Change Places With Me by Lois Metzger - student book review by Alyssa

Change Places with Me is an intriguing example of speculative fiction, set in the near future, 2029, and exploring the idea of a future technology and the impact it could have on our lives. The main character, introduced to the reader in part one of the book as Rose, wakes up to find herself a completely different person than she was before. She’s happier, more outgoing, more normal - and she’s enjoying every minute of it. However, as time goes on, she starts to find things about herself or her memories that seem just plain wrong, and starts to get suspicious. The remaining two parts of the book focus on revealing exactly what happened to “Rose”, with Part 2 going back to before she woke up as a new person, and Part 3 returning to after she finds out what happened and how she deals with it.

When I first began the book, I found myself rather confused with this structure, especially with how part 1 was written. The reader is immediately thrown into the life of Rose, introduced to references to her past and confusion on Rose’s part that initially, until part 2 is read, tend to make little sense to the reader. However, after reading the whole book, I actually really appreciate this choice in structure, and find that it actually makes the book a whole lot more intriguing, as the reader gets to experience the confusion alongside Rose without knowing exactly what happened to her.

In terms of the futuristic part, I thought the idea of the new technology that changed Rose was very profound and well thought out. It deals with not necessarily the removal of memories, but the separation of emotion from the memory of a traumatic event, allowing the patient to move on with their lives without grief or fear of an event hanging over their head. It brings in a lot of interesting questions regarding the nature of our memories and how we should deal with grief itself. Overall, the book was a very quick and easy read. The main sensitive content to consider in regards to audience are regarding grief and the death of a family member. Personally, I found that in the end I really enjoyed the novel, and would definitely recommend it.