A bit of a slow burn, and a swerve at the end that I didn't see coming. The characters were well devleoped but their intentions were not clear. The story didn't necessarily go where I thought it would, which is good. A fun "cult" / "religion" style story that picks up at the end. ( )

The story is creepy and kept me wondering where it would go next. It ended up being slightly different than my expectations but I still really enjoyed it. With its comparison to Midsommar and The Blair Witch Project, I wasn't sure if we were going to go down the supernatural or cult route, and you will just have to read to find out for yourself.

One of the books greatest strengths is how the author frames mental illness and provides different perspectives of mental illness. We also see this through the lens of two different time periods: current day and 1959. There are characters who have suffered severe depression, psychosis, and an unnamed illness which sounds like a form of autism - it is unclear exactly what it is which is why I don't want to diagnose it, the characters within the 1959 storyline also do not have a name for it as they would not have known at the time. It focuses a lot on the perspectives of different people - the perspective and thoughts of the person struggling, those who love and support them even as they struggle to understand how to help, and the outside world or those separated enough from the situation that they lack understanding and often with that, compassion.

The "Now" storyline is told in first person from Alice, who has struggled with severe anxiety and depression in her life, and her inner monologue highlights the guilt, self loathing, doubt, and hopelessness associated with that. It was a great surprise to me how this book tackled these difficult topics without making it "about depression". An unknowing reader may pick up this book looking for a scary thriller, which they definitely will get, but also will hopefully gain an understanding of those affected by mental illness. It is extremely difficult to explain mental illness to those who have not been directly affected and I feel like this book really explored them in a way that is accessible and empathetic. ( )

I decided to read The Lost Village because I was in the mood for a creepy story to match the rainy weather. To my disappointment this novel is barely creepy and I disliked almost everything about it. There was far too much exposition in the beginning of the novel - and yet we didn’t actually learn what the mystery was until nearly a third of the way into the book. The protagonist was far too unlikeable for my taste; I actively hated her for the entirety of the book. And the ending wasn’t worth my time at all. So disappointing. ( )

DNF ( )

“The murder. The baby. The pastor.”

The title says it all. In 1959, 900 people from the town of Silvertjärn just disappeared. Sixty years later, a group of people are determined to discover why.

The story is told through two different timelines - Now and Then. I didn’t like Alice, the narrator of the Now chapters, at all. And I actually didn't really like anyone in the Now chapters. I could have done with much more of the Then storyline. And in the end, it really wasn't all that much of a mystery. Just really bad investigation efforts by the authorities of the Then timeline. ( )

"Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar" was what brought me. This is probably going to be a movie at some point. A movie which will be better with commercial breaks added in so that you can blame those for missing tension and stare at the village scenery, which will probably be pretty eerie and awesome. To be completely honest, without ruining the plot, one detail turned me against the author and the book-- the discovery that one of the characters takes Abilify is used to demonize and outcast the person as "psychotic". Are you kidding? Then the medical falsehoods keep rolling. This character can't take Advil with Abilify. Missed a dose of Abilify? Welcome to Drooling and Singing Insanity. NOPE. That is not how this works.
Aside from that, the plot was sparse. ( )

Alice is a two-penny filmmaker who has had a passion to produce a documentary about an old mining town where her grandmother's family lived. In 1959, the entire town just disappeared leaving only a dead woman and a baby. Alice sets off with a skeleton crew to see if she can discover clues to what really happened. When they arrive in the town, there are only remains, buildings barely standing and yet something is living there. I loved the characters in this book. The plot keeps pulling you forward and there are some good twists. The forward to the book is most helpful in setting the scene. I think it could make for great discussion in a book club!

What starts out feeling like a campy mockumentary quickly turns into a horrifying nightmare that will haunt you long after you finish this book. The story development is an insane tease, the back and forth of narratives and timelines creates an intense but delightful suspense. I could read hundreds of books like this and still want to read more. The combination of mysterious disappearances, crazy religion, murder, and abandoned buildings is my favorite bookish recipe.

While the characters were a bit melodramatic for my taste, it played well into the “mockumentary” vibe and was believable considering their age. As well as with many stories I read, I wanted so much more backstory, there was enough to keep me interested and entertained, but I still was left with questions.

