Restart (Gordon Korman)

Restart
Gordon Korman
Scholastic
Fiction, MG General Fiction
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: The fall is the first thing Chase Ambrose remembers when he wakes up in the hospital... and the only thing he remembers. He was falling from - where? Why? And who are these people in his room who seem so happy he's back? The doctor tells him he was unconscious for four days, and that, aside from a concussion and a shoulder injury (and the amnesia), everything's fine. But Chase knows from the start that not everything is, in fact, fine. His kid stepsister's clearly afraid of him. His mother's walking on eggshells. And when he finally gets back to school - apparently he was the captain of the football team? - he gets a lot of strange, scared looks from teachers and students alike, and the only ones to greet him as friends are brash bullies. Just who was Chase Ambrose in the thirteen years he can't remember... and is he destined, despite his best efforts, to become that monster again?

REVIEW: Are bullies born or made - and can they ever be redeemed or "cured"? That question is at the heart of Restart, and the heart of Chase's inner dilemma.
Though he has no memory of it, he and his two best friends were notorious not only in their junior high but in the town at large. He hasn't even reached high school and he's already on the verge of having a permanent criminal record. As is all too common, the adults who should be able to stop such behavior back down, under pressure from parents or school boards or the fear of lawsuits or simply rationalizing that the benefits to the school (Chase and the others being star athletes) outweigh the reign of terror and lifelong scars left by bullies. The problem feeds on itself, as the bullies keep getting away with increasingly atrocious behavior and their victims see them getting away with it and feel even more helpless (or even maybe like they must deserve it, if nobody will help them)... which is how we end up with grown adults who behave in monstrous ways being rewarded by society and the victims admonished to not "rock the boat" by calling out their appalling, harmful behavior. Even Chase's father, an ex-jock reliving his glory days vicariously through his son, all but comes out and says he approves of Chase's bullying behavior, the old "boys will be boys" and "it toughens kids up" excuses that ring so hollow to those literally chased out of their schools and homes after being targeted. It takes a literal knock to the skull for Chase to break the cycle. The boy who walks out of the hospital does not seem to be the same one who tied kids to tether ball poles or set off cherry bombs during a piano recital, and the more he learns about what he did, the more horrified Chase becomes about the old him, the monster him... even as he starts finding hints of that old self resurfacing.
The book switches viewpoints to other characters in several chapters, as Chase's former victims are first confused by the change, then slowly come to accept that there might be a decent person emerging from the "alpha rat"... even as Chase's old friends worry that the "new" Chase will get them into far more trouble over one of their last stunts. It misses a bit of an opportunity as it doesn't try to explore the roots of Chase's behavior, but then there really isn't a valid excuse for behavior like pulling the head off a kid's favorite toy or casually knocking a stranger into a fountain hard enough to require stitches. Even his old friends, in their point of view chapters, don't seem to know why they're behaving like they are; they just feel entitled to it, and see bullying as an acceptable way to entertain themselves and get what they want (and why shouldn't they, when they're never stopped and are even rewarded for it... when they know that even the principal of their school will accept the flimsiest of excuses not to actually have to deal with the problem, victims and property damage be damned?). As the tale unfolds, Chase and the others must grapple with the central question of whether a leopard can truly change his spots... or, rather, whether the bully Chase was the real Chase all along, any changes wrought by trauma being temporary aberrations. Unlike the vast majority of his real-life counterparts, Chase actually confronts the damage he has done and lives he has wrecked, and faces the judgment of his peers (and the grown-ups around them). There are some humorous moments and some serious moments and some moments of harsh self-reflection where easy answers just do not exist. The ending feels a little neat, and as mentioned previously I think Korman sidestepped some potentially rich ground to dig into, even lightly, over what actually started the bullying cycle in Chase and if mere amnesia can short-circuit that root cause. (There is possibly a little bit implied in his father's myopic fixation on football as the ends that justify all behaviors, but that alone doesn't seem sufficient given the severe escalation of old Chase's terrible behavior.)
Overall, I decided to round up to a solid Good rating, though anyone who has ever been on the wrong end of bullies (hand raised, here) will likely recognize just how much literary license Korman employed to come up with a remotely satisfactory conclusion...

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