With Blair Witch and Midsommar as the comp titles and a striking cover, I slammed the request button for The Lost Village. I am a sucker for found footage/documentary type thrillers, admittedly, so I couldn't wait to dive in.

In need of funding for her first major documentary, Alice enlists a group of friends and professionals to travel to Silvertjarn, a remote Swedish community that was abandoned in the 1950s. Nobody knows what happened to the 900 villagers, but Alice is determined to not only shed light on this mysterious place, but also solve the mystery once and for all. But things don't go as planned from the beginning, and Alice begins to question whether they're really alone.

I loved this book.

Sten nailed the chaotic, creepy, isolation that was pivotal to make this book successful. Her descriptions are vivid and crisp and haunting. I devoured this book in one sitting. Alice, as a narrator, is unreliable in so much as we can't trust her motivations beyond wanting her documentary to work. I never got the feeling she was keeping extraneous secrets, but I understood there was more at play to be released over the course of the five day trip.

The discord among the group was also stellar. While some conflict worked better than others for me, I was particularly drawn to the dynamic between Tone and everyone else. Sten isn't just going for the horrific in a visceral sense. She highlights serious issues within the trauma: depression, mental illness, suicide, and othering. Birgitta's story is heartbreaking and nuanced and drew important parallels between the way society views mental illness and those who suffer from it and the decades-old treatment of a woman who was "disturbed."

And if you're here for a scary read and don't give a hoot about underlying themes, rest assured: this book is full of disturbing moments, and Sten does a wonderful job making the scenes jump off the page. I could definitely see this being made into a Netflix series, and I would 100 percent watch every minute of it.

Overall, The Lost Village is a creepy, exciting un-put-downable read perfect for fans of classic horror, haunted ruins, and real-life monsters. Out in March, this will be a must read in 2021.

Big thanks to Minotaur and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

So. Freaking. Creepy.

The chill level on the Spook-O-Meter was a 10/10 with this one.

Days later, and the thought of this book still brings goosebumps to my skin, makes the hair on my arms stand up, and causes a chill to race down my spine. I am disturbed and freaked the eff out.

Now THAT was a horror story.

The kind that will disturb you. Frighten you out of your mind. Make it so that you want to leave the lights on just a little bit longer while you’re reading into the dark of the night. A sense of unease and dread filled me as I began reading this book, and only grew stronger as I progressed through the story.

This was one of the most chilling, atmospheric stories that I have ever read. Both the back story and the current events playing out are as intriguing as they are frightening, and the village that is at the center of the story is just downright ominous to say in the least.

Anyone who is a fan of scary movies, the paranormal, urban exploration, abandoned places, horror stories, and anything that causes your blood to freeze and chills you straight down to your bones will absolutely love this book.

The abandoned village that this story was centered around was ominous, creepy, and the way in which this story was written made it so that you could easily picture this haunting, abandoned little town in the middle of nowhere, and feel just how very dead and empty it really was.

I was so eager to explore this village alongside the crew documenting it and its backstory, but also afraid at the turn of every page.

Were they truly alone in the seemingly abandoned village? And what was the truth behind the vanishing of its residents?

CREEPY CREEPY CREEPY!

Unraveling the mystery and exploring the desolate village alongside the documentary crew was a harrowing, hair raising experience. It was nearly impossible to put this book down, and I finished it in less than a day because I just couldn’t stop reading.

Intense, atmospheric, harrowing, and just downright creepy, this book will burrow its self deep into your skin and leave you horrified and haunted by everything it contains.

This is the perfect read for October or an afternoon in the dead of the winter.

Read this and prepare to be completely spooked, both while reading and afterwards!

The description likens to Midsommar, which I think is insulting; The Lost Village actually has depth.

