The Westing Game (Puffin Modern Classics) Kindle Edition

First things first: my one star review has nothing to do with the story itself. I first read "The Westing Game" in 1981 as a third grader. Since then, I've made it a point to read it once each year; it's *that* well written. No, there are no surprises left in store for me, but rereading this story is like visiting a dear old friend.That said, this edition is an absolute disgrace. Why?Ellen Raskin was an illustrator. She had very specific desires for the layout and design of this book. I know that because it's documented ever-so-briefly at the back of this edition: pictures of galley proofs and notes she wrote delineating exactly how she wanted things to look. And that's important, because the style of the original is unique. Unique and beautiful. Whether it was the typography (which fonts to use, and where) or the chapter headers (the title between two rows of dots) or the dividers (single centered lines of dots), or even the chapter numbers themselves, she was meticulous about how it should look. Penguin Publishing was kind enough to include thirteen pages' worth of pictures of her notes regarding these issues so the reader could get a better feel for just how much design went into the book.Then they took her ideas and threw them all out and replaced all the custom formatting with generic. They took the lifeblood out of the design of the book and replaced it with something easier for their typesetters to do.If they'd just done this and nothing else, it wouldn't be a big deal; they did it with the Kindle editions of the book. But this "Deluxe Anniversary Edition" specifically celebrates Raskin's design, and they ignored it! It would be like hosting a celebration of the world's greatest chef, but catering the dinner with McDonald's. This edition is an absolute slap in the face to anyone who appreciates the original.If you're *just* looking to read the story, fine. Understand that you're missing out on a significant part of the charm and feeling of this book. On the other hand, if you want to see the notes Raskin wrote, the ones in this book and many, many more are available online thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison ( http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/authors/raskin/intro.htm ).But if you're like me, and you're looking to replace your tattered old copy, look elsewhere.

Fantastic book. I don't have enough to say about it. So i'll just leave it at this: I first read it when I was in fourth grade, and I read it at least once a year. I'm 24 right now.

A childhood favorite of mine that I had to share with my own children. I recall being confused the first time I read it, but I genuinely enjoyed it. If you like a suspenseful book that you can go back to each time you read it and find something new this is the book for you. Even as an adult I’ve enjoyed reading it again, aloud with my youngest.

This book had an unfair advantage over all others I've read this year, it had my undivided, uncompromised, candle lit attention. It really picked up well and the plethora of characters grew on me. It is loaded with twists and turns that kept me interested and turning pages.My favorite line was an introspection by a 17 year old. Funny enough it still applies to most social interactions"He couldn't think of a single thing to say that wasn't stupid or childish or childishly stupid."This book was assigned to my son as reading material for 8th grade, logically I got a copy to discuss with him.Four stars. This is good material to spark and inspire young minds. No brainer for a Newbery Medal.

I purchased this because I owned the book as a child, and liked the story so much I wanted a copy for myself. This is about a group of people who move into a new condo building. What begins mostly as a group of strangers, they find out they might have might have more in common than they think when a rich, old millionaire turns up dead and they're all listed as potential heirs to his fortune.Even though the novel is considered young adult, I think it holds up well to read over and over again. It has a couple of slightly spooky or creepy parts to it, and is also pretty witty. And the mystery keeps you guessing throughout the story. It's a good mystery for older audiences as much as is it for middle-school aged kids.

I have to say that if I could give this twenty stars, I would! If mystery is your thing, then this is the book for you. I followed this storyline so eagerly I had completed the book in one day. Sort of a shame I didn’t slow down and enjoy it more! The ending is fantastic and the entire book keeps you guessing. Only a genius could figure out how it would end; you never even know if it was actually a “whodunnit” until the very end! So mysterious and well written. The cover is so cute and nice looking. It arrived on time, in good shape, and as pictured. Great buy!

Modern classic is very accurate, I recently read this as an adult after many years since my first read-through as a teen. The book is actually better than I remembered and I greatly enjoyed it. I really can't describe it here without spoilers, so just go ahead and read it, you won't be disappointed.

The Westing Game is a classic to me - I love the mysterious nature of the game, and the careful development of the rich and expansive cast of characters. It's obvious that Ellen Raskin was a lover of language and a player with words. What a pleasure to experience her cleverness! The plot is great, but the characters, and their personal development take center stage in a satisfying tale. Must read!

