Breakaway Books

Authored by Ellen Raskin; Published 1978; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

The Westing Game bears little resemblance to any book that I read as a young adult, but I can’t help but think that I would have enjoyed it, had it been handed to me.

In The Westing Game, paper product magnate Sam Westing has died and leaves behind a cryptic will, inviting sixteen residents of an apartment complex to participate in a game of sorts to inherit his fortune. The candidates range from middle school-age stock market connoisseur Turtle to Chinese restaurant owner Mr. Hoo to medical intern Dr. Deere, and as they fumble their way through the clues left to them, they come closer together and begin to support each other as they never have before.

This novel was slow to grow on me: The characters are basically caricatures, and that makes it hard for me to get attached. Why would I love Turtle when her main schtick is kicking adults in the shins? But the characters do gain some depth as the book goes on–I particularly enjoyed Angela, who starts out known for her beauty and her engagement to Dr. Deere, and ends up resuming her own long-abandoned medical studies. Perhaps most importantly, Westing himself is revealed to have unexplored depths, when viewed through the eyes of each of the potential heirs. He is neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but he is entirely perplexing. 

Now, this is a YA fiction, and sometimes, I think it is required for such books to have a complete and happy ending. This book is no exception, with a very thorough explanation of what happens to each of the characters years and even decades after the game ends. It is so thorough in fact that I wish the author had left a little more to the imagination. What I did love, though, was the satisfaction of watching all the clues that Westing had left the heirs come together. I like that relationships are formed where none had been before, and I like that there is an element of forgiveness and redemption to the characters’ fates. For young adults, especially, I think there’s a lot to learn here.

The Westing Game probably isn’t a book I’d recommend to most adults, but for adolescents, I think it could be a perfect pick.