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Book Review: WE FELL APART by E. Lockhart

| Jessica Crawford

We Fell Apart by E. Lockhart is a 320 page novel published in 2025 by Delacorte Press. It may be read as a standalone, but it takes place in the same world as We Were Liars and Family of Liars, and references events from those books.

Genre:

Young Adult, Contemporary Fiction

Synopsis:

The invitation arrives out of the blue.

In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood.

Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary.

With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater.

And everyone here is lying.

Opening Line:

It was a bad place to fall in love.

My Thoughts:

We Were Liars is one of my all-time favorite books! It’s a powerful, heart-wrenching story told in a unique manner, and it left me in a total book hangover after finishing it. It tells the story of a family with great privilege, but also the responsibility to never admit that anything is less than perfect, even if that means lying.

I will prove myself strong when they think I am sick. I will prove myself brave when they think I am weak.

Family of Liars is a prequel that wasn’t as much of a homerun for me, because although it offered a lot of the same of what we got from its predecessor, it therefore felt sort of unneeded. It was once again well written, but just didn’t really offer anything new. I rated that one 3 stars, as opposed to the 5 glittering stars I showered onto the first book.

They hadn’t come to see how I was feeling. They had come to tell me to stop feeling that way.

Now, We Fell Apart comes in at a solid 4 stars for me–not as mind-blowing to me as We Were Liars, but neither did it come across as gratuitous. I enjoyed accompanying Matilda on her journey to Hidden Beach looking for connection. The themes of Kingsley Cello’s artwork and the inclusion of The Chronicles of Narnia references were hits with me (my own dearly departed sister once named a pet after Puddleglum!) And though some dark family secrets are always bound to be unearthed from the sandy beaches in these stories, I find them so eminently readable. These particular characters won’t leave much of an impression on me, but it was just a pleasure being along for the ride as Matilda learned about this strange pocket world while trying to puzzle out the mystery of her father, all while learning what it means to decide if someone is worth committing yourself to, whether that’s in a familial, platonic, or romantic sense.

And for the record, the print book itself is quite pretty!

A to reiterate: you can easily jump into this book without reading the others, but just know there will be huge spoilers.

Book Review: THE WORKS OF VERMIN by Hiron Ennes

| Jessica Crawford

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes is a 432 page standalone novel published by Tor Books in 2025.

Genre:

Fantasy

Blurb

He was sent to kill a pest. Instead, he found a monster.

Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty.

In this complex, chaotic city, Guy Moulène has a simple goal: keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he’ll take on any job, no matter how vile.

As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny creatures that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is different: a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice.

Guy doesn’t have a choice.

Opening Line

Tiliard, known as the Deathbed of Tulips, straddles the river gorge like a half-submerged stump.

My Thoughts

The past is only ever populated by strangers, Guy had told her once, referencing some pompous corpse or another.

Holy moly, this book! A great story that was a taxing process to tunnel my way through.

This author’s previous novel, Leech, is an absolute favorite of mine. There are things I really like about this one here, but boy were there challenges, too. Mostly I just had a very difficult time picturing the things the author describes (e.g. do they live in the roots or on the roots, and if the stump is half-submerged then aren’t the roots underwater?) Primarily it was the setting itself that I struggled to get a handle on, but the details of the toxins and perfumes and everything were just a lot. Many times I found myself rereading lines to make sure I was actually understanding what they were trying to say.

Somewhere around two-thirds into the book I had a major “Aha!” moment, but I hesitate to call this a twist or a big reveal because I honestly can’t say for sure if it was something that was already supposed to have been clear and I just failed to pick up on it.

BUT, all that being said, it’s a fantastic (if extremely complex) world the author has built here, and the story was very good. The characters were pretty wonderful (the undercity exterminator willing to do anything to keep his little sister from a life of working off debt, the perfumer who makes the perception-altering and subtly mind-controlling scents worn by the Grand Marshal Revenant, all those contaminated by the toxin used to literally reshape the city and its people during the last coup–all splendid!) I would call this grimdark fantasy and not horror, although there are most definitely body horror elements. There’s LGBTQIA+ representation, and some truly great lines amidst the pulchritudinous prose.

He is the best Grand Marshal the city has ever seen. He is exactly as a Grand Marshal should be: dashing, competent, tough, ruthless or bloodless depending on necessity. He expresses the tenets of Revivalism in the sculpture of his own body, in his elegant and irresistible strategies. Bullets seem to pass right by him. Poison seems not to sicken him. He is so successful, so well-suited for life, that when in his fifth year of office he writes a solemn note and ingests enough tranquilizer to kill a team of horses, he only wakes up the next morning slightly better rested than usual.

