[Not discussed in this review but in the book itself. TW: abuse of a differently abled person, implied rape]
A group of documentarians go to an abandoned village in Sweden. The lead on the project, Alice Lindstedt, wants to uncover the dark history of this little town, as her grandmother’s family was a part of the citizens that disappeared one day without a trace. But when they arrive odd things start occurring. At first it’s just mysterious figures standing in the distance and missing items. Things quickly escalate when one of the crew members ends up dead. Was it another documentarian? Or was it a malevolent figure connected with the town’s sordid past?
Cut throughout this story told in the present is the story set in the past when the town was still occupied. We meet Elsa, Alice’s great-grandmother, who is concerned with the fate of her little town. One, because the mine just closed which was the town’s primary source of income and, two, because of a highly charismatic young preacher who just made his way into town. His ideas seem harmless enough at first, but he soon has most of the town under his thrall. What unravels in this book is how these two stories become more and more connected as details are slowly revealed.
This book was SPOOKY. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was scared. But I definitely looked over my shoulder once or twice while walking the dog and listening to this book to make sure I wasn’t being followed. Author Camila Sten did an excellent job creating the foreboding and, at times, sinister atmosphere of an abandoned town. The flashbacks to the past did an excellent job of ramping up the creepy-factor. I would have loved more flashbacks (mostly because I loved Elsa’s character so much), but I think Sten struck a great balance of giving us just enough information of what happened in the past to let our minds race about what could have happened.
