Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading and loving Schusterman's Scythe trilogy, I was very excited to pick up this new release by him. Sci-fi is my jam and alternate realities a buzzword that alone makes me want to read a book, and with the pleasant previous experience with the author - I thought it was a recipe for a success.

I did like the general idea and premise for the book. Although I know nothing about football, nor do I have a clue how the game works, other than people slamming into each other, the sport part of the story didn't put me off. I understood as much as I needed - Ash, the main character, gets slammed into an alternate reality during a game and things become quite messed up very fast. Sounds good.

The book was a breeze to get through. I liked the writing, the tone and the humour. Ashley was a fine protagonist, someone who's point of view I enjoyed for most of the book. He wasn't my favourite - that spot is dedicated to the Edwards, but I didn't dislike him by any means. So why is the book a 3 star?

Now, I'm going to start by saying I think what Schusterman tried to do was valid and it's needed in YA, but the way it was done just didn't bring anything new to the table or have any particular merit in my eyes. The alternate realities bring up discussions about racism, sexism and homophobia, to describe it broadly. Yes, those issues are valid ones to talk about in YA literature and by all means should be discussed more and more, but maybe in a way that sounds less rehearsed and preachy. After all, Ash is a white, straight male in the first reality. His school is diverse racially and so is his friend circle, but he admits on many occasions how ignorant he's been in the past and how his Black best friend called him out in those times. Ash admits that he has a lot to learn, yet we don't see him learning much. I think the book misses the point completely and brings up issues and discussions without being willing to delve into all of them with the depth they deserve.

That being said, I didn't dislike the book. I just think that it could've done more and done it better.

Game Changer is a very difficult book to review, with topics I’m not sure I can say something about.

We meet 17 year old Ash Bowman, popular football player and all-round regular straight white teenage boy. One day, he hits his opponent on the field with enough force to - literally - crash into another dimension, where most things seem the same, but some aren’t. As Ash crashes through different dimension, each more and more different than the last, he desperately tries to get back to his own dimension, before it’s too late and he loses himself completely.

I’ll start with the things I can confidently say something about. I never read any books by Neal Shusterman before, but I probably will, because his writing style is very pleasant to read. He’ll refer to characters or happenings from chapters ago by adding a little joke or some extra information, so that you’re not expected to remember every single detail you read ages ago, without every happening being a lore dump.

The story itself was very enjoyable, up to certain points. The idea of a dimension hopping teenager, where every dimension is slightly different than the rest is a great idea. Having Ash figure out what was different from the previous dimension, and seeing him struggle with memories from all his previous lives, makes for a good story.

The thing where it gets difficult for me to say anything about, though, are the subjects treated in this book. The book discusses Black Lives Matters, homophobia and sexism. The last subject I know a thing or two about. The first two subjects, though, I know very little about, as a straight white woman.

I read some other reviews to get my bearings a bit on these subjects, and from what I understand, there are plenty of people feeling like this book represents a white savior complex. It did feel very weird to me, reading about a straight, white boy, suddenly experiencing racism, homophobia and sexism, and suddenly making all the “right” choices, like it is that easy.

Aside from that, because so many different problematic subjects are being handled, there never seems to be enough focus on any of them. Because of the dimension hopping, Ash hops towards and away from these subjects regularly, without really giving the attention it deserves. If Shusterman had picked maybe one subject to focus on, this wouldn’t have been that convoluted.

Like I said, it’s difficult for me to write a review about this book. The best I can say is, try to form your own opinion, but be aware that BLM, homophobia and sexism are prominent subjects in this book.

Game Changer is a highly original read which covers a diverse range of topics and will make the reader challenge their own thought processes. The growth the main character goes on throughout the course of the story is astounding and shows real depth.

***I received an ARC of Game Changer through NetGalley (thank you Walker Books) in exchange for a honest review.***

Game Changer was unexpected and surprising to say the least. Even though several of Neal Shusterman’s books has been on my tbr for I don’t know how long, years maybe?, I had yet to read a book of his when I got my hands on Game Changer. I went in unknowing of what to expect which I’m in hindsight is really glad of since I got to experience this book for what it is and not compare it to his other works.

