Horror Aficionados discussion

HA members have voted and The Lost Village by Camilla Sten is the number one choice.

Please use spoiler tags where appropriate.
Have a good time!

Awesome this is already on my Kindle waiting to be read :)

i have this and i should read it but i won't make any promises.

I actually won this book in a giveaway ... unfortunately its in snail mail limbo right now. Hopefully it arrives in time :(

Yes! I already have a copy (won it in a giveaway) :) Starting now

This one sounds good!

Nice. I'm on it, just started this morning

This sounds great! I'm in!

Sounds good, I'll be reading it on Saturday when it becomes may!
Currently I'm reading 'blindness' by Jose saramango which is another great read.

Well, I actually planned just a little sneak into it before May, but it seems it sucked me right in and I´m already finished.

Hope all of you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Wow! That’s good to hear! I got the audio version and should be able to start it next week.

This novel is excellent! Twisty, convoluted, unexpected, fascinating!

put it on hold at the library! can't wait for it to come through so i can join y'all. :)

It's actually a very good novel. I like it,

Thanks ! Going to start it today.

Started it today

I'm at 50% and I'm not sure yet how I feel about it. The writing is excellent though.

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and didn't like it very much. I ended up giving it 2-stars.

I’ve never heard of this author, or the book. I hope I’ll like it.

Zain

I started this the other day and so far, so good. Hope it stays that way everyone on here seems to have mixed feelings. The premise ios so good though. Keeping fingers crossed!

Finished. While engaging, it does require you to suspend your belief. (view spoiler)[The entire buildup was a believable storyline, only to be a letdown as the twist was way out of character for the rest of the novel. (I mean, how did Aina survive for 60 years? This was not explored in detail. Eventually, rummaging through the pantries of the townsfolk would run out.) (hide spoiler)]

The atmosphere was well established early on, and you really do get a sense for the setting in this remote, isolated village.

Pros: (1) Female author in translated genre fiction with a female translator! (2) A constant feeling of dread from the first pages.

Cons: (1) Snail-pacing and/or pacing that just felt off. (2) (view spoiler)[The twist. (hide spoiler)]

Give me this story without the present-day storyline. I would love to have read this as a historical horror! The flashbacks were the strongest part of this novel.

I listened to the audiobook while following along with the physical text. The narrator, Angela Dawe, breathed life into this story. Her voice acting was impressive and she did well with male voices without making them sound like caricatures.

Great review, Liz.

I'm am at 77%. The premise of this book is amazing but the plot feels like so many missed opportunities.
I'm enjoying the 1956 storyline. But I'm not enjoying the present day characters. Hopefully there will be a twists at the end to make it all worthwhile.

%50 done with it so far and I am really intrigued to see where the storyline leads I have some predictions
1. Emmy is going to get herself or someone else hurt or worse
2. Everyone from the town is in the mine I think maybe?? Like they said in the book maybe a Jonestown thing??

This is getting to be a long haul, and I really cant seem to care about these characters. i will keep going for the time being, but i have a feeling this is going to end up like Abandon, by Blake Crouch. If it does I'll be pretty disappointed.

I finished and there was a slow spot in the middle but it picked back up again I enjoyed this book!

I finished today. I enjoyed the 1959 timeline from beginning to end but not so much the present day timeline.

just got my copy from the library! hoping to get started in the next couple days. :)

I'm about a quarter of the way through so far. It's okay. I'm not a fan of Alice but intrigued by the town.

Started this today. So far, so good.

started this yesterday and about 25% through. i'm waiting for it to pick up a little. not much has happened so far. i hope the characters improve some because i'm struggling to connect with any of them. (especially alice and emmy.)

I'm almost at the halfway point and I'm getting more into it. The mystery now has me officially hooked as to the town's disappearance and the motives of Pastor Mattias and Emmy.

Wasn't a fan. Lots and lots of wasted opportunities with this book. Great concept, but poorly executed.

I finished this today and I liked it!! Yes, there are parts and things you can’t think too much about but I can go with it. Yes! The characters were not the best. If this had been any longer, I don’t know how I’d feel about it. Alice (? Sounded like narrator was saying Alice) and Emmy was really, really starting to wear thin by the end of the book. Charlene, have you read this?!

oof, i hate to say it, but this book ended up being a huge disappointment for me. i thought the story was predictable, and i just couldn't get behind any of the characters. i was also disappointed by the "antagonist". i just thought (view spoiler)[pastor mattias was such a one-dimensional, flat "villain", and his takeover of the village was just ridiculous enough that i couldn't suspend my disbelief, unfortunately. (hide spoiler)]

also, i didn't like the way she did some of the characters. for example, (view spoiler)[i thought the way she suddenly revealed that max had only funded alice's project to seduce her was just way out of left-field. i didn't feel like there was adequate buildup for that, and it felt super inorganic to the story. it played out like she was trying to sour the reader's opinion of the character so it'd hurt less when he was murdered. (hide spoiler)]

had fun joining in read tho! looking forward to seeing everyone's final thoughts. :)

I agree with your second spoiler. That came out of no where and threw me off too. I love, love, love a good (view spoiler)[ cult (hide spoiler)] story. I didn’t have to suspend my believe too far cause some of the ones in real life are so so fucked up. You act like you believe & understand people and give them a sense of belonging and it seems they will do almost anything. I’ll try to remember to link to the last group I learned of. They were terrible & I wish I had never listened to that podcast because you can’t unhear that shit.

