In Camilla Sten’s new novel The Resting Place, the reader follows Elanor, her boyfriend Sebastian, aunt Veronika, and lawyer as they venture to her murdered grandmother’s secret mansion. Elanor, haunted by the murder, hopes to discover the circumstances surrounding it.
Through the thoughts and narrations of Elanor, The Resting Place’s main character, Sten clearly explains what it might be like to have prosopagnosia (face blindness, where a person can’t recognize other people’s faces) and some of the difficulties that come with having a disability.
The emphasis on this is mainly near the beginning of the book, but throughout the story Sten also shows how anxiety and traumas can cause people to doubt themselves and those around them—this is a key theme for Elanor during her search for answers.
Sten uses vivid imagery that helps to paint the atmosphere and emotions of the scenes, allowing the reader to watch the story as it unfolds and experience the emotions themselves. In a couple of scenes, her descriptions can be slightly graphic, although not to an unnecessary extent.
The Resting Place has two different narrators, which can make for a confusing read at times, but I found it to really fit with the story. The use of these two narrators was key to unlocking different information and providing foreshadowing for the reader.
As the pieces of the history start to fall together, the reader is led to feel like Elanor does, that they know what might be happening but can’t quite put words to it. Sten allows the reader to figure out some hints without giving away the ending until it unfolds.
The book had a way of pulling me into its world. I didn’t want to put it down until I knew what was going to happen next. It had a way of sucking me in and didn’t want to let me go.
As I was nearing the very end of the book, I found myself thinking that I had most of the answers and guessing at what had happened, however I felt I was missing one key piece. Sten managed to shock me with what that missing piece was, a twist that caught me somewhat off guard.
The Resting Place is filled with tensions that left me feeling constantly on edge as I read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers or mysteries, and maybe even to those who don’t.