Everything about this story was meticulous and well-crafted and deserves high praise.

Minotaur Books and NetGalley gifted me an advanced copy of this book. The opinions are my own. ( )

Liked this book. Good concept, plot, settings, mystery.

Okay, after reading some reviews I have to edit this. I don’t think this book was that spooky/scary - that might be an exaggeration.

Also, with the mental health/disability aspect: I don’t think the author was showing ableism or anything else negative. I think she was trying to show how many people do perceive mental health / disability. Ex: people suffering from mental health issues are perceived as being nuts or crazy.

She mentions this before the book starts. ( )

Kaksi aikajanaa kuudenkymmenen vuoden erotuksella, joista menneisyyteen sijoittuva oli mielenkiintoisempi ja mielestäni myös paremmin kirjoitettu. Nykypäivään sijoittuvan aikajanan hahmot olivat erittäin ohuita ja etenkin kertoja oli erittäin vetinen ja persoonaton. Muut hahmot olivat lähinnä karikatyyrejä. Ainoat plussapisteet siitä, että loppuratkaisu ei ollut se mihin koko kirjan ajan viitattiin (koska se on inhokkejani jännäreissä ja kauhussa) eli että tekijä on psykoottinen tai muuten mielenterveysongelmainen ja se selittää kaiken. Sitten taas toisaalta loppuratkaisu oli erittäin epäuskottava. Myös menneisyyden mysteeriin siitä, mitä kyläläisille tapahtui saatiin lopussa vastaus. Sinänsä kiva, mutta tämähän nyt oli nähtävissä yksityiskohtia lukuunottamatta erittäin varhaisesta vaiheesta lähtien. Kaiken kaikkiaan kirjassa oli hyvät aineet, joiden päälle olisi voinut rakentaa ihan toimivankin tarinan, jos kirjailija olisi halunnut käyttää vähän mielikuvitustaan ja yllättää lukijan. ( )

In Camilla Sten’s chilling and suspenseful novel, The Lost Village, Alice Lindstedt is a young filmmaker who has been haunted by an excruciating mystery her entire life. Alice’s grandmother, Margareta, grew up in a tiny isolated village in rural Sweden called Silvertjärn. As a young adult in the late 1950s, Margareta moved to Stockholm. She never saw her family again because in the summer of 1959, the population of Silvertjärn (just under 900 people) vanished, with the exception of a newborn baby discovered in the school and the body of a woman who had been stoned to death tethered to a wooden post in the village square. For sixty years no one has been able to explain what happened or find any trace of Silvertjärn’s missing citizens. Alice wants to solve the mystery, for her own peace of mind. But she also believes her project will attract an audience and jump-start her stalled film career. To this end, she has assembled a small crew of like-minded people who have agreed to accompany her to Silvertjärn and help her make a documentary film about the disappearances. Alice narrates the lion’s share of the novel in the contemporary setting. But Sten also provides background with periodic chapters told from the perspective of Elsa, Margareta’s mother, who in 1959 remains in Silvertjärn and observes with growing alarm as the majority of the villagers fall under the spell of a charismatic new minister. Sten’s descriptions of the abandoned village are beyond creepy, and from the start we suspect something sinister is lurking in the shadows and empty rooms that Alice and her colleagues venture out to explore. Then things start happening. Alice’s friend Tone is injured, and later disappears. An explosion destroys most of the crew’s equipment along with their food supply. Conflicts within the remaining group escalate, and trust becomes an issue. With no means of transportation or communication, they are trapped. Sten drops hints along the way, but the resolution still comes as something of a surprise. The denouement satisfyingly ties up loose ends, with the tense final scenes comparable to what we might expect to see in a slasher film. Overall, The Lost Village, vividly conceived and competently written, provides an entertaining diversion that will keep readers up late into the wee hours turning the pages. ( )

An interesting setup for a possibly supernatural mystery that falls quickly into cliche. ( )

The Publisher Says: The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense.

Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left—a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn—have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened.

But there will be no turning back.

Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:

They are not alone.

They’re looking for the truth...
But what if it finds them first?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Author Camilla is a Force. Her storytelling chops, in this her debut novel!, are truly impressive. Usually split timelines, here denoted by labeling chapters "Now" and "Then", give me pause. It so seldom adds impetus to the natural pace of the story. In Author Sten's case she overcame this. By itself that merits praise...but to use it, as here, in setting a perceptual "trap" for her readers, is extraordinarily tough to pull off.

