Westside audiobook

Only in the Westside could a woman with blood in her hair stroll down the sidewalk on a weekday afternoon, wearing nothing but a slip and hearing only the chattering of a few far-off birds. Gilda Carr is a young woman who looks into what she calls “tiny mysteries.” Leave those murders for someone else. Big mysteries mean big problems and Gilda has had enough of those. Her mom died when she was a kid, and her father, one Virgil Carr, aka “Clubber” was not only the founder of a notorious Westside gang, he later became a notorious cop, vanishing in a notorious disappearance some years back.W.M. Akers - image from SqueakyBicycleProductionsSpeaking of vanishing, in this magical reimagining of the Manhattan of 1921, considerable bits of the island have been doing just that. Odd objects, coffee pots, stairway railings, entire buildings are being swallowed up by something. This is not totally new. Akers notes an apocryphal 1628 letter from early arrival Peter Minuit about the oddity of the west side of this newly colonized island. (Our homes shift on their foundations…Our wood comes loose from its joints, and my dreams are plagued by visions of pestilence, stigmata, and the armies of hell.) Things tend to degrade faster, rust races instead of creeps. Machines cease working. Guns fail, automobiles sputter. The trees do pretty well, though, growing tall and fast. Streets become streams instead of the other way around. Occasional waterfalls form and descend from rooftops. It is where Gilda lives. In a brownstone facing Washington Square Park (mom came from money). The American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute - image from Corbin PlaysAnd then there is the increasing vanishing of humanity. Enough so that when over three thousand people went pffft! on the Westside in 1914, thirteen miles of fence was erected down Broadway to separate the Westside from the rest of Manhattan. Not her problem. She can get back and forth through the security gates readily enough. Gilda is engaged by one Edith Copeland. It seems Mrs Copeland had mislaid a glove, one of a pair her oft-absent husband had given her as a gift. She would like the glove found and returned, as she does not want to face awkward questions about its absence. But in this version of New York, tiny mysteries have a way of leading to very large questions, and Gilda’s gumshoeing leads her to a very, very dark side of the city.Fourth Precinct Police Station - Image from Patch.comThe action is non-stop, rising to breathless as we near the end. Sleep is in short supply for Gilda, in inverse proportion to exhaustion and perpetual movement. There is a pretty neat explanation for it all, but don’t think about it too hard. Just roll with it. Gilda is a particularly appealing hero. Not just for the expected intelligence, wit, and derring do, (a hair gel for heroes?) but for being a fan of the New York Giants baseball team. I imagine Akers’ work in creating a game, Deadball – Baseball with Dice, might have been mined for this part of Gilda’s profile. Greasing the wheels of forward plot movement, Gilda picks up a few more tiny mysteries to solve, which lead to other leads. Delightful, this element. This stop is on your route – image from NY Subway MosaicsDamon Runyon and Gangs of New York kept running through my head as Akers introduces colorful character after colorful character. Underworld sorts, of both the thuggish and white shoe varieties, loom large in this landscape. And the baddies balance out very nicely between hims and hers, leadership and field force. There is bootlegging, gun-running, (sins of the fleshier sort are kept on the down-low here), arson, assault, kidnapping, police corruption, and the odd murder. Plenty of dark deeds to keep the juices flowing. Bex Red’s house – 75 ½ Bedford Street is 9.5 feet wide - image from The Daily MailAkers offers a wonderful portrait of what Manhattan might look like if part of it was stuck in some version of the Victorian age, while the other part had moved on to the next century, and if raging against the dying of the light were made into a nice business opportunity. He makes fun use of a variety of Manhattan landmarks, and notes others in passing, in case anyone wanted to structure a walking tour. Bex Red, an artist, lives in a singularly narrow building. A train station and its associated tunnels has been put to alternate use, as has one of the city’s most famous theaters. Penn Station is not what it was. (It still isn’t) A seaman’s hotel, notable for being a place where some of the survivors of the Titanic were put up, remains a going concern. A police precinct noted here is still in operation. A socially conscious village church is given a trot or two across the stage. Such things may be fun for non-Noo Yawkahs, but are an absolute delight for us natives.The Longacre Theater- image from The Shubert OrganizationGripes - It seemed that there were occasional bits that did not compute. For example, the next day after a particularly large vanishing, Gilda heads to Ebbett’s Field in Brooklyn for reasons that were inexplicable, to me, anyway. Did I miss something here? I found Akers’ explanation for the underlying goings-on less than entirely persuasive. And I thought Gilda’s solution to a particularly dark situation required a rather large leap of faith. Judson Memorial ChurchBut I would not worry too much about all that. Fact is, this was a wonderful read. Fast-paced, engaging, with an appealing lead, a creative take on a fantastical alternate Manhattan, a very colorful supporting cast, and plenty of twists and turns. You might need to catch your breath a bit after you put this one down. Gilda Carr may be in the business of solving tiny mysteries, but reading Westside is nothing less than HUGE fun. Penn Station - image from NY.Curbed.comReview posted – May 10, 2019Publication date – May 7, 2019November 28, 2019 - Westside is named to the NY Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2019=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal and Twitter pagesItems of Interest-----Interview - NPR - Steeped In Fantasy, 'Westside' Novel Follows A Young Detective's Quest For Clues by Scott Simon-----Music - East Side West Side - Yes, I know the actual title is Sidewalks of New York, but the stretch seemed worth it. I seem to have come across (and reviewed) a fair number of novels in the last few years in which a Fantastical New York offers a setting, and I am aware of at least two more in my personal pipeline coming up. Here are the ones I could think of-----Zone One-----The Golem and the Jinni-----Ahab’s Return-----Winter’s Tale

