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Bellevue Square

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Bellevue Square

Written by: Michael Redhill
Narrated by: Sarah Mennell
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*Winner of the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize*

A darkly comic literary thriller about a woman who fears for her sanity—and then her life—when she learns that her doppelganger has appeared in a local park.

Jean Mason has a doppelganger. She's never seen her, but others swear they have. Apparently, her identical twin hangs out in Kensington Market, where she sometimes buys churros and drags an empty shopping cart down the streets, like she's looking for something to put in it. Jean's a grown woman with a husband and two kids, as well as a thriving bookstore in downtown Toronto, and she doesn't rattle easily—not like she used to. But after two customers insist they've seen her double, Jean decides to investigate.

She begins at the crossroads of Kensington Market: a city park called Bellevue Square. Although she sees no one who looks like her, it only takes a few visits to the park for her to become obsessed with the possibility of encountering her twin in the flesh. With the aid of a small army of locals who hang around in the park, she expands her surveillance, making it known she'll pay for information or sightings. A peculiar collection of drug addicts, scam artists, philanthropists, philosophers and vagrants—the regulars of Bellevue Square—are eager to contribute to Jean's investigation. But when some of them start disappearing, she fears her alleged double has a sinister agenda. Unless Jean stops her, she and everyone she cares about will face a fate much stranger than death. Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction
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Most Relevant
What just happened? Wow. I’ll have to wait for the Netflix to pick it up. Worth the time. Great Canadian content.

A complete mindf@ck

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I've never read a book like this before. It's so familiar with its Toronto locality, but so very Alice in Wonderland simultaneously. A shorter read and packed with rich descriptions of characters and nuances you might need to re-listen to catch. If you like mysteries, mixed with magical realism, this is worth a shot.

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Strange and Fresh Mystery

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I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book because I did enjoy parts of it but I didn’t like the end. I was waiting for it to come together and spoiler alert: it doesn’t really. I actually googled it to see if I missed something! Interested prose and it was captivating but it might not be for me. But also I heard that this was the first in a trilogy so perhaps it comes together in later books.

On the fence

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This book started off okay. I was intrigued. But by the 3rd hour in I was just getting frustrated and found myself going backwards to try and figure out what I'd missed. I hadn't missed anything. If it was the author's intent to make you feel as frustrated as someone dealing with schizophrenia or some other dissociative disorder then it worked. I only stuck with it to the end thinking it would all be explained. It wasn't. Wish I could get a refund. Would not recommend it.

Frustration!

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I'll start off by saying this isn't the type of novel I usually read, but once in a while I branch out and try something new.

I enjoyed the first half because it felt like a mystery novel, but then the author switched gears and it felt a bit jarring to me, as though I was reading two different stories...but if you've read this book you'll understand when I say that this was probably intentional and kept with the overall theme. So...yay?

It wasn't my cup of tea, but I recognize good writing when I see it, and this was good writing. There is a reason it has won awards, and you might just love it.

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I'm on the fence

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