Game Changer

Game Changer
Neal Shusterman
HarperCollins/Quill Tree, February, 2021
400 pages

Grades 9-Up

Science Fiction

High School Senior, Ash, has a pretty good life. As a member of the defensive line on his high school football team, he is socially secure with good friends, though not setting the world on fire. Everything changes as he lakes a blow to the head during a football game and wakes up in a world slightly changed. He has a terrible headache and--wait--stop signs are now blue? A week later it happens again--with even more changes. Strange skateboarding twins inform him that he is bouncing around dimensions and affecting the world. With each football game and accompanying blow to the head more changes occur. Some are good (Ash's family is rich) and some are terrible (integration never happened making life horribly unjust for his best friend). Throughout all of the dimensional jumps the overall arc of Ash's life remains the same with many of the same people in it, though sometimes his relationship with them has twisted. As the world keeps changing and Ash is feeling out of control, he has to decide if he is willing to sacrifice himself to reclaim his original world and get life back on track, warts and all.

This first-person novel is fast paved and gets the brain clicking into over-drive, which is something that a Shusterman novels always brings. I found the book to be totally original and I love both the concept and the delivery. There are surprises with each new dimensional jump and I had a hard time putting this book down, so curious as to what would happen next. Shusterman explores the ideas of white privilege, racism, homophobia, and domestic violence and presents these issues in an interesting and non-preachy way. Some of the reviews of the book feel that Shusterman portrays Ash as a "white savior". I didn't feel that way. Ash starts out taking his  white male privilege for granted and experiences growth as he personally spends time in other realities. While some hot-button issues are explored, the plot never gets bogged down or suffers for it. The story moves addictingly quickly and the dimensional hops feel believable and realistic. Teens will gobble it up and think about it later. A great choice for high school book discussion that will get the conversation started and bring on the heat.