Found footage and mockumentaries are the perfect medium for horror movies (I'll offer VHS, Devil's Pass and The Sacrament as some evidence to the claim.) The style offers an intimate and powerful presentation of characters and events that just sets them apart from other films in the genre, especially when the characters involved in making the 'documentary' have some sort of personal connection to the event in question. Experiencing these stories from the lens of a camera, being put in the moment by characters making eye contact and speaking directly to the camera, just makes it so much more personal for the viewer, immersing you into the story in a way that regular movies just can't do. While The Lost Village isn't really "found footage", it carries the vibe, transcribed eerily well onto the page, even with the back-and-forth shift in perspective that fills in the context in a way that's denied in found footage films. From the beginning the story is atmospheric and chilling, thrilling in the scale of the mystery: an entire town of nearly 900 people disappearing. The scope of it is nearly difficult to process, but even within the narrative there's a reference to Jonestown, and suddenly, it feels entirely too plausible of a scenario.

Alice is a strong narrator, flawed and with a sharp voice; though there's a change in tenses between then and now, it never really jerks you from the story. Typically when jumping in time in a narrative there's the unintentional revealing of information before the two points connect, but that never happens; the buildup is slow, tensely so, the descent into madness in the past a perfect mirror of the events unfolding in the 'now,' and for a moment, you wonder if it's going to delve into something supernatural; the line begins to blur, you lose yourself in the story, invested and immersed, slightly anxious about what comes next. It's heartbreaking and uncomfortable at times, though Sten handles the "darker" topics like sexual assault with a delicate care that's severely lacking in the genre.

Beneath the horror, though, there's some nuanced commentary on trauma and Christianity and hopelessness; as stated in the first line of this review, I don't think a comparison to Midsommar is apt at all. I can see the appeal in likening the stories, but where Midsommar is merely an empty movie that distracts from its shallowness with stunning visuals and fails to genuinely portray the lingering effects of trauma, the emotional journeys of Alice, Tone and Birgitta aren't there just to be sensationalized; they provide sincere commentary on mental illness and how it affects not only you but the people around you, and the disturbing way mentally ill people are demonized.

I was so excited to get this ARC it sounded like a book I would really enjoy. Unfortunately, it really fell flat for me. I really tried to finish it out but gave up at 65%. I would have liked for the characters to be more developed and a little more drama into the whole story.

In 1959 a small village of 900 people in Sweden completely vanish and the mystery is never solved.

Today, Alice, a documentary filmmaker returns to the sight to see if her and her crew can find any clues as to what happened all those years ago.

Once they arrive it becomes clear that while this place is deserted they are certainly not alone.

I can't even tell you all how excited I was to receive this arc so it is with disappointment to say that this didn't quite meet my expectations. This is NOT a bad read at all. I think many people are going to love this eerie story. For me, this lacked the character development needed in order for me to care about what was happening to them. The characters were all so flat and uninteresting that I just couldn't get fully invested. I was curious as to what happened to the village all those years ago and that did compel me to keep turning those pages but the final denouement was just meh. I'm not sure what I wanted from the ending but it wasn't what I got. The epilogue tried to answer the questions I had but I still didn't but it for a minute. 3 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was drawn right in from the first pages.Characters that come alive A story that kept me reading late iinto the night.An author I will be recommending and following.# netgalley#st.Martinsbooks

Has a supernatural feel without actually being supernatural. Which could be considered a similar style to Riley Sager. Unfortunately it wasn't scary or suspenseful enough to pull it off like Sager does. It needs a lot more tension and dramatic moments. The writing didn't create enough of that in my opinion. It was ultimately anti-climatic.

Interesting take on the ending. I didn't see that coming, however I  wasn't completely entertained by it either. But it was consistent with the tone of the whole book. I do appreciate the transparency of the story.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for providing the digital review copy.

The Lost Village was a super creepy, unputdownable thriller! The description dubs this a cross between The Blair Witch Project and Midsommar, and I think that hit the nail on the head. I was totally hooked as soon as I heard that this was based in a fictional ghost town. This book followers a group of young explorers as they attempt to get enough footage to gain funding for a full documentary on an old Swedish mining town, Silvertjärn, in which every resident just up and disappeared out of nowhere one day...except one individual who was stoned to death in the town square, and a newborn baby found left behind in the local school. The filmmaker has a connection to this town because her grandmother grew up there and told her stories about it, and how her entire family vanished with the rest of the town.

