The Game Changer

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I enjoyed reading this book.

Hettie works for Harlem Heights as a journalist. After her last piece that she wrote, which her boss wasn’t pleased about, she feels grateful that she’s still in work and wasn’t sacked.

Now her boss has given her another story to cover. It’s about Althea Gibson who was a Tennis champion.


The story was well written and as I hadn’t heard of her it was an interesting read about the challenges she faced in society at that time.

I highly recommend this book.

Susberry uses the ambitious Hattie, a journalist, to tell part of the story of Althea Gibson, a woman who should be far better known. A star at tennis, she later played and won at golf, Nothing was achieved, however, without struggle and one must wonder how her life and achievements would have been viewed in a more tolerant and progressive time, That said, this is a good historical fiction and a worthy read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I raced through this book as I loved the story. It is so different from other books that I’ve read.
I am not a fan of tennis, but I was fascinated with Althea the black tennis player and Hettie the black journalist.
They both experienced racism and the author has written about such a volatile subject in a sensitive way.
Great book!

I was absorbed in this book telling the story of an Afro American hero who due to rising medical costs had to rely on charity towards the end of her life. Despite growing up in Haarlem, Althea Gibson went on to become a Wimbledon and US National Tennis Champion, in a sport that was the preserve of the rich normally. It pictured a dialogue between a journalist who wanted to open up Althea to a suspicious audience. By rights, she should have been an all American hero, but was often shunned and faced discrimination from the establishment continually. The journalist wanted to get Althea aligned to the Civil Rights movement and to become a role model for other black Americans, but Althea insisted on doing things her own way and saying that she was a tennis player, pure and simple and that race, gender or background were not important to her. The book portrayed attitudes to M L King before he became famous and how people initially were suspicious of him. This was an enlightening piece of literature that deserves to be widely read.