The Westing Game

I read this in 5th grade and loved it and re-read it and YO IT STILL FUCKING SLAPS. Cannot believe this was written in 1978, it is so fresh and sharp. Ellen Raskin is more aware of microaggressions in 1978 than a lot of authors writing today are. Ellen Raskin's disabled kid character is treated with 500% more respect by the narrative than, e.g., Auggie from Wonder. (There is some dated language eg use of the word “retarded” and “Mongoloid” in clinical contexts.)

The introduction of my edition addresses that Ellen Raskin didn't know how to write for children so she just wrote short books for adults and it works. Like there are some concepts in here that honestly I didn't get when I was a kid and it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book at all then.

Also as you may know, I only like murder mysteries where it turns out that no one was actually murdered, so gold star here.

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THIS BOOK STILL FUCKING SLAPS, ALL-TIME BEST BESTSELLER

https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-198-the-westing-game/