My overall experience with this book was definitely a good one, but my troubles wrapping my head around the particulars drops it to 4.25 stars for me.

Book Review: WE LIVE HERE NOW by Sarah Pinborough

| Jessica Crawford

We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinboroguh is 291 page standalone novel published by Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar in 2025.

Genre:

Horror

Blurb:

After an accident that nearly kills her, Emily and her husband, Freddie, move from London to a beautiful Dartmoor country house called Larkin Lodge. The house is gorgeous, striking—and to Emily, something about it feels deeply wrong. Old boards creak at night; fires extinguish; and books fall from the shelves—all of it stemming from the terrible presence she feels in the third-floor room.

But these things happen only when Emily is alone, so are they happening at all? She is still medically fragile. Her post-sepsis condition can cause hallucinatory side effects, which means she cannot fully trust her senses. Freddie does not notice anything odd and is happy with their chance at a fresh start. She, however, starts to believe the house is haunted by someone who had been murdered in it even though she can find no evidence of a wrongful death. As bizarre events pile up and her marriage starts to crumble, Emily becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about Larkin Lodge. But just as the house has secrets so do Emily and her husband.

Opening Line:

The raven watches the stone house on the crossroads through the long year.

My Thoughts:

This horror novel skews more thriller than the spooky kind I usually prefer, but once I got into it I tore through it in one day!

It’s got short chapters from two POVs–most from the wife but some from the husband, both in first person present tense. Is it a tad silly at times? Sure (oh, these four specific books fell off the shelf in the study inside the house? Must have been the “breeze”!) Was the “post-sepsis syndrome” question overused? Kinda. By the end, does it offer full explanations as to why things are the way they are with the house? No. But it was definitely interesting and I was hooked while I followed along on Emily and Freddie’s journey. And the ending was just right!

Of note: if you require an irreproachable, fully good character to root for in your stories, this book might not be your cup of tea. Also, if you’re marriage is currently struggling, maybe don’t pick this one up just now. But otherwise, I recommend this as a great choice for spooky season reading.

Goodreads

Book Review: THE HOUNDING by Xenobe Purvis

| Jessica Crawford

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis is a 240 page debut novel published in 2025 by Henry Holt and Co.

Genre:

Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction

The Blurb

Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbed to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before.

The truth is that though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls—a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps—they’ve always had plenty to say about them. As the rotating perspectives of five villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: something isn’t right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.

As relevant today as any time before, The Hounding celebrates the wild breaks from convention we’re all sometimes pulled toward, and wonders if, in a world like this one, it isn’t safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl.

Opening Line:

The girls, the infernal heat, the fresh-dead body.

My Thoughts:

“Wherever we go, however we behave, there’ll always be something to drive us inside. That’s where people want us to be.”

The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth-century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs. — For once I think the comp offered by the publisher is an apt one and not just marketing nonsense.

The atmosphere in this book is set perfectly, with the people of Little Nettlebed set on edge by the hot baking sun and the drought negatively impacting livelihoods. The five Mansfield sisters are unconventional, and a delusionally arrogant neighbor becomes obsessed with putting them in their place. Mob mentality takes over the villagers, even affecting those who try their hardest to resist.

I think the themes of this story are explored wonderfully. I also think the characterization is well done, it’s just that the manner of storytelling doesn’t allow the reader to delve too deeply into any single character. Third person POVs shift among five different villagers throughout the book, and we get a good sense of each of them. But the story revolves around their interactions with and feelings about the Mansfield sisters, whose own POVs we do not get directly. I thought this was the perfect way to tell their story.

He searched within his soul and saw a terrible truth: that he’d rather they were dogs than damaged girls…He’d rather they were free than confined…

I included this book in my spooky season reading not because it’s horror (it’s not) or brings autumn feels to life on the page (nope), but for the witch hunt vibes, and in this it did not disappoint!

Disclaimer: Maine Coon cat Freya does not approve of any hounding whatsoever

Goodreads

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Book Review: WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME by Nat Cassidy

| Jessica Crawford

When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy is a 304 page novel published in 2025 by Tor Nightfire.

Genre:

Horror, Paranormal

Blurb:

One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.

As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they’re up against, but she’s about to learn there’s more to these surreal and grisly events than she could’ve ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.

Opening Line:

Daddy is roaring.

My Thoughts:

What a wild ride!

Nat Cassidy’s horror pulls no punches, so make sure to read the content warnings at the beginning of the book, but honestly I thought they made it sound way worse than it actually was. His writing is as entertaining and humorous as it is gory (…well, maybe not quite – it’s pretty gory!) This time around, it’s also really touching.

