Neal Shusterman. (2021). Game Changer. HarperCollins.

Neal Shusterman. 2021. Game Changer. HarperCollins.

Neal Shusterman, Game Changer. HarperCollins, 2021.

Neal Shusterman. Game Changer. HarperCollins, 2021.

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     Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty books, including Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award; Scythe, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Dry, which he cowrote with his son, Jarrod Shusterman; Unwind, which won more than thirty domestic and international awards; Bruiser, which was on a dozen state lists; The Schwa Was Here, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award; and Game Changer, which debuted as an indie top-five best seller. He is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for the body of his work. You can visit him online at storyman.com.

   • name: Neal Shusterman

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Game Changer

fullDescription

"A timely, speculative thought experiment in perspective, privilege, and identity." —Kirkus

"The conceit behind Shusterman's latest is truly unique. While it exhibits the author's usual storytelling aplomb, it also manages to delve into more serious and timely subject matter, such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. Despite these heavy topics, the story still moves at a lively pace and, thanks to a zany sci-fi twist, manages to pack in a few laughs as well." —Booklist

All it takes is one hit on the football field, and suddenly Ash's life doesn't look quite the way he remembers it.

Impossible though it seems, he's been hit into another dimension—and keeps on bouncing through worlds that are almost-but-not-really his own.

The changes start small, but they quickly spiral out of control as Ash slides into universes where he has everything he's ever wanted, universes where society is stuck in the past...universes where he finds himself looking at life through entirely different eyes.

And if he isn't careful, the world he's learning to see more clearly could blink out of existence...

This high-concept novel from the National Book Award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of the Arc of a Scythe series tackles the most urgent themes of our time, making this a must-buy for readers who are starting to ask big questions about their own role in the universe.

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reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Shelf Awareness (starred review)
   • content:

     "National Book Award winner Neal Shusterman's Game Changer is a brilliantly mind-bending YA work of speculative fiction...Shusterman fictionalizes these big issues while simultaneously making connections to our own reality, prompting readers to question how their own biases and privilege might distort their perception of the world. Game Changer is a book with a sense of humor and an existential bent that is overflowing with biting social commentary and aphoristic wisdom. Easy to read, with perspective-altering drama, this novel is on track to become the go-to contemporary fable for this generation of readers." — Shelf Awareness (starred review)

     "A timely, speculative thought experiment in perspective, privilege, and identity." — Kirkus Reviews

     "The conceit behind Shusterman's latest is truly unique. While it exhibits the author's usual storytelling aplomb, it also manages to delve into more serious and timely subject matter, such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. Despite these heavy topics, the story still moves at a lively pace and, thanks to a zany sci-fi twist, manages to pack in a few laughs as well." — Booklist

     "A straight, white, cisgender teen is confronted with his own privilege via iterative realities in Printz Honoree Shusterman's (Scythe) ambitious speculative novel." — Publishers Weekly

     "Shusterman has an eye for clever concepts and a masterful control of pace." — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

     "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." — Horn Book Magazine

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     December 15, 2020
     Grades 9-12 At first, Ash attributes the buzzing in his head to a concussion sustained during a football game. Slowly, he notices more things askew, such as blue stop signs that everyone considers normal. After another rough tackle on the field, Ash discovers that he is hopping from dimension to dimension each time he gets hit. At first, he marvels at how different his life is in these alternate realities. But when he travels to a reality where the civil rights movement never happened, the significance of his power comes into focus. He must learn to harness it to both right wrongs in other worlds and return to his own before he messes things up. The conceit behind Shusterman's latest is truly unique. While it exhibits the author's usual storytelling aplomb, it also manages to delve into more serious and timely subject matter, such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. Despite these heavy topics, the story still moves at a lively pace and, thanks to a zany sci-fi twist, manages to pack in a few laughs as well.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: He's won the National Book Award, and he's at home on the New York Times best-seller list. The publisher's robust marketing campaign should catch the attention of any reader not already itching to get their hands on this.

