Welcome to Bellevue by Seth Robinson
“I didn’t realise at first - my eyes cruised passively over the scene, taking it all in, adding brushstrokes to my mental painting of Bellevue, which looked a lot like a seaside village postcard. But every once in a while, my gaze would lock with one of the porch swingers, or a kid on his bike and then they’d move on. Then the back of my neck would start to itch. I could feel those eyes pinned to my back, overstaying their welcome.”
Welcome to Bellevue (2020) is the debut novel from Melbourne-based writer Seth Robinson. Pitched as a fantasy action and adventure mystery, Robinson creates a world that is at once familiar and yet far from anything we could know.
Harry wakes up dazed and confused on a ferry called The Creation. He has no recollection of how he got there or where the ferry will take him. Onboard is one other person, a woman, who Harry hopes may have some answers for him, but before he can approach her, they arrive at their destination and Harry is swept along into the start of a journey he never anticipated.
“‘Here we are.’ The words came out of my mouth, an echo of the boatman’s call, but the voice didn’t sound like mine - it was scratchy and too deep, the voice of someone who hadn’t spoken in days. Everything about this was wrong.”
Harry can’t remember the simplest of details about his life, including his surname - but he does know that he was a writer. He has no luggage with him, and his clothes are unsuitable for the wintry, mountain-shrouded small coastal town he finds himself alighting the ferry into. Things only get weirder as the townspeople evade his questions, placating him with ever-widening fake smiles. There are no maps and no way to purchase a ferry ticket home - not that anyone can tell him when the next ferry will be even if he could. Harry begins to get the increasing sense that he is not so much a guest, as he keeps being referred to, as a prisoner.
On his second night, Harry encounters the depths of strangeness the town has to offer when he is confronted by what the locals refer to as a “hob:” a human-like creature who appears faded and see-through:
“It was her eyes. In the light, the whites were as clear as glass. I could see into her skull, to the gleaming optic nerve and quaking muscles strained to hold her eyes in place. Her skin was like tissue paper - a shade of bleached white no living face should be.”
The cast of locals Harry finds himself surrounded by swiftly brush the experience under the rug, but when the ghostly hob is found murdered, Harry knows there is more going on than he first anticipated. When another hob shows up murdered, Harry knows he must act. He befriends a new character, Xanthe (possibly a hob herself, or at least in the early stages of “becoming” a hob) and together with another townsperson, Joe, they work together to try and solve the mystery of Bellevue once and for all - before it’s too late.
This was a quick and easy read, which didn’t demand too much from me. The cadence and narration had a distinct young adult vibe to me, but I know the book is not being pitched as YA. Robinson invests the first third of the book convincing us of how strange Bellevue is and there is a lot of repetition around Harry meeting characters, them evading questions, and Harry being confused. This dragged things out a little too much for my liking, and I found myself skipping ahead through a few pages in an attempt to get to the action and find out what was really going on. When the action does kick-off, it happens thick and fast, and any ideas you might have for how this book is going to end will swiftly go out the window.
There’s a couple of good twists throughout the second half, and it definitely kept me guessing, right up until the final reveal in the last chapters - it’s a wildly imaginative one you’ll want to stick things out for. Robinson has created an accessible cast of characters within a unique and atmospheric setting, that was both enjoyable and anxiety-inducing to read - the key to any good mystery!
Welcome to Bellevue has a fantastic sense of place that is the right side of winter for the upcoming holiday season (even if we’re looking at summer here in Australia!) and a delightful twisty treat to relax with this month.
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in Hobart, Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under @wordswithelaine.
