Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten

10 reviews

haileyhardcover's review

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to love this. Face blindness has always been intriguing to me and I was sure adding that element to a thriller was going to make it so much more confusing (in a good way) and keep me guessing until the end! Sadly, that’s not how it played out. I didn’t really get any shocking reveal moments because it all felt so obvious. Too many hints provided, maybe, or just not as thoughtfully executed as Sten’s previous book (which I LOVED!). Still a quick and enjoyable enough read, though.  

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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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

3.5


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readingwithtrey's review against another edition

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

4.0

Y’all! I am SHOOK. I know this one has mixed reviews, but it’s one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time. It’s a slow build but the chapters are short so it’s easily binged. The writing was done so well that over the course of the book the dread, anxiety, and fear really build. Y’all… it was super creepy. I couldn’t bring myself to read this too close to bedtime😅. But at the same time I didn’t want to put the book down because I HAD to know how it ended. I just knew the ended was going to be IT.

Now here’s where it lost a star for me. While the ending is a good, solid one, I didn’t have that lingering spooky feeling that I look for with a good thriller.

Overall, this was a good one and I definitely recommend it for spooky season 👻. Also, if you enjoyed Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney, definitely check this one out!

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sarrie's review against another edition

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1.5


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nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0


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tamara_joy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0


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amandasbookreview's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Camilla Sten for the opportunity to read this book! It was released on March 29th, 2022.

“We perceive women suffering from mental illness with a sort of paradoxical double-sidedness; both victims and monsters. simultaneously infantilized and feared.”

THE RESTING PLACE
I absolutely enjoyed Camilla Sten’s previous novel, The Invited, and could not wait to pick up The Resting Place. Eleanor has prosopagnosia which is also called facial blindness. So it would be difficult for her to identify her grandmother’s murderer. She and her grandmother, Vivianne had a strained relationship. Viviane wasn’t the most maternal. But after a phone call from the lawyer: Eleanor, her boyfriend Sebastian, her aunt Veronika, and the lawyer all head to the family estate called Solhoga. Once they get there, family secrets become exposed and then the attacks begin…

I absolutely love Camilla Sten’s writing. She really nails the eerie atmospheric tension. Her story building is very slow-burn and I can understand how some people may not appreciate it. But just stay the course, because each reveal throughout the book really packs a punch. There is a lot happening in this book though. Trigger warnings: murder, child abuse, gaslighting, miscarriage, mental illness, suicide.

The book does jump back and forth between the present and 1965. There are 4 names that start with “V” and it did take a while to get used to and put all the pieces together. At every plot twist, the lies come to light and readers will be working to piece everything together. By the end of the novel, I knew who the perpetrator was. I was a little disappointed with the ending but I actually loved everything leading up to it. It was very creepy and I often wondered if we were dealing with something more paranormal rather than a long-lost family secret. –And that is how a good author keeps readers on their toes.

The characters are complex and have their faults. There are a few characters…like Vivianne who are completely toxic and I did not quite understand the hold she had on those around her. BUT, it made sense in the end. Overall, I will always read Camilla Sten’s works, I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars


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soobooksalot's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Resting Place is built on the fear from not being able to identify what's right in front of you.
 Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for my gifted copy for review!
 Eleanor's grandmother Vivianne was murdered, and Eleanor saw who did it. However, she has a condition called prosopagnosia, which means she cannot process the visual information of faces, thus people are unrecognizable to her.
 Months later, she's been called to the Swedish countryside to a property known as Solhöga to evaluate for the will.
 There, Eleanor remains haunted by the knowledge that Vivianne's killer is out there, and knows what she saw.
 Solhöga acts as a character of sorts, pulling us in to it's atmosphere and secrets. I truly enjoy books with such a setting to establish unease - I could have used even more detail about the house itself.
 Two timelines give us the suspense of Eleanor's present, with the story of Anushka from the mid-60s.
 The Resting Place is a slow burn that works it's magic for some truly great reveals. Trust nothing here!
 Author Camilla Sten's second book has hooked me as a fan - recommended!
 For release on March 29.

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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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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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