I wanted to read Game Changer because the description intrigued me, probably because I’m a physics nerd with special interests in theoretical physics (string theory and stuff) so the premise of the book was exactly up my alley. I was hooked from the first chapter. It’s not that the story is all that amazing, because although it’s interesting, unique and has important content it’s absolutely not the kind of books I usually read. Neither was the characters especially relatable or engaging. The characters in the book are fine but nothing more than the average high school students, although that was the actual point, wasn’t it?

For me, what makes Game Changer so great, so brilliant, is all the small details and the wit and sarcasm. How I love when an author writes satiristic and clever. As the description says, the main character Ash bounces into several parallel realities/worlds and every time something changes. At first it’s only small changes but that increases throughout the book. I don’t want to spoil anything by giving examples, but let me just say that Neal Shusterman is absolutely brilliant. Then there are the Edwards (okay, that was a minor spoiler sorry but when you read the book, you’ll understand). The Edwards are my absolute favorite elements of this book, everything about them is just hilarious. (And although they aren’t described that way, I pictured them as minions.)

Moving on to the context of the book which is to inform and bring light to very important, however uncomfortable, topics such as racism, homophobia and sexism. I cannot speak for people being subject of such things, other than perhaps sexism since I’m a white, privileged heterosexual (at least I think so) woman but I found interesting and somewhat enlightening to read Game Changer. Of course, I was already aware that these social issues exists but you cannot really problematize it enough.

Overall I think the topics were very well intertwined and felt like a natural part of the story. After the first 300 pages however, the story line unfortunately began to feel a bit forced. That being said, I still enjoyed Game Changer a lot and I found myself laughing out lout more than once throughout the book. It’s definitely worth reading!

I understand what Neal Shusterman was trying to do with this book but unfortunately it fell very flat. The book ends up feeling like it’s the journey of a white boy who doesn’t have empathy for other people until he’s literally forced to. I do think this book might help 17 year old white boys who need their eyes open - but it’s kind of exhausting reading if you’re already aware of any of the issues he discusses.

I'm going to try to put into words what I felt when I read this novel. This book hasn't been widely read yet, so don't take my word as gospel and check out other review before you make a decision to read or not read this book.

One thing everyone will agree on is that Neal Shusterman is trying his best to tackle many different subjects in this novel. The feeling that gave me is that this novel and the plot was created around this concept. I found it very hard to stay engaged because of this. In a way I felt like the character was going through everything just to learn about racism, sexism, the LBGTQ community and other contemporary topics.

For what it's worth, the novel is about Ash who gets hit in the head during a football game. He is flung into another reality in which his friends are still his friends, but there have been some weird changes in the world. Ash is a linebacker so he gets hit on the head a lot, and every time he is flung into the multiverse, as he's fighting for his survival he learns more and more about the world he inhabits.

The idea behind the novel is really good, the characters are interesting, but I don't always agree with the thoughts and especially the conclusion of the novel made me shudder a bit. There are moments that the main character in the novel "Ash" is 'mansplaining' how women feel and look and interact with the world which (as a woman myself) I felt missed the mark. I do really appreciate the effort Neal has put into researching and writing this book. His intentions were clearly good!

This is not how I thought this review was going to go. I really loved the Scythe series, so I was desperate to get my hands on Neal's new book. However, it completely fell flat for me. While I can greatly appreciate what he was trying to achieve, it just came across as a preachy, white saviour narrative. It felt condescending and just didn't work for me.

Game Changer by Neal Shusterman is the story of Ash , one of the star players on his high school football team who experiences something very strange when a tackle on the field hits so hard that it seems to have changed his perceptions of reality. At first it is just small things, the colour of a sign, the name of a band, but his memories don't quite align with the reality of his experience, and when the same thing happens again with far larger consequences it seems that Ash may have the ability to alter reality. Unfortunately these alterations are not always for the better, and soon Ash realises that he must figure out a way to get back to his own reality before the change becomes permanent.
This is a book that tries to take on a lot of issues, not always successfully. I do appreciate the author's intention but it feels a little clumsy in execution. I think tackling huge topics like racism, homophobia and sexism in the way the author does here, means he has bitten off a more than he can chew. That being said, I think the book could provoke some interesting discussion and may make readers take a second look at their attitudes and preconceptions.
I read and reviewed and ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Neal Shusterman always seems to come up with such novel ideas. I am a huge lover of the idea of parallel universes, so the premise immediately captured my interest, but it, unfortunately, didn't live up to my initial expectations.

