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Gilda Carr #1
Westside
A young detective who specializes in “tiny mysteries” finds herself at the center of a massive conspiracy in this beguiling historical fantasy set on Manhattan’s Westside—a peculiar and dangerous neighborhood home to strange magic and stranger residents—that blends the vivid atmosphere of Caleb Carr with the imaginative power of Neil Gaiman.
New York is dying, and the one woman who can save it has smaller things on her mind.
It’s 1921, and a thirteen-mile fence running the length of Broadway splits the island of Manhattan, separating the prosperous Eastside from the Westside—an overgrown wasteland whose hostility to modern technology gives it the flavor of old New York. Thousands have disappeared here, and the respectable have fled, leaving behind the killers, thieves, poets, painters, drunks, and those too poor or desperate to leave.
It is a hellish landscape, and Gilda Carr proudly calls it home.
Slightly built, but with a will of iron, Gilda follows in the footsteps of her late father, a police detective turned private eye. Unlike that larger-than-life man, Gilda solves tiny mysteries: the impossible puzzles that keep us awake at night; the small riddles that destroy us; the questions that spoil marriages, ruin friendships, and curdle joy. Those tiny cases distract her from her grief, and the one impossible question she knows she can’t answer: “How did my father die?”
Yet on Gilda’s Westside, tiny mysteries end in blood—even the case of a missing white leather glove. Mrs. Copeland, a well-to-do Eastside housewife, hires Gilda to find it before her irascible merchant husband learns it is gone. When Gilda witnesses Mr. Copeland’s murder at a Westside pier, she finds herself sinking into a mire of bootlegging, smuggling, corruption—and an evil too dark to face.
All she wants is to find one dainty ladies’ glove. She doesn’t want to know why this merchant was on the wrong side of town—or why he was murdered in cold blood. But as she begins to see the connection between his murder, her father’s death, and the darkness plaguing the Westside, she faces the hard truth: she must save her city or die with it.
Introducing a truly remarkable female detective, Westside is a mystery steeped in the supernatural and shot through with gunfights, rotgut whiskey, and sizzling Dixieland jazz. Full of dazzling color, delightful twists, and truly thrilling action, it announces the arrival of a remarkable talent.
New York is dying, and the one woman who can save it has smaller things on her mind.
It’s 1921, and a thirteen-mile fence running the length of Broadway splits the island of Manhattan, separating the prosperous Eastside from the Westside—an overgrown wasteland whose hostility to modern technology gives it the flavor of old New York. Thousands have disappeared here, and the respectable have fled, leaving behind the killers, thieves, poets, painters, drunks, and those too poor or desperate to leave.
It is a hellish landscape, and Gilda Carr proudly calls it home.
Slightly built, but with a will of iron, Gilda follows in the footsteps of her late father, a police detective turned private eye. Unlike that larger-than-life man, Gilda solves tiny mysteries: the impossible puzzles that keep us awake at night; the small riddles that destroy us; the questions that spoil marriages, ruin friendships, and curdle joy. Those tiny cases distract her from her grief, and the one impossible question she knows she can’t answer: “How did my father die?”
Yet on Gilda’s Westside, tiny mysteries end in blood—even the case of a missing white leather glove. Mrs. Copeland, a well-to-do Eastside housewife, hires Gilda to find it before her irascible merchant husband learns it is gone. When Gilda witnesses Mr. Copeland’s murder at a Westside pier, she finds herself sinking into a mire of bootlegging, smuggling, corruption—and an evil too dark to face.
All she wants is to find one dainty ladies’ glove. She doesn’t want to know why this merchant was on the wrong side of town—or why he was murdered in cold blood. But as she begins to see the connection between his murder, her father’s death, and the darkness plaguing the Westside, she faces the hard truth: she must save her city or die with it.
Introducing a truly remarkable female detective, Westside is a mystery steeped in the supernatural and shot through with gunfights, rotgut whiskey, and sizzling Dixieland jazz. Full of dazzling color, delightful twists, and truly thrilling action, it announces the arrival of a remarkable talent.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 7, 2019
319 people are currently reading
9074 people want to read
About the author
W.M. Akers
11 books246 followersW.M. Akers is a novelist, playwright, and game designer. He is the author of the mystery novels Critical Hit, Westside, and Westside Saints; the creator of the bestselling games Deadball: Baseball With Dice and Comrades: A Revolutionary RPG; and the curator of the history newsletter Strange Times. He lives in Philadelphia, but hasn’t traded in his Mets cap yet. Learn more about his work at wmakers.net.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 357 reviews
May 4, 2023
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 SqueakyBicycleProductions
Speaking 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 Plays
And 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.com
The 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 Mosaics
Damon 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 Mail
Akers 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 Organization
Gripes - 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 Church
But 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.com
Review first posted – May 10, 2019
Publication date – May 7, 2019
November 28, 2019 - Westside is named to the NY Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2019
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal and Twitter pages
Items 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
April 11, 2019
Westside has more thick, juicy layers than a weighty feast at a New York deli.
Let's lift the crusty bread on this one.....
Gilda Carr dabbles in tiny mysteries and likes it that way. The smaller, the quicker, the better. It's September of 1921 in Washington Square and she's headed to Manhattan. Edith Copeland, wife of Galen Copeland who owns a shipping firm along the river, has hired her to find a missing ladies leather glove. The gloves were an unexpected gift from her husband and she lost one while shopping. Sounds like a doable for petite Gilda Carr.
