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A review by katykelly
Game Changer by Neal Shusterman
3.0
Fab concept but felt rushed though.
I've loved all the Shusterman's I've read. I chose this seeing his name and casting a brief glance at the synopsis. And it's a wonderfully enticing prospect anyway - parallel dimensions!
High school football player Ash doesn't really think too deeply about the lives and problems of those around him - a younger brother he doesn't have much of a relationship with, a friend with a controlling partner, he even slept with his best friend's sister.
We don't see Ash as a bad guy, he's a regular teenager, but we do feel the confusion as he takes a hit in a game one Friday night and finds that the world around him stops at blue lights now, and not at red. And then it happens again and more and bigger changes begin to seep into reality.
In a plot with elements of David Levithan's Every Day and reminiscent of old favourites Sliders and Quantum Leap, Ash learns that he's moving between parallel universes... that one small change can affect a whole lot of other things... that things really could be worse... and that he'd do anything to get back to his own dimension.
While I enjoyed the book, the character and the concept, looking at it as a whole, I was disappointed that some things felt glossed over. Dimension jumps cover broad and big topics: race, gender, homosexuality, controlling/abusive relationships, drugs, sibling relationships - yet some of these could have been whole novels in themselves and are barely touched upon.
Shusterman does take the time to build a narrative with some scientific-sounding backstory/encompassing structure as to why and how this is all happening to Ash, and I did like the idea of this and the new characters this brought in. The continuity of Ash's life and how new changes fit with old ones worked.
I'd have rated this more highly for spending more time on each iteration, for exploring the issues raised in worlds related to Ash's friends and his own changed body. A lot was fit in but not mined for its possibilities.
Still worth a read and recommending, fascinating idea. Some violence but not graphic. For ages 13 and above.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.
I've loved all the Shusterman's I've read. I chose this seeing his name and casting a brief glance at the synopsis. And it's a wonderfully enticing prospect anyway - parallel dimensions!
High school football player Ash doesn't really think too deeply about the lives and problems of those around him - a younger brother he doesn't have much of a relationship with, a friend with a controlling partner, he even slept with his best friend's sister.
We don't see Ash as a bad guy, he's a regular teenager, but we do feel the confusion as he takes a hit in a game one Friday night and finds that the world around him stops at blue lights now, and not at red. And then it happens again and more and bigger changes begin to seep into reality.
In a plot with elements of David Levithan's Every Day and reminiscent of old favourites Sliders and Quantum Leap, Ash learns that he's moving between parallel universes... that one small change can affect a whole lot of other things... that things really could be worse... and that he'd do anything to get back to his own dimension.
While I enjoyed the book, the character and the concept, looking at it as a whole, I was disappointed that some things felt glossed over. Dimension jumps cover broad and big topics: race, gender, homosexuality, controlling/abusive relationships, drugs, sibling relationships - yet some of these could have been whole novels in themselves and are barely touched upon.
Shusterman does take the time to build a narrative with some scientific-sounding backstory/encompassing structure as to why and how this is all happening to Ash, and I did like the idea of this and the new characters this brought in. The continuity of Ash's life and how new changes fit with old ones worked.
I'd have rated this more highly for spending more time on each iteration, for exploring the issues raised in worlds related to Ash's friends and his own changed body. A lot was fit in but not mined for its possibilities.
Still worth a read and recommending, fascinating idea. Some violence but not graphic. For ages 13 and above.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.