Review Detail

Young Adult Fiction 820
Realistic and Intense
Overall rating
 
5.0
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
5.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
N/A
‘Game Changer’ by Abbi Glines combines heartache with the beauty of finding love where you least expected it. Despite Asa Griffith’s difficult family life, he has an end goal—to get out of Lawton, Alabama as fast as he can to escape his abusive father. The trouble is that he wants to take his mother with him, and she won’t go. She stands by his father no matter the trouble that occurs.

It’s not until Asa meets Ezmita that he discovers that life doesn’t have to be so dramatic and unfulfilling. She brings light and purpose that he hasn’t ever had before. Even though she’s lived in town her whole life as well, her family upbringing and the fact that she is being homeschooled keeps him from knowing her. But she knows him and has had a crush on him for forever, having worked in her parents’ gas station and store, waiting on him for years.

When Ezmita catches Asa on what might possibly be the worst night of his life, a bond forms. He feels like she gets him unlike any other, and even though he doesn’t want to let himself be vulnerable, he can’t seem to help himself when he’s around her. As they get to know each other, they fall deeper and deeper, Asa knowing all the while that he doesn’t want to hurt her. She’s too important to him for that to happen. Yet, he can’t help himself, and it’s not only Ezmita who risks being hurt, but Asa himself, as their lives seem to be headed in two separate directions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic begins in March 2020 and makes it way through the town of Lawton, Asa deals with how his family is affected by the virus, while his friends and Ezmita try to keep his spirits up. The death of a friend earlier in the story ahead of the pandemic beginning, along with Ezmita’s strict parents and the uncertainty of college looming over their heads all makes for difficulties that they try to get through by finding solace in each other.

The hardships that Asa and Ezmita experience, while not easy, make them stronger and more determined to make their own way and share their truth with each other. It is a realistic and intense look at how life can really throw you for a loop, but you have to find a way to make it right for you, no matter the circumstances.
Good Points
The hardships that Asa and Ezmita experience, while not easy, make them stronger and more determined to make their own way and share their truth with each other. It is a realistic and intense look at how life can really throw you for a loop, but you have to find a way to make it right for you, no matter the circumstances.
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