Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book to review.

The Lost Village
by Camilla Sten


Hooked from the beginning!
Two police officers drive down a long winding road to reach the small and secluded village of Silvertjarn. Upon their arrival they immediately notice that there is nobody around and all they hear is silence until they notice something unusual in the distance. A woman has been bound to a post. A bloody body rotting in the hot August sun. As the officer’s take in this gruesome scene they can tell she has been dead for some time.

The remainder of the book is about Alice and her skeleton crew of documentary filmmakers who set out to the lost village to make a documentary film about the disappearances of 60 years ago and look for clues to the mystery of what actually happened to the missing 900 inhabitants.

Well written, unique plot and kind of creepy story. I read a lot of horror, thriller and mystery and I really liked this book because it was something different then the typical haunting of a person or house.

The mystery wasn’t hard to figure out. The reader was given enough clues to know what basically happened after ready about 20% of the book. There are a couple of twists at the end that give a bit of surprise to the ending.

I recommend this book and enjoyed reading it very much.

I really enjoyed this book. It had the perfect amount of spookiness and mystery. At times I felt like I was right in the village with the crew!

Great mystery & page turner—perfect for a rainy day! The Lost Village kept me guessing until answers were revealed at the end. The present day characters seemed a little distant but sometimes that is ok in a story like this.
Advanced reader copy courtesy of the publishers at NetGalley for review.

When I saw the description of this book, "Blair Witch meets Midsommer" I knew that I immediately wanted to read it. Even better that I read this ARC in October because to me, that added to the spookiness factor.

Alice and a documentary film team are attempting to unlock the secrets of a ghost town where all of the inhabitants seemingly disappeared, leaving only a body and a baby behind. Alice has grown up hearing stories from her grandmother whose whole family was lost. When the team arrives, they immediately begin to encounter some mysterious things.

What I loved about this book was the dual timelines so as a reader we are able to see the events unfolding in the past as well as current time. It was a slow burning story that was sprinkled with enough mystery that I kept pressing forward to find out what had happened.

The Lost Village left me lost for words. An epic ghost story that kept me on my toes and only able to read in the light of day. I personally loved the additive of the documentary take on a classic ghost story.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alice, a filmmaker, reunites with a former college friend and others to investigate a mystery about her grandmother's birth village. The community was abandoned, and the inhabitants disappeared. The secrets of the past and present converge in the story's plot.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great thriller that kept me reading - I finished it all in one sitting. An entire town seemed to vanish, and years later, a relative of one of the vanished decided to film a documentary in the ghost town. But something isn’t right, and the documentary team doesn’t seem to be alone. Creepy and chilling, though I did predict most of the twists before they happened. 4 stars!

The title of the book really sucked me in! The premise is a whole village in 1959 disappeared in Silvertjan Sweden, all except one newborn baby and a dead woman hanging in the street. They never did figure out what happened back then. In present time a film crew decides to see if they can figure out the mystery for themselves and get the funding they need to film the documentary,

Alice is the leader of the adventure and also the granddaughter of Elsa. Elsa's letters from her sister are the only evidence she has to go on. Elsa, while she didn't live in the town anymore, her family still did. Her sister Aina being pivotal in the narrative from back then. The whole book has a very macabre vibe to it and the two timelines were exactly the right call.

After Tone is injured and disappears, all manner of crazy is unleashed. The closer they get to the truth, the more danger they are in.

The ending, while brilliant, felt a little unrealistic and could have done with a little more explaining. I didn't see it coming and I literally shouted out loud when we got to the climax!

If you haven't read it yet, it's a must! I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy!!! If you like creepy, suspenseful and something completely original, then this should be your next purchase.

My Thoughts
This was a wonderfully atmospheric novel with just enough psychological intrigue to keep it interesting and thrilling. Here are my pros and cons for The Lost Village:

Pros

1. The world-building was top-notch. I felt like I was walking around in the lost village of Silvertjärn along with the characters in the book. From the abandoned houses and buildings to the surrounding areas like the river, the place felt remarkably familiar almost immediately. The descriptions of this abandoned mining village were detailed without being verbose and the atmosphere that is established from the very beginning created a strong foundation for the story.
2. The story is presented in a past and present narrative, which I though was highly effective. I am not always a fan of the past/present narrative format because I do not think it always works. However, I think it worked very well in this story. The transitions between time periods were seamless and both narratives communicated the necessary details of the story brilliantly.
3. There were some tense scenes in this novel! There was an incredible buildup of dread and fear about what was happening. The supernatural feel of the story was palpable.
4. Some of the characters from the past story were disturbing to the extreme.
5. The pacing was great. There was always something happening and I stayed up reading long after I should have gone to bed!