Jess finds herself in charge of a terrified young boy on the run from his father, and neither might be quite what they seem (if you prefer stories rooted firmly in reality without any speculative/fantastical elements, look elsewhere). This is a road trip adventure that will keep readers on the edge of their seats while also pulling on their heart strings. A theme of this book is the old FDR quote about the only thing to fear being fear itself. I was riveted, amused, and loving the journey…

BUT THEN.

This was a 5 star read for me right up until a resolution I was deeply unhappy with. I suppose it was an ending that made a good deal of sense, but certainly it could have gone another way.

Despite how upset I was with how the author chose to conclude this book, it’s still true that I loved the experience of reading it overall, and so 5 stars it is–but just know I am currently not speaking to Nat Cassidy (but will continue reading anything he writes)!

P.S. As an 80s kid myself, I can confirm Who Framed Roger Rabbit was terrifying

Goodreads

Book Review: THE COMPOUND by Aisling Rawle

| Jessica Crawford

The Compound by Aisling Rawle is a 292 page standalone novel published by Random House in 2025.

Genre:

Dystopian Fiction, Suspense

Synopsis:

Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Winner takes all.

Lily—a bored, beautiful twentysomething—wakes up on a remote desert compound alongside nineteen other contestants on a popular reality TV show. To win, she must outlast her housemates while competing in challenges for luxury rewards, such as champagne and lipstick, and communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.

The cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: Why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win?

Addictive and prescient, The Compound is an explosive debut from a major new voice in fiction and will linger in your mind long after the game ends.

Opening Line:

I woke up first.

My Thoughts:

Well, I simply devoured this suspenseful dystopian tale!

The overall message is a condemnation of consumerism and late-stage capitalism. Sure, there’s the sexy story of a bunch of young people living in a compound together, forced to pair up with a member of the opposite sex at night if they want to avoid banishment from the reality TV show, alternately cooperating to complete challenges and scheming to oust one another in order to earn ever more desirable rewards (these are often luxury items, but sometimes things necessary for their survival, isolated as they are out in the desert).

But this story isn’t just trashy fun – where it really sings is in the creeping dread it steeps the reader in as it continues to hint at how bleak things are in the outside world without ever describing things explicitly (peep the fires outside of the compounds boundaries on the cover – such a good detail!) What exactly are these people trying to escape that has them so willing to put themselves through this absolutely bonkers experience?

As more contestants get eliminated, the tension ratchets up as the remaining characters lose themselves more and more to the idea of “winning” the chance to continue putting off real life. Ultimately the main character (and the reader) must decide which is more important in an imperfect world: luxury, or meaningful human connection?

I admit I was expecting a bit more of a bang at the end, which was rather more of a whimper. But I still loved this story, which was bananas in all the best ways!

Book Review: GIFTED & TALENTED by Olivie Blake

| Jessica Crawford

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake is a 512 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Tor Books.

Genre:

Contemporary Fantasy

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she’d been his favorite all along.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?

Opening Line:

Meredith Wren, a fucking asshole, not that it matters at this stage of the narrative but it’s worth pointing out, sat blinded by the overhead lights from the stage, squinting unflatteringly into the brand-new, state-of-the-art auditorium that had just been completed on Tycho’s unethically verdant campus.

My Thoughts:

I guess I felt sorry for them, the Wrens. Which you shouldn’t do. Lord knows they don’t need your sympathy. If you give a mouse a cookie…you know how that turns out.

But hey, a bad dad is a bad dad.

The Wren siblings each have their own curious magical ability, as well as their individual contentious familial relationships. Having been raised with every resource available to the wealthy and respected, you would think they would naturally have had a step up to reaching the heights of success themselves. And yet…

He had simply believed, in his heart or possibly somewhere even dumber, that she could do anything…

This book tells the story of what happens when their father dies and they gather for his funeral and the reading of his will. Each sibling comes with their own attendant companions as well – various spouses, exes, mistresses, etc. Some of the characters can be very irritating, and yet the writing and especially the narrative voice (utilizing a clever twist on the omniscient narrator) in this book are spectacular. I’ve seen this story described as “magical Succession“, and certain bits about the nabob family reminded me of Mike Flanagan’s television adaption of The Fall of the House of Usher.

“I didn’t want happiness, for fuck’s sake–I wanted an A!” She felt sick with herself, with the repulsion of having seen her insides. “I wanted to get a good grade in life, in adulthood, in existing–but who was ever going to give me that?

Through a fairly angsty process, Thayer Wren’s adult children are forced to face their own personal hang ups, the joys and disappointments they’ve been served within their family. The angst, some characters being pretty unlikable, and the lack of satisfying explanation as to why some people seem to have a singular specific magical ability prevented this from being a 5 star read for me, but the clever writing and amusing voice that had me letting out the occasional startled laugh brought it pretty close.

