In the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth chapters of The Westing Game, this is just one of the most incredible things I’ve ever read. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Westing Game.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Westing’s Wake / Chapter Twenty-Six: Turtle’s Trial
- Yeah, I’m glad that Raskin doesn’t skirt around the fact that this would be IMMENSELY UPSETTING TO EXPERIENCE, particularly for Turtle, who came to be friends with Sandy.
- And then everything starts to unravel for these people as soon as Denton claims that Turtle kicked Sandy earlier that day, when she didn’t. She kicked Barney Northrup.
- WHO IS SANDY
- WHO IS SAM
- OH GOD.
- WHO WAS PLAYING CHESS WITH THEO
- WHICH DOUG OBSERVED WHILE PRETENDING NOT TO CARE WHAT WAS GOING ON
- !!!!!
- OH MY GOD, I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE QUEEN’S SACRIFICE, but then I was totally wrong about it.
- “Cheer up, my friend, the game’s not over. You still can win. I hope you do.” OH MY GOD HE WANTED TURTLE TO WIN.
- “Tomorrow its ashes will be scattered to the four winds.” Sweet mother of everything, it was right there. Windkloppel, the four names.
- And then Otis is the one to figure out that the game isn’t over at all. Sam Westing just sacrificed his queen. LITERALLY. HE SACRIFICED CROW FROM THE GAME.
- I WASN’T READY FOR ANY OF THIS.
- And nothing in the world could have ever, ever prepared me for Turtle’s trial, which is the best thing in this whole book. It is. Nothing can beat it, and I love that Raskin put Turtle front-and-center here, not just so she can put together the pieces of the story, but so that she can be the story. This wouldn’t have worked otherwise, and that rebellious, shin-kicking girl is everything to this book.
- Bless Judge Ford for playing along without hesitation. I love it. IT’S SO FANTASTIC.
- So! The joy of reading chapter twenty-six certainly comes from Turtle, as I’ve said, but it was also fun to have all the details trotted out before me because HOLY SHIT THERE WERE SO MANY CLUES I MISSED. And I think I fared much better than usual in terms of being unprepared, but still.
- Because I CERTAINLY DIDN’T GUESS THAT OTIS AMBER WAS A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR.
- And THE investigator that Judge Ford hired.
- OH AND SAM WESTING HIRED HIM TOO
- AND BARNEY NORTHRUP
- MY BRAIN CAN’T HANDLE THIS.
- Sam Westing purposely hired Otis twice to further distract and confuse Judge Ford, who he knew would figure out his game too quickly if he’d not done that.
- HAHAHAHA OH MY GOD, AND THIS GUARANTEED THAT HE WOULD NEVER INVESTIGATE SANDY MCSOUTHERS.
- Diagnosises. BLESS YOU TURTLE.
- Bless her for also figuring out that Sandy could not have died from Crow’s lemon juice.
- HEY EVERYONE, I DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE THAT JUDGE FORD PAID SAM WESTING BACK FOR PUTTING HER THROUGH COLLEGE.
- Actually, the most embarrassing of these reveals was that Madame Hoo was the thief. Oh my god, I literally read that section about the clock with hands and it did nothing to me. How did I miss something so obvious??? Now Madame Hoo just makes me sad. Like… how is her story going to be resolved? She clearly wants to go home badly enough that she’s willing to steal from her neighbors in the hope that she can afford a ticket back to China.
- Christ, Sam Westing’s clever disguises for the Fourth of July. IT’S RIGHT THERE.
- SO WAS THE LINE ABOUT HIS LIFE BEING TAKEN. It was taken by Sandy.
- But y’all: “The heir who wins the windfall will be the one who finds the FOURTH.” There wasn’t a missing word.
- I’M PROPOSING A THEORY: I think the fourth man is Eastman, the guy who took over Westing Paper Products. So… how does this work if Sandy is dead? I don’t get it.
- ONWARDS TO PROBABLY BEING FURTHER UNPREPARED.
Please note that the original text/videos contain use of the words “mad,” “insane,” “crazy,” “lunacy,” and “stupid.”
Chapter 25
Chapter 26, Part 1
Chapter 26, Part 2
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