Cons

1. I thought the characterizations (present day) were weak. The female characters making the present-day documentary (Alice, Tone, and Emmy) all had backstories that weren’t fully developed at all. I felt no real connection to them and I really wanted to understand a little bit more about their issues and relationships. There was just not enough character development for me to be interested in them personally, even if I was interested in what was going on.
2. The men in the present-day narrative were essentially irrelevant to the story. They had almost zero character development.

Summary
This was a great story in a great setting and I loved the premise. As a matter of fact, what happened to this village was horrific and disturbing and incredibly sad. What happens to the documentary filmmakers is disturbing as well. I was captivated by the story, but not the present-day characters. If the characters working on the documentary had been fleshed out a little bit more, I think it would have been a 5-star book for me.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for a free eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read quite a bit of horror and suspense, so maybe a more casual reader of the genre might not feel the same as I did about this novel. The concept of a film crew returning to a long abandoned village attracted me immediately. I have enjoyed stories like this in the past. The problem for me was that the story was just too familiar. I absolutely hate giving away plot in my reviews. To even say that a book has a surprise twist makes the reader look for it and then the surprise element is gone. I will say that the plot and the reveal were familiar to me from other stories. I was hoping for something a little different.

I enjoyed the style of Ms. Sten. I would not hesitate to read something else by her. Some have stated that they found the characters annoying but I didn’t. I found them to be realistic and the ability to create empathy for their suffering was one of the strong points in the novel. Another reviewer mentioned that they thought Ms. Sten’s plot line on the subject and manifestation of mental illness was odd and not realistic at all. I have to agree. Mental illness and what happens to someone who “goes off their meds” in this novel was much more Hollywood than factual.

Overall impressions? A very promising writer who is good with characters. Pacing was good and she did an excellent job of creating location, atmosphere and tension. I will definitely read her next novel.

3 1/3 stars. 3 stars for the story and add an extra for good style and skill.

I think it is just personal opinion and preference, but this book was just lacking something for me. I liked the way it was written and I liked the overall writing, but it just didn't get a full 5-stars for me. I did enjoy the cover art; it really pulled me in and made me want to read this book. Surely, other people did love it and I am very thankful to have read it.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I read this in about 3 hours, so it is certainly a page turner. Unfortunately I think this was set-up a little to high for me; comparisons to Shirley Jackson and the Blair Witch Project seemed tailor made for me. This is not in those realms, but those would be hard to reach also.

An interesting thriller which revolves around a writer whose grandmother always told her about how everyone in her hometown disappeared 60 years ago without a trace. The cause of this disappearance is not revealed until the very end of the novel which makes for a great thriller. The novel was suspenseful with many possibllities for the strange occurances when the writer visits the town to get material for her producing a documentary about the town. The reason I didn’t give it more stars was because some parts were simply not plausible., for example bipolar individuals who are medicated do not become raging psychopaths when they stop their medication for 1 day.. I enjoyed the book and the suspense and thrills were substantiated.

This is a story about searching for answers.

Do you like spooky documentaries? Are you creeped out by the awareness that entire villages have suddenly gone missing? Do you enjoy well written, insidious dread? Well! Have I got a book for you.

I loved this book! I felt thoroughly creeped out, and had absolutely bizarre dreams following. Outside of the unsettling story, I also loved the depression representation.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 rounded to 5!

Nothing better than a Swedish dish of a novel every now and then. The time is right, scary reads are to be devoured and The Lost Village is kicking up the heat and chill factors with this engrossing tale of an entire town gone missing.

Found tied up on a lamp post in 1959, was the deceased body of a female villager, decayed, rotten, and riddled with flies. In the distance, among the workers deserted mining homes, an infant is heard crying.

Silvertjarn is Sweden's one and only ghost town and it hasn't been touched since 1959 when all its residents disappeared. Alice has a personal interest in finding out what happened to the village since it is where her grandmother was from. Her plan is to create a documentary to shed some light on this secretive place and she relies heavily on Kickstarter funding and a crew of friends to make it happen.

From inception to - what could it be called? - completion or disaster, this project is almost doomed. With a camera crew and equipment, the team of five sets out to explore the town. By the first night, strange things begin to happen that will trigger events to snowball into danger. Not only does everyone in the crew have personal issues, but there is something seriously scary taunting them in that scary ghost town.

Told in the "NOW" and "THEN" format, the storyline converges with Alice grandmother's timeline when the town was still thriving to it's demise. A tale that is infused with secrets and spun around cult-like circumstances that will leave clues for Alice to pick up on in her research.

