User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Such a delicious, blood freezing, unputdownable combination: intense, gory, depressingly dark Scandinavian horror elements dances with a story reminds us of Blair Witch Project and Stand ( without apocalypse but insane leader and his batshit worshippers theme)
It is fast paced. It is outstandingly exciting, terrifying paranormal, horror novel that you don’t want to stop reading and you cannot put down even though you forget the iron plugged in and you can smell the smoke coming from your kitchen at the same time.
It was one of my fastest reading. Everything about this book intrigued me: one haunted, abandoned, deserted town named Silvertjarn. Its 877 residents had disappeared into thin air. Nothing has left behind. No corpse, no trace, no next of kin! They have just vanished by leaving so many conspiracy theories behind.
As soon as five members of documentary crew arrived the village, they realize something is wrong with this place. Somebody is watching them. They hear eerie voices including people’s screams, giggles from walkie talkies. The houses left like its occupants can come back at any second.
Alice Lindstedt is the producer and this documentary project is her obsession because it will help her learn more about her ancestors’ pasts.
She was raised by listening her grandmother’s stories about the lost village like dark Grimm fairy tales. The residents including her grandmothers’ parents and sister are still missing and she is adamant to find the truth.
At this abandoned place, only a person has been found at the school building: A little baby. Her parents has been unknown and her name has been changed after adoption but Alice already knows the baby’s identity. She already convinced miracle baby’s daughter Tone to be part of the crew.
And she also hired her old friend, once upon a time her best friend Emmy for her excellent filmmaker skills but she still has second thoughts because of her trust issues. They were estranged because of a tragic event they both have no intention to discuss about. Emmy’s boyfriend Robert and Alice’s friend Max were also other team members to support project.
With limited budget and in only five days, they plan to achieve the impossible and finalize their shots and leave the place as they scheduled but Tone accidentally hurts her leg and she disappears when Emmy leaves her alone to drive somewhere with better reception to talk to her mom call the police if she won’t hear from her.
Where did Tone go? Did somebody kidnap her or was she involved with something more sinister connected with the vanishing of the village?
Wow! Wow! Wow! We’re moving back and forth between 1959 and present to learn more about town’s history, how the village’s people lost their hopes by losing their jobs at the mine and a new pastor’s arrival gave them the false hope they needed and turned them some kind of eerie lunatics.
Ending twist was surprising, pace is heart throbbingly fast and riveting. I’m giving my well deserved 4 stars as a die hard fan of Scandinavian literature!
Get ready to surprise, jump from your seats and enjoy each of your screams! This book was absolutely my favorite cup of chilled Chardonnay!
Soooo much thanks to NetGalley and St. Patrick’s Press / Minatour Books for sharing this incredible Arc with me in exchange my honest opinions.
Rating: really liked it
[The Boy (hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
**3.5-stars**In 1959, all the residents of the defunct mining town of Silvertjarn, Sweden, mysteriously disappeared.
Everyone except for the woman found hanging, stoned to death in the town square, and the squalling infant located in the local school.
For decades, the mystery has remained unsolved.
Aspiring Documentary Filmmaker, Alice Lindstedt, has become obsessed with
The Lost Village, as her Grandmother's entire family were among the disappeared. She decides to tackle the mystery as her first solo documentary project.
She plans to travel to the remote village, along with a small crew, to search for the truth of what happened to the residents. She does have some information on the town based on letters from her Grandmother's little sister, Aina.
Together with her friend, Tone, who also has a connection to the village, her ex-best friend, Emmy, an experienced production manager, Emmy's technician and significant other, Robert, and the financial backer of the film, Max, Alice is finally able to reach her destination: Silvertjarn.
The plan is to shoot on location for six days, given that's all the time they have with their rented equipment. The project is low budget to say the least, but could be life-changing for Alice if the documentary is well-received.
The team carries with them just enough supplies to last through the six days. The location is quite remote; they won't be bothered by anyone and should be able to focus and hopefully get enough good footage to kick the project off.
From the very start, the town has an ominous feel. It's creepy being in an abandoned town. The houses and buildings still hold all of the belongings in place like time capsules. It seems the residents got up one day, walked out and never returned.
What could have happened here? All of the crew feel uneasy about the location, but decide to put their heads down and just work through it.
