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The Westing Game

The Westing GameTitle: The Westing Game
Author: Ellen Raskin
Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery
Format: Paperback
Pages: 182
Reason Read: Just Because
Rating:

My Thoughts

When I was in middle school, one of my teachers either read or assigned THE WESTING GAME to our class. I don’t remember reading it completely because a lot of the story seemed unfamiliar, and at that time, I hated reading. The only thing I remembered about the book was that the clues had something to do with the song “America, the Beautiful” and I remember the name Berthe Erica Crow.

Ever since I rediscovered this book back in February, I wanted to read it (possibly again). I thought the story was hard to follow at times because of the constant change in voice. It felt a bit choppy and haphazard. I did enjoy reading it despite that. It was a fun fast read and I loved the walk down memory lane. The story kept me guessing until the very end so that was something.

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Breaking Dawn

Breaking DawnTitle: Breaking Dawn
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Series: Twilight Saga #4
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Spice: 1 / 5
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 768
Reason Read: Buddy Read
Rating:

Also in this series: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Life and Death, Midnight Sun
My Thoughts

Before I started reading BREAKING DAWN, I reread the rest of the series except that I skipped NEW MOON and ECLIPSE. For some reason, without knowing Bella’s final choice / fate as far as the love triangle was concerned, I couldn’t handle reading her “romance” with Jacob. Now that I’ve finished this book and I know the outcome, I’m going to reread all four books again just because I want to.

I absolutely adored this story. At first, I hated when the POV shifted from Bella to Jacob, but I understand why Meyer did it that way. And, after a while, I liked understanding Jacob and the wolves better.

I know Meyer has received a lot of criticism with this book because people don’t feel like it fits with the rest of the series. They don’t like that some of the Cullens had nicknames for each other. They hated Renesmee. They hated how easily Bella took to being a vampire. And, they hated how anti-climactic it was. None of that bothered me.

I think the story fits perfectly with the series. While I didn’t guess that Renesmee was even a possibility, I loved that the story went the way it did. I thought the nicknames were fine because we were in a more intimate setting as far as Bella being around the Cullens other than Edward. I also guessed that Bella would take to being a vampire more easily than the others. I didn’t think it would be due to her preparation and knowing her own mind, but I was expecting it. While I do feel like the end was a bit anti-climactic, I was actually okay with it because I figured that something would happen so that no one would die. To be completely honest, I didn’t want to witness the death of any of my favorite characters so I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

My favorite thing about BREAKING DAWN was the fact that I didn’t have to worry that Bella and Edward wouldn’t end up together. I loved that they got their happy ending. I loved that we got to enjoy their happiness for a bit before the story / series ended.

Update: When I read this for a third time, I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it. I thought both Ilyana Kadushin and Matt Walters did an amazing job.