Review: THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin

 

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger--and a possible murderer--to inherit his vast fortune, on things for sure: Sam Westing may be dead...but that won't stop him from playing one last game!

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.

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Review: A WORLD WITHOUT YOU by Beth Revis

 

A World Without You by Beth Revis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Seventeen year old Bo has always had delusions that he can travel through time. When he was ten, Bo claimed to have witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg, and at fifteen, he found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified by the bodies surrounding him. So when his concerned parents send him to a school for troubled youth, Bo assumes he knows the truth: that he's actually attending Berkshire Academy, a school for kids who, like Bo, have 'superpowers.' At Berkshire, Bo falls in love with Sofia, a quiet girl with a tragic past and the superpower of invisibility. Sofia helps Bo open up in a way he never has before. In turn, Bo provides comfort to Sofia, who lost her mother and two sisters at a very young age. But even the strength of their love isn't enough to help Sofia escape her deep depression. After she commits suicide, Bo is convinced that she's not actually dead. He believes that she's stuck somewhere in time - that he somehow left her in the past, and now it's his job to save her.

A World Without You is a complex and heartbreaking read, but for me it lacked that extra bit of power that would've made it a 5-star read.

So, we've got Bo who's at a special school for teenagers with severe mental illness and behavioural challenges, only Bo believes he's actually got superpowers and that the school is a place for other people like him. Through his eyes, we meet his classmates and learn of the 'powers' he believes they have. The writing is actually incredible as even from Bo's narrative, I could tell which problems the other characters at the academy had, even though we're immersed in Bo's very distorted view of the world.

Before the book begins, Bo's girlfriend has died, and Bo spend the majority of this book believing that she's not really dead, that she's stuck in time somewhere--because the superpower he believes he has is that he can travel through time and manipulate time. It's honestly heartbreaking reading how he's 'going back in time' constantly searching for Sofia, believing he can save her--when readers know what his reality is.

The writing is also really strong and narrative style is sufficiently different between the two POV characters, Bo and his sister Phoebe. Phoebe's chapters are very different to Bo's--she's grounded in the real world and we see the impact that Bo has on her. There's a lot of discourse on the impact that mental illness has on the family unit as a whole, and we see how Bo's institutionalisation shapes Phoebe and their parents. But I did find this was a little repetitive. Beth Revis has both her narrative POV characters lament A LOT about how Phoebe and Bo's relationship is not a typical relationship. And this was starting to annoy me as I read it. Mentioning it once per narrating character--or even twice--would've done the job, but it's mentioned so much that I began to feel like it was just too repetitive. And this slowed down the pacing for me, particularly in the first two-thirds of the book.

There was also one thing that I didn't particularly like regarding the family dynamics which was made quite obvious via Phoebe's chapters--and that is how her chapters present Bo as a burden on his family. As a disabled and chronically ill reader, this was something that really disappointed me. I mean, obviously, it's just Phoebe's opinion--and she's bearing the grunt of a lot of Bo's illness in the family dynamic as she's now got to be the 'perfect' child and isn't allowed to mess up at all--but I was hoping that there'd be something later to call Phoebe out on this 'Bo is a burden' notion.

The tension develops well across the book--and although the pacing and tension doesn't really change across Phoebe's chapters, you can really see it building to the climax with Bo's. For that reason, from 70% onward, I couldn't put this book down. That's where we see the accumulation of everything: Bo's illness, his grief and refusal to admit Sofia is dead, the pressure that Phoebe's under. There were several moments near the end where my heart was in my mouth, where I couldn't truly believe that what I thought had happened had actually happened. It was heart-wrenching and exhausting to read, but in a good way.

On the whole, this book has a good depiction of mental illness, if the whole burden issue is overlooked. But it's an important read and I still rate it 4 stars because of the strength of the writing and plot.

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