What has rested for so long, has now been woken up and it's only a matter of time before the entire crew is lynched one by one before it is too late. Who will win this devilish race with time...the now or then and will Silvrtjarn remain Sweden's The Lost Village?

This is a sizzling thriller of the cerebral kind. The storyline of the past was my favorite part to figure out and it gave it some real character, unlike the mix of the film crew, which wasn't quite as developed to me as those in the correspondence and documents of the key players of the villagers. True, they had some baggage, and references were made but I think the main focus was truly on the past.

This wasn't the scariest of reads but it did have surprises around every corner. If you discount the factor of time and just take it as what it is is, a scary story, then things don't have to line up perfectly, so for example, some team members find shelter, they are hurt, but then split up to search for food and right away something new happens. It's like they evade one problem only to make decisions to get further into trouble.

Considering all aspects of the novel, they did come together pretty well. As we learn of the cult and what happens to the villagers in the past, the reader is still confronted with figuring out how it all translates into the now. These links have been cleverly placed and a few things have been left for interpretation.

There are some brutal parts in here but nothing like some other Scandinavian novels I have read. Awareness of the following triggers might be useful: rape, self-harm, and psychological disturbance. As a person somewhat sensitive to brutality and such, I was completely fine reading this book.

My overall enjoyment factor was high with this novel and I liked the mystery of the town's past and the hints given to solve them. Despite its little flaws, it was an entertaining page-turner.

Happy Reading!

The Lost Village is the literary equivalent of a popcorn thriller, not quite a B-horror movie, but something close to it. It comes with an alluring, practically irresistible premise: an entire village vanished into thin air in 1959, leaving behind only a baby and a woman stoned to death in the village square. We follow snippets from this timeline, but the majority of the story takes place in the present, in which documentary filmmaker Alice, whose grandmother lost both parents and little sister in the town's disappearance, is determined to make a documentary to discover the truth.

From the get-go, the entire premise requires a massive suspension of disbelief. Alice is running around town discovering photographs and documents that help her unravel the mystery, but am I really expected to believe that the original investigations didn't discover this? 900 people vanished into thin air and there are no true crime freaks constantly exploring this town and digging through every single facet of it? There were some half-hearted explanations for this - it was a mining town with unstable ground, it's incredibly remote, etc - but I just didn't buy it. So while I found the overall resolution satisfying, and I was pleased that most loose ends were tied up, I couldn't quite buy into it all, because there were so many gaping holes.

The treatment of mental illness is, uh. Really weird, to say the least. I feel like the author was attempting to make some sort of progressive commentary, but the execution is incredibly messy on numerous occasions. It's particularly irritating considering there are actually not one, but several mental health threads throughout the narrative, to the point where I'd say it's definitely a major, major theme, and when mental illness is going to be a major theme, you want to make sure your execution isn't so uncomfortable.

That said, I did very much enjoy reading this book; I finished it in a day. It does a good job establishing a creepy, isolated atmosphere and setting up a cool mystery while slowly introducing tidbits of information. The writing could be a bit choppy and plodding at times, but it was serviceable enough for a thriller. I also think the author does a really great job with characterization. All the characters here felt unique and fully realized.

Overall, I'd say pick this up for a mindless good time, but don't expect anything too hefty from it.

I absolutely loved this book. The ceeepy atmosphere of an empty forgotten village, the mystery surrounding nearly 900 people disappearing, it was all incredible. The pace was slow, yet still creepy, until the 50% mark then the pace was fast paced and I wasn't able to put the book down.

This was a very interesting story; can't say I've read one like this before. It kept me engaged in the story and on the edge of my seat. Perfect for fall.

This book is called a mix between Blair Witch Project and Midsommar. Since both movies freaked me out, I just couldn’t wait to read this! And wow, I’m so happy I did.
Camilla Sten perfectly nails the eerily silent and mysterious atmosphere of this lost Swedish village. This creepy place and concept was also a bit reminiscent of AHS Roanoke, slightly paranormal and ominous. The imagery is haunting. It’s easy to picture the abandoned buildings and tiny town square. There are alternating timelines which I loved because it gives more insight into the way the village used to be.
Tensions rise between the already unstable characters as more and more strange things begin to happen. Eerie noises, chilling giggles, and unexpected footsteps…name some better suspense building moments. Oh wait…ya can’t! You pretty much know from the start that these amateur filmmakers are doomed but that didn’t make us any less interested.
There is some slow buildup, but it all comes together at the fast and thrilling climax! Cult horror fans will enjoy this book. Despite some predictability, the compelling writing will make it feel like you’re watching a scary movie in your head.
Thank you NetGalley and Minatour Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. (PUB DATE: 3/23/21).