Book Review - Camilla Sten's The Lost Village
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: April 4th, 2019
Format: Kindle, 336 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
Her whole life Alice has heard stories of Silvertjärn. But she isn't like everyone else in Sweden, obsessed with the town where in 1959 the residents disappeared overnight; leaving behind a newborn in the nurse's office of the school and a woman stoned to death in the town square. She has a personal connection. Her grandmother was from Silvertjärn. The day the residents disappeared Alice's grandmother lost her family. Alice has poured over the letter's her Aunt Aina sent her grandmother again and again. The people of Silvertjärn are real to her in a way that she wants to share with the world. Which is why she is trying to make a documentary about the lost village. She has assembled a small crew to go in for a few days in April and get enough footage so that they can lure in investors and then go back in in August and film the documentary, during the time of year when the disappearance happened sixty years earlier. Her crew consists of Max, the backer, Emmy, her ex-best friend, Emmy's boyfriend Robert, and Tone. Only Max and Alice know Tone's secret, she is the daughter of the baby found in 1959. So for two of the crew this is a coming home of sorts. It's unnerving stepping into the town and seeing it for the very first time. Pictures don't exist of the village anywhere so it comes as a shock to see how normal yet eerie it is. They set up camp and go over their plan of attack. Some places of interest are the school, the church, the railway station, and Alice's grandmother's house. Therefore the next morning Alice and Tone set off to investigate the school. Alice has spent a lot of time reading online about the best ways to enter old buildings in the safest manner possible. Therefore it's disheartening when Tone's ankle becomes badly injured on the stairs. She claims she heard something below them. Emmy and Robert also say that they heard noises on their walkie talkies. Could there be someone else here? What really happened to the villagers who were under the thrall of a charismatic preacher? As unsettling incidents start to pile up and one of their own goes missing, the question has to be asked, will any of them make it out of this remote location alive or are they the newest victims of Silvertjärn?
I think The Lost Village is a case in which I should have really paid attention to the blurb. But it was recommended to me by someone whose taste I trust so I kind of didn't notice the whole "The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar." Of course I'd say it's more Jonestown meets Midsommar... but I really should have had a red flag go up at the mention of Midsommar. Let me make this crystal clear, I HATED Midsommar. It is the worst film I have ever seen in my entire life. Keep in mind at one point I was considering a Communication Arts degree but ended up with a BS in Art and a second in Theatre so I've seen a heck of a lot of movies and experimental films and performance pieces that nearly broke me. Yes, I did have a panic attack during a documentary about logging, but I would watch that documentary again if I could somehow expunge the pretentious piece of shit that was Midsommar from my memory. It wanted to be something big and meaningful but was nothing but dreck. So take it as read that I am affirming that this book is like Midsommar and therefore was never going to be the book for me. But ironically this wasn't what I hated most about the book. Yeah, that's actually a surprising statement to see written out given my hated of Midsommar. This book is just badly written. I don't know if this is because the book was lost in translation or the text was actually this clunky to begin with but Camilla Sten is horrible at describing, well, anything, from locations that have not aged as badly as they should have, to people. She often contradicts herself too. Tone goes from being hulking to petite. Everyone has a thin mouth like a dash. Seriously!?! Everyone!?! Oh, and don't get me started on how obvious that ending was. It was so obvious that there was no jeopardy or peril. Things that were supposed to be spooky weren't in the least. The only thing she got infinitesimally right was what it feels like for a friendship to fall apart. The "shock and rage and sadness" that hits you when you see that friend again. But what little inroads she made with that insight she destroyed by making her mentally ill characters nothing more than cliched tropes. I thought there was going to be some perception, instead it was more of the same shit. So that's what I came away with. Shit.
Rules For Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
