Scream meets The Guest List in this wickedly compelling and compulsively page-turning thriller of friendship and murder from the author of The Lost Village, Camilla Sten.

On a remote, craggy island nestled off the coast of Sweden, four friends—Tilly, Anna, Linnea and Evelina—meet every year. Best friends since childhood, the idea is to drink beer, dance by the water, and shake off the weight of life’s expectations. The location of the island is a secret to everyone but them. One night of reckless fun and secret-sharing, and then they return to their normal lives.

Ten years later. Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared on their annual trip to a remote island together. As her true crime fervor turned into a wildly popular podcast, Tessa urgently covered Sweden’s most gruesome cases, but could never find the answers behind what happened to these women who disappeared, leaving a few maddening clues but no concrete answers. Now Tessa’s podcast has crashed and burned, any chance she had at uncovering the truth vanishing with it.

Anneliese is Tessa’s best friend, and before she walks down the aisle, she wants to have a bachelorette party. The Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek, sophisticated yoga retreat on a small island off the coast—one with such similar characteristics to the tragedy years ago that it raises the hair on Tessa’s neck. The idea is to drink gallons of cava, do sunrise yoga, and get in their last chance to bond with the bride. Tessa will not pass this up. It’s her last chance to find out what happened to the four women, once and for all.

And it’s someone else’s last chance to get revenge.

I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

It’s been a while since I’ve reached for a thriller. I used to tear through them like a plate of cookies (and let me tell you, I can down some cookies!). I loved the unexpected twists, the unreliable narrators galore, secrets buried in every chapter. But after a while, they all started to feel the same. Either the twist was so far-fetched that it made no sense, or the characters were cardboard cutouts serving the plot rather than driving it. So I backed off. Took a break. Let the genre rest a bit. But then I saw this book compared to “Scream”, and as someone who unapologetically adores that series of movies, I was immediately curious.

Is this book actually like “Scream”? No. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Aside from the whole “people get murdered” thing, the comparison feels like a huge stretch. But that doesn’t mean the book wasn’t enjoyable. I just went in expecting a slasher-adjacent thrill ride and got something a little more grounded. Not a bad thing, just not what the marketing led me to believe.

The story centers on Tessa Nilsson, a podcaster who once had a thriving show focused on true crime in Sweden. She’s obsessed with a case from ten years ago. Four best friends who disappeared during their annual trip to a secluded island. One of the women babysat Tessa when she was a kid, so she has a personal stake in the story. What’s perplexing about the case is that the clues left behind were scarce, and no bodies were ever found. The case went cold. Kind of like Tessa’s podcast. (Though that happened for other reasons.)

When her best friend Anneliese plans a bachelorette weekend at a luxurious yoga retreat on—you guessed it—a remote island, Tessa can’t shake the feeling that the island bears more than a passing resemblance to the one from the cold case. And while everyone else is focused on girls trip fun, Tessa is here to dig. To investigate. Maybe even to solve the mystery that’s haunted her for a decade. Maybe this will help revive her podcast and her reputation as a top podcaster.

Of course, things go sideways fast. People go missing. Secrets surface. And Tessa, ever the amateur detective, is suddenly in the middle of something far more dangerous than she anticipated.

Here’s what worked: the pacing. Camilla Sten doesn’t waste time dragging us through endless backstory or unnecessary filler. The book moves. Each chapter pushes the story forward. The setting is spectacular. I felt like I was there. It adds the right amount of claustrophobia. You can feel the isolation. The tension builds at a steady clip, and once people start to disappear, the suspense holds.

Tessa is a solid main character. She’s smart, determined, and a little impulsive in a way that feels believable. Her motivations are clear, and I liked watching her try to piece together a puzzle that everyone else had given up on. There’s a decent amount of emotional grounding in her character too. She’s not just there to chase thrills, she genuinely wants answers.

The supporting cast, though, is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them have interesting dynamics and backstories, but a few felt like stock characters you’d expect in any thriller. They weren’t badly written, just not especially memorable. I found myself having to remind myself who was who, which doesn’t help when you’re trying to keep track of possible suspects. That said, each character does serve a purpose in the story, and no one feels like pure filler.

As for the twist? I saw it coming. Maybe not every detail, but I wasn’t shocked by the reveal. That didn’t ruin the book for me, though. Sometimes the journey is more fun than the destination, and this one kept me turning pages regardless. It’s not a twist-heavy thriller in the sense of pulling the rug out from under you repeatedly. (Which I REALLY appreciated.) It’s more about the unspooling of tension, the peeling back of secrets, and the creeping sense that something terrible is about to happen.

My only real complaint is that I wish it leaned harder into the Scream-like chaos I was promised. The setup is there, but the story never really gets as wild or as unhinged as I hoped it might. It stays in that “elevated thriller” lane, which is fine, but part of me really wanted it to embrace the slasher vibe just a little more.

All in all, this is a solid read. If you’re looking for a smartly written, well-paced mystery with a strong female lead and an atmospheric setting, it’s worth checking out. Just don’t go in expecting a slasher flick in book form. Adjust your expectations, settle in, and enjoy the ride