The story flip flops between the storyline in the past, leading the reader up to the town's mysterious end, and the present, where the filmmaker and her crew have set up camp in the bones of the village and are taking preliminary footage. I won't say anything more about the storyline, but this book is really well done and sticks with you!! I would've liked to get to know some of the other characters a little bit better, but really liked the emotional depth the author goes into with a couple of the characters. I also loved the descriptions we got of the abandoned buildings and the feeling of the whole town...so spooky!

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

4.5 stars
TW// mention of suicide attempt, depression, psychosis, abuse of a disabled person, implied rape, gore
Thank you, Camilla Sten, for writing such an awesome ending to this. I loved everything about this book, honestly, but the only thing keeping me from a full 5 star rating is I think I hyped this up so much in my mind that no matter the content, it wouldn't be what I imagined. Obviously, that didn't hold me back much from loving this book, though. I loved the dual perspective, following the sleepy, small town of 60 years ago and the present timeline of a small-time filmmaker looking to make a documentary. I'd say what else I loved, but then we'd get into spoiler territory so I shall keep my secrets.

This was a great novel! A little Blair Witch vibe going on. Things were a little too coincidental but it was a great read!

The Lost Village was such a lovely surprise. I feared it would be the same old, same old when it comes to ghost fiction, but this managed to be surprising and inventive.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

In 1959 the entire population, 887 people, disappeared in Silvertjan Sweden. Silvertjan is a small village miles from any other town. The train comes two times a week and is pretty much the only way out unless you own one the few cars or walk. One person, a newborn was found alive, by the police when the town was investigated. This story is told in a "now" an "then" format. The chapters are clearly indicated as such so there should be no problem understanding the different times. The now part is told by Alice and the "then" part of the story is told from Alice's great-Grandmother, Elsa. Alice's Grandmother kept letter from her sister Aina which also helps tell the "then" story. In the "now" we follow five "friends" to Silvertjan for a five day investigation. They are hoping to get enough information/footage to obtain the funding to go back to Silvertjan for more investigation. The village of Silvertjan holds a lot of secrets and do some of the friends. Right after the friends arrive strange things start happening. Are they seeing and hearing things or is someone terrorizing them? If it is someone, is it one of the friends? While the ending was not what I was hoping for, the build up was very good. The character building was detailed and we see that these friends have some interesting pasts. Additionally the description of the village and its buildings is creepy and unsettling. I am giving this a solid 4 star review. I would have given 5 if the ending was more of what I was expecting.

<I>”Something is very wrong.”</I>

All I could picture while reading this was Chernobyl. Which I find so fascinating. Probably also why I picked this book up in the first place...

Okay. Well. First things first. If this book would have been more “now” than “then” I would have liked it. There were parts that down right creeped me out and that’s hard to do.

Let’s make a documentary in a town where hundreds of people disappeared without a trace in the middle of the woods. We also have ties to said town and not everyone is who they say they are, more or less. Secrets, lies by omission if you will.

But the more I read on, the backstory just wasn’t for me. I also still have questions but honestly I just had to force myself to finish.

Unpopular opinion, here.

The writing is great, no hit to the writer.

I love the idea of thrillers, but I’m so rarely satisfied with my choices within the genre. The Lost Village, however, broke away from the mold.

Alice, an aspiring filmmaker who is seeking her niche, gathers a production crew to travel to a former mining town that is now a ghost town. Her personal connection to the town’s murky history drives her to head into the unknown, dragging others with her.

From the very beginning, this story captures your attention. Sten offers just enough details about the main characters for you to grow to care about their wellbeing, but their motivations and intentions are difficult to sort out through the lens of Alice’s first person narration.

Sten expertly layers small moments that create an increasingly sinister atmosphere. It does not take long for you to feel unsettled, and this feeling does not dissipate as the narration continues. This is a fast-paced read with well-spaced reveals that push you to keep flipping through the pages.