The framing device that threatened, at first, to derail my enjoyment of the story was also the biggest surprise to me: A long stretch of "Now" spent reading letters discovered in the Lost Village. While that by itself isn't bad, so very often it is a deus ex machina and so feels like a cheat to me. I re-read parts of the section to see if I could find the seams but I couldn't...I kept running across images I lingered over (eg doubts creeping up on a character like "stinging little devils") and action I wanted to follow right now. That's good horror writing...good writing, period.

Much of the seemingly inevitable comparison-to-known-things marketing has borne down hard on Midsommar, a stunningly beautiful folk-horror film whose story is stretched to the point of snapping in order to make its beautiful scenes...seriously, go look at it, the stills should be sold as art!...work. Also harked back to is The Blair Witch Project, whose shakycam found-footage horror story was, to put it mildly, a farrago but whose fascinating editing (predictable and pedestrian aren't necessarily ineffective in horror storytelling) has deeply influenced the entire field of visual horror storytelling. This comparison is, to me, fair and reasonable; the Midsommar one is a stretch and honestly a disservice to the story here told.

This is folk horror as only a Swede setting her story in Sweden would, possibly could, produce. But it's much, much more unnerving to me, more frightening, than Midsommar because this story is about the intersection of mental illness and religious fanaticism that is its own form of mental illness...but grounded in a solid, meaningful, and thoughtful take-down of capitalism and patriarchy.

We perceive women suffering from mental illness with a sort of paradoxical double-sidedness; both victims and monsters, simultaneously infantilized and feared. A certain level of dysfunction is accepted—after all, women who are suffering mild depression and starving themselves aren’t going to leave their husbands or start revolutions, which is very practical indeed.
–and–
We view a depressed upper-class woman from a stable family background dealing with depression as “having the blues,” while the homeless woman on the street corner battling auditory hallucinations is a thing to be feared, a threatening monster. Not a person in need of help. Not someone with thoughts, dreams, fears, and needs of their own. Not a fully formed human being with agency and identity, suffering from an illness and doing their best to function as well as they can.

Author Sten is singin' my song; Translator Fleming is wrapping it in stylish English.

Several friends of mine who read and reviewed the book, all of them women, weren't impressed with the author's feminist take as presented, and to a woman they were dismissive of the "folk horror" trappings the US publisher wrapped around the story. In that latter I hesitantly join them, but as a man I felt the feminist, or more accurately anti-patriarchal, views the author quite clearly espouses by way of contrast to the "Then" action and more clearly espouses in the "Now" if via a dark means, rang me like a bell.

Permaybehaps I'm settling, in the sense that it might not be as clear to the women because it's not enough of a feminist standpoint. I can't say; I can say that, to me, this read bound together creepy, scary real-life threats and challenges with a social and political slant I am in sympathy with. You should give Author Camilla Sten a shot, see what you think. ( )

Alice is a filmmaker still looking for her big break. Maybe this is it? Her grandmother grew up in a small isolated town in Sweden where something odd happened in 1959. Everyone disappeared. All almost-900 of them. (Alice’s grandmother had already moved to Stockholm by then.) There was one decomposing woman tied to a post in the town square and one baby still alive. 60 years later, Alice gets together five people to go film a promo to raise money to create an entire documentary trying to figure out what happened in this town all those years ago. But things go very very wrong...

The start of this book pulled me right in. It did go back and forth in time between Alice and her crew there for five days filming and back in time to the townspeople and what went on at the time. It did slow down for a while with some set-up, but it picked up again. Creepy… those isolated buildings just left with stuff still on the table, etc. It was all so sudden. ( )

Alice Lindenstat is an up-and-coming filmmaker with one goal in mind - secure funding for the documentary that is her life's dream…find out what happened to the people who lived and disappeared from her Grandmother's village and why only two people were left behind. She takes a crew and travels to the isolated village where her family comes from. When they arrive they find the town completely empty as if the residents had just left for a moment. Soon, strange things begin to happen and everyone is on edge. There are whispers in the air and unexplained footsteps and the sound of music all around them. One by one, the group suffers problems and losses but the question is who is behind all of these issues?

