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heelturn2 's review for:

Denison Avenue by Christina Wong
4.75
emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character

a very beautiful story about grieving people, places, community, “the way things were,” etc, that manages to not fall into irritating nostalgia (while still being nostalgic/dealing in nostalgia). very loving of Chinatown/Kensington & feels really actually rooted there. does this book track for people who haven’t lived in Toronto, & spent time in this area? it put such a lump in my throat so many times, both for the character’s story & the mention of so many places I recognized & know are gone now. the illustrations/comic section is lovely & a cool addition. also I like when a novel is written by a playwright and you can tell because they’ve somehow worked diagetic sound effects into the text, lol.