Book Review: The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

     Alice grew up with stories of the town of Silvertjärn, Sweden told by her grandmother. Silvertjärn was a small mining town where her grandmother had grown up whose entire population of 900 disappeared without a trace. The only thing left behind was a woman tied in the street, stoned to death, and a newborn left in the school. Since then the town has become the only ghost town and it's mysteries have yet to be uncovered. Alice hopes that she will be able to unlock these secrets, turning them into a documentary. When she arrives at the town mysterious things begin happening from people getting hurt and property getting damaged. Is what happened here worth their lives? 

    I got this book on the Libby app as an impulse download. I wanted a horror book since I hadn't read one in a while and was not disappointed. Normally I only listen to audiobooks while in the shower, but once I started this book I had it on while cooking, cleaning, and everything else until it was over. I had to know what happened next at all times. I actually didn't realize the main character's name was Alice until I googled if Silvertjärn was a real town as it is pronounced "ollice" in the audiobook. 

    Max is as close as I can get to having a favorite character in this book. Alice was very self centered, rarely caring about anything that didn't have an impact on her until towards the end.  The conflicts between some of the characters seemed petty and like they were stuck in high-school instead of almost 30 year old adults. Max was, for the most part, kind, supportive, and mildly amusing as a character. He was also the most adult-like for 90% of the book. 

    I liked how the book jumped from past to present so that we could see what Alice and the crew were experiencing as well as what actually happened to the town in the past. I wanted to know from the beginning, and while I had certain things correct I didn't suspect it all. It is always great when a book has a surprise ending. There are some things about the book that threw me. For instance the book is written by someone from Sweden, yet they use Fahrenheit vs Celsius when describing the temperature of a town in Sweden. It was very confusing because when the atmosphere was described as a "crisp, cool 30° in April" my brain wanted to know how it could be cold if it was in the 80s. F would have been implied if it was an American author or set in America, but since it wasn't it just confused me for a moment. I think this was the only place in the book that it happened, but it stuck with me. Outside of this the book was great. Like I mentioned I had problems putting it down as I always wanted to know what happened next in it. This book is definitely a thriller with a dash of horror and one that I would personally love to see made into a movie. Being able to see Silvertjärn would be amazing in more than just my mind's eye. 

    This book is available on Amazon for $13.99 by clicking here.