This was a sufficiently creepy story that had me wondering what was next. I had attempted this story via audiobook and realized that was not the right medium for me. When I picked it up in paperback, I was able to melt right into it and enjoy the journey. It should be noted that this story was originally written in Swedish and translated to English but the story completely flows and there is no misunderstanding of any part of the story. This was my first Camilla Sten read for me but there I am definitely looking forward to more from her. ( )

After hearing that "The Lost Village" was the love child of "The Blair Witch Project" and "Midsommar", I instantly was in the mood for some spookiness and couldn't wait to dive into this new to me author novel.

Did it live up to my expectations? No. A lot of things can go wrong with a novel such as the beginning of the story—if it’s too slow and a whole lot of nothing is happening (which was the case here), I will zone out and find myself browsing for another book to cure my boredom. The second—the characters. Those two can make or break a novel for me, especially if it’s a thriller or mystery series. The characters weren’t anything to rave about. The petty bickering and the relationships between the characters were confusing and all in all, didn’t make sense. Overall, “The Lost Village” reminded me of a B-rated horror flick that no one wants to see (or read in this case).

( )

Staden (The Town) is a great Swedish mystery book. I partly read and listened to the audiobook version and it was just so atmospheric, so chilling. One could really feel how eerie the dead city in the middle of nowhere was. What happened to all the people that just disappeared 60 years ago? Why was a baby left behind? Will the documentary team find out the truth? And, the most important thing of it all, will they be able to leave the Town?

I highly recommend reading this book. The book isn't that scary, but it's intense and I was really impressed with Camilla Sten's writing. I hope she will keep on writing more books like this! Fingers crossed it will get translated into English! ( )

What a creepy book but I actually liked it surprisingly.

No spoilers but hated the ending of the “now” part and didn’t get the epilogue of the “then” either. Maybe it’s just me as always. ( )

A great twist at the end! Follows a group who are trying to film a documentary about a small mining village abandoned mysteriously in the 1950's when a female body was found murdered and an infant left in an abandoned building.

The characters all have something hiding in their past that Sten uses wonderfully to keep the suspense going. The plot is simple enough and with the dual timelines used, the story unfolds side-by-side in a brilliant manner. The end is spectacular.

**All thoughts and opinions are my own.** ( )

The premise was good to start but none of the modern characters were particularly likable and all of them were underdeveloped. People acting in ways that were strictly plot driven no matter how insanely dumb their actions were. Also... the biggest pet peeve of the entire book is SPOILER BELOW
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Over nine hundred people (the entire population sans the baby the authorities find a couple days later) disappear from a mining town and NO ONE EVER CHECKS THE MINE TO SEE IF SOMETHING HAPPENED THERE?!?

This book, while well written, is just all the worst elements of a terrible horror movie wrapped in one...

FRUSTRATING! ( )

I had such high hopes for this book, and in the end, I'm left not knowing quite how I feel about it...but leaning toward the negative. On one hand, the book is compulsively readable, and I really enjoyed Sten's prose as well as the structure. On the other hand...there are some serious, serious flaws. As great as the concept in it, there are some cracks in the foundation when it comes to the characters and that concept, with mixed messages coming through in terms of who they are, their preparedness, and the needs/goals being faced. The end also 'jumps the shark' a few times, so to speak, coming out of nowhere and serving as a disappointing end to what was already downhill sledding in terms of plot/story. Some of the situations are also incredibly contrived, which is made worse with a lack of explanation. And, lastly, I'm also not comfortable with the way mental illness was depicted and treated in the book, which bothered me more and more as I kept going, as did a seeming lack of (story) editing.

I suppose, in the end, the book just felt messy in terms of story and character. The prose was lovely, and the concept was great, and the spooky bits were fantastic...but there were a lot of problems, and the more I paused to think about the smaller threads/problems bothering me, the more others became apparent. Especially with the characters being somewhat oblivious and acting/thinking in ways that didn't quite make sense, and some pieces of the plot being fairly contrived, I have to say that I'm not sure I'll pick up another book by the author. ( )

The premise is intriguing: Alice, an aspiring filmmaker, recruits four friends to explore a village from which 900 inhabitants vanished 60 years ago. She hopes to gain enough new information to convince backers to finance a documentary about the lost village, Silvertjarn. Recently, I've been fascinated by YouTube videos about abandoned homes and towns so this plot sounded good. Unfortunately, I didn't find and of the characters likeable and the atmosphere was flat and uncompelling. The story is told in Now and Then chapters, with the chapters from the past being slightly more interesting, but still not rich enough to paint a substantial picture of the town and its people. I was just curious enough to continue to find out the great mystery, but the story and its weak subplots, involving badly portrayed mental illness and betrayed friendship, dissolved into a mess of improbable horror that was truly disappointing. And the dialogue was bad. Not my cup of tea. ( )

When I first saw this title offered, I thought of Roanoke. The tagline for it was for Midsommer and Blair Witch Project. I have also been trying to read books written by authors from around the world. All that convinced me that I needed to read this book.
The book goes between two time settings, 1959 and present day, (titled as “then” and “now”). It takes places in a ghost town called Silvertjärn, Sweden. In 1959, this small mining town had one child found alive, one woman found murdered and the rest of the villagers, gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Over 900 people never heard from or seen again. The child is found, placed in a new home and name. All that is left are ruins of a decaying village and rumors. Present day, Alice Lindstedt is a young filmmaker. She grew up hearing about Silvertjärn from her grandmother. The grandmother grew up in the village, moving to Stockholm after she married. She had been getting letters from her mother and sister until the discovery of the missing. Alice is making a documentary about the disappearances. She hopes to solve the mystery. She has the idea to start a Kickstarter to get the funding. To do that she convinces four others to join her on a preliminary look at the village to get photos and make a short film. She and one of the others have a secret, though. The other person wanting to make this project with her is the daughter of the surviving child. Alice had tracked her down. From the first day there things went wrong. At first they tried to come up with excuses or just ignore it. Was it the girls doing those things? Was someone there trying to sabotage the documentary? Or is the place just evil?
I loved reading this book! It was tremendously atmospheric. Camilla Sten created a realistic feel to the creepy tale. All of the characters were well written. Flawed and relatable you could easily imagine knowing them. The descriptions of the houses, church and school placed you in the village. The weather touched it with a gray moodiness that added to the chill. In case you are wondering if the dual time and narrators work out, the answer is a resounding yes! This author pulled the tension tight cohesively. Many times I get annoyed while reading books set in two different times with different narrators. Not so with this story. My heart would be racing in the now only to be calmed switching to then just to have my heart racing again. I was being well played and I loved it. If you are looking for a book that will bring shivers, put this one on your to be read list.
I received an advanced review copy of this book from Minotaur, an imprint of St Martin Publishing Group, through NetGalley. My review is honest and voluntary. I read and reviewed this book during the local library summer reading program and I really hope the library chooses to get this one when it comes up. It is a book I plan to read again, in the fall or perhaps on a dark cold winter night. I honestly can’t wait until I can buy a copy. ( )

In August 1959 a couple of policemen arrive at the Swedish village of Silvertjarn only to find the place wrapped in silence and the inhabitants missing. They did find a woman who had been stoned to death in the village square and a living baby in the local schoolhouse, but other than that not a trace of any living person was to be found. Now, in the present, a documentary film team has arrived to explore the ghost town and see if they can put together enough information to make a film possible. There are five members of the team but two of them have close connections to the missing.

There are tensions among this five even before they arrive as some of them have a shared and difficult past. The story jumps back and forth between 1959 and the last months of the village, and to the present with the film crew as they experience mysterious and ghostly happenings.

The Lost Village reminded me of how I felt when I visited an old ghost town on Vancouver Island and the creepy feeling of being watched by past inhabitants and never really knowing if anyone else is in the town were perfectly transferred to this story. I had chills running up and down my spine and I had to take frequent breaks from the book to recover my breathing. The Lost Village is both deliciously scary and intensely dark, an excellent horror read. ( )

Seriously? A whole town of 900 people disappears and no one thinks to check the mines? I find that hard to believe.

I'm also over the evil religious figure trope... It's tired and obvious by now.

I wish there had been more of a supernatural element to this book as opposed to the actual "twist" (which wasn't much of one since I figured it out fairly early on.)

All in all, I'm disappointed since the premise held so much promise. ( )