While on the hunt, Gilda spots what seems to be an exact match in a small shop in Thieves' Market on the Eastside. She slips the single glove into her bag as she walks toward the door. The owner is on to her and he is just about breathing down her neck as she hits the sidewalk. In hot pursuit the owner is joined by others as Gilda barely makes it to the gates of the Westside. The men stop in their tracks. No one enters into the darkness of the Westside unless you're looking for trouble. No one except the likes of Gilda with that glove. And that single glove is the makings for some big time crime in New York City.
Westside grabbed me by the collar from the get-go with the main character of Gilda Carr. The dialogue was crisp and biting and the atmosphere was nicely sullied with bits of reality here. W.M. Akers lines this story with the impact of gang life with boys not out of short pants carrying bloody sticks. It's also the Prohibition Era with bootlegging and booze wars happening around every corner. We have dedicated police and those on the take. There are businessmen with smut on their sleeves and a city divided into sunlight and darkness.
It was all there in Westside. But then W.M. Akers couldn't quite put down his shovel. There were just too many incidents and too many characters on the loose. More is just more. It seemed that Gilda Carr had taken too, too many bites out of the Big Apple. Some fine-tuning and editing should have pared down the last chapters. I still have hope for Gilda Carr if there is another book in this series. Just take the essence of the beginning of the book and hold it steady in the next.
I received a copy of Westside through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Harper Collins and to W.M. Akers for the opportunity.
Let's lift the crusty bread on this one.....
Gilda Carr dabbles in tiny mysteries and likes it that way. The smaller, the quicker, the better. It's September of 1921 in Washington Square and she's headed to Manhattan. Edith Copeland, wife of Galen Copeland who owns a shipping firm along the river, has hired her to find a missing ladies leather glove. The gloves were an unexpected gift from her husband and she lost one while shopping. Sounds like a doable for petite Gilda Carr.
While on the hunt, Gilda spots what seems to be an exact match in a small shop in Thieves' Market on the Eastside. She slips the single glove into her bag as she walks toward the door. The owner is on to her and he is just about breathing down her neck as she hits the sidewalk. In hot pursuit the owner is joined by others as Gilda barely makes it to the gates of the Westside. The men stop in their tracks. No one enters into the darkness of the Westside unless you're looking for trouble. No one except the likes of Gilda with that glove. And that single glove is the makings for some big time crime in New York City.
Westside grabbed me by the collar from the get-go with the main character of Gilda Carr. The dialogue was crisp and biting and the atmosphere was nicely sullied with bits of reality here. W.M. Akers lines this story with the impact of gang life with boys not out of short pants carrying bloody sticks. It's also the Prohibition Era with bootlegging and booze wars happening around every corner. We have dedicated police and those on the take. There are businessmen with smut on their sleeves and a city divided into sunlight and darkness.
It was all there in Westside. But then W.M. Akers couldn't quite put down his shovel. There were just too many incidents and too many characters on the loose. More is just more. It seemed that Gilda Carr had taken too, too many bites out of the Big Apple. Some fine-tuning and editing should have pared down the last chapters. I still have hope for Gilda Carr if there is another book in this series. Just take the essence of the beginning of the book and hold it steady in the next.
I received a copy of Westside through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Harper Collins and to W.M. Akers for the opportunity.
May 23, 2019
After an initially interesting premise, the story bogs down in the middle. I ended up skimming through the last third or so of the book -- it just did not hold my attention.
July 30, 2019
The last 40% of this book was a disaster. I always give that a bit more hate because when the front half of a story is well written and it tanks in the second half, I feel robbed of my time. It felt like another writer took over after 60%. An inept writer. These sorts of situations always pique my curiosity about the reasons for it. Did they work on the first half of the book for years and then decide to finish it up quickly? Did they grow tired of the characters? Did the publisher push them to get it finished? I'd love to interview these authors about their reasons, but I'm sure after crucifying their book that's never going to happen. Ha ha.
The last 40% of the story was one grusomely graphic gratuitous fight scene after another; with the characters suffering injuries that would layout the strongest and fittest of men, but they were able to miraculously walk it off, time after time, and enter the next brawl (sometimes minutes later) with no residual effects of the previous battle. Keep in mind this is not a superheroes or superpowers story. One character element that severely disappointed me was, in the beginning the female MC was solving the mysteries with brains, intuition, perseverance, and attention to detail; however in the second half she was like a trained MMA fighter/Navy Seal hybrid stabbing and pistol whipping her way through the underworld. We need to start celebrating women's strengths in books: intellegence, stamina, consentration, agility, and quick-wittedness... overcoming the enemy in nonviolent ways; not turning them into killing machines. Equal does not mean same. And the mixed messages sent about guns in the story was dizzying. It was like the author was trying to play both sides of the fence.
The strong initial plot dissolved by the end of the story, too. Maybe that's why the MC was turned into a brawler, because there couldn't be a conclusion based on intelligent plans and fact-finding, without taking miles more time to figure things out, and successfully weave in all the plot threads. And the last major snag with me is the paranormal/scifi element itself. There ended up being basically no rules for it, or solid explanation. The flimsy guidelines were not enough to support it as a major plot element, so that was a disappointment, too. It's too bad because the first half of the story was wonderful.
