This book popped up on my twitter feed last week and it was quite intriguing. So I ordered it and started it yesterday. I've read a few books by Neal Shusterman and have always found them very interesting and unusual. They are often quite complex and leave me thinking about the book long after I've finished it, Unwind was like that for me, I still think about one scene in that story. I think Game Changer will be a book that will live with me too.
It's a bit hard to describe the plot of Game Changer - the story is about Ash, who is a tackle on his high school football team. He has some good friends and seems to have a moral compass that helps him accept others. One Friday night, Ash is hit during the football game and something feels 'off'. He can't quite figure out what it is, but slowly he realizes that he is an alternative universe, where things are similar, but not quite the same as the one he left. As Ash tries to revert his life back to what it was, he experiences different situations that cause him to question what he has always believed. Everything from LGBTQ rights, to racism, to sexism. Ash is forced to figure out what he really believes and who he wants to be, if he can get the world to right itself again.
I found that I could not put this book down when I was reading it. It was fascinating, although there were times when the idea of alternative universes was hard to follow. The story however was really interesting. Living with Ash as he tried to navigate new realities and watching him being forced to experience the way others are treated made him question his own life and his own privilege. I think this book would be great to use in a literature circle since it would be a good to have a conversation with students as they read it. There are some mature bits to this story, but nothing I wouldn't share with Intermediate students.
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