Changes

|reviewer=Rebecca Foster

|genre=Literary Fiction

|rating=4

|buy=Yes

Lucia has recently had to change schools after she tried to stab a basketball star in the neck with a pencil for touching her Zippo lighter, her only souvenir of her father. At Whistler High rumours spread about her and she quickly earns herself a week of detention and visits to the school psychiatrist, whom she reduces to tears. Although she is really very intelligent, as witnessed by her advanced vocabulary and a teacher encouraging her to interview for a place at a special school for high achievers with social problems, she doesn't apply herself. It is almost as if she is too clever for school; it has nothing to teach her she doesn't already know.

The book is striking for its layout: on each page the title or author's name is aligned vertically down the side margin beneath the page number, instead of the usual pattern of information at the top and numbers at the bottom. The short chapters are either numbered or have thematic titles and are divided into lots of small, left-aligned paragraphs. This is meant to be Lucia's private notebook, contrasting her predictions of what will happen with what actually happens, and the layout helps it to feel authentic.

Jesse Ball teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Although this is his sixth novel, I hadn't heard of him prior to picking it up. His skill at creating the interior world of a troubled 14-year-old girl leads me to believe that the rest of his work would be well worth a look.

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