I was approved for an eARC, via Edelweiss, in return for an honest review.
The last 40% of the story was one grusomely graphic gratuitous fight scene after another; with the characters suffering injuries that would layout the strongest and fittest of men, but they were able to miraculously walk it off, time after time, and enter the next brawl (sometimes minutes later) with no residual effects of the previous battle. Keep in mind this is not a superheroes or superpowers story. One character element that severely disappointed me was, in the beginning the female MC was solving the mysteries with brains, intuition, perseverance, and attention to detail; however in the second half she was like a trained MMA fighter/Navy Seal hybrid stabbing and pistol whipping her way through the underworld. We need to start celebrating women's strengths in books: intellegence, stamina, consentration, agility, and quick-wittedness... overcoming the enemy in nonviolent ways; not turning them into killing machines. Equal does not mean same. And the mixed messages sent about guns in the story was dizzying. It was like the author was trying to play both sides of the fence.
The strong initial plot dissolved by the end of the story, too. Maybe that's why the MC was turned into a brawler, because there couldn't be a conclusion based on intelligent plans and fact-finding, without taking miles more time to figure things out, and successfully weave in all the plot threads. And the last major snag with me is the paranormal/scifi element itself. There ended up being basically no rules for it, or solid explanation. The flimsy guidelines were not enough to support it as a major plot element, so that was a disappointment, too. It's too bad because the first half of the story was wonderful.
I was approved for an eARC, via Edelweiss, in return for an honest review.
May 11, 2019
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Even though the Westside of Manhattan is a dangerous wasteland that is inhospitable to modern (1920s) technology, home to strange magic and many disreputable residents, Gilda is proud to call it her home. Gilda is in a way a detective who specializes in "tiny mysteries" - those impossible puzzles and that keep you awake at night and chip away at you; questions that can ruin marriages and friendships. These cases distract her from her own grief and the impossible question of how her father died. The investigation of her newest tiny mystery about a missing glove leads her to a massive conspiracy that may even connect to her father's death.
Westside by W.M. Akers is a marvelous debut historical fantasy novel. There's so much to love about this story. It has nearly everything I could have asked for. I particularly enjoyed the well-drawn cast of characters (there are a lot of them). Gilda herself is quite engaging. I certainly appreciated her strong will and bravery. The alternate 1921 Manhattan's Westside is practically a character in its own right as well. Akers' world building is great and very visual. The story could have benefited from a map, though, but perhaps there's one in the final edition. The mysteries are so much fun to puzzle out with Gilda, especially in a setting where things and people have been known to just disappear like they never were. The author also does a good job handling the breathless action and all of the twists and turns (there is a lot going on) that will keep you right on the edge of your seat.
Overall, Westside by W.M. Akers is a fast-paced debut that will keep you turning the pages to keep up with Gilda. I have a feeling you will like the author's brand of historical fantasy with an engaging mystery and fully formed characters if you're a fan of Neil Gaiman and The Alienist by Caleb Carr. I can't wait to see what this author does next!
Even though the Westside of Manhattan is a dangerous wasteland that is inhospitable to modern (1920s) technology, home to strange magic and many disreputable residents, Gilda is proud to call it her home. Gilda is in a way a detective who specializes in "tiny mysteries" - those impossible puzzles and that keep you awake at night and chip away at you; questions that can ruin marriages and friendships. These cases distract her from her own grief and the impossible question of how her father died. The investigation of her newest tiny mystery about a missing glove leads her to a massive conspiracy that may even connect to her father's death.
Westside by W.M. Akers is a marvelous debut historical fantasy novel. There's so much to love about this story. It has nearly everything I could have asked for. I particularly enjoyed the well-drawn cast of characters (there are a lot of them). Gilda herself is quite engaging. I certainly appreciated her strong will and bravery. The alternate 1921 Manhattan's Westside is practically a character in its own right as well. Akers' world building is great and very visual. The story could have benefited from a map, though, but perhaps there's one in the final edition. The mysteries are so much fun to puzzle out with Gilda, especially in a setting where things and people have been known to just disappear like they never were. The author also does a good job handling the breathless action and all of the twists and turns (there is a lot going on) that will keep you right on the edge of your seat.
Overall, Westside by W.M. Akers is a fast-paced debut that will keep you turning the pages to keep up with Gilda. I have a feeling you will like the author's brand of historical fantasy with an engaging mystery and fully formed characters if you're a fan of Neil Gaiman and The Alienist by Caleb Carr. I can't wait to see what this author does next!
gave-up
May 8, 2019I'm very frustrated with this book,which I liked for many reasons but still had to give up at 40 %.
There was absolutely nothing wrong about it, I appreciated the main character, the background was rather fascinating, as the idea of the heroine solving "tiny mysteries" as a job. I loved some funny metaphors and some witty dialogues.
But alas the rhythm didn't agree with. At each chapter, at each different scene even, I had to make an effort, the kind of effort one does at the beginning of a new read. I was always rather lost and had to concentrate to keep on with the story's thread.