Tension is running high and some bickering ensues. The team seems to be coming apart before they've even started, but Alice is willing to do anything to salvage what time they have left.
Everything begins to spiral rather quickly and soon some of the crew suspect they are not alone in the village.
Together with the present day timeline, we get a past timeline as well, told from the perspective of Alice's Great-Grandmother, Elsa, in the days leading up to the mass disappearance.
This past timeline ultimately concludes with the truth about the town and its dark secrets being revealed.
The Lost Village is an interesting story. While it started out slow for me, it did pick up quite a bit after the halfway point.
I enjoyed the overall mystery of the village and the alternating timelines; although I actually enjoyed the past timeline more.
In the present timeline, the characters and some of their choices were aggravating to me. I found the petty bickering annoying and some of the relationships didn't make sense.
With this being said, it didn't overshadow the other content too much. I was still able to enjoy the journey to the conclusion.
The ending definitely toed the line of eye roll territory for me. I was shaking my head a bit, if I'm being honest.
Overall, though, this story has a lot of strong points. The atmosphere and overarching mystery were both very good; as well as the idea of a documentary film crew trying to unravel the mystery on location. I loved that.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Minotaur Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity to provide my opinions!
Rating: really liked it
The Lost Village claims to follow a film crew making a documentary about a village where all 900 of its inhabitants mysteriously disappeared in the 1950s so I felt a little tricked considering I was looking forward to the doc aspect yet no one ever actually did any filming in the book.
In my opinion, it's the equivalent of a B horror movie - sometimes entertaining but mostly just corny.
Rating: really liked it
There are some good things about this book, but many other things disappointed me. The premise is amazing, but unfortunately the story just doesn't live up to the premise: In 1959, two men come to a tiny, remote town in Sweden to look for family members they hadn't heard from in a while. They find the town completely deserted, all of the residents have disappeared save one woman dead in the town square and an infant in one of the buildings. Fast forward sixty years and Alice, whose grandmother's family were some of those who disappeared, is making a documentary about the town to attempt to figure out what happened. When she and four crew members travel to "The Lost Village" strange and disturbing things begin to happen to them.
The good: the creepy, gothic atmosphere is extremely well crafted. I could feel the isolation, the cold, the eerie ambiance. The storyline from the past is intriguing and kept my interest as I wondered what had happened to the
The not-so-good: So much of this is just unbelievable. I don't want to give any spoilers, but suffice it to say that when the ultimate reveal occurs I was rolling my eyes saying "huh?"
(view spoiler)
[ I mean seriously, how on EARTH did Aina survive for 60 years? Absolutely no way is that even in the realm of believability. And no way that after living there for 60 years would she be able to overpower healthy young people. (hide spoiler)] Leading up to that, there's not much character development. I didn't like Alice at all, even in the end I thought she was unlikable at best. I never got a real sense of the group of people she had culled together to make the film, we get snippets of back story, but none of it feels authentic or fleshed out enough to create the tension between them that the author was going for. And to add to it, the portrayal of mental illness (both in the past and present) was just awful. Mental illness does not equal scary homicidal people. Ugh.
I was just overall really disappointed in the explanation for the disappearances. I felt like I had heard it all before, it didn't seem fresh or inventive and it really could have been!
All that said, there are definitely people who will love this book. If you love horror and creepy foreboding novels, this one has all of that and more. If you aren't like me and pick apart every detail of a book and you just go along for the spooky ride--this book will appeal as well. I know that this book will have many fans, unfortunately it just wasn't for me.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
This book reeled me right in until the very end. I will say I saw a lot of it coming a mile away, but it didn’t take away from the story. The actual story is sad, I mean I was angry and sad and sickened by some things. Although, things like this happen every day. Well, not the creepy lost village but the evilness of asshole people.
I enjoyed the atmosphere, the characters, the edge of your seat and even the stupidity of some things the characters did because I felt like I was watching a scary movie where I yell at everyone!!
The book is not a traditional horror book, more like horrific things happened to innocent people.
* Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for a digital copy of this book.
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
BLOG: https://melissa413readsalot.blogspot....
Rating: really liked it
Alice Lindstedt, a documentary filmmaker has been obsessed with the missing/vanished residents of the town dubbed "The Lost Village" since childhood. Her grandmother's entire family disappeared and what remained was a dead woman tied to a tree and an infant found crying in a building.