A rich, complex, terrifying and beautiful world, a fantastic, smart, capable, vulnerable heroine, and all the mysteries—tiny and enormous—a reader could want. Would love to revisit this world in future series offerings!

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The nitty-gritty: A weird and wonderful, multi-layered story with a tough-as-nails heroine, this delightful fantasy offers up plenty of mysteries, both big and small. "I answer little questions. Those impossible puzzles that burrow into our brains like splinters and keep us awake at night. I solve the mysteries that spoil marriages, ruin friendships, and curdle joy. A murder is a dull thing. It simply ends a life. Tiny mysteries destroy us." Getting a hold of a review copy of Westside proved to be challenging, but I’m so glad everything finally came together, because I enjoyed this book immensely! This is Akers’ debut novel, but it turns out he's also an experienced playwright, and that experience really shines through. Westside is a strange, quirky and unexpectedly violent story that takes place in an alternate version of 1921 New York City. In Akers’ Manhattan, the city is divided into the Westside and the Eastside by a fence, put up after a rash of mysterious disappearances on the Westside threw the city into turmoil. Now the Westside is home to those who are willing to put up with its peculiarities. People continue to disappear on this side of the fence, as do objects. Buildings crumble and even disappear completely in the middle of the night, appliances have stopped working, and even guns no longer fire. In the middle of this slow-building chaos lives Gilda Carr, a woman who has lost both parents to the Westside and now works as a private detective of sorts, solving “tiny mysteries.” Unable to afford to live on the more affluent Eastside, Gilda is content to stay in her family townhouse alongside her close friend Hellida, who lives in the apartment next door.When the story begins, Gilda has taken on the job of finding a lost glove, misplaced by one Edith Copeland during a night of drinking and frivolity. Finding a lost glove is exactly the kind of tiny mystery that Gilda loves to solve, but as her investigation leads her from the Eastside to the seedier parts of the city, she finds herself in the middle of a much larger mystery involving smuggling, illegal moonshine and even murder. As Gilda dives deeper down the rabbit hole that is the Westside, she discovers the answers to all her questions, including the ultimate mystery: why is the Westside slowly dying? A tear in reality, secret tunnels full of shadow monsters, and an alternate New York all play parts in Gilda’s dangerous adventure.One of the joys of reading this book is solving the mysteries alongside Gilda. Strange things are happening on the Westside that can’t be explained. The banister in Gilda’s house disappears one day, as if it had never been there. Her neighbor Hellida wakes up to find her coffee pot is simply gone. And then there are the missing people, gone without a trace in the middle of the night. For this reason it’s considered foolish to go out after dark, and so Westsiders are prone to staying inside at night. Luckily there is a reason for all these odd disappearances, although it does take most of the book before Gilda discovers the truth.There are a lot of characters in this story, but despite that fact, Akers does a great job of making most of them feel three-dimensional. Gilda in particular was wonderfully drawn, a short-statured woman with a huge personality who practically leaps off the page. Gilda is fierce and plucky, ruthless at times and always brave. I have to admit, though, that I didn’t always like her. Despite her undying loyalty to her friends, she has a mean streak that showed itself in sudden bursts of violence. But living on the Westside, she’s been forced to cope with so much loss and danger that I had to forgive her for those moments. Her rough personality is tempered by her heartbreak over her missing father, a detective who simply disappeared without a trace one day. I also loved her interactions with her friend Hellida, a woman who used to be her nanny long ago and now rents the apartment next door to Gilda. The two women are wonderfully supportive of each other, and when they are tragically separated at one point in the story, I just about lost it.Other memorable characters include Cherub, a young man who is part of a Westside street gang called the One-Eyed Cats, one of Gilda’s oldest friends; Andrea “Barbie” Barbarossa, the “moonshine queen of New York City” who sells rotgut liquor out of the basement of a church; and Glen-Richard Van Alen, the undisputed ruler of the upper part of the Westside, a man known as the Firecracker who has armed his followers with guns, guns that didn’t work on the Westside until recently and now pose a huge threat.Akers adds some wonderfully poignant, emotional moments to his story, which is one reason I loved this so much. What could have devolved into a farcical action story is elevated by small—tiny, even!—moments that made me smile. For example, there is a running thread through the story of Gilda’s love of baseball. She spent hours as a child going to Giants games with her father, and she continues to study baseball stats as a way of keeping his memory alive. There is also the mystery of a song that one of the characters’ can’t get out of his head. No one seems to know the name of the song, but Gilda takes on the grueling task of finding out, another thread that winds its way through the story and is tied up neatly at the end. Even the mystery of the missing glove is resolved, bringing the story full circle.We’re also drawn into the pain Gilda still feels over the disappearance of her father, yet another mystery that has never been solved. Victor Carr, despite being absent from the story, looms large in Gilda’s memories, and so the reader also feels terrible about his loss. Akers gives us plenty of backstory, telling of his rise to fame with the NYPD, only to fall after he fails to solve the case of a missing girl. His story is part of why Gilda is drawn to mysteries in the first place, and it makes for a wonderful way to connect the two characters together. With a huge cast of characters and a multitude of side plots going on, the plot of Westside becomes convoluted and overstuffed at times, especially in the second half when Gilda’s hunt for the glove uncovers a much bigger mystery. It felt at times as though the sheer amount of story elements was just too big for the author to handle, and it was during these moments that I lost the thread of the plot. But this is my only complaint. Akers eventually corrals all the disparate parts, and it’s a testament to his writing skills that he’s able to juggle so many things at the same time.The story ends with a perfect, emotional scene that had me grinning from ear to ear. I loved Westside , and if you also have a penchant for beautifully written, intricately plotted stories with a touch of the weird, filled with larger-than-life characters, I urge you to read this book.With thanks to NetGalley, Edelweiss, Goodreads, the author and the publisher for multiple review copies. My cup runneth over!This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy

4.5 of 5 starshttps://lynns-books.com/2019/05/23/we...As soon as I saw Westside I had to have it – put simply, it called out to me – mystery, history, fantasy, all rolled into one. Hell yes. And, within the first few pages it had captured my imagination. I was hooked, and in a nutshell I just adored it. The writing was superb and I fell in love with the main character. A debut, a standalone novel and an author that I will definitely keep an eye on.Westside is a fascinating and dangerous place to live. Here we hark back to New York during the 1920’s. A time of prohibition, bootlegging and gangs except of course this is a different New York almost like a parallel universe or a place where at a certain point history took an alternate direction. In this version a strange affliction seems to have overcome Westside. Shadows take on a life of their own after the sun sets and people mysteriously disappear. Things in fact deteriorated so badly at one point that a huge barrier was erected to try and prevent the ‘phenomena’ spreading to the more prosperous East.As the story begins we meet Gilda Carr, a detective who specialises in tiny mysteries. She’s been contacted by a Mrs Copeland, from the Eastside, who is missing a small, leather glove and is keen to have it recovered. Gilda takes the case, expecting it to be fairly easy, little does she know that her life is going to be thrown into turmoil. There is a much bigger mystery surrounding Westside and the darkness that permeates its streets and the mystery of the missing glove are all connected.What I really loved first and foremost about Westside is the imagination. Akers has taken a familiar setting and given it a whole new twist. Whilst the Eastside is forging ahead into a modern age the darkness on the Westside seems to corrode and corrupt whatever it touches seemingly rolling back the years and giving the area a different feel from its more affluent neighbour. Residents disappear, homes stand empty, modern inventions simply don’t work and yet the people who remain stubbornly cling to their homes, determined to remain in their own neighbourhoods even if their family, friends and belongings are simply vanishing around them. Westside is a place where people don’t go out at night – and it’s not because they’re frightened of pickpockets or thugs – they’re scared of blinking out of existence. What happens to them – where do they go – I was beyond intrigued.There is also of course the mystery that takes on a life of its very own. Starting as a small thing of very little consequence it grows unexpectedly into a riotous and sprawling mass that takes us down secret tunnels, uncovering coincidentals that twist the mystery even further – again, I was captivated.On top of this there’s the ‘feel’ of the place. Westside is dark and dangerous. The characters who still live there are tough and violence and gangs are rife. Law enforcement is practically non-existent and in fact the residents police themselves for the most part. This is a place with a history that runs deep with grudges and secrets just waiting to be shared. It also has a seedy underworld at its core that threatens violence and more often than not delivers. This is a bloody story and no prisoners are taken so be warned.Gilda is a great character. Her father was a detective with a larger than life reputation who also fell victim to the ‘shadows’. Gilda has never got over the loss and in fact a large part of her story revolves around denial and avoidance which is why the mystery she takes on threatens to unravel everything she holds dear, including her own sanity. She’s one tough cookie with a rather bad ass reputation herself. To be honest, she sometimes makes it difficult to like her with her hardened exterior and yet I did like her, very much so. I loved her determination to see through a job that became scary in the extreme. I love some of the friendships and ties that she held dear and I didn’t want the shadows to catch her up – so there it is – fear for a main character, or more to the point fear that the author will kill them off – could there be a truer test of whether a character has grown on you or not.I can’t really tell you much more without stepping out of the dark and shining a light on spoilers and I’m not going to do that.This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s wonderfully dark and enticing and yet at the same time deceptively endearing. At its heart it’s a coming of age story really. Here is a young woman who has lost her family and now stands on the edge of losing everything else and yet in spite of the threat she still wants answers. You can’t help but feel for her has she plows through the unknown in this twisting story of self discovery.In terms of criticisms – I don’t have any. However, I realise that some readers might find this too heavy in terms of the speculative