     COPYRIGHT(2020) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     December 15, 2020
     A timely, speculative thought experiment in perspective, privilege, and identity. Ash Bowman is a White, heterosexual boy who doesn't think too deeply about the plights of others. That is, until a jarring football injury shifts him into a parallel universe. At first, the changes to Ash's world are small: Stop signs are blue, not red, for example. Then, with every tackle, Ash transports himself into a new reality, and the changes become much more pronounced. Characters change gender, social class status, sexuality, or even live in a world where racial segregation still exists. These changes in perspective prompt Ash to cultivate a greater sense of empathy and urgency regarding the suffering of others. But as reality becomes increasingly unstable, he must set the world back to rights. Ash is a clever, sincere narrator, and his journey of self-discovery is well-paced with solid twists at nearly every chapter's end. But the project ultimately attempts to tackle too much, covering abuse, racism, homophobia, misogyny, class privilege, and more; this leads to little time and nuance dedicated to each. Unlike in real life, characters typically possess a single marginalized identity, and the interplay between struggles for progress in different areas is not explored, oversimplifying matters. The joys of queer love are shown, but experiences of being female or Black are largely presented in terms of oppression. Additionally, characters from marginalized populations are generally used for Ash's own character development. A well-intentioned project whose earnest messages of empathy and equality fall short in execution. (Science fiction. 14-18)

     COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     January 11, 2021
     A straight, white, cisgender teen is confronted with his own privilege via iterative realities in Printz Honoree Shusterman’s (Scythe) ambitious speculative novel. In the first game of his senior year, defensive tackle Ash Bowman feels a strange sensation while sacking the opposing team’s quarterback. That night, he discovers that stop signs are now blue instead of red, and no one remembers otherwise. The next time it happens, Ash enters a wealthy existence where his family swaps tract housing for a gated community, and a third tackle has him attending an all-white high school in a world where segregation never ended. As each hit spins Ash further from the reality he knows, he finds himself grappling with realities of class, gender, race, and sexuality. Some gratifyingly complex character relationships help balance the action, but centering the privileged protagonist’s limited perspective means that characters with more intersectionally layered identities come off as secondary. Shusterman’s tackling of so many nuanced subjects fails to focus sufficiently on each, resulting in a thought-provoking work that only skims the surface. Ages 14–up. (Feb.)■

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     February 1, 2021
     

     Gr 8 Up-A hard tackle on the football field normally gives a linebacker a concussion-but every hit Ash Bowman takes throws him into new worlds, called Elsewheres. In the first Elsewhere, the stop signs are blue instead of red. The next hit sends him to an Elsewhere where his father is a professional football player. The next: Segregation is still legal. Ash learns this multidimensional jumping gives him the power to change the world-but only so many times. Once his time runs out, the world will be stuck however he's left it. One might have hoped a novel so firmly grounded in current events would more deftly tackle topics like racism, homophobia, and misogyny-as it is, this novel is a Chosen One white savior narrative. It is only after Ash, who is white and heterosexual, moves through alternate realities to experience firsthand discrimination that he learns these things are bad. Ash is deeply changed by what he learns across worlds, his narrative voice swerving between compelling and mansplaining as he pulls readers along. Shusterman's writing style instantly turns pages but ultimately isn't enough to make up for the problematic foundation the book was built on. "Arc of the Scythe" fans will likely be disappointed in this metaphysical novel, but the sports-meets-speculative aspects will draw in new readers. VERDICT An earnest novel that misses its mark, this is an additional purchase for collections where Shusterman's books already have an audience.-Emmy Neal, Lake Forest Lib., IL

     Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     May 1, 2021
     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. Jonathan Hunt

     (Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     January 1, 2021
     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.

     (Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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"A timely, speculative thought experiment in perspective, privilege, and identity." —Kirkus

"The conceit behind Shusterman's latest is truly unique. While it exhibits the author's usual storytelling aplomb, it also manages to delve into more serious and timely subject matter, such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. Despite these heavy topics, the story still moves at a lively pace and, thanks to a zany sci-fi twist, manages to pack in a few laughs as well." —Booklist

All it takes is one hit on the football field, and suddenly Ash's life doesn't look quite the way he remembers it.

Impossible though it seems, he's been hit into another dimension—and keeps on bouncing through worlds that are almost-but-not-really his own.

The changes start small, but they quickly spiral out of control as Ash slides into universes where he has everything he's ever wanted, universes where society is stuck in the...

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   • description: Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary
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   • description: Young Adult Fiction / Sports & Recreation / Football