With curiosity on hand, Alice has gather a team to help her go and film a documentary about "the lost village" and to perhaps uncover what made a whole town disappear and leave behind a dead woman and a newborn.
What they find is abandoned homes, and that tingling feeling that something was not quite right. A sense that they were being watched. That they were not alone. Was someone watching them? Was the abandoned town getting to them? Was the unease they were feeling real or imagined?
This had so much potential for me. The synopsis piqued my curiosity. This book sounded like it would be right up my alley. I love a good creepy, tension filled, tale. For the most part, this feel flat for me. The entire book I felt as if something was missing, but what? Things did pick up towards the end. There was more action and an underlying feeling of dread and the anticipation of a big reveal. When the ending did come, I was not blown away.
Overall, good not great for me. Others are enjoying this more than I did so give their reviews a read.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press - Minotaur Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
3.5. I have long held a fascination for ghost towns, deserted places and haunted hotels. When we took family vacations we would search out these places. One of my favorites was a trip to Jericho, AZ, we stayed at a hotel that was once a sanitarium. It has an interesting history, and though we neither saw nor heard haunted spirits, the place itself had a spooky vibe.
Sweden 1959, an entire village goes missing. Receiving an anonymous call, the police arrive to find a dead woman in the town square and a baby crying in a deserted schoolroom. The rest of the village residents had vanished, no other clues ever found.
Fast forward to the present, and Alice, a documentary film maker sets out with a small team and limited budget to try to solve the mystery. Her grandmother lost her whole family when those in the town disappeared. Arriving in the town, they soon feel as if they are being watched. Why they find here will tax the imagination and expose them to many revealed secrets and outright horrors.
Creepy atmosphere, characters with hidden secrets and an intriguing mystery. The US edition publishes in February but this would make an excellent Halloween read. Reading it in Winters chill wasn't bad either. Just scary enough.
ARC from Edelweiss.
Rating: really liked it
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publishing Date: March 23, 2021
In 1959 the police receive an anonymous phone call to find a body of a woman brutally murdered in the center of the town and the entire village with a population of 877 missing without a trace. This town became known as Sweden's "Lost Village".
Fast Forward 60 years: A young documentary film maker (Alice Lindstadt) is taking her small crew to film Sweden's "Lost Village" which has been a lifetime dream of her's since her grandmother was one of the only surviving family members who had moved away shortly before this great mysterious event and had lost her own parents and sister in the mass disappearance. The team will film for only six days due to a slim and stretched budget but Alice is hoping to find some answers to questions that have haunted her throughout her life and hopefully be her breakthrough moment as a real film maker. Desolation is what they find and from the first day eerie sounds and shadows everywhere seem to be watching and waiting. Then one of the crew gets injured but Alice refuses to shutdown the filming and this will become a fatal mistake for one of more of the crew while they are relentlessly stalked by an unknown entity that seems determined to stop them from leaving this village of horrors!
This was a deliciously sinister and creepy story that had a haunting atmosphere and storyline. The storytelling put my nerves on edge and the spooky tension I would feel at times was just chill inducing. The author did a terrific job with intertwining the past with the present and I just yearned to know more about the history of this community and it's people. I hope Camilla Sten will continue to write more books about horror or dark thrillers because she certainly has created a winner with this one and I highly recommend to any reader who enjoys a good horror story not to miss out on this unusual, spooky and clever book.
I want to thank the author "Camilla Sten", the publisher "St. Martin's Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!
I am looking forward to reading more of Camilla Sten's books and I have given a rating of 4 1/2 Spooky 🌟🌟🌟🌟✴ Stars!!
Rating: really liked it
In 1959 a small village of 900 people in Sweden completely vanished and the mystery has never been solved.
Today, Alice, a documentary filmmaker returns to the site 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 book 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 found it completely unbelievable. 3 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: really liked it
Sometimes you read a book and have a strong opinion and you just need someone to back you up. Is it really this good or this bad? And that is how I came to this one, after a book pal thought this was very bad and needed someone to confirm. I am a good book friend.
I am kind of mad at the Midsommar comp here. A horror novel set in Sweden does not automatically get that comp, and besides the setting and genre they have nothing else in common. So let's make that clear right from the jump. The Blair Witch comp could make sense except somehow these filmmakers never film anything? Sigh.
