Throwback

by Maurene Goo

Back to the Future meets The Joy Luck Club in this YA contemporary romance about a Korean American girl sent back to the ’90s to (reluctantly) help her teenage mom win Homecoming Queen.

Being a first-generation Asian American immigrant is hard. You know what’s harder? Being the daughter of one. Samantha Kang has never gotten along with her mother, Priscilla—and has never understood her bougie-nightmare, John Hughes high school expectations. After a huge fight between them, Sam is desperate to move forward—but instead, finds herself thrown back. Way back.

To her shock, Sam finds herself back in high school . . . in the ’90s . . . with a 17-year-old Priscilla. Now this Gen Z girl must try to fit into an analog world. She’s got the fashion down, but everything else is baffling. What is “microfiche”? What’s with the casual racism and misogyny? And why does it feel like Priscilla is someone she could actually be . . . friends with?

Sam's blast to the past has her finding the right romance in the wrong time while questioning everything she thought she knew about her mom . . . and herself. Will Sam figure out what she needs to do to fix things for her mom so that she can go back to a time she understands? Brimming with heart and humor, Maurene Goo’s time-travel romance asks big questions about what exactly one inherits and loses in the immigrant experience.

Genres: Young Adult, Time Travel, Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2023

About the author

Maurene Goo is the critically acclaimed author of young adult novels, including I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVE and THROWBACK. She's also written for Marvel's Silk series and lives and writes in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and cats.

Reviews

[Veronica Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Maurene told me her new book was going to feature some Back to the Future-style time travel (which is to say, easy on the physics, heavy on the hijinks), I thought, hot damn-- LOVE it when my favorite contemporary fiction writers dabble in genre elements. This is certainly no exception. I absolutely loved this book.

The quote:

"With all the humor and heart that are Maurene Goo’s specialty, Throwback is the fresh, funny, yet profoundly thoughtful time travel story you didn’t know you needed—but trust me, you definitely do. An absolutely delightful book."

The rundown:

Maurene Goo is funny, which is one of the hardest things on earth to be good at in writing, in my opinion. This book will make you laugh, but it's also sneaky-thoughtful-- it effortlessly weaves in observations about being a child of immigrants (close to my heart, since I am one myself), about how that dynamic changes over generations, about mothers and daughters...with all the warmth that is Maurene's trademark. Come for the time travel hijinks, stay for the characters.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading vlog: https://youtu.be/WCQAeZWCvdM

such a lovely contemporary with such a fun twist!! think this has so many special lessons for young girls to read and learn about, and i loved the writing!

[Bon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy release day.

Thanks to Zando Projects and Netgalley for a copy of this to review. It'll be out April 11th.

Note: I've altered my review to remove my main dissatisfaction, as I was able to confirm with the editor that Val's name and pronouns were edited sufficiently in the print form. Still upsetting this was in the ARC for this nonbinary reader.

Another minority opinion so far, but I haven't seen anyone mention the main issue I had...Two and a half stars rounded up.

I did not enjoy this book, sad to say. As usual, Maurene Goo does a fantastic job of including prolific references to Korean food and other cultural aspects that I loved. But the protagonist, Sam, was very unlikeable from the start and I found it difficult to sympathize with or root for her. Her POV was very...hostile? to read from, and she's spoiled. I did not find the character growth through the book very satisfying, and the romance felt forced. The time travel aspect was...vague.

The cover is very cute, and Sam's gentle handling of her elders, even with her personality, was charming to read. Sam and her mother's varying stances on embracing their heritage were interesting to absorb, and I enjoyed the nineties vibes when she went back in time. I hope this book finds its audience!