aspects. This is a historical mystery but it relies heavily on the fantasy elements. I didn’t find the final reveals odd or bizarre but I’m not sure if I’m the best judge of that or not because I do also like the ‘odd and bizarre’ so my tolerance levels might be higher in that respect. I don’t really like comparisons but I perhaps would agree with the likeness to Neil Gaiman that was used in the original blurb, almost think Neverwhere (although a bit more brutal here imo) meets Gangs of New York set in a parallel universe that is being devoured by dark shadows. Simples.I realise this is a bit rambling but that quite often happens to my reviews when I really enjoy a book, I become slightly incoherent and meander as I hop from thought to thought. All I can say in my defence is that I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it to dark fantasy/urban fantasy lovers.I received a copy through Edelweiss, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.Have you ever been drawn by a book by the marketing behind it that casually compares it to authors or books that you have loved in the past with all your heart? While I remain skeptical most of the time, I sometimes land upon some that make the most tantalizing comparisons that I would have never imagined possible. From W.M. Akers, readers get to enjoy an unimaginable concoction of historical fiction, mystery, and fantasy in what is being praised as a story with hints of Caleb Carr’s ability to create vivid atmospheres and Neil Gaiman’s imaginative power. If you believe that I wasn’t sold already sold by the sound of that, let me tell you that the blurb made it all even more compelling, with little to no chance that I could ever turn my back on this little gem.What is Westside about? Set in 1921, the city of New York finds itself split in two where violence and hostility reign in the Westside, while peace and prosperity conquer the Eastside. Following a young detective who specializes in “small mysteries”, the story begins with the case of a missing white leather glove that tosses Gilda Carr on a wild goose chase that leads her deeper into unknown territory with hints of bootlegging, smuggling and corruption at the heart of it all. Despite what she deeply desires, she finds herself stuck in a chain of questions and answers that lead her to uncover the truth behind herself, her parents and the city in which she lives. Uncovering the truth behind the mundane questions of the townfolks might have helped her avoid grief so far, but the things she’s about to discover will bring her to face the truth head-on, even if it means she’ll need to spill some blood along the way.For a stand-alone novel, this story was a ride that never stopped for a second to allow the reader to take a breath. Not only is the world in which you’re immersed is mysteriously enchanting thanks to the unusual disappearings that let you believe that the night takes a life of its own when you least expect it, the story continuously dished out countless side-plots with little mysteries that kept you wondering what exactly was going on and who was responsible for everything. W.M. Akers’ portrayal of the city was also brilliantly handled and allowed the reader to feel like there were always eyes watching over your back as the heroine embraced her role as a private detective and challenged herself to the fullest throughout the whole story. After all, the things she dares to do, despite the adversity she faces, is quite impressive. The fast-paced story also turned out to be an advantage as it constantly fed the reader with backstory and clues to understand the bigger scheme at play.Where Westside might have stumbled a bit was in the number of characters who were presented throughout the story. Although it might have been a bit excessive, it still kept the plot refreshing and dynamic as it gave the author room to work with more players and develop the various mysteries that crawled around the streets of New York. Let’s not forget to mention that even with the relatively huge number of characters, they all never seemed unidimensional or unnecessary. Their personalities simply shone despite the darkness in which they bathed. While they might evolve in accordance with the city, the city also seemed to transform according to its citizens. In fact, the time frame—especially how the author played with the Prohibition era—made this low-fantasy story just that much more intriguing and captivating, as it allowed the author to discretely play with historical elements.Westside is a stylish and creative mystery that beautifully balances its fantasy elements with thrilling action scenes in a sinister and enigmatic alternate Manhattan.Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for sending me an Advance Copy for review!Yours truly,Lashaan | Blogger and Book ReviewerOfficial blog: https://bookidote.com/

