Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Westing Game


At first, I was going to wait until next year to start this blog, and start all the fun that comes with it; but I just couldn't wait. I just finished The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin a week or two ago, and thought it was a perfect way to start my reviewing. So, here goes!
This novel was very intriguing, I hardly put it down at all once I began it upon recommendation of my cousins. Sixteen people, who are possible heirs of Samuel W. Westing, are called together one day for the reading of his very strange will. No one was guaranteed to win the $200 million, but they could, if they played the game right. After being put into eight teams of two, the game begins, and from the clues they are given they must figure out who took Samuel W. Westing's life from him. The plot is very interesting, one would never expect many of the things that occurred to happen, such as bombs, burglaries, and blizzards, but everything makes sense when the answers are revealed on the last few pages.
Overall, I believe my favorite character was Turtle. This 13 year-old girl was very smart, and the answers she gave to some of the clues were amazing. She had an older sister who was practically perfect and engaged to a plastic surgeon, a mother who does not seem to care about Turtles welfare, a father who has a very interesting role in the story, she made important friendships, and almost always wore braids. For the longest time I was sure I had figured out the whole book; but that is one thing I loved about Ellen Raskin's story; you cannot figure it all out until the very last chapter.
I am giving The Westing Game(285 pages) a 4/5.



4 comments:

Noël De Vries said...

Very cool name/design/overall blog, Marie! Very nice review of The Westing Game, without giving anything away. I didn't know you've read Into the Wild. I've heard a lot about it. Will you be covering it soon? (hint hint) :)

Looks great, Marie. One small suggestion: don't forget to run spellcheck. ;)

Talk to you later!

Anonymous said...

Hey,

Impressive blog! I love it. The review is really great. Could you give me a few pointers on writing book reviews?

Aubrey

Nicole said...

To Aubrey,
I based my review off of what I learned from another blog's how to. Ask Noel about Novel Journey, a blog she has under 'Jammy Blogs'.
To Noel,
I had to read Into The Wild for school this past year. I will write a review on it sometime- but it may not be any time soon.
Marie

Maggie DeVries said...

I did like the Westing Game.

I liked how it would describe, at a party, one person talking to some one, then they would leave, and enter a different conversation with another group, and then some one else form that group would leave and go into ANOTHER group... everything just seems to flow.

But some stuff like "ordering up" and "ordering down" confused me...

...but its all good NOW