Charlene Allen’s debut novel, Play the Game is one rich with riddles and layered with mystery. It tells the story of Ed Hennessey, a fifteen-year-old game designer with a brain that works like that of a scientist. A Black teenager, Ed is a lover of rebus puzzles, fart jokes, and imagined worlds. In the Ed-i-verse, Ed has created mutants and monsters to make-up for what isn’t working in his life. Sadly, he is tragically shot in the parking lot of Yard restaurant by Phillip Singer, a White huckster of stolen goods.
Now, a year later, Singer has been shot, and Victor (aka VZ) Gleason’s friend Jack is the leading suspect. Jack is an outgoing and blunt young man famous for his “Jack rants.” Ever since Ed’s death, Jack has been trying to convince VZ to go at the cops, join the protests, make noise in the streets. But expressing feelings is difficult for VZ, who needs space to work out his issues and to confront his feelings of guilt surrounding Ed’s sudden murder. Unable to imagine losing another friend if Jack is arrested, VZ is determined to prove Jack’s innocence.
Solving the mystery of Singer’s murder is but one thread of the plot. Another is VZ’s desire to enter Ed’s game in the JersiGame Contest. If Ed can win posthumously, VZ will feel content that he didn’t let his friend down. In order to enter the game, though, VZ has to play it and work out any of its “bugs.”
A third plot thread comes in VZ’s interest in Diamond, another gamer and computer coder who is intentional and focused. She not only rewrites some code for Ed’s game but helps VZ solve many of the riddles that enable him to advance through the game’s levels. One small problem exists in that Diamond is dating another young man, Fisk.
Beyond this layered plot, Allen’s novel shares certain human truths: that we see what we expect to see, that the answer can be a question, and that anger can’t be an excuse for misbehavior and violence.
Allen also pursues the idea of Restorative Justice as an alternative to the current legal system that solves little and leaves so many unanswered questions. As they sleuth along with the characters, readers will like find this book both intriguing and satisfying.
- Posted by Donna