Reviews tagging 'Death'

Arvtagaren by Camilla Sten

13 reviews

thrillofthepage's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Sten’s 2021 release, The Lost Village, was a great read with a creepy atmosphere and dual timelines that were impeccably crafted. The Resting Place also created a spooky atmosphere with the isolated Solhöga mansion in the Swedish woods. The house itself gave me goosebumps because of its dark and mysterious history. It was the perfect backdrop for sinister events to unfold and Sten described it with just enough detail and left the rest to the reader’s imagination.

Our MC, Eleanor, suffers from prosopagnosia, which is better known as face blindness. This condition added an ominous feel to an already disturbing experience for Eleanor because she’s unable to identify who killed her grandmother. This causes severe anxiety for our protagonist, which leads us to doubt what she claims to see at Solhöga.

I loved the dual timelines and multi-POVs in this book. It was interesting to see the past revealed alongside the present period. I honestly didn’t guess the culprit and that made this a winning read!

As I said in my stories last week, this book is similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney. The MCs each had face blindness and were in wintry, remote locations. However, The Resting Place had a more propulsive plot that had me rapidly turning pages.

Thanks to Minotaur for my advanced copy.  All opinions are my own.  

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bohemianrhapsodyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I JUST finished reading this book AND this book is literally THE BEST book I have ever read in my entire life. It is going to be nearly impossible to top this one, come equal to, or even come close to its excellence and perfection. Well done, @wednesdaysten (Instagram) and thank you for this honorable experience. 


My favorite character was the main character Eleanor because she was the most compassionate, honest, and understanding. My least favorite character was Vivianne because I found her to be the villain in the story. 

My favorite line in the story: “As though everything that happened here, everything we still don’t know, has seeped into the walls and taken hold like mold, growing and expanding over the many long, quiet years, clawing its bony fingers behind the wallpapers and under the floorboards. It doesn’t want to let go of us. It wants to squeeze the life from our very bodies.”

Reoccurring themes were death, murder, grief, loss of parents, loss of family, and sadness. I think that these themes signified a part of the human condition and what this family had to go through in this story. 

The strongest elements of this book were the character and plot development, the twists that were totally unexpected, the descriptions of the setting, the conveying of feelings and personality, and the ending. Plus I love the cover and title, too!!

The only weak element is I wish it were longer :)

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nonbinaryreading's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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