Ever since Camilla Sten was a little girl she has always been writing and coming up with new storylines for eventful and interesting stories. It was one of the many perks that came with having a famous author for a mother. Camilla’s dream has always been to write and publish a book and that dream finally came true. On March 23, Camilla’s newest book The Lost Village was finally published. The Lost Village is an intense and thrill-seeking book that draws the reader in at the start and then loses the reader only to draw them back in at the end. Its horror base seems to lack and so does the thriller aspect of the book. However, it’s not an absolutely terrible book.

The Lost Village starts with an ad written and created by documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt. It’s an ad looking for other members to travel to a small town in Sweden called Silvertjarn that has a major mystery behind it as the town (that originally consisted of 900 people) all disappeared with nothing but a baby being left behind in a school nurse’s office and a corpse in the middle of the square. Nobody knows what happened to the citizens of the town but as the granddaughter of one of the only survivors, Alice is determined to solve the mystery and explore the abandoned village. The only question that revolves around it is, will she and her group survive?

One of Sten’s biggest strengths when it comes to writing is her use of imagery. However, this also appeared to be one of her biggest weaknesses. Although this book was filled with imagery that I loved it got to the point where it felt like the imagery overpowered the rest of the book making it easy to see what was going on and actually make the book feel tangible but also extremely hard to read. One of the biggest places where it’s seen is when it comes to the use of horror. When I was reading the book I felt like I was more so in the town itself and there with the characters in the book however, I hardly ever got a good scare or something that kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next.

Sten also struggled to keep her book together or to keep a good storyline. I loved the idea of the story and she was super creative with the use of talking about the present and past and using two different time periods but again this is where she lost me. While reading the book I loved the back and forth between Alice and her time in the present and her grandmother (Elsa’s) time period in the back but the storylines didn’t match up. I ended up being more engrossed in the storyline revolving around Elsa more than I did in the storyline revolving around Alice because the past was so full of detail and imagery and it had an amazing story to tell while the present was lacking and dull. The only real part where both periods and chapters interested me was the ending because that’s when both time periods began to line up more to form an amazing interesting ending.

The Lost Village is a book that I would recommend as a book to try out. It wasn’t the absolute worst book but it’s also not a book that I would say is on my top ten list. I loved parts of the storyline and the imagery that Camilla Sten used however, I also felt like the book was incredibly slow and the elements of horror and thriller that are supposed to be in the book never actually showed except for an occasional ghost-like figure or static on a radio. The book never actually made me jump or stay on the edge of my seat but rather confused me to the point where I had to keep reading to figure out what was going on. Camilla Sten’s newest book The Lost Village is a book that grabbed my attention at first before losing me, but it’s a good book and a book that I would recommend if you’re looking to open up your reading taste to different countries and different authors. I can’t promise that it’ll give you the horror experience you may be looking for but it will definitely keep you interested.