If you’re a horror fan or just in the mood to get creeped out, I would recommend keeping an eye out for this book.

Wow! Interesting story with unexpected twists. The creepiness of the setting and desire to know what happened to the village keeps the reader engaged and wanting to know more.

1959- 900 residents of a small Swedish village, Silvertjärn, mysteriously disappear. Only two people were left behind: a woman tied to a pole and stoned to death in the center of town and a crying newborn found in the abandoned school by local authorities. Documentary filmmaker, Alice Lindstedt, has been obsessed with the mystery surrounding the old mining town, dubbed the "Lost Village", since she was a little girl...a tragedy that took her Grandmother's entire family. Alice gathers a small crew of friends and travels to the remote village in hopes of making a film that uncovers new leads to the truth surrounding the mysterious circumstances. After they set up camp, strange occurrences begin to affect the group’s sanity leading them to doubt each other and their safety. Alice soon realizes they might not be alone and discovering the truth might just get them all killed.

The Lost Village is a psychologic suspense novel by author Camilla Sten. The novel involves a documentary team trying to discover the truth behind the tragic events surrounding an old mining town. If you are not a fan of the horror genre don't let the reference to ("The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar") deter you from reading this one. Although this novel has a ghostly, atmospheric, feel it is definitely more of a mystery/suspense novel than horror fiction. 1959- Silvertjärn is an old mining town is struck with tragedy when 900 of its residents mysteriously vanish without a trace. The only two occupants left to tell the tale are a woman who has been left stoned to death in the town square and an abandoned baby. Present day- As soon as Alice's filming crew gets settled in the village they begin to experience several events that alludes to something potentially supernatural at work giving the story its eerie appeal. As the story unfolds you discover that several of the team members have a past history and secrets that impact the dynamics of the story. This was a well written novel with a spooky ambiance and several twists and turns that result in a rather unexpected ending. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I liked this book well enough but thought that the "villian" was a little too unrealistic considering how many years had passed. Still a good enough book and it definately didn't give any major clues as to the ending. Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Documentary film maker Alice sets off to visit the old village of SIlvertjarn, home of her forebears. Ever since her grandmother had told her about how the villagers disappeared over 60 years ago, she has been intrigued and takes a crew with her to find out what happened.

Generally this type of mystery isn’t my jam, but the author has a way of changing that for me with this one. I could not put the book down and was completely pulled in early on. FABULOUS!

A darkly haunting narrative that is guaranteed to leave you at the edge of your seat!

The Lost Village is a tale about five young film makers who wish to document an abandoned settlement with a mysterious past. Upon their arrival, however, mysterious and unexplained incidents make them feel as though they are not alone.

The book was chillingly atmospheric, and the writing style was beautiful and unique. Sten did a wonderful job at making readers feel as though they were witnessing all the horrors of Silvertjärn first-hand. The author does not shy away from portraying violent scenes, and her gritty writing made the tale even more cinematic.

The characters were not immediately likable, but grew on you the more you journeyed with them. The horror aspects were well-written and I often had a chill down my spine while reading the book. The author did not overuse frightening scenes, making for a readable and well balanced book.

I was left guessing the fate of Silvertjärn until the very end. The book was compulsively readable and I truly enjoyed the ending twists. A huge thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.

I absolutely loved everything about this atmospheric story. The choice to tell the story in the past and present at the same time, added so much tension as things unfolded in both timelines. Both of the timelines had a hanging feeling of dread that wound into true fear as things happened or were revealed. The relationships between the characters in the present and past were masterfully drawn with some shocking revelations.

The setting in the present was so very creepy. I mean what horror fan doesn't love the way an abandoned village wraps around you with its own presence when written right? Here it is done right. I could see it perfectly, hear the emptiness in the sounds, and feel the isolation of the characters. In the past, the setting held a sense of danger. It had that feeling more because of the what was happening in the village, especially toward the end... just wow!

Awesome. Chilling. I'd love to see this as a movie.