Ciudadanos de la luz

by Sam Shelstad, Francesc Pedrosa Martín (Translator)

Colleen Weagle pensaba que su matrimonio era tranquilo y monótono hasta que encontraron a su marido a orillas de un pantano con un disparo en la cabeza. A los interrogantes abiertos por su violenta muerte, se les sumó la presencia de un misterioso hombre durante el funeral. Tres meses después, Colleen descubre en un periódico local una foto de aquel desconocido vestido con un chaleco de uno de los casinos más famosos de las cataratas del Niágara. Para ella, ha llegado el momento de encontrar algunas respuestas.

Acompañada por su compañera de trabajo Patti, Colleen emprende una febril investigación en una ciudad plagada de casinos, falsos oropeles y oscuras trampas para turistas, y donde también hay cuentas pendientes con el pasado.

Genres: Mystery, Canada

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2022

Reviews

[Repix Pix · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aburridísimo.

[Princess Peach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A noir thriller narrated by a call centre employee whose pathos manages to be as absurdly funny as it is touching. Fuck this is a good book.

[Cynthia Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blasted through this book in two days. It started out quietly and I had abandoned another book already that didn’t seem to have much happening but I stuck with this and it quickly turned into a page turner. Great book for readers from Toronto and SW Ontario with all the references to places in those regions. I’m always astounded by the depth of imagination that some writers possess, and this book was full of “how did he come up with this?” moments.

[Bel lvndrgms3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: fiction, mystery
CW: cult (flashbacks), domestic abuse

Colleen’s a recent window carrying on with what feels like a mundane life when a newspaper article catches her attention one night at work. The photo shows a man she recognizes from her late husband Leonard’s funeral. The stranger had lied to her when he introduced himself as his coworker. Her suspicions about Leonard’s death never went away, and now this photo brings up more questions. How well did she really know Leonard? How did his body end up in the middle of a bog hours from home?

As Colleen investigates along with her often agitated and pushy coworker Patti who invited herself along, a lot of Colleen’s past surfaces. Specifically the unpleasant memories of her time in the Citizens of Light cult when she was a runaway teen. Not something she wants dredged up, however, she keeps recalling conversations about it with Leonard, and the cult’s shadow seems to loom over her own investigation.

The mystery is intriguing, though Colleen’s life felt kind of stuck. Patti’s character injects some energy in the sense that her personality and her behavior help push Colleen into action a bit. The ending is satisfying, and Colleen and Patti’s friendship, while so odd, but I also found so fascinating, is actually a good thing for both of them.

I requested this book because a lot of it’s set in Niagara Falls, and I liked the idea of a setting I had visited. I’ll keep a lookout for more books from this author in the future. Check this one out if you want a kind of quirky, dark humor, amateur-sleuths-go-clumsily-digging-for-the-truth mystery.

Thanks to @this_is_edelweiss and @touchwooded for my ARC. This is my honest review.

[Lynne Perednia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different kind of book, partly madcap, partly serious, partly a thriller as a young woman investigates the unexpected death of her husband and finds out so much more.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly I was about 50pages in and was just mehhh then the book hit the ground running and I did not see the end coming at all.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

A drab, comic, semi-thriller that follows a homebody call centre employee as she travels to Niagara Falls to find out about a mysterious man who showed up at her husband’s funeral (he’d been found shot in a bog three years into their marriage.) Colleen also spends a lot of time hanging out at home with her anxious mother. Sometimes, too, she plays an online game her husband played where reindeer wander around an open world and the users can’t speak to each other. Like that game, the book is strange and slow and a bit unsatisfying.

It’s nice to watch Colleen rediscover her assertiveness, accompanied by her shrewish coworker friend who is fleeing an abusive relationship. Colleen spent several months as a teen runaway in the death-obsessed Citizens of Light cult and she and her mother both remain traumatized, with panic attacks and passiveness being their often comic ways of coping. But so much of this just feels rote quirked-up Canadian drabness, including Colleen’s endless writing of unsuccessful spec scripts for a silly CBC teen show.

Shelstad escalates his novel with some noirish twists and turns, really digging into the suburban Ontario vibe. But Colleen never feels much more than a grey entity to encapsulate all this, and it all ends predictably and suddenly, thinly.

http://lawrencedebbs.home.blog/2024/1...

[Kiely · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I feel like I’m on Dateline.”
“This is serious, Patti.”
“So is Dateline.”