In this version of the story, [she] might rewrite her selfish behaviors and her narrow concern for the mere aesthetics of life in favor of seeking redemption and accountability, having been suitably visited by the ghosts of Christmas past and/or a mental health professional.

Book Review: THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB by Martha Hall Kelly

| Jessica Crawford

The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly is a 336 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Ballantine Books.

Genre:

Historical Fiction

Synopsis:

2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving after her mother’s death as she travels to the storied island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Devereaux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Devereaux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she ever thought possible.

1942: The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old aspiring writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend, Bess, start a book club, which grows both in members and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war . . . before it’s too late?

My Thoughts:

Not a perfect fit for me, but there were things I enjoyed about this book, including the strong sense of place whisking me away to the beaches and cottages of 1940s Martha’s Vineyard. The historical fiction aspects were nice, including the ways WWII changed day to day life for civilians. The love for literature was great, as of course an author expects when they know their audience is going to be, well, readers!

A few things that niggled at me included the sudden and complete 180 between the two lovebirds for no discernible reason, the painful contractions and elevated BPs and edema in a woman in the very beginning of her pregnancy, and a so-called book club that seems to meet daily and assign a new book every single week but with the members VERY rarely actually seen reading or discussing the books at book club. I quite like the cover of this book, but it honestly has very little to do with the story.

There are two timelines in this book, with the bulk of the story unfolding in 1942, and only 3 chapters happening in 2016. In the latter, a character is mourning the death of her mother but declines her provider’s suggestion of antidepressants, with the implication that it would make her just forget her lost loved one. There is a lot of love for L.A. in these sections, with some random mentions of Theresa Caputo and Tori Spelling, and the implication that any other city that doesn’t demand its women be blonde therefore has “relaxed beauty standards”. The potential love interest in this part of the story seems completely unnecessary.

There is mention of a swastika design within the bricks of a house and how this suggests it is the home of Nazis, but there are plenty of homes in the U.S. with this design built into the brick pattern as it predates the symbol’s eventual association with the Nazi party.

But taken as a WWII story about the women living on Martha’s Vineyard while the men are shipped out, during U.S. military training exercises on their shores, with a bit of intrigue and family saga as well, this book worked pretty well.

Book Review: THE LISTENERS by Maggie Stiefvater

| Jessica Crawford

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater is a 400 page standalone novel published in 2025 by Viking.

Genre:

Historical Fiction, Magical Realism

Synopsis:

#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

Opening Line:

The day the hotel changed forever began as any other.

My Thoughts:

Belief was contagious. When you believed in one intangible thing, why not a second, why not a third. If God, then why not the listeners in the water, if the listeners in the water, why not ghosts, if ghosts, why not unicorns–

Maggie Stiefvater’s adult debut is a large heaping of historical fiction with a dash of magical realism that evokes an invigorating sense of place and authentic characters.

The setting is a luxury hotel and spa in the mountains of West Virginia, where the sweetwater from the hot and cold springs is said to have restorative powers. The year is 1942 and the U.S. has recently joined in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor when the State Department and FBI direct that the hotel guests all be checked out so that the hotel can be used to host (read: detain) a few hundred foreign nationals, diplomats and dignitaries from Axis nations. The hope is for diplomatic reciprocity – we treat these people well, and the Americans abroad will be treated well in turn until an exchange can be negotiated. And so the staff of the Avallon find themselves expected to treat the enemy to the heights of luxury.

June Hudson is the general manager of the hotel. Originally from a coal mining town in the mountains and abandoned when her mother couldn’t afford to take care of her during the Great Depression, June began working in housekeeping at the hotel but over the years was taken under the wing of the hotel’s owner and became an honorary member of the Gilfoyle family. She was groomed to take in his role after him because the two share a special ability to commune with the sweetwater. Because it turns out the water under the mountain, tinkling out of fonts all throughout the hotel, is closely tied to its success or failure.

Tucker Rye Minnick (whose name is almost always given in full each time in this book) is an FBI Agent assigned to surveilling the hotel’s new “guests” during their stay. He has a troubled history of his own in Appalachia, and the Germans, Japanese, and Italians in his charge provide him with the opportunity to pull off something that will impress the powers that be enough to save his career.

It was the historical fiction part of this story that worked best for me, plus the setting and characters. (The guest in 411 who hasn’t left her room in years! The neurodivergent child tasked with memorizing a coded message!) I was all in with these parts of the book, and they alone would have earned 5 stars from me.

What I didn’t love was the romance, which seemed completely unnecessary to me, and the fact that I never felt like the question of the sweetwater was fully answered to my satisfaction. In a system of quarter stars, these things bring my final rating down to a still commendable 4.75 stars.