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.

On paper, this sounded brilliant. Parallel universes are one of my favourite topics to read about, so I was instantly intrigued. Unfortunately, I feel that this book suffers from a case of good intentions, but poor execution. The main character is a privileged young straight white guy who, when concussed, can move into alternate universes in an attempt to change outcomes. He is thrown into worlds in which he experiences issues like drug abuse, racism, and homophobia, but he behaves like a typical "white saviour". I get what the intentions of the book were, and I truly don't think that the author wrote it with "straight white guy is the only person in the world who can fix all the problems that Black and LGBTQ+ people face" in mind, yet this is how it came across to me. Additionally, so many big and current issues were tackled, but the volume of them almost diluted the story down too much. I'd rather have fewer topics that are a bit more concentrated with more impact, than throwing in every single global hot topic. It was just too much!

Yes, this book had an exceptional premise but it sadly didn't work out for me. Shusterman is clearly very good at writing a story that is both unique and readable, this one simply wasn't on the same level as some of his other works.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Game Changer is a fun and entertaining read that explores many societal ills as well as the power of perspective. It is thought provoking and sure to spark discussion.

(Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy!)

I think Neal Shusterman had really good intentions with this book and he does carry some of them off, but overall I think he was just trying to hit on too many issues at once and as such a lot of it felt glossed over. It was a good read, and I do like the authors writing but it was just lacking for me. The idea is an interesting one which just maybe missed the mark a bit.

I have been so excited about reading a new Neal Shusterman novel. Having read and loved Dry and the entire Arc of the Scythe series, I thought that I might have discovered a new favourite author. I featured Game Changer in my most anticipated 2021 releases video, and I thought it was going to be an easy 5 star read to start off 2021 right.

Unfortunately, Game Changer took those hopes and dashed them to pieces.

Game Changer tells the story of a boy called Ash, who hits his head badly during a football game. He feels cold and uncomfortable, and wonders if it might be a concussion until he’s driving home and runs a blue light.

Yep, a blue light.

Ash realises that the world around him has changed, but he has no idea why. The only thing he can think to do is make sure to hit his head again during his next game in the hope that things might go back to normal. Unfortunately Ash finds himself quickly shifting further and further away from the life he’s used to.

I think the concept of Game Changer is utterly brilliant. The idea that the entire world could change due to such a small, seemingly inconsequential event makes you reconsider the impact that your actions may have. It could have had a positive impact on the behaviour of a lot of people, if it wasn’t trying to do quite as much.

Neal Shusterman uses Game Changer to criticise a lot of different injustices found across the world. The class divide, the racial divide, the gender divide – all of these and more are critiqued and torn apart throughout the course of Ash’s story.

Unfortunately, rather than educational and eye-opening, it comes across as extremely preachy. Ash is a white kid who struggles to listen to his best friend Leo, who is Black, when they talk about racist issues, yet we’re supposed to believe that Ash’s attitude changes remarkably quickly. One minute he’s contradicting Leo’s lived experiences, but a few chapters later he’s suddenly converted into a social justice warrior fighting the good fight for anyone who could be described as underprivileged.

I sincerely appreciate what Neal Shusterman was trying to do, but it doesn’t work. Stuffing this many important conversations into such a small book (while also introducing some pretty mind-boggling scientific concepts) is overwhelming, and sadly I didn’t enjoy Game Changer anywhere near as much as I was expecting to.

That being said, Neal Shusterman’s writing is still great. The conversational tone that Ash takes throughout makes him feel like a friend rather than like a character.

I cared about a lot of the background characters, even the ones that we don’t spend a lot of time with, because Shusterman has a skill when it comes to fleshing out characters realistically with only a brief description. This is something I noticed throughout the Arc of the Scythe – sometimes characters are only around for a chapter or two, but they stick in your mind remarkably – and it’s something Shusterman manages again in Game Changer.

I would still recommend picking up Game Changer – the early reviews seem to be extremely divisive, so you’re either going to love or hate this book – but unfortunately it just didn’t do it for me.