I still don't know is the problem was mine and mine only (it was quite a vicious cercle as I couldn't read much on the book in one go and kept switching to my others current reads) or if it was objectively a flaw. The only explanation I found was that a certain absence of perspective, all the book's aspects were spread out equitably: the background, the mystery, the heroine's history, all characters, main, secondary and in passing ones... my brain couldn't manage to understand which elements were important to remember and which I could let go. And as my memory is not my best feature...
A shame as I don't like giving up reads I don't objectively dislike, especially Netgalley ones, but sometimes one must admit defeat!
(I thus won't give any notation to the book, which I wish I could have finish, as it deserved).
(I thank Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)
There was absolutely nothing wrong about it, I appreciated the main character, the background was rather fascinating, as the idea of the heroine solving "tiny mysteries" as a job. I loved some funny metaphors and some witty dialogues.
But alas the rhythm didn't agree with. At each chapter, at each different scene even, I had to make an effort, the kind of effort one does at the beginning of a new read. I was always rather lost and had to concentrate to keep on with the story's thread.
I still don't know is the problem was mine and mine only (it was quite a vicious cercle as I couldn't read much on the book in one go and kept switching to my others current reads) or if it was objectively a flaw. The only explanation I found was that a certain absence of perspective, all the book's aspects were spread out equitably: the background, the mystery, the heroine's history, all characters, main, secondary and in passing ones... my brain couldn't manage to understand which elements were important to remember and which I could let go. And as my memory is not my best feature...
A shame as I don't like giving up reads I don't objectively dislike, especially Netgalley ones, but sometimes one must admit defeat!
(I thus won't give any notation to the book, which I wish I could have finish, as it deserved).
(I thank Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review)
May 19, 2019
I didn’t like the book, but I absolutely hated the narration of the audio book.
March 12, 2019
A lot certainly happens in this novel. Lots of people fight, die, disappear, reappear, argue; there are lots of locations, with clever worldbuilding that is, I think, the strongest part of the novel. The problem is that the plot is not particularly engrossing. I found myself bored, my mind wandering off even while my eyes continued to read. That is never a good sign for me.
Neither the protagonist nor her conflicts were very interesting, unfortunately. There were some pacing issues, as well, that made some scene confusing and muddled. This is also the fault of not having strongly defined characters. In some scenes where the dialogue was not clearly marked, it was tough to know who was speaking, and that is always because the characters do not have clear "voices".
As I said, the worldbuilding was strong, and mainly why I kept reading. Still, I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend it to others.
Neither the protagonist nor her conflicts were very interesting, unfortunately. There were some pacing issues, as well, that made some scene confusing and muddled. This is also the fault of not having strongly defined characters. In some scenes where the dialogue was not clearly marked, it was tough to know who was speaking, and that is always because the characters do not have clear "voices".
As I said, the worldbuilding was strong, and mainly why I kept reading. Still, I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend it to others.
March 6, 2019
I've been done this for about a week, but I've been struggling with writing a review. I know this was a fairly strong book. The writing was good. There were some fabulous, smart lines, both in dialogue and in the general text. The world building was interesting and consistent. The main character was odd; to me she read a bit like an anti hero with some of her actions, but she was quirky and still sympathetic. There were also some larger than life side characters. It had an interesting meld of urban fantasy detective story and alternate history, giving it quite an original feel. All in all it was really well done, and I feel like I should have liked it more. However, I just couldn't really get into the story, and I kept putting it down and reading other stuff.
I think the way I read the book may have done a disservice to it- I started it at the airport and read it throughout a vacation, while I had a fever. The combination of being sick and being busy on my vacation had me reading in little spurts, so this no doubt impacted my experience reading it. Even so, I can't seem to put my finger on what kept me from getting into the narrative. So all in all, this was a solid book that I just couldn't quite connect with.
*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Indigo Books and Music Inc. in exchange for an honest review*
I think the way I read the book may have done a disservice to it- I started it at the airport and read it throughout a vacation, while I had a fever. The combination of being sick and being busy on my vacation had me reading in little spurts, so this no doubt impacted my experience reading it. Even so, I can't seem to put my finger on what kept me from getting into the narrative. So all in all, this was a solid book that I just couldn't quite connect with.
*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Indigo Books and Music Inc. in exchange for an honest review*
July 29, 2020
I try to express only my most honest opinion in a spoiler-free way. Unfortunately, there is still always a risk of slight spoilers despite my best efforts. If you feel something in my review is a spoiler please let me know. Thank you.
I did not really like this book. I know an obvious statement considering my rating, but the most accurate I could think of. It had promise and the plot of the story could have been good if it wasn't told in one of the most boring ways possible. This is a book filled with suspense, horror, action, and mystery, but I found it utterly boring. I won't be continuing the series.
I did not really like this book. I know an obvious statement considering my rating, but the most accurate I could think of. It had promise and the plot of the story could have been good if it wasn't told in one of the most boring ways possible. This is a book filled with suspense, horror, action, and mystery, but I found it utterly boring. I won't be continuing the series.
January 2, 2022
*I received an ARC from he publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a review.*
“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."
A quirky mystery set in a grim Manhattan full of colorful and intriguing characters.
CHARACTERS:
Gilda, the protagonist, is fierce, ruthless, blunt, brave...she’s the perfect embodiment of the Westside. She’s the (at times) anti hero you can’t resist rooting for.
Beside her there is a huge assemble of secondary characters, each of them well developed and full of personality, ideals and different morals.
