National Book Award winner Neil Shusterman's Game Changer is a brilliantly mind-bending YA work of speculative fiction that tells the story of Ash Bowman, high school football player and "subjective locus" of the entire universe.
Prior to his paradigm shift, Ash's life is nothing out of the ordinary--a "sturdy," white defensive lineman with a passion for football, he's good but not quite as good as his Black best friend Leo, the team's star wide receiver. Then Ash delivers a heavy blow to an opposing team's quarterback. Ash's concussed brain "misfires" and he begins to notice that things are not quite right: stop signs are blue, "separate but equal" is the law of the land, and a boy Ash doesn't know is now his team's wide receiver. Ash has become the literal center of the universe, and every time he gives a huge hit, he bounces "what is into a variation of what isn't." With the help of his friends, his brother and a squad of snarky multidimensional beings, Ash hopes to find a way to reset his life. Turns out, being the center of the universe isn't nearly as fun as it sounds.
Game Changer explores some of the problems facing the United States and the world today: systemic racism, homophobia, sexism. Shusterman (Challenger Deep; Scythe; Dry) 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. --Cade Williams, freelance reviewer