Restart

by Gordon Korman

[Kat @ Novels & Waffles]

“This is an awful thing that’s happened to you, but it’s also presenting you with a rare opportunity. You have the chance to rebuild yourself from the ground up, to make a completely fresh start.”

In every school, there's a Jerk Jock. They're easy enough to spot – see that stocky, buff guy dressed in the letterman jacket? He's over there stuffing some nerd in a locker, egged on by his fellow football goons. Yeah, that's him. What's his name? Flash? Biff? Johnny? Steve?

In Restart by Gordon Korman, his name is Chase. Chase's a walking stereotype – he picks on the video club kids, has two lackeys who aid him in his wrongdoings, and his only saving grace seems to be his skill on the football field, which not everybody cares about. That's Chase in a nutshell. Or at least, that was Chase, up until the accident. When Chase wakes up in a hospital bed, he's told that he fell out of a second story window. He is also told that he has amnesia. He can't remember a thing about himself; not his name, not even his own mother!

Although the plot of this book is a bit predictable, I found seeing all the action pan out as satisfying as dumping frozen yogurt on the head of a well-deserving bully. Every chapter sees a switch in narrator, allowing the reader to experience a rainbow of reactions to Chase's accident and hospital discharge. Some rejoice at his return. Some wish that the fall hadn't only sent him to the hospital. Others are indifferent. And all the while, our sans-memory Chase has to puzzle out who feels what and why. Although most of the characters in Restart have a distinct voice and a unique flavor, there are two or three who get only a single chapter to tell their perspective. This left me wondering: was the inclusion of their story all that necessary? If so, why did these characters only get one chapter to share it?

In the end, Korman has done something here that not many authors can successfully do – he has taken a well known stereotype and shaken it up. He has taken our Jerk Jock™ circa every 80s movie ever and has flipped him on his head. Literally. It's like Korman's discovered that ketchup can be mixed with mayo. The result? Something new and fresh and wonderful. Restart is a fast-paced middle grade novel with an engaging writing style that not only entertains, but poses an important question: can people change? Or is your personality a fixed part of you? It's the time-old question – nature vs. nurture?