I’d like to thank the publishers and netgalley for an arc in exchange of an honest review.

This book was trying to do something different and while it achieves it in some respects, it just want for me. I felt like it was a bit holier than thou trying to get certain points across in a bit of an awkward way. Some points don’t need to be spelled out to understand them? I found it hard to connect with the main character and had no real mental picture of who they were at all.

I just felt like I didn’t get to know them as a person at all and then they were thrown into weird situations. Ash isn’t particularly likeable but nor is he offensive. He’s just there. Not only that I don’t know anything about American football so every time that’s mentioned I have to zone out. Maybe this really isn’t for me, who knows. I tried because I love time travel and alternative worlds etc. But it didn’t hit home as having any weight to it.

Unfortunately this is in a format I am unable to download and therefore cannot review. However, this has definitely caught my intention and I fully intend to purchase a finished copy. Alternate realities and multi works are some of my favourite bstories, and Neal Shusterman is a wonderful writer.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.
This is an ambitious book that combines YA and dystopian and I really enjoyed it. I was invested in it from page 1.
This book is challenging and thought-provoking Highly recommend it.

Game Changer will, I think, be one of those books that will polarise opinion. I’m grateful to NetGalley for granting me access to it prior to publication, and I think I would recommend it to people, but there are issues that make me wonder if this was quite the right way to get the intended result.
Our story focuses on Ash, a fairly typical privileged white American boy. He plays football. He has relatively open relationships with his friends and family, but there’s a sense of things being held back. This doesn’t cause undue concern, but then Ash is involved in a play that has far-reaching consequences. We journey with Ash as he experiences these strange events.
Initially, until we have an explanation for what has happened, I was quite disengaged with this. Ash is not a particularly interesting character and I found his processing of events and the implications for him just a little patronising. He seems to comment lots on everyone around him, but to be quite unaware of his own shortcomings and this annoyed me.
Thankfully, quite early on we get some answers that what has happened to Ash is out of the realms of the ordinary. He has shifted reality and each time he does this he is able to change things. Sometimes this works well; sometimes not. Each time it happens, Ash learns something new about himself and the world around him. His only guides through this are twins (who are added to each time he changes things) keen to see if this time round the thing placed at the centre of the universe can make things better.
Ultimately, in each reality Ash experiences there are unpleasant things to address: racism, sexism, homophobia. You name the issue, we get it. Ash gets to live in different realities, each experience opening his eyes to the issues faced by many and the ignorance that many of us live in without even realising it. There was a clear sense of him growing as a person, albeit sometimes this feeling seeming forced on him.
After a rather slow start, the book became more engaging. I got quite caught up with Ash’s experiences and found the interactions between Ash and the other characters quite interesting. Unfortunately, though there were lessons to be learned - and Ash clearly set out his growing self-awareness in a way that often felt unnecessary - the fact that he ended up in the situation he did suggested that in a world of possibilities we will often settle for what is familiar enough to not be overly threatening. For me, this was not so much a Game Changer as a way of highlighting that change can be necessary and we should look for opportunities to improve things.

Ok I'm going to say it, Game Changer by Neal Shusterman is an ambitious book that blends the genres of YA and dystopia oh so well.

Thank you to Netgalley and Walker Books for the ARC of Game Changer.

This is a book which has elements of typical coming of age themes, you know the idea of self discovery, growing up. But this cleverly mixed in with ideas of sci-fi and fantasy all whilst following a thread of social etiquettes and criticisms that we all face within this modern world that we live in.

With themes of racism, sexuality, gender, class and essentially looking at our own morals, Game Changer might not just be changing Ash's world but it could also alter our own perspectives on how we live our lives too.

I don't think Neal is setting out to make Ash a big hero, saving the world from all that I mentioned above. If anything it highlights not that he can change the world but he can at least change himself.

The concept of this book was intriguing, thought provoking and the execution of that idea was interesting, imaginative and immersive.

Game Changer is a novel not to be missed.

Neal Shusterman has again produced a book which is challenging and thought provoking. How would the World be different if just one small thing was changed? How would your life be different if just one thing about yourself had changed? Game Changer is a curious mix of sci fi and social discussion that considers these things.

