3/5

For fans of: multiverses, sci-fi, alternate reality, high school, changing perspectives, LGBTQ+, alternative history, anti-racism

Synopsis: The multi-verse is real and small-town high school Ash has somehow developed the power to travel to different universes where the changes started small but quickly spiral out of control with each jump. And with each jump, Ash sees the world through different eyes and experiences. These new revelations about life change Ash, but at a cost.

Review: Like many of us, the pandemic gave Neal Shusterman time to reflect on the state of the world and its many ills. In, Game Changer, we get some insight on his thinking and reflection. While I love his idea of having a character learn life from different perspectives especially through the concept of the multi-verse, to center the book, and the whole universe really, on a cis-white male was just bizarre to me.

I get it. I get the default of society is the cis-white male perspective, but I found myself kind of just going with the flow of the story rather than feel anything. Ash’s perspective didn’t enrage, sadden, or encourage me. The alternate universes he visited sure did, but Ash himself was just blah.

Maybe this book just isn’t meant for me. This saddens me as a fan because I have loved all of his works since Scythe. The messaging is quite heavy handed and each universe with its unique change just doesn’t do justice the nuance needed to have conversations about society and societal changes needed for more inclusivity and empathy. Maybe this story isn’t meant to be nuanced. Maybe the goal is to start conversations. But the thing is, I don’t need to be at the start of these conversations. These conversations have already happened for me many times over. So maybe I am not the target audience and I can accept that. I hope, for the target audience of this book, that they do get the messages that are trying to be communicated because they are worthwhile to be had if they haven’t happened already. But in our world today, I just can’t imagine that they haven’t happened already.