Westside by W. M. Akers is one hell of a debut. I went into this book really loving the premise of a detective who solves small mysteries like a missing broach or jewelry is lead into this huge mystery involving murder and supernatural elements. The voice is similar to Neil Gaiman's and reminded me of Neverwhere meets Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell wih a little Blake Crouch's Dark Matter. It's a good Historical Fiction Mystery that adds a dash of Supernatural to it. This novel is a trip that is not easy to predict where it's going, and what a third act. I would like to thank HarperCollins Publishing and Netgalley for giving me the advanced uncorrected e-proof to read in exchange for an honest review. This book will be made available to the public on May 7th.Plot: We follow Gilda Carr who lives on the Westside of New York in the early 1910's.Gilda makes a living solving small mysteries like a missing glove or jewelry. The New York you know, isn't the Westside it's on the East, in this city the westside is the Eastside's cursed twin. The westside is full of decay and hollowed out building, there's no working electricity and gun don't seem to work as the barrel quickly rust up. The westside is ugly but Gilda just calls it home. She is content solving her small mysteries a trait passed down from her father who was detective on the police force for the Westside, her latest case is finding a woman's gloves that her husband bought her. This should be a nice small mystery, but this case opens her life up to murder, supernatural, and a case she had almost given up on the disappearance of her father.What I Liked: Really unique way of describing people, that makes it easy to picture them. Really good world building and the history of Westside New York. I liked the device of small mysteries it gives you a slight Nancy Drew/Encyclopedia Brown vibe with a way darker tone which I enjoyed. I loved the characters of Gilda and her backstory and Virgil Carr her father's backstory. For side character's Ugly was my favorite, a henchman that clearly likes Gilda and all her moxie. The third act was great and the mastermind's reveal was pretty shocking and did not see coming. What I Disliked: At the beginning I was super confused whether Glinda was on the Eastside or the Westside, 40 pages in it got easier to tell. It took a while to get differentiate all the side characters from one anther and how they relate. I wanted more payoff on Brass's song It felt like we were on it too much for it to make little impact to the story.Recommendations: I really think you should check this book out it has a couple problem but really solid debut novel. If you like the way Neil Gaiman writes when he matches the real world with fantasy. If you like the colliding of genres like historical fiction with mystery and/or supernatural. I rated this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Westside is an imaginative fantasy mystery, in the vein of Gaiman or Meiville. Gilda Carr is a private detective in a New York City split in two. East Manhattan is much like historical Manhattan of the roaring 20s, but the West Side has been taken by shadowy powers. People disappear on dark streets, architecture and technology corrode, and great forests grow in the parks while gangs of feral boys play at soldiers beneath.Gilda specializes in small mysteries, the little things that drive you mad. Her case is to retrieve a woman's missing glove, but the situation spirals rapidly out of control, and Gilda finds herself embroiled in an conspiracy of bootleggers, corrupt cops, her dead father's madness, and the darkness eating at the heart of her city.It's a fun ride, with a lot of verve and character, even if the prohibition slang sometimes gets caught in Akers' mouth, or the story outruns the plot. There's plenty of grit, and a little glamour, and if this isn't quite a masterpiece, it has more maturity and confidence than some similar books I could mention.

