‘Restart’ by Gordon Korman

Restart tells the fascinating story of a bully who has lost his memory and has to rediscover who he is. When the protagonist, Chase, awakes in a hospital, he doesn’t know who he is. Supposedly, he’d fallen off the roof of his house, but he doesn’t know why he’d even been out there.

When Chase returns to school, he doesn’t remember anyone.

Chase learns he’d formerly played football for the school; his father — formerly a football star himself — seems to seek replicating his own glory through Chase’s football career. But because of his head injury, Chase is barred from playing.

For the first time, Chase is free to explore new interests and, essentially, reinvent himself.

But other students’ reactions, and his own resurfacing memories, present a disturbing picture: Chase had been a bully, one of three who terrorized the school.

After one particularly destructive event, Chase and his two cronies were sentenced to community service at a local senior-care facility. Chase doesn’t remember what he did to earn the sentencing, and has been excused because of his injury, but voluntarily goes back to work at the senior-care facility.

Multiple viewpoints tell the story through first-person narrative. Gordon Korman does an excellent job of bringing all these characters to life. His former targets are conflicted: the “new” Chase seems likeable, but they weigh that against their memories of who he used to be.

And Chase himself: Korman really captures the range of emotion Chase feels as he learns about his past, and struggles to reconcile that with the person he’s becoming since he had his accident.

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