the synopsis of this book definitely grabbed me, i think the concept and idea behind this was so inventive. i enjoyed the characters quite a lot; they all had glaring flaws that only made them more human and realistic, if not irritating at times.

alice, our protagonist, is a struggling filmmaker who’s been dreaming about figuring out the mystery of silvertjarn, “the lost village.” she’s got quite a lot of emotional attachment to it, seeing as her grandmother’s entire family disappeared along with the other residents and alice grew up with tales of the town and its descent into evil. 

on her own, alice is not a particularly interesting or captivating character, but what does make her stand out is her dynamics with the other characters and her involvement in the mystery itself. she’s often overly emotional, though it’s understandable, and she’s just a walking “i’m trying the best i can” meme. my favourite thing about her is how honest she is with herself. usually, characters (and people) try to spin their mistakes and flaws around in order to justify them, but alice is really self-aware and i like her sincerity.

the other (arguably more present) protagonist is elsa, alice’s great-grandmother. the story moves between alice’s point of view in the present in certain chapters and elsa’s life sixty years ago, when silvertjarn began its own demise. those were honestly my favourite parts of the book.

unfortunately, the pacing is extremely slow. like i almost stopped reading many times bc i was so bored of the drawn-out tension. the last hundred or some pages fix that though, the action picks up and a very well-done sense of dread and panic sets in, it was very moving.

the plot-twist is pretty obvious, i don’t think it can shock many people, but it was coherent with the rest of the story so i still appreciated it. i was surprised at the very end though when an identity is revealed. it was actually pretty terrifying lmao the author did a great job as i said in creating an atmosphere of just pure frenzy, i finished the book on a crowded bus in the early afternoon and i was still scared shitless.

the secondary characters are alright lmao. with the exception of tonne, alice’s friend with her own connection to the town, i didn’t really care for them. i liked robert but we’re not given much from him, i just ended up with a lil crush 🧍🏽‍♀️

overall it was mildly entertaining though frustrating until the last 100 pages when things finally started happening, so i have it 3.5 stars, but i understand why some reviewers gave it less.