The Lost Village : A Novel - Camilla Sten - Book Review

 

                    It's not quite often that we get to see some good movies like Midsommar or Hereditary. The same goes for books when it comes to stories like that.

                   Alice, a short filmmaker decides to make a film in the village of Silvertjarn. Years ago; the residents disappeared one fine morning without any trace of what happened to leave the village totally deserted except for two people - a lady who was stoned to death and an infant who was rescued and later adopted. Her grandmother's family were residents of the village. She and her team of four people decide to stay and film at the place for a week. People start getting hurt and start going missing. Many unexpected events follow and does Alice get to the bottom of the mystery of the lost village? forms the story.

                    The story was very different from the ones I read in recent times. It started as a very normal plotline but then switched to a different and interesting mode quickly. I could not tie the book to a particular genre till the very end. It ranged from thriller to mystery to horror all through the pages. The storyline was very subtle and fluid. The whole setup was near perfect. The characterization was very interesting, especially that of pastor Mattias. He did immediately strike as the pastor that I saw in one of the recent web series "Midnight Mass". He was a complete enigma and so were Aina and Elisa. The transformation of sister Aina and the mental struggles within Elisa and her husband and through them the entire village were very well brought out. As in many such stories, depression had an underlying presence both during the flashback and during the actual timeline of the story. The transition between the flashback and the current timeline was handled in a very good manner. Equally interesting was the conversations between Emmy and Alice and it did strike a chord in me. The descent from a normal film storyline to one of fear, doubt, and mistrust was strikingly smooth. There were some good spine-chilling moments giving me some good tense moments and unexpected twists. Having said these in favour, I did feel moments of ambiguity and slowness in some of the portions. Kudos to the author for the way the story unfolded and kept me totally hooked up. Well almost!

                    In short, a very good read from the author and I am happy with the way she built the story and that too touching the topic of depression; which connects with me a little too much on a personal level. I would like to read more of her works.