THE WORLD-BUILDING AND PLOT:
The story takes place in a Manhattan divided by a fence after the mass disappearance of people.
The Eastside is what we would consider “normal” while the a Westside has been invaded by magic which has warped the landscape and the rules of nature: it’s a gritty place full of rough people that take the “hit first, question later” motto as a life rule.
The plot involves a mystery, one that starts small and almost inconsequential but turns into something big, with huge implications and consequences.
It brings to the light the ultimate mystery of why the Westside is slowly dying, a question that no one has been able to answer...so far.
WRITING:
The author masterfully weaves multiple threads and creates a multilayered story full of three dimensional characters.
The writing fully describes the bleakness of the ambient but doesn’t shy away from sprinkling in moments of happiness and lightheartedness.
The language isn’t very flowery or artistic but I felt that it worked beautifully with Gilda’s personality.
If you enjoy historical semi-fantasies and intriguing mysteries with great characters behind it, you need to pick this up, W. M. Rakers definitely grabbed my attention and I cannot wait to see what will come next.
“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."
A quirky mystery set in a grim Manhattan full of colorful and intriguing characters.
CHARACTERS:
Gilda, the protagonist, is fierce, ruthless, blunt, brave...she’s the perfect embodiment of the Westside. She’s the (at times) anti hero you can’t resist rooting for.
Beside her there is a huge assemble of secondary characters, each of them well developed and full of personality, ideals and different morals.
THE WORLD-BUILDING AND PLOT:
The story takes place in a Manhattan divided by a fence after the mass disappearance of people.
The Eastside is what we would consider “normal” while the a Westside has been invaded by magic which has warped the landscape and the rules of nature: it’s a gritty place full of rough people that take the “hit first, question later” motto as a life rule.
The plot involves a mystery, one that starts small and almost inconsequential but turns into something big, with huge implications and consequences.
It brings to the light the ultimate mystery of why the Westside is slowly dying, a question that no one has been able to answer...so far.
WRITING:
The author masterfully weaves multiple threads and creates a multilayered story full of three dimensional characters.
The writing fully describes the bleakness of the ambient but doesn’t shy away from sprinkling in moments of happiness and lightheartedness.
The language isn’t very flowery or artistic but I felt that it worked beautifully with Gilda’s personality.
If you enjoy historical semi-fantasies and intriguing mysteries with great characters behind it, you need to pick this up, W. M. Rakers definitely grabbed my attention and I cannot wait to see what will come next.
February 5, 2021
I spent a lot of time reading this novel wondering what the hell was going on. Gilda Carr is a young woman who lives on the west side of NYC. She solves tiny mysteries so she didn’t hesitate to take a job which involved finding a missing glove. Trying to locate the glove led to finding out secrets about many of the people that ran the Westside. It was a terrible place, but it was her home and she wanted to protect it. She was also determined to find out what had happened to many people who had disappeared over the years, one of which was her father, who had been a cop. During her investigation she kept dying (which kept me wondering what was really going on). Before he died, her father had told her that the shadows were taking over the city, but everyone had thought that he was losing his mind. She learned that he wasn’t. When she was kidnapped and taken down river on a boat she ended up in an alternative city. One that wasn’t dirty and war-torn like hers was. In that alternative city she met up with her father, or an alternative father, as the case may be. A father who'd lost his daughter, Gilda, when she was 12 and run over by a milk truck. While she was with him, she learned what had happened to the Westside. Every time the gun smugglers (the cops) and the bootleggers made a deal, it was tearing a larger hole in the universe and destroying her city and causing the shadows to kill more people. I’m glad it was a short novel, because I really didn’t think it was that good a story. I did like Gilda’s inner strength and determination to save her city, but the character I liked the most in this story was the woman who cared the most about Gilda, a life-long friend of her family, Hellida.
January 14, 2020
some slight spoilers, maybe
I struggled with the star rating on this one because when I was fully invested I found so much to like about Westside. My immersion was spottier than I'd have liked, though, and a few outright frustrations keep me from fully endorsing it. That being said, overall I enjoyed this book.
Set in early 1900's Manhattan, it is a bit of a genre mash-up. Historical, yes. Fantasy, yes. Perhaps Historical Dark Fantasy? But it's a Mystery novel at its heart, with a grimy city and a flawed detective; Vice and greed are the biggest culprits, despite the weird horrors that cast shadows in this alter-world.
“A waiter sailed by and I relieved him of two highballs. I offered neither to my new friend. The white lights of Broadway shimmered through the gin like gasoline in gutter water.”
One might think that Akers is trying to do too much, but evocative descriptions really blend the genre crossing in a unique and admirable way. The walled-off Westside is strange with its overgrown trees and rushing waters. The curious state of decay and malfunction is fantastical, but fully lends itself to the gritty noire feel of a community regressed, unsafe and teetering on the brink of lawlessness.
A bit of grandiosity creeps into some of the interactions:
“ 'He was petulant, my husband, like a chocolate-stained child who stamps his foot and insists he hasn't been sneaking sweets.'”
“ 'The Seven Bloody Fists,' I said.
'He called us that because we were too broke to buy gloves.' Aiken twisted his hands into fists, and the ancient cracks in his knuckles glowed red. 'All winter, our hands were the color of a bad drunk's nose.'”
