Winger Sparknotes

The novel, Winger by Andrew Smith, continues right before the first rugby game of the season where West learns that he will be benched at the start of the game. During halftime, he gets subbed into the game and scores the game-winning try for Pine Mountain boarding school. The celebration is short-lived as a group of kids attack Joey with a knife, accidentally stabbing Kevin instead. After returning to the school, Winger and Annie went to Seattle together to visit Annie’s parents over the weekend. They have a great time in Seattle, but the weekend ends horribly when Annie tells West that it would be stupid if they had a relationship with each other. West became demoralized after this comment. Back at school, Winger falls ill and decides to …show more content…
When they get into the car to go buy the costumes, Chas grabs West’s leg and demands that he tells him everything that is going on between him and Megan. Ryan Dean West admits to everything he did with Megan, and this leaves Chas completely distraught. The following morning, West has conditioning class where he gets into a fight with JP about Annie. The day continues to go awful when he ends his relationship with Megan during Calculus and this leaves her in tears. However, when West meets Annie at Stonehedge, he finally convinces her that they can be in love with each other. Later on, West and his friends have a fun time at the dance, but the night takes a turn for the worst when he returns to O-hall and finds the place completely trashed. When he wakes up in the morning, no one can find Joey and the police come at lunch time to question the students about his whereabouts. Eventually, the police found Joey’s dead body stripped naked, beaten, and tied to a tree. Ryan becomes traumatized after the experience and stops talking to anyone. This experience brings Chas and Winger closer together, which allows them to help each other overcome their …show more content…
Not only was the pacing of the ending off, but the scene itself introduces an absurd level of violence compared to the rest of the book. While there are some violent parts in the book, like when Kevin gets stabbed, nothing comes close to the level of violence at the end. It feels like the author struggled to conclude the novel and had run out of ideas. Therefore, he resorted to a dramatic scene in the book to demonstrate character development. This leaves the ending to feel pointless because it did not help build off of what was established previously in the story. I believe that the author missed an opportunity to explore other directions for the ending. For instance, the ending could have focused on further developing Winger and Annie’s relationship. Furthermore, it could have been used as a chance to show how Joey and Winger will continue to be friends even after Joey leaves the school (if he was still alive). I overall enjoyed the rest of the book, but the ending leaves much to be