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OLDER FICTION
Shusterman, Neal

Game Changer

400 pp. | HarperCollins/Quill Tree | February, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-06-199867-6 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-06-246577-1 $9.99
(2) YA When star defensive lineman Ash Bowman makes a bone-crunching tackle during a football game, he sustains a concussion that knocks him into a parallel world. The differences are subtle (stop signs are blue; football team colors have switched), but subsequent tackles yield much more drastic changes. After a concussion in that world, he enters one where he's a spoiled rich kid with a side job as a drug dealer. Then he gets knocked into a world where Brown v. Board of Education never happened, fundamentally altering white Ash's friendship with his best friend, who is Black. Still later, previously straight Ash finds himself in a romantic relationship with his male math tutor and dealing with the fallout when he comes out. And finally, he awakens as a female cheerleader dating the emotionally abusive star quarterback. It's a testament to Shusterman's storytelling powers that he is able to develop a cohesive narrative across these multiple shifts, exploring the subtle nuances of how they affect not only Ash but the entire supporting cast, though the novel falls somewhat short of the emotional heft the subject matter seems to demand. The device that ties it all together--that Ash has become "the center of the universe" and must learn to control these shifts to return to his original reality--is a bit tidy, but serves as a vehicle for provocative explorations of race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

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