[BpTfrm · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly had to force myself to finish this book. I didn’t really enjoy the whole “woke” teenager attitude she seemed to have. Like “save the planet”, “we should break all stereotypes and status quo’s”, and “girl power is strong power fight for feminism”. Don’t get me wrong saving the planet is important, not judging people based on status quo’s is true but geez can I read a good book where the character isn’t a spoiled brat and thinks her parents are horrible people because they have money that THEY WORKED FOR!? The main character Samantha acts like she is a total rebel and can disrespect her parents, what they do, their jobs and not care that her parents worked hard and studied and did the best they could to get where they were and give her the life she has. Trust me as someone from an immigrant family I wouldn’t disrespect my parents if they wanted to interview for a country club or get angry that my mom wanted to play hooky on a school day to buy clothes. Most kids would be happy their parents want to spend time with them and take interest in their future. But not this girl, no Samantha has to complain about how she has it hard, that her mom doesn’t understand and her dad doesn’t get it. Please girl grow up and be respectful.

[Rachel Kowal]

This was really cute! I can *totally* see it being a Netflix movie, and I would watch it.

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the most unrealistic thing to me wasn’t the time travel lol it was the fact that Sam’s mom named her after a random friend she had for seven days in high school

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the beginning, I thought this would be the best Maurene Goo to date - so well was written the conflict between multiple generations of this immigrant family. But the time travel happened, and the edge was lost somewhere, probably diluted by an unnecessary romance and the lack of the hinted at drama and trauma of the past. I never got to really know MC’s mom, so the potential of this story sadly dissipated. This novel could have been so much more.

[Muffinsandbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐️
J’ai trop aimé ! À tel point qu’un trajet en te ai m’a suffit pour dévorer la quasi totalité du roman : j’étais à fond, happée par l’histoire, attachée aux personnages, touchée par leur histoire, la pression qu’ils ressentaient et par les messages faits passer. C’est un très beau roman qui parle de famille, d’héritage, de culture et de rêves. Ça parle aussi de racisme et de misogynie, d’amour et de courage… c’était une magnifique découverte et un roman parfait pour l’été ! 👌

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the books Maurene Goo writes so please hear me out when I say I really hate that I did not love this story more. I wanted to so badly. There were so many things that set it up to be a great story. And yet...the more I think about it the more annoyed I feel.

Is it because I'm not Gen Z? Would I have appreciated this more if I shared Samantha's moral smugness?

How did this book singlehandedly make me despair for an entire generation?

I loathed Samantha's attitude. Her moral smugness in the face of the '90s made me want to bash my head against a wall.

She is transported back to the '90s to help her mother win prom queen and promptly spends the entire time making loud moral judgments and threatening violence to anyone who won't listen to said moral judgements. Or, y'know, anyone who just does anything she disagrees with.

I liked the contrast between Samantha and the '90s and I do think there were some really interesting lessons in this novel about generational trauma and misunderstandings. (Which is why it does get 3 stars.) But I didn't actually like any of the characters. Not one.

I was actually, minorly excited about the ONE character who seemed to match Samantha's impossibly high expectations about how people should behave. And then of course he was also from the future. Hence why he was able to match her moral smugness. Also he was WAY too perfect wish-fulfillment and the more I think about it the more he annoys me.

In particular, though, I found the scene where Samantha suggests her Mom apologize to the whole school for the media tactic that Samantha recommended in the first place particularly galling. She had to apologize for her 'privilege' in using resources the other candidates didn't think of using? Not that she did anything illegal. Not that she even prevented anyone else from using that medium. No, the fact that she was creative and thought outside the box. THAT is what she was apologizing for. And that Samantha told her to apologize after also being the one who told her to film it! Seriously! I can't get over this whole dumb scene!

Anyway, this was a hit and a miss which is quite a shame because it had so much potential and I am so thrilled to have another book out from Maurene Goo.

Pre-Review

Me: Ugh. I don't want to get out of bed today.

Ginnie: Maurene Goo has a new book coming out.

Me:

Someone start the countdown. I've been waiting for this moment since 2019.

[Claude's Bookzone · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 because, Marty McFly y'all!

Maurene, