I was drawn to reading this because it's set in Sweden, and I have Swedish lineage. I'm not sure I'd have stuck with it if it had a different setting, though the premise was certainly intriguing, and I wanted to know what happened to all the villagers. As the book progressed, I wondered how the author would create a plausible explanation for the events or if it would end up having a more supernatural frame. I was ultimately satisfied by the ending, though it didn't feel entirely plausible.

If you like horror or creepy mystery novels, you'll probably enjoy this.

This book is a mystery with a setting similar to the movie/video game Silent Hill. But without the monsters seen there. I read it in about 3 nights, as it was hard to put down.

The story focuses on a 50’s mining town whose entire population disappears into thin air. 60 years into the present, a granddaughter of a resident scraps together a documentary crew to film and photograph the village in order to raise fundings for a proper documentary. She only has five days to obtain enough material to convince donors to support her dream production, but as the days go on, incidents occur to interfere with her plans.

As I read more, I realized there could be three reasons for the strange disappearances:

1. A cultish mass suicide
2. Aliens
3. The Pied Piper came and whisked everyone away

But still, I was wrong.

As the crew explore the village, they are faced with a disintegrating time capsule. They piece together clues from old letters, investigative reports, and new information they discover in the sock drawers of certain key houses.

The Village is eerie. All the houses are built according to the same layouts. The team wants to visit the hut of an autistic resident, the Church, and the School where a baby was found. The sole survivor.

However, the Mine, the main source of industry in the 50’s, is too dangerous to venture into. And not only that, but it’s mineral properties and magnetism interfere with cellphone reception. Luckily the crew have brought walkie-talkies. Nothing should interfere with that, right?

Haunting and utterly mesmerizing. Sten’s prose rolled over me like a weighted blanket of dread. Even when I wasn’t reading, my mind was in the tragic ghost village of Silvertyarn. This book gave me a serious case of the shivers and I absolutely adored it.

3.5 Stars.
I loved the atmosphere of this one. The tone for "spooky, abandoned town is not what it appears" is definitely set, and set well. The book is fast-paced, I read most of it in one day. I was quickly drawn into the story, and it held my attention all the way through.

However, the characters fell flat, as did the ending. Those two things took away from what could have been a five star book. I do still recommend it to anyone looking for something dark and eerie.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Back in the 1950s, Silvertjarn was a small, Swedish mining village with around 900 townspeople. Suddenly, one day, they all disappeared - all except one woman who was found tied to a pole in the town square and stoned to death, and a small baby found crying in the nearby schoolhouse. Fledgling filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the story since hearing about it from her grandmother, who had moved out of the village a few years prior but lost her sister and parents in the disappearance. Alice is determined to make a documentary about the lost village of Silvertjarn, and assembles a small crew to travel to the remote village to investigate and gather some photos and video clips. Very quickly, Alice and her crew realize that something still isn't right about Silvertjarn, and whatever evil that lurked there in 1959 may still be present...

This was a creepy and atmospheric read that had me sleeping with the covers over my head. There were times when I wanted to slap Alice and other characters for making dumb decisions, but these choices added to the suspense of the novel and kept me engaged as I waited to see how their decisions would impact their predicament. I saw a part of the twist coming which detracted a tiny bit from my enjoyment, but overall this book was a good read if you like to be spooked.

Was super excited when I read this was a Blair witch/midsommar mashup, bit once I got into it, the book was not what I expected. The overall book has a fantastic feeling of dread throughout, but all of the suspense is kinda built up to a disappointing ending.

This is a very fast paced intense read that I felt was absolutely perfect.
I love a good spine tingling, dark, tension filled story and The Lost Village delivers just that.

The story rotates from the past and present with two different points of view. For the first time in a long while, I actually didn’t figure out the big twist and I was very surprised when it finally came out. I was totally engrossed in this story and actually stayed up way past my usual bedtime just to finish it.

I wouldn’t put this book totally in the horror genre, I didn’t think it was scary at all. This story is part mystery/historical fiction/thriller/with a small twist of horror. I hate and usually stay away from books with a lot of gore in it but, there is a bit of gore in the beginning of this book but nothing too alarming I hadn’t seen before.

This is my first Scandinavian noir story and since I loved it so much, I will definitely be looking up similar books.
Many thanks to the publisher, Netgalley, and Camilla Sten for the advanced reader copy!!!

The Lost Village is not a book to read before bed, it is creepy! That being said, it's also well written and entertaining. The author really knows how to build and atmosphere of tension and though I didn't really connect to the characters, it was definitely an entertaining read!

Initially I was not sure about the subject matter of The Lost Village by Camilla Sten, but I gave it a try as my first pick of 2021. Camilla Sten wowed me! I loved the back and forth from present time to the past, learning about the town of Silvertjarn. This book definitely read like a "Blair Witch-like" documentary. My only complaint is keeping the characters straight in my own mind. I kept getting lost in who was who but I still managed to enjoy the book immensely. So don't let that deter anyone.
Alice and her team of documentary film makers, get together to help put together what exactly happened to the town dubbed "The Lost Village" which included Alice's grandmother and family. Driving into a deserted town, staying for days, and having the unexpected happen is my own worst nightmare. Sten did an excellent job of conveying that in written form and kept you going wanting more from her story.
I will definitely be recommending this book to others and will be anxious to see what Camilla Sten does next! Special Thanks to NetGalley, Camilla Sten, and St. Martin's Press for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion! 4.5 stars!
#TheLostVillageBook #NetGalley

While not what I was expecting, I did enjoy this book. It had glimpses of The Blair Witch Project with its own unique twist. O would read more from this author.

This book was astonishing. I am obsessed with ghost towns, lost villages, and disappeared communities throughout history, so I eagerly devoured this one in just two days. It follows two timelines--the year of the disappearance itself and the investigation half a century later--and as the story comes together the two narratives seamlessly fall together like the shuffling of a deck of cards. As a voracious horror fan who finds themselves frequently disappointed, I can say that this book gave me several delicious shivers as I read it after dark. Definitely recommend.

Alice is trying to put together a documentary about a ghost town, where 900 inhabitants vanished without a trace years earlier. As her team explores the town, it starts to seem like they may not be alone. It's hard to decide until late in the book if there is something supernatural going on or not. Not bad but not great. 3.5 stars rounded to 3.

The Lost Village grabbed me right from the start! It definitely has a Blair Witch Project feel, but wasn't as scary as I expected. It's a solidly creepy read with bits of gore that sneak up on you and an ending I didn't see coming

I liked the 1959 chapters about life in the village as the town becomes hostile and obsessive, but I was left with some unanswered questions that I'd have preferred to know the answers too. I also thought there was going to be a little more of a mystery, but things were revealed early on just kinda without preamble-- this is probably more of a translation issue.

Either way I enjoyed the story and am ready for more from this author!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book. The Lost Village was a creepy read, weaving together an investigation into an entire town that disappeared and something horrible happening in present day.

This book reminded me of a movie I had watched about a relatively similar topic - an abandoned town and something still alive that starts killing people who come to investigate. I was worried it would turn out to be the exact same thing but this book took some turns I wasn't expecting and I did not see the ending coming. The book was paced well and kept my attention.

Recommended for people who like mysteries and murder.

I ended up really enjoying this book. It started off slow, but it really kept getting more and more suspenseful. Definitely a page turner. Any thriller and horror movie fans would probably really enjoy this. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for review.

The setting for this book waas beyond creepy and unsettling for the entire read. The twists and surprises kept coming as you kept reading this chilling, gory story too. I felt like this story similar to creepiness and chills of the movie, Blair Witch Project. I love that just when I thought I had this book figured out, something else happened; hence this is not predictable which is important for any book.

If you want a creepy, thrilling book this is it! Highly recommended.

And the creepy cover? Hell yes!

Thanks to Netgalley, Camilla Sten and St Martin"s Press Minoutaur Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 3/23/21

Thank you #netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARC of The Lost Village by Camilla Sten. I loved the premise of this book! One thing that was kind of weird was the "past" was in the 50s, but was written like it was much longer ago, or at least that is how it felt to me. The book had its share of creepiness and kept me guessing if the weird things that happened really did have simple explanations.
I didn't like any of the characters. For me this made the book less enjoyable. Alice was a weak leader, and she should have called the whole thing off pretty early. on. She was so single-minded she didn't realize something pretty important about Tone that even I figured out!
The past stories were also creepy, and ultimately heartbreaking. Both the past and the present stories were great, but the ending was so implausible it ruined the stories for me.
I liked the writing, though, and would try another book by this author.
2.5 stars rounded up to three

Alice Lindstedt makes documentaries. It only makes sense that she would make a documentary about what came to be called The Lost Village, the small village in which every one of its 900 inhabitants disappeared overnight without a trace. Alice has heard about this village’s mystery since she was a small girl, because everyone in her grandmother’s family lived in that small town and disappeared that day in 1959. Not one of those missing inhabitants was ever found, except for a dead woman tied to a pole in the town center and a newborn baby found abandoned in a room in the schoolhouse. But, when Alice takes her crew to the abandoned town, strange things start happening. Are they imagining things, or is the deserted small town inhabited after all?

This is an incredibly exciting book. Narrated in turn by a town inhabitant in 1959 and by Alice in the present, as she takes her filming crew in, the reader is allowed to learn, enticingly little by little, about the mystery of the town. It is so exciting, I read it in only a couple of days. The characters are very real, and the settings are memorable and vivid! It was deliciously scary, and it will haunt me for a long time to come! I could not put this one down!

Thanks to netgalley.com for a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Creepy suspenseful tale featuring a documentary film crew and a village where all inhabitants disappeared. Atmospheric.

Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book in exchange of an honest review.

This was another one I kept seeing as highly anticipated but kind of fell a little flat for me. It definitely held attention and flowed nicely - and the story matter itself was so intriguing and macabre that I had high hopes while reading.

I feel like it just never got there - never really climaxed and had that "oh my gosh!" Moment where a book seals the deal for you. I felt like I was holding out for something great and unique that just never came.

The ending was extremely underwhelming but overall the story was just okay.

I'd recommend but it's definitely not a book you need to rush out and get. More so something to use as filler.