The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

The second book I read for this quarter was The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. It is a mystery/suspense novel and takes a lot of thought to read. It is not the kind of book that you can just pick up randomly and dive into. You have to read it straight through as long as you can in order for it to make sense. The thing is, you will not want to put it down. The plot is rather complicated so its hard to summarize. Basically, a very wealthy man dies and leaves his will to 16 "random" people. The will, however, is not ordinary at all. It comes in the form of a puzzle. The 16 heirs are divided into 8 groups and are each given a unique set of clues. Once a group figures out the puzzle, they will inherit the man's 200 million dollar fortune. This competition to solve the puzzle before everyone else makes for a very interesting and complex story. This genre of books is one of my favorites so I really enjoyed the book. I liked how the author kept bringing in pieces of the puzzle as the story moved on. Just when you think the puzzle is solved, some new element comes up and you have to seemingly start all over again. But thats what made the book so captivating. You always wanted to know the next clue. Another aspect I liked about the novel was the way the author individualized each heir. In other words, all the heirs had their own unique characteristic you could label them with. For example, the girl named "Turtle" was a bratty child who always seemed to cause trouble. It seems simple to give each character a different quality, but with 16 different characters, it would be hard to make sure you remembered who each one was. I had no trouble at all with this. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes a good mystery novel. Again, its very interesting and makes you want to keep reading.

Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

I thought the characters were realistic. Each one had their individual flaws and strengths, just like a normal human being. The one character that might be unrealistic is the "dead" man. This pretty much spoils the whole book. The wealthy man apprently takes on 5 different alter egos that each interacted with the heirs. It seems a little bit of a stretch for one man to take on 5 different roles and not get caught somehow. However, without this rather unrealistic aspect, the story would not have been as good.

What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?

The setting of the book was in modern times. It takes place just outside the city where the estate of the deceased man is. Its during the fall months so it kind of gives you the spooky feeling of Halloween when it talks about an old mansion. One thing that was unique about the setting was the story did not just take place in one location. Events occurred in the mansion, in the apartment complex where all the heirs stayed, and in the city. By doing this, the author kept the story from being stagnant, which helped keep the story interesting.