Usually, if a book starts off already not making sense I know that I should act accordingly. If you already don't make any sense at the very beginning when you should be trying hard to win your reader over, that is a red flag. But I kept reading (for my pal) and sure enough nothing else made any sense either. Five people and two vans full of equipment and they are going to just... stand around and take pictures? They want to make a documentary about this town where everyone disappeared but... they have no actual story and are just hoping they'll randomly stumble across some 50-year-old evidence? It is silly but forgivable, horror has had weirder premises, but nothing else made it worthwhile.
The escalation of tension never worked for me at all. There are lots of the kinds of things that belong in an old Nancy Drew book, like a chapter ending with a blood-curdling scream, only to start the next chapter with a totally boring reason for it. The book can't really decide if it wants to be supernatural or not and instead it just kind of does everything. Our narrator hears and sees strange things but discounts them, somehow both convinced there must be some other presence but never really taking it seriously. The reveals are far too convenient. And the closer you get to the end, the more ridiculous everything gets.
Horror is often about the question of whether something is or isn't supernatural. And when you finally pick one, you run the risk of disappointing readers. You have to lay the foundation for it but not be too obvious. It's a very fine line and there's a reason most horror novels take a turn for the worse at the end. This one has a very bad ending. So bad that I will spoiler tag complain about it. (view spoiler)
[I am sorry, but how HOW do they not search the mine while searching for literally hundreds of lost people? Like it didn't occur to anyone? And if they look and saw it had all caved in they just said "Ah well that can't be it then" instead of making a causal connection??? And this is just the start. The reveal on whether there is another person there is even worse and makes even less sense. They should have gone with a supernatural explanation because at least that wouldn't need to make sense. (hide spoiler)] To top it all off there is some very bad mental health rep here, too.
Let's just forget this happened.
Rating: really liked it
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.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 Stars ⭐️ Thank you NetGalley and St Patrick’s Press/ Minatour Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my opinion.
This book was a thrill to read but scared me to death. It is comparable to the Blair Witch Project, but it has more substance and plot. The suspense began at a young age for filmmaker Alice when she heard stories from her grandmother about the disappearance of her whole family in an old mining town. One family member was found stoned to death in the middle of town as if a witch hunt had occurred. A newborn baby was also found abandoned in a building. If that’s not enough, imagine the setting of The Lost Village in an old mining town with the feel of eeriness and ghosts of the past.
When Alice delves into the mystery with friends, one with a connection to it all, people begin to disappear, as well as their video equipment destroyed. Someone or thing tried to put a stop to their investigation.
Get ready for a disturbing thriller that will keep you on edge at night. Good job, Camilla Sten.
Rating: really liked it
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
Rating: really liked it
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The blurb compares this to
The Blair Witch Project meets
Midsommar. I actually think a better pairing would be
The Night Film meets
American Gothic. THE LOST VILLAGE is about a documentarian named Alice who wants to create a project revolving around the abandoned mining town, Silvertjarn. But Silvertjarn is different than other ghost towns: things changed mysteriously after the arrival of a charismatic preacher and then all the townsfolk disappeared at once.
Alice goes to Silvertjarn with her crew: Emmy, Robert, Max, and Tone. The town is eerie, the perfect setting for a creepy documentary. But pretty soon, things start to get weird. Mysterious figures watching them in the rain. Equipment going missing. Vehicles blowing up.
Disappearances. When one of the crew goes missing, it starts to look like the project might be more dangerous than even Alice ever thought.
THE LOST VILLAGE is a dual timeline mystery. The present tense is narrated by Alice. The past parts are narrated by Alice's great-grandmother, Elsa, who grew up in and lived in the town. This allows for the gradual dissemination of knowledge through the mediums of two unreliable narrators, neither of whom have a complete set of information at their disposal.
It took me a while to get involved in the book. It moved very slowly and at first it seemed like it might be the type of book to have a silly ending. But I stuck with it because I was curious and I'm really glad I did. Elsa's POV was the slowest but ended up being quite chilling. And Alice's POV became even more compelling as she began to question her own sanity and reality. If you enjoy slower-paced mysteries with dual timelines, I think you'll really enjoy THE LOST VILLAGE. Especially if you also like cold Scandinavian settings and the gradual unwinding of dark family secrets.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
3.5 to 4 stars