But these, too, are part of the charm. (And besides, who doesn't want to go through life tossing out descriptors like that? I do. I really do.)
Our main character Gilda – who solves tiny mysteries as a career (which is delightful) – is a potentially fascinating character study. She sticks to tiny mysteries because the pain of big problems has left her lost and alone and locked deep in her own pain. Her arc, and really the book itself, is encapsulated near the end:
“ 'But without the Copelands running back and forth between the two cities, the Westside will heal'
'Maybe. If it does, it will take some time before things are balanced out, and finding balance can be painful.'
'You're not the type who think things get better, are you?'
'Some situations are simply insane.'”
The book felt long. I'm not sure if it was longer than it needed to be, or just longer than I wanted. Perhaps it was long in the wrong places? There are certainly things I could have spent more time on, but there were stretches that dragged on where the action felt redundant. And for all its length, there were leaps of logic and too-easy conclusions that drew me out of things completely.
I'm looking forward to reading more by Akers. I feel like a bit of polish and experience will really sharpen his strengths. This is a notable debut, and I hope his craft grows along with his writing career.
September 26, 2019
On its surface, this novel sounds pretty great: It’s the story of a young private detective who specializes in “tiny mysteries” who must investigate murder and corruption in an alternate-universe Jazz Age New York City. Unfortunately, this book is dragged down by poorly drawn characters, thin, one-dimensional villains, inconsistent writing and dialogue, and the protagonist’s inauthentic voice. The audiobook narration is also some of the slowest I’ve ever encountered, but I actually didn’t mind because that allowed me to listen to the book at almost 2x speed and get it over with that much quicker. Gotta give this one a hard pass, unfortunately.
May 24, 2019
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!
April 29, 2019
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.
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
"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
December 2, 2019
This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart
Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The premise of Westside sounded fascinating and I was very excited to read it. I like historical fantasy with a mystery. Actually I like mystery, period. Somehow, even though this had all the parts I should like, it wasn't for me. The beginning had the detailed world-building which gave me a bit of first book syndrome when I feel like I don't know or understand enough. It's set in 1921 but this is an alternate sort of universe. It does feel like the time around Prohibition.
The main character Gilda is smart and brave. She has a wide knowledge about the people and happenings, partly because her father was a detective. But even so, she wasn't clued into everything. The real issue is I didn't feel I knew her or the other characters enough to care what happened to them.
The mystery was well plotted with enough twists and turns it wasn't obvious to solve. Plus the paranormal factors added to the inability to predict what would happen. It felt slow for me, but really, others may enjoy it.
Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The premise of Westside sounded fascinating and I was very excited to read it. I like historical fantasy with a mystery. Actually I like mystery, period. Somehow, even though this had all the parts I should like, it wasn't for me. The beginning had the detailed world-building which gave me a bit of first book syndrome when I feel like I don't know or understand enough. It's set in 1921 but this is an alternate sort of universe. It does feel like the time around Prohibition.
The main character Gilda is smart and brave. She has a wide knowledge about the people and happenings, partly because her father was a detective. But even so, she wasn't clued into everything. The real issue is I didn't feel I knew her or the other characters enough to care what happened to them.
The mystery was well plotted with enough twists and turns it wasn't obvious to solve. Plus the paranormal factors added to the inability to predict what would happen. It felt slow for me, but really, others may enjoy it.
August 12, 2020
I thought I might like it, but I do not. Right from the opening theft-and-chase, it is badly paced: tediously lingering over details that fail to inspire any feeling, and skipping over those that feel necessary (why did she cause herself so much trouble by stealing the glove in the first place? mischief? poverty? disdain? it's totally unclear.)
I stuck with it through a brief natural history of the Westside being "beaten into submission" by "civilized" folk despite the warnings of the Lenape-- who, we are told in the same breath, were ignored, and then... what, peacefully and conveniently exited stage left so that the real protagonists of this story could get on with things? Apparently the author doesn't think we'll care, and instead goes on to talk about how a guy disappeared one night while he was out filling a growler.
And I'm not saying that white Williamsburg hipsters are bad people -- I'm not, really-- I'm just saying that at that point in the book I decided my remaining years on this planet are limited, and that I didn't need to keep reading something that made me roll my eyes *quite* so hard.
I stuck with it through a brief natural history of the Westside being "beaten into submission" by "civilized" folk despite the warnings of the Lenape-- who, we are told in the same breath, were ignored, and then... what, peacefully and conveniently exited stage left so that the real protagonists of this story could get on with things? Apparently the author doesn't think we'll care, and instead goes on to talk about how a guy disappeared one night while he was out filling a growler.
And I'm not saying that white Williamsburg hipsters are bad people -- I'm not, really-- I'm just saying that at that point in the book I decided my remaining years on this planet are limited, and that I didn't need to keep reading something that made me roll my eyes *quite* so hard.
May 13, 2019
I am sorry to say that I couldn't finish reading this book and consider a one star rating being generous on my part. This is one of the most bizarre books I have ever read. It takes place in the early 1900's during prohibition and apparently New York was divided into the West Side and the East Side but to have "shadows" devouring people and objects disappear into the shadows became a bit much after a while. I gave it a chance because I only threw in the towel after reading 150 pages but then I considered it a waste of time. I appreciate having received an ARC from the publisher, author and Goodreads, but as I tell my one granddaughter - the beauty of the world is that God made us all different. I'm sorry I could not complete this assignment and give you a full review.
