the resting place by camilla sten – dysfunctional family meet creepy old house.

I’ve been intending to do reading updates and bite-sized reviews for years (similar to what I do on bookstagram), and you know what? I finally will. 😤 I love having a record of what I read and sharing random books with you that I just really love.

The Resting Place is one I kept seeing float around when I was looking up haunted house books, though I have to say, while the cover does give big horror vibes, this is solidly a thriller/suspense novel. It was a totally captivating and twisty read and like by the end I just felt satisfied. You know when you half guess the twists and don’t quite get it but then the reveals fit SO well? That was this. So well set out. The characters also totally grew on me. It’s the kind of book that presents you with people who seem pretty easy to judge at first glance–and then it peels back their layer and makes you rethink everything.

Our main character, Eleanor, has face-blindness (technical term is prosopagnosia) and I’ve only read that in two other books, so it’s nice I liked seeing it get more rep. Eleanor’s face-blindness is also pivotal to the plot considering she is a literal witness to her grandmother’s murder–but she can’t identify the killer due to not being able to remember/discern their face. I found the disability rep well told, not gimmicky or insensitivity, and the anxiety it brought Eleanor was present throughout the book.

And the setting? Loved it. Not the creepiest house ever — it’s more like this immaculate but forgotten Swedish mansion by a lake — but unsettling vibes everywhere. And the history of the place is gnarly once it starts getting unwrapped. Also it’s a wintery/snowy setting and that plays into the remoteness of the house. It definitely kept up the suspense perfectly (though overall it’s not as dark as I thought it would be).

I bought an audiobook of this and so glad I did. Well worth the read and I’m still thinking about it.

A spine-chilling, propulsive psychological suspense from international sensation Camilla Sten.
The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.
When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer—a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, her anxiety mounts. The dark feelings of having brushed by a killer, yet not know who could do this—or if they’d be back—overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.
Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house—a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a dark past for over fifty years.
Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to bringing the truth to light, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.
A heart-thumping, relentless thriller that will shake you to your core, The Resting Place is an unforgettable novel of horror and suspense.

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