I was totally gripped by the whole book, and I think it is one that will stay with me for a while!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Ash is a normal (white privileged) high-school student. He plays for his school American football team on Friday and then goes for burgers with his friends. During one game, something goes incredibly wrong. He is used to taking massive tackles from adversaries, but when he is slumped against the field and bumps his head, he feels something is different. He dismisses the headache and concussion scare as normality, considering the sport. He starts to slowly notice that after this tackle a few things changed in his reality. Soon Ash discovers he has entered an alternate universe, and he has to find a way to bring his life and his friends back to “normality”.

I had to think about this book for a while and I also read others reviews. I know this book will be problematic for some readers and I expect lots of heated debates about it in the readers/bloggers community. I personally enjoyed this book and I have a positive opinion about this story. I think, sometimes we tend to read too much into a story and we miss the big picture.

I don’t think this is simply a story about a white privileged guy who wants to save the world from racism, homophobia or sexual violence as I saw it described in a few reviews. I really doubt this was the writer’s intentions.

I think this is a story about a guy who wants to save the world – his own world. His world with his best friends, his family, his brother and all the people he loves in it. Because at the end Ash himself says “I would never truly be able to see things from his point of view” referring to his best friend Leo, who is black. He also says “[…] at least I was no longer a carrier in the epidemic of ignorance.”

And that’s it. It’s about recognising that as white privileged people, we will never fully understand minorities’ perspective, but at least we shouldn’t live in ignorance and pretend racism, homophobia or even sexual violence don’t exist.

In the end, I prefer looking at the big picture and focusing more on the final message from Ash, that makes me fully appreciate this story. That we are all part of something “universally” bigger than what we can fully understand, there are bigger forces at play and beyond us. The best we can do is to live a humble life and be kind to each other.

Because “basically, we are idiots from a universal perspective.”

My usual reading zones are international and literary fiction but YA dystopian fiction is my guilty secret. I've read the first three of Neal Shusterman's Unwind series and all of his Arc of the Scythe series, so I was first in line with my hand up shouting "Me, me, me" when Game Changer was on offer.

Game Changer is a diversion from Shusterman's dystopian worlds - although it does, perhaps, offer the absurd and unpleasant aspects of the world around us today, holding them up for greater examination. Ash is a high school student playing on the football team - American football, not the real stuff - who has a pretty ordinary life right up to the point it becomes completely unordinary. Life's about family, modest home, good friends, doing OK at school but probably not setting the world on fire.

Then everything changes. Ash takes a bad hit on the football field and suddenly the world changes. First, it's weird little things - stop signs are blue instead of red - but as the book progresses, he moves into a series of parallel universes in which each brings something different. The book looks at money, drug-selling, racial segregation, homosexuality, sexism and more. It does this in a way that never gets TOO preachy but does occasionally get a bit repetitive. Same characters, just little tweaks each time. It reminded me of Groundhog Day - different worlds, very similar stuff, no way of getting out of the cycle or repetition and revision. Can Ash get back to something like normal or will his spiralling world of weirdness destroy him and everybody around him?

I enjoyed the book, but I didn't LOVE it the way I've loved the Unwind and Scythe books. I hope it will make YA readers - especially those of the 'right' age rather than old ladies like me - stop and think about the abherrent behaviours around them every day and encourage readers to stick up for what's right against what's normal. Honestly, I prefer the dystopian novels more because they give Shusterman the opportunity to challenge and educate readers in a broader way (think of all the Scythes and the great and the good or evil and bad who inspired their Scythe names - lots of opportunities to go off and look up more about the people).

I have 'Challenger Deep' on loan from the library ebook service so I'll be heading for that book shortly'. I suspect 'Game Changer' won't stay with me long term, the way his other books do but I hope many will enjoy it.

For those who care, there's a bit of swearing (honestly, if you write about teenagers, how can you leave it out?) but it's not prolific. Sex is hinted at rather than explicit and homosexuality is nothing more than holding hands and kissing. Drug selling is touched upon from the point of view of the risk of getting involved rather than the risk of using. It's all pretty 'vanilla' as it probably needs to be for this age range.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC. It's not a bit hit with me, but it won't put me off reading everything else Shusterman writes.