July 2, 2023
Westside is a fine example of a book that has an innovative story marred by poor execution. The author's attempts at creepy Gothic atmosphere fell short, as did his attempt at creating a "tough" female protagonist. She was basically a Victorian-style manic pixie dream girl in a bodice. It reminded me of that Tumblr post where the users write dramatic send-ups of men describing women in their novels, with things like "She breasted boobily up the stairs." The plot was a mess, too, with long stretches where nothing happens. It's a miss for me.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
May 17, 2019
Wavering between three and four stars; the hardboiled prose is delightful, but the narrative often misses a step when transitioning between scenes. There are lots of moments where the plot will twist on coincidence or leaps of intuition that are a bit too tough to accept, even in a book in which evil shadows eat people.
May 23, 2019
4.5 of 5 stars
https://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.
https://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.
May 22, 2019
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 Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
April 24, 2019
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.
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.
Want to read
March 11, 2019As a fan of historical fiction, I thought I would enjoy Westside, but that was not the case. The story world setting is just not plausible in my mind. It's just a bit too far out to really connect with reality of the time and place. I skimmed through parts of it because I didn't care enough about the outcome to commit my time to this story. Overall it's an average read that I know many readers will enjoy. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
June 9, 2019
I don’t usually read fantasy but this tongue-in-cheek detective story about a different New York City in the 1930’s was rather fun. It especially excelled in WORLD BUILDING which is my favorite ingredient of this genre.
December 5, 2020
Painful. Dark, zero likeability for any characters, plot was all over the place..,,
February 10, 2020
3.5 stars
Gilda Carr doesn't want to look at the big mysteries, like what happened to her disappeared father. She prefers her mysteries tiny. So, when a rich lady hires her to find a missing glove, it's right up her alley. The mystery sends her all over 1920s Manhattan. But the Westside isn't as we know it. There are waterfalls on buildings, and child gangs, and murderous shadows. Gilda is forced to face the big mysteries. The biggest? Why are people disappearing from the Westside?
Westside is a fun mystery with a little horror sprinkled in, especially in the book's final third.
Gilda is a great protagonist. She's a great P.I. with a quick wit. If nothing else, Westside is a great introduction to the character. I hope this becomes a series.
March 17, 2020
I wanted to love this book so badly but I couldn't. I would have given it one star if it wasn't for the main character Gilda Carr. The only praise I can give this book is Gilda's character and personality; she was unique, quirky, and not like other female characters I'm used to seeing in fiction. Other than that, being frank, this book sucked.
There were many times I would find myself in a new scene with no idea how I got there, and many of the supernatural elements of the story barely made any sense. I feel like the author needed an editor, or at least a better one, because there were so many issues that could have been easily fixed with better editing. For example, fairly early on in the book (page 60) Gilda has a conversation with a new character and he calls her by her name when they'd never met before and she never told him what her name was. I reread the page to check if she'd said her name earlier and I just missed it but she hadn't. This wasn't the only mistake of this sort, just the most obvious one and something that easily could have been fixed.
Everything was also too contrived. In a city as big as New York, some how all of the important characters were connected to her in some way. I found it unrealistic that she had some kind of hidden history with basically every character in the book. Everything fit together too perfectly... except for the ending.
I'll try to stay spoiler free as I explain the two main issues had with the lacking and out of nowhere ending to this book.
1. While not the main focus of the story, why and how Gilda's father died was a huge part of the plot. She doesn't solve the mystery of how he died, she's basically just told oh yeah I saw his body. She doesn't even find out who killed him nor does she try to. I think the author wanted to leave us with the message that some mysteries are better left unsolved, but as the reader I wanted to know who killed him and now I never will! There were some hints that pointed towards who could have done it (basically it leaves two characters that could have killed him) but it's never revealed why or who exactly did it. It didn't fit with Gilda's character either. She was so close to the truth but completely ignores it and after everything is said and done it's never even addressed.
2. The villain "plot twist" came out of nowhere and didn't make sense. There was almost zero foreshadowing and throughout the book you're made to believe that this character is good and innocent, or at the vary least ordinary. While many books can pull a plot twist like this off, it didn't fit and I frankly found it stupid. The villain had weak motivations and didn't realistically seem capable of doing everything she did. It left me feeling disappointed but not surprised, since the rest of the book had been lacking I hadn't expected the ending to be any different.
All I can say is read at your own risk. This isn't the worst book I've read but it's far from being the best or even good for that matter. If you like good characters and are able to look past the confusing mess of plot then you might enjoy reading from Gilda's perspective. But as some mysteries are better left unsolved, some books are better left unread, and this happens to be one of those books.
There were many times I would find myself in a new scene with no idea how I got there, and many of the supernatural elements of the story barely made any sense. I feel like the author needed an editor, or at least a better one, because there were so many issues that could have been easily fixed with better editing. For example, fairly early on in the book (page 60) Gilda has a conversation with a new character and he calls her by her name when they'd never met before and she never told him what her name was. I reread the page to check if she'd said her name earlier and I just missed it but she hadn't. This wasn't the only mistake of this sort, just the most obvious one and something that easily could have been fixed.
