The Stranger Game

August 6, 2018
In this engrossing novel from Gadol (Silver Lake), Rebecca is enticed by boyfriend Ezra into the stranger game, a rapidly spreading phenomenon in which players follow random strangers but with no actual contact. After Ezra disappears while possibly playing the game, Rebecca despondently analyzes their life together. She has nothing to offer when Detective Martinez questions her. She then meets a man named Cary, whom she sends away in anger, but they later reunite and begin playing the game together. They spot others playing, and note that the rules are changing so that contact is allowed. Just who makes the rules is unexplained. Rebecca and Cary follow a couple to an abandoned house, where they see someone pushed off a cliff. By the time Rebecca can report the crime, Cary has disappeared. Is Rebecca a suspect? The lack of place names and identifying features adds to the feeling of alienation and angst, as the story pulls the reader further into the game. Those with a taste for the offbeat will find this well worth reading. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman.

Starred review from August 1, 2018
When Rebecca's boyfriend goes missing, she learns that he may be caught up in the stranger game. So she, too, begins to play. Rule No. 1: Choose random people to follow, and don't get caught....Gadol's (Silver Lake, 2009, etc.) novel explores the inherent loneliness of modern life and suggests that, in our desperate search for meaning and connection, we are willing to do almost anything. When Ezra disappears, Rebecca finds a copy of an article on his desk written by A. Craig (a pseudonym) about how, in his own desire to escape the crushing isolation of his life, he begins to follow total strangers. Eventually this "game" becomes all-consuming. According to the detective to whom Rebecca reports Ezra's disappearance, more and more people are dropping out to play the game. Even more troubling, there are underground versions of the game in which people break into empty houses or hire "stagers" to create potentially violent confrontations. The police may even be involved, so Rebecca has to be careful whom she trusts--and that includes her new lover, Carey. The irony, of course, is that while the founder of the stranger game claims that following strangers helps him develop empathy, players actually just impose their own assumptions on the narratives they craft to explain the motives of another. In other words, we don't truly see other people for who they are; instead, we filter what we see through our own experiences, preventing us from learning new perspectives on the world. Perhaps the best we can do, Gadol suggests through Rebecca and Ezra, is "to know one person as completely as possible" and ask, "How could you draw a line connecting you and this one great love? How could you make that line indelible?"Beautiful, thoughtful meditation on the invisible ties that bind us--even to strangers.

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September 15, 2018
In his latest hard-to-categorize novel, Gadol creates a gauzy mix of suspense, distrust, and speculation. California architect Rebecca believes that her (mostly) ex-boyfriend Ezra's recent disappearance is related to a cultural phenomenon known as the stranger game. People across the country pick out a stranger and follow them as long as they can without being spotted. Some, however, take it further and follow consecutive targets so intently that suddenly they are far from home and decide the chase is more rewarding than returning. Rebecca dabbles in the game herself and soon learns that there are layers to this pastime that go deeper than she'd ever imagined. Or, is she imagining it? This is Patricia Highsmith-style suspense, edgy and a little dreamy, with a sense of uncertainty lurking everywhere.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)