I could not stop reading this book! THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin is a phenomenal mystery, and I’m actually in awe of how good it is. As I was reading it, I kept forgetting it’s a novel as it seemed more like a puzzle, and the writing style is just amazing.It’s one of the children’s titles for my postgrad creative writing course, but it reminded me so much of Virginia Woolf’s style. I actually googled the book to see if it’s taught to children at schools (or just used for degree level courses) because of this almost stream-of-consciousness style and complexity, with so many beautiful nuanced layers. It’s recommended for ages 10 and upward, and I have since learnt it's taught widely in US schools, but as a UK reader, I hadn't heard of this book at all--and here it often seems only to be taught to adults as an example of how children’s stories should be as complex as adult stories, as obviously you shouldn’t “write down” to children. It will give great satisfaction to adult readers who may be reading it aloud to children, as they’ll understand the more complex themes in it that younger children may not. Though I think children 10 and older would grasp the deeper meanings in this book, and YA readers certainly will.The story follows 16 people (a mixture of children, teenagers, and adults) as they listen to the reading of Sam Westing’s will and discover that one of them is a murderer. All 16 are then thrown into the Westing Game where each must solve clues pertaining to the identity of the murderer. At times, these clues are almost set out like an instruction manual for a game, so we, as the readers, are also playing along. It’s this interactive quality that I’m finding so addictive.It took me a little while to get into this book, mainly because there are just so many main characters, and we're not told a whole lot about these to start with. But we're thrown right into the mystery, and it's like we're trying to solve the mystery at the same time as learn about the characters--which does work really well as we're trying to work out who the murderer is.And working out who the murderer is was just something I couldn't do--which rarely happens. But I really had no idea. And for that, I loved this book. It's just so powerful and it was refreshing to read such a complex and wonderfully plotted mystery that kept me on my toes as a reader. I was really making sure to read every single word on each page in case I missed a clue.Also, the narrative devices in this book are great. We've got multimedia in this as we get recounts of Sam Westing's will and other documents. And all of these are clues for the mystery too!The ending of the book was...strange. I don't know, it's hard to describe it without getting into spoiler territory. Because there are big twists, and though these were satisfying, I was kind of waiting for something more to happen as I was reading...but then by the time I got to the very last page, I realised that the ending was perfect as it was. If there had been another twist it probably would've detracted from the quietly powerful ending--where the true impact of it only hits you after you've stopped reading and you've got time to think.And those final pages, where time suddenly speeds up and we learn what happens to the children as they grow up and the deaths of the older characters who were adults in the story is really heartbreaking. It's really powerful writing.Turtle was by far my favourite character, swiftly followed by Angela. These two characters (sisters) really complimented each other, and I loved how many layers they each had, especially the darkness in Angela as (spoiler) she turns out to be the bomber. I also loved Sydelle and Otis (calling Otis the '65 year old delivery boy' was fantastic, by the way!). The other characters (with the exception of Grace, the mother of Angela and Turtle), although still strong with characterisation, didn't quite have the same impact on me as these characters. I think it's because there are just so many main characters in this book. It was a bit overwhelming. For a long time, I didn't even realise that Crow would be a significant character either. So that threw me a little.Disability representation is also amazing, with the character of Chris who's a wheelchair user--and I loved how this book has other characters making assumptions about Chris and being stereotypical, but that these characters are then either called out, or the narrative voice becomes really snarky as it tackles the misconception. This is honestly one of the best books I've read for disability representation. (And equally, it's not just disability that the book calls out about this; there's also a lot on feminism and the role of women, with characters fighting stereotypes and 'traditional' views.)The writing style of THE WESTING GAME is fun and snarky, and I can see why it would appeal a lot to children and teenagers. It's just so plucky and fun to read, and the narrative voice of the book is really great. There is a lot of head-hopping in the stream-of-consciousness style as we're bounced from one character to another, but uniting all these characters is this snarky voice--which is both snarky and judgmental on the current POV character and about others in general. And because the head-hopping is constant, and the whole thing is written in this style, very similar to Woolf's, this is one of the rare instances where I do feel that the head-hopping works.This is a masterful piece of writing. Highly recommended.

I really disliked this book from a literary point of view and as a puzzle, it's a schematic whodunnit with an obliging American happy-end. I did not find it confusing just boring and the characters were unrealistic. In the book a group of 16 people obediently moves into an apartment block and for some reason they all leave their lifes behind. Not one of them has a friend or a hobby/interest/job outside this apartment block for the most of the story. Teenagers live for their friends and through their friends but in this book they conveniently only communicate with each other and seek no other entertainment despite having quite different backgrounds. Then these people just as obediently they start figure out clues to get an inheritance.The book's language is abrupt and non descriptive, the characters are unsympathetic and the book is disjointed. I certainly did not care about any of them despite some realistic features. One of the characters, Sybelle Pulaski is a manipulator who pretends to be an invalid so people would pay attention to her, I am not a big supporter of political correctness but how sick is this? I would pity people like her but I think most people would despise such a character and the book does not explain why, after working for many years in the same place, her boss suddenly develops an interest in this irritating woman.The writer tried to invoke some sympathy for the main character, Turtle by making her a daughter who is under-loved by her mother and suffering because of it. Turtle is certainly the most developed character in the book but still I found her boring because she and other characters were so easily manipulated by the idea of money, so it was hard to believe that at the end of the book everyone apart from Turtle suddenly decided not to care about inheritance. One could straight away guess that the two simpletons in the book are just pretending to be as such and once again I fail to understand how a wife of twenty or so years would fail to recognise her ex-husband, doesn't matter how many years passed. (People mainly change before they grow up and apart from the face there are lots of other features to be recognised by, like a voice or a manner of speaking, body language and habits). On the whole the two characters of Turtle and Sybelle gave a bit of depth to the book but the it was still a disappointment.

This is a review of the edition not the writing. I am gobsmacked at how bad the quality is - the cover is so thin and doesn't even completely cover the pages either front or back. The whole is slightly blurry and the print is tiny. Don't buy. Now I am trying to find another version.

Perhaps I went into this book with overinflated expectations...but I was left disappointed. The mystery is ok and the story is amusing in places, but it's not hilarious or engrossing.Maybe go in with lower expectations and you'll have a far more enjoyable experience of the book!

Some reviews have said that this book is a page-turner, the characters are great and that you'll want to read it again and again. I experienced none of this.I'm the kind of person who finishes a book once they've started it, and The Westing Game was one of those books that was thankfully short. The characters were not great, the storyline confusing, the clues so jumbled that you couldn't even try and make sense of them; only carry on reading in the hope that something is told to you. Even if something is told to you, you can not trust the sincerity of it as it would be one of the character's opinions, hastily jumped to and often clearly false. These kinds of false trails lead the reader no-where and are boring.Little progression is made until the very end of the book, when out of no-where, and to no real effect, the mystery is 'solved' (or, the characters involved just come forward of their own random accord and say 'hey, it was me!').I was seriously disappointed with this book, considering all of its good reviews.Would not recommend.