of "Midsommar" meets "The Blair Witch" are absolutely appropriate. I anticipated reading this book in a couple of weeks, and it ended up only taking me a few days, which is a testament to the pacing and excitement.

While I loved the plot and the tension built, I do not think the present-day characters offer much value to the overall structure. There are three women in the present-day story, and there is an attempt to give them some depth, but it sometimes felt like they were also mysteries to be uncovered. Considering the entire book is a mystery, I think the audience deserved more transparency when it came to the main characters. Even if they did not divulge all of the secrets to each other, it was important for the audience. Also, there are two men in the novel, and I honestly don't remember their names. Perhaps a Max and the other, I have no idea. They seemed inconsequential, and therefore their interactions felt flat and uninteresting.

The story's captivating characters come from the village's historical people and the event that destroys their small town. I felt such sympathy for Birgitta and her suffering and felt disgusted by the role of Pastor Mattias in Birgitta's untimely demise. The ending is not expected because we are led to believe that this is a ghost story, but I was not disappointed at all. Camilla Sten does a beautiful job of developing and expanding the unsettling and creepy atmosphere.

I absolutely enjoyed this book and would love to read more from this author. I would recommend this book to someone who wants a mystery with a touch of horror. Birgitta's treatment is the most challenging part to read because she is so innocent and defenseless, and this would give me pause before recommending it to certain people. All in all, I really liked the story, and I look forward to her next book! Thank you to NetGalley and St. MArtin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this text.

Alice and her crew are making a documentary about a village called Silvertjarn, a town where over 850 residents just disappeared without a trace and when someone did make it to the village there was a woman with mental difficulties stoned to death and a crying infant in the  schools nurse's office in town. Everyone else in the town disappeared into thin air, taking none of their belongings and leaving no indication to where they went. Alice and Tone have personal connections to this village because Tone's mother was the baby found and Alice's family was some of the village to disappear.
As Alice and her crew start the documentary Tone ends up spraining her ankle pretty bad when she stepped on a not really stable piece of wood. As time progresses the crew start to get eerie feelings of being watched as some things start to occur such as screams, voices, giggles are being heard on the walkie talkies.Then when Emmy leaves tone to talk to her mom on her cell phone Tone disappears. As they are trying to put together the clues to see if she left on her own accord to go to the doctor, did someone kidnap her or did something more sinister happen that is connected to the village.
I really enjoyed this book with all the eerie feelings going on and the mystery on what happened to the people! I liked that the book switched into the present and into the past to give you an overall picture of what was happening as it was happening then and now. I definitely recommend this for anyone who likes horror or anything like the blair witch project. Definitely a book I will reread because it was that good!!! Check out The Lost Village when it is released in March 2021 you will not be disappointed and just a piece of advice do not read this one in the dark!
Thank you Netgally and Minotaur books for the opportunity to read this one!

This was an extremely dark and dismal read but one that I loved. Flipping hell this book sucked me right in and at times I was holding my breath in anticipation of what was going to happen next. A brilliant read.

This book felt like the plot of an amazing creepy horror movie. The then aspect was hauntingly sad and the now was maddening and gory. All in all a great read that had me intrigued from the first sentence.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Patrick’s Press / Minatour Books for sharing this incredible Arc with me

This was a great read that moved at a quick pace and quickly pulls you in with its ominous set up and compelling characters.

Toggling between the past and present was an excellent way to keep the story moving. As the film crew uncovers clues and questions in the present day, what actually happened to the village and all its inhabitants is sloooowly revealed. Wanting to know the truth keeps the reader glued to the page. Believable clues and a bit of an unreliable narrator keeps the reader guessing. Both techniques demonstrate great craft and skill on the part of the author.

The characters were believable and the relationships well rendered. You know that with such a small group in such a spooky situation that not all of them are going to make it out alive. Thankfully the strong writing made it easy to root for each of them and stay deeply invested in their fate.

In my opinion this isn't exactly a horror book, although it IS a deeply creepy mystery that will certainly spook some readers.

(Mild spoilers to follow)

I think I so badly wanted this to be a pananormal ghost story, that when it tuned out to be have more realistic (though no less evil) underpinnings I was a bit disappointed. However, there was a tendency for characters to muse about the scariest worst-case scenarios that could be waiting for them around every dark corner. They IMAGINED creepy paranormal stuff, so that helped to fulfill some of my interest in seeing creepy paranormal stuff actually happen.

Overall I enormously enjoyed the ride and would recommend this book. Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.