I've been trying to find this book for years now, including at bookstores during two separate trips to Canada because apparently it's only published there, but I finally read it as an ebook and finished it in less than a day! This was a very propulsive mystery full of the inanity of working a desk job and living in the suburbs, along with the particular flavor of absurdity that I love so much in books and movies! The ending, however, was a major bummer and catapulted this book into something resembling Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (haven't thought about that show in years!) or Riverdale fanfiction, which was sort of disappointing! The book also just /ends/ in a way I wasn't anticipating, so that was a bummer too. Other than that, I did enjoy this funny and absurd little mystery, and I recommend it if you want a quick read or a book about Canada / Toronto / Niagara Falls!
(3.5 stars)

[RT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well worth the read, smartly crafted, funny without underestimating the reader. The characters are interesting, believable and complex within the appropriate limits of the story time line. The bad guys fooled me into believing their lies in this book more than once because their lies sounded so close to plausible truth. The setting is the carnival freak show that is much of South Western Ontario which is the perfect backdrop for the cult members, cons, criminals, thugs and all around slime balls in this book , they all fit right in together in that beltway of vileness from TO to Windsor.

[Emily Saso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this one down. A mystery set (mostly) in Niagara Falls and Mimico. It’s quiet and culty, with quirky characters and a gradual, creeping escalation of tension and stakes. DARK FUNNY. “I started seeing a new therapist — Mother too. Patti said she’d think about going herself but wanted to wait and see how we ‘turned out.’” lol

Mother-daughter relationships. Female friendships. A cult. MURDER. And a twist ending. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh meets Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (but darker)? Would make a great play. I hope someone adapts it.

[Guadalupetpnvs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calificado como antithriller noir está ambientado en el sur de Ontario. Dos amigas se embarcan en una investigación, por su cuenta, para saber qué le ocurrió al marido de una de ellas después de aparecer muerto en extrañas circunstancias.

Una novela que recomiendo con diálogos sin desperdicio y situaciones un tanto surrealistas.

“La idea de sentarme en el asiento de Leonard me provocaba un sentimiento de desasosiego, como si fuese a morir también.”

[Marc Blanchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt perfectly, hilariously Ontario that much of this book featured the main character schlepping from Toronto to Niagara Falls and back. Its characters and setting are deceptively hum-drum, as I could not put the book down and read the entirety of it in one day. There is also a touching sense of dignity to the characters' relationship to their grief and pain. And I think this book is calling out for a film adaptation, in the best way.

[Kb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I get that people talk about the humour in this book, but I will say that there’s this underlying, relentless sense of darkness that chipped away at my wellbeing as I kept reading. So, be warned if you are a person who is affected that way by first-person narratives. Other than that, it’s a very engaging page-turner of a story.

[Victoria Raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excelente libro para romper el bloqueo del lector, es muy fácil de digerir. Mi opinión sobre la trama del libro es que no me atrapó del todo, me hubiera gustado un poco más de suspenso. Lo que más me gustó fue el desarrollo del personaje de la protagonista y de los secundarios.
Si eres una persona que busca mucho suspenso y misterio, este libro no es el indicado.

[Paul Aguilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro interesante, que a pesar de todo me mantuvo enganchado.
Sin embargo, siento que se le dieron demasiadas vueltas al asunto y el nudo fue resuelto demasiado rápido, construyó demasiada intriga en mucho tiempo para su final. Además que no sentí que el viaje de Collen haya dejado un cambio en su vida, además de abandonar por el camino la idea que este viaje supone en su duelo.

[Kbeckermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this because much of it is set in my home town. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. The writing is okay, the twists are a bit much at times, and it ends too neatly. None-the-less I enjoyed it because of the setting, the quirkiness of the characters and the humour.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect balance of light, dark, funny and thrilling. Highly recommend this one.

[Elizabeth L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever and charming with surprisingly dark and heartfelt turns. Highly recommend this debut novel from the clever and charming Sam Shelstad!

[Daniela K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started slow. Kept going slow. Certain parts of the book were great but it felt like it dragged on forever

[Doxie · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy shit this book is amazing wtf

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

More literary fiction than mystery. The quirky characters were great but the story didn’t grab me.

[Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that escalated steadily...

[Deb Dinsmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-1/2 stars.

[Mary-Esther Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange and sinister.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[America · Rating 3 out of 5]

No esperaba mucho de este libro, pero sinceramente me sorprendió en algunas partes, pero el final no me terminó de agradar del todo pero estuvo bueno

[Daniela Gallardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro muy bueno, en varios momentos te mantiene en suspenso. Es facil de leer y el tema de la secta está interesante.

[Ericka Ferpeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se puso bueno en la última parte

[Alison Gadsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review coming (I wrote it in word months ago, and now can't find the document).

[Romina Avila · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s sooo good i read it and it only took me 3 days to finish it🤩🤩🤩🤩❤️