Found it on SCRIBD and saved it to my list. I think I'll start on Monday.

Ah, sounds like I should brace myself for a weak ending :/ I'm enjoying it overall. I'm about 230 pages in. (view spoiler)[ Tone is missing, the vans are in shambles, and Alice and Emmy had their argument. Alice is grating on my last nerves, though. (hide spoiler)]

Agree with Rachel on about everything. (view spoiler)[The Max switchup to be a "nice guy" came out of nowhere. However, I also took it as Alice was flirting with him to get him fund the documentary. She was definitely sending some mixed signals and I was expecting them to get together before people started dying. (hide spoiler)]

I thought this was okay, but I don't know how I feel about Tone's plotline.

(view spoiler)[Are people in Sweden really casual about narcotics? I don't get the plotline of Tone not being able to take pain relievers. It seems like she is worried about serotonin syndrome. I've had it. It's scary, but you don't get it from Tylenol. I'm hoping that we are supposed to think she's possessed, because it would be pretty weird for someone to have that extreme of a reaction that quickly to discontinuing taking Abilify. Based on the introduction, I don't think the author intended it, but I think this part of the book might stigmatize people with mental illness. I think we are supposed to think the characters are wrong for judging Tone based on a prescription, but if your only exposure to someone taking an anti-psychotic is this book, you are going to leave it with some misconceptions. (hide spoiler)]

Just finished it. I think if it had been a little longer and more fleshed out, it could have been better. I did enjoy it overall. Alice is waaaayyyy annoying. Not every narrator or main character has to be likable but I legit didn't care about her well-being.

I agree with (view spoiler)[ Ania seemed too far fetched. She was revealed to be there the whole time and then the book ends. Would she really be able to live that long in that village with minimal resources? (hide spoiler)]

Rachel wrote: "oof, i hate to say it, but this book ended up being a huge disappointment for me...also, i didn't like the way she did some of the characters. for example, (view spoiler)

Woah. I think I totally missed that bit about Max. Thank you for bringing this to the surface for me.

Still struggling through The Lost Village. Most books are read in two to three days. So far I’m really bored. 😕

Zain

I had really hoped for a supernatural twist... Solid 3 stars for me on unique and mysterious premise.

(view spoiler)[
When I started reading I was crossing my fingers for trolls like in Trollhunter. The creepy priest was an acceptable alternative. A personal pet peeve for me in storytelling is when characters lie or hide facts for no reason other than keeping up the plot. The van part was good and suspenseful. But if she would have just told the others about the encounter at that moment, a little investigating would have ended the mystery right then.

I liked the premise and story. The 1956 plot line felt much stronger than the present. The characters were more likable and relatable which was kind of ironic. Just felt like I had to overlook too much to suspend my belief before arriving at the end which was a bit tepid.
(hide spoiler)]

Rachel wrote: "oof, i hate to say it, but this book ended up being a huge disappointment for me. i thought the story was predictable, and i just couldn't get behind any of the characters. i was also disappointed ..."

I thought Max was a creep from the very beginning.

(view spoiler)[Mostly because he read Tone's prescription bottle. (He said he saw it when he looked in their toiletry bag but seeing a pill bottle and reading it are two very different things.) Then he tossed the information in the group like a grenade at the worst possible moment. If he had done that differently, the group may not have wasted time being afraid of Tone for so long.

But he also reeked of unrequited puppy love. He was always following Alice around and coming up with reasons to talk to her (going to her for toothpaste after dark) ...though Alice did appear to have interest in him before everything went wrong. She just reasonably put it on hold while they were in crises.

And just the fact that he was in attendance was weird. He was an investor. Why did he go when he didn't possess skills to contribute to the team. (hide spoiler)]

I loved the setting, and I thought some of the scenes were really creepy. The parts set in the past were really interesting, and I wish the author had included more details about that.

I definitely had to suspend belief for a few things: (view spoiler)[ Given the history of the town, I find it impossible to believe that other people wouldn’t have gone there. It seems like ghost hunters, local teens, tourists, journalists, and anyone looking for an adventure would have flocked there in droves over the decades. To have the town so untouched seemed really unbelievable. Also, after the entire population disappeared, it seems like the first place that would’ve been checked was the mine. And , like others have said, Aina living there alone for years, especially without Alive and the others noticing someone was occupying the village, is so unbelievable! (hide spoiler)]

Finally got to start this the other day (I was waiting to finish my current Audio book so I could listen to this one.) Already half way through, and really enjoying the atmosphere and story. Fingers crossed that it keeps being this good!

I just started this today. Listening as well.

I finished this yesterday. I enjoyed the book. it was well written with good tension and fairly good pacing. I was not a fan of some of the tropes, but the book was good enough that they didn't drive me away.

I finished it last weekend; I really enjoyed it, and liked the fact that they didn't go with the supernatural explanation (which is honestly what I thought I wanted).