4.02k reviews for:

The Westing Game

Ellen Raskin

3.99 AVERAGE


I give this a solid MEH. I had a hard time getting a clear picture of characters, didn't like the flow between scenes and characters for the most part. Ending was all right but I had to talk myself to get it finished. I wanted very much to just set it aside and forget about it.
It's prejudices and stereotypes DO NOT age well.
adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging funny inspiring mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous mysterious fast-paced

This is a really hard one to rate because I love it and it's super compelling and there is nothing else quite like it, but it doesn't hold up as well. Both the narrator and various characters use the word "cripple" over and over and over again, and that's before we even get to the disturbingly childlike presentation of Madam Hoo. Not knowing a language does not make a person think like a child.

There is a dilemma about the roles of women running through the core of the book. Grace Wexler is bored and restless because she's never had enough to so (like another character), she turns to social climbing and is mocked for it. Angela is being rushed into marriage; Flora Baumbach seems to have been deserted by her husband after their late-in-life baby was born with Down syndrome; Sydelle Pulaski is tired of being overlooked as a middle-aged career woman. I'm not sure any of these dilemmas ever would have resonated with the preteens that the book is aimed at but they seem increasingly out-of-date now when most married middle-class women hold jobs.
adventurous challenging funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's officially confirmed. I will always love this book. Read it for the first time when I was ten and now, at 31, it still holds up. Great book!

I love this book. Great for kids 5th grade and up!

- I think I was expecting something different from this book, thought it would be like a combination of And Then There Were None and Ready Player One, but instead I got garbage
- The clues were LAAAAAAAME and unreasonably vague, plus soooo many red herrings that the whole thing was annoying
- I won't lie though I was lame in the beginning part and actually spooked myself when they were meeting in the Westing House
- Why did major plot reveals in this story never get explained???? WHAT were the bomber's motives????? Excuse me??
- I understand that this was a children's book. But it was still exceptionally bad thank u goodbye