Westside is the story you get if somehow Sherlock Holmes crossed with Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows and they ended up in the Upside Down from Stranger Things. And I absolutely loved it. When I picked up this book, it was in a bargain bin for like $2, so I didn’t really have high hopes going into it. But even from the first sentence, I had to keep going. I love the first person narrative in mysteries; it adds another layer of the story as you get to hear them work out the mystery on their own. I also really liked the 1910s New York gang aspect of it, though for reasons I cannot explain everyone spoke with an English accent in my head. What I found most enjoyable about this book was that it took history we are familiar with, but added an almost dystopian flare and threw in a bit of supernatural for good measure. While not an “edge of your seat” thriller, it’s definitely a “what’s going to happen next” mystery that provides enough suspense to keep you interested, but not send you over the edge with a panic attack.

I propose a new addition to the list of narrative rules, à la Chekhov’s Gun. My suggestion is that, whenever a character vehemently states that they will not do something, the plot will revolve around the character doing that very thing. Part of my case will be evidence from W.M. Aker’s thrilling Westside, set in alternative 1920s New York that somehow makes the great city even more terrifying than it actually was. Gilda Carr declares that she only solves tiny mysteries. It even says so on her business cards. At the beginning of the novel, Gilda has only signed on to find a missing glove for a wealthy New Yorker. By the end, she’ll have lost too many people and seen her world destroyed...Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.

Gilda Carr is a fantastic detective protagonist and the strange and terrifying world Akers builds is endlessly fascinating. His twisted version of 1921 New York feels natural and organic while simultaneously being precisely *correct*: nothing ever feels out of place, or makes you stop to question the internal logic. I might have done with approximately 1.75 fewer characters to keep track of, considering that "Westside" isn't a tome by any stretch, but that's a quibble.

I'm well obsessed with this premise, which is utterly delicious, and I find Gilda Carr scrappily vicious and determined -- the perfect detective. Some of the worldbuilding didn't QUITE hang together for me (there are still some things I'm puzzled about), but Akers is a clever writer and I am sincerely looking forward to Book 2!

Ok so this was just a delicious read. I tore through it on a cross country flight and just... How good! Delightfully creepy and mysterious. Read if you liked the Critical Role Call of Cthulhu one-shot but maybe wanted the gothic horror dialed down one notch.

Clever tale all around with a smart detective determined to solve only small mysteries, while her dialog and storytelling is reminiscent of old 1940’s movies. The book is genre busting in the extreme but a fast-paced and pleasant read. There’s a murder and a missing glove, a dead father or two and enough mood to satisfy any reader. Author W. M. Akers is a gifted writer and this is good speculative fiction. I received my copy from the publisher through edelweiss.

Clever, creative, terrific hero. If you like “Odd Thomas” (great book), this is for you.

I really enjoyed this. Gilda was a terrific heroine--strong, fearless, damaged . . . And the whole idea of it was fun. I couldn't put it down.