Everything was also too contrived. In a city as big as New York, some how all of the important characters were connected to her in some way. I found it unrealistic that she had some kind of hidden history with basically every character in the book. Everything fit together too perfectly... except for the ending.
I'll try to stay spoiler free as I explain the two main issues had with the lacking and out of nowhere ending to this book.
1. While not the main focus of the story, why and how Gilda's father died was a huge part of the plot. She doesn't solve the mystery of how he died, she's basically just told oh yeah I saw his body. She doesn't even find out who killed him nor does she try to. I think the author wanted to leave us with the message that some mysteries are better left unsolved, but as the reader I wanted to know who killed him and now I never will! There were some hints that pointed towards who could have done it (basically it leaves two characters that could have killed him) but it's never revealed why or who exactly did it. It didn't fit with Gilda's character either. She was so close to the truth but completely ignores it and after everything is said and done it's never even addressed.
2. The villain "plot twist" came out of nowhere and didn't make sense. There was almost zero foreshadowing and throughout the book you're made to believe that this character is good and innocent, or at the vary least ordinary. While many books can pull a plot twist like this off, it didn't fit and I frankly found it stupid. The villain had weak motivations and didn't realistically seem capable of doing everything she did. It left me feeling disappointed but not surprised, since the rest of the book had been lacking I hadn't expected the ending to be any different.
All I can say is read at your own risk. This isn't the worst book I've read but it's far from being the best or even good for that matter. If you like good characters and are able to look past the confusing mess of plot then you might enjoy reading from Gilda's perspective. But as some mysteries are better left unsolved, some books are better left unread, and this happens to be one of those books.
May 15, 2019
Summary: The setting for this story was fun, but the plot was lacking and the main character felt cliched.
Let's start with the best part of this book - the setting! Detective Gilda Carr lives in New York City. It's 1921 and to the West of Broadway, the city has been slowly succumbing to the shadows for years. A guarded border protects the Eastside from the mysterious rash of disappearances and supernatural happenings of the Westside. The Westside itself is divided into two parts. Half is run by a woman who motivates her followers with bootleg booze. The other half is run by a man who provides at least the illusion of safety.
The author would have us believe that Gilda survives by solving only small mysteries, staying off the radar of the powerful and avoiding tough questions. However, the first and only case we follow is the opposite of small. It rapidly reveals into a conspiracy possibly involving the leaders of Westside, the wealthiest Eastsiders, and/or a bunch of corrupt cops. She's pulled into the two main mysteries she's been avoiding - the mystery of her father's disappearance and the reason for the darkness of Westside. With her near death wish and willingness to run towards a fight, I found it hard to believe Glinda had ever truly focused on the small mysteries that sounded so interesting in the book blurb.
In general, I found Gilda a difficult character to be excited about. She's was a bit of a cliche - the hard-boiled detective with a tragic past. Her choice to stay involved in a more difficult case seemed to require the constant, coincidental appearance of hooks to keep her going. Her "investigation" largely involved bouncing from person to person, believing each of them when they blamed someone else and running off to interrogate her new suspect. There was little detective work and few clues. The parts of the mystery I was able to figure out relied on metadata, knowledge of how particular plot points often play out. Gilda took a long time to figure out what were, to me, obvious answers. Most of the time when she did figure things out, it seemed like she was just making a guess, picking one of many solutions that might explain the events she'd observed. Perhaps because this method of presenting a mystery left me reliant on exposition for answers, I was only mildly interested in what would happen next, not gripped by the mystery.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey
Let's start with the best part of this book - the setting! Detective Gilda Carr lives in New York City. It's 1921 and to the West of Broadway, the city has been slowly succumbing to the shadows for years. A guarded border protects the Eastside from the mysterious rash of disappearances and supernatural happenings of the Westside. The Westside itself is divided into two parts. Half is run by a woman who motivates her followers with bootleg booze. The other half is run by a man who provides at least the illusion of safety.
The author would have us believe that Gilda survives by solving only small mysteries, staying off the radar of the powerful and avoiding tough questions. However, the first and only case we follow is the opposite of small. It rapidly reveals into a conspiracy possibly involving the leaders of Westside, the wealthiest Eastsiders, and/or a bunch of corrupt cops. She's pulled into the two main mysteries she's been avoiding - the mystery of her father's disappearance and the reason for the darkness of Westside. With her near death wish and willingness to run towards a fight, I found it hard to believe Glinda had ever truly focused on the small mysteries that sounded so interesting in the book blurb.
In general, I found Gilda a difficult character to be excited about. She's was a bit of a cliche - the hard-boiled detective with a tragic past. Her choice to stay involved in a more difficult case seemed to require the constant, coincidental appearance of hooks to keep her going. Her "investigation" largely involved bouncing from person to person, believing each of them when they blamed someone else and running off to interrogate her new suspect. There was little detective work and few clues. The parts of the mystery I was able to figure out relied on metadata, knowledge of how particular plot points often play out. Gilda took a long time to figure out what were, to me, obvious answers. Most of the time when she did figure things out, it seemed like she was just making a guess, picking one of many solutions that might explain the events she'd observed. Perhaps because this method of presenting a mystery left me reliant on exposition for answers, I was only mildly interested in what would happen next, not gripped by the mystery.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey
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