Showing posts with label Camilla Sten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camilla Sten. Show all posts
Monday, May 2, 2022

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten

 


 

Publication: March 29, 2022

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Translation: Alexandra Fleming

Source: Publisher



Synopsis:

 

A spine-chilling, propulsive psychological suspense from international sensation Camilla Sten.

The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.

When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer—a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, her anxiety mounts. The dark feelings of having brushed by a killer, yet not know who could do this—or if they’d be back—overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.

Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house—a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a dark past for over fifty years.

Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to bringing the truth to light, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.

A heart-thumping, relentless thriller that will shake you to your core, The Resting Place is an unforgettable novel of horror and suspense.

 


 

******


The Resting Place was an atmospheric and fun suspense story that kept getting more and more interesting, the further I got into the book.

 

Due to not being able to recognize faces, Eleanor has lived her life with a certain amount of fear. That fear and uncertainty increased after bumping into her grandmother’s murderer and not being able to recognize him or her. 

 

The story largely revolves around Elanor’s larger than life grandmother Vivianne and Eleanor who cannot identify people’s faces clearly.  But her logical yet always skeptical boyfriend Sebastian, her unique and interesting Aunt Veronika and the lawyer handling her grandmother’s estate all add something to this mysterious tale.

 

The story bounces back-and-forth between the past and the present which I enjoyed. The characters were interesting, especially Eleanor’s grandmother Vivian. 

 

I did get a little frustrated with Sebastian. I wish that he would have been more understanding and supportive of Eleanor especially given the fact that she doesn’t recognize people and faces like the rest of them do. Aunt Veronika was a bold and unapologetic character also…it would have been nice to discover more of her backstory.

                                                                      

I also listened to the audiobook while I was reading. Occasionally I will switch between reading and listening. The narrator, Angela Dawe is one of my top narrators. She always does a good job of bringing the characters to life and adding to an already interesting storyline. The audiobook is just shy of 9 hours, but nothing felt slow or dragged and that time went by fairly quickly.

 

This is the second book that I’ve read from this author, and it will not be the last. I enjoy her writing style and the creative way she spins a story. There were a couple of twists and surprises that occurred that they took me by surprise, and I honestly did not guess who the murderer was until it was practically revealed.

 

 


RATING: 3½ OUT OF 5.


 

 

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Monday, March 29, 2021

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten




About the Book:

Publication: March 23, 2021

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Source: Publisher



 

Synopsis:

 

The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense.

Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left—a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn—have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened.

But there will be no turning back.

Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:

They are not alone.

They’re looking for the truth…
But what if it finds them first?

 

******

 

The Lost Village definitely had a creepy vibe going on. The story alternated between the Then and the Now, which I really enjoyed. The Now /present story with Alice and her crew making a film about the village was enjoyable. As things progressed for them though, their story wasn’t as suspenseful as I had hoped it would be. And some of the things that happened, like certain choices and actions did not make any sense to me. I started to enjoy reading the Then flashbacks more than I did the Now. I was very interested in learning what evil befell a whole village. As I started inching closer to the ending of the book, I felt dread for what was happening to the characters in the past and anticipation for the whole reveal. I was hooked on the Then story.


I would categorize this book as more of a suspenseful thriller than an actual horror story. I will say that unfortunately the ending was a bit lackluster for me. Despite that, it did continually keep my interest and I enjoyed reading it.  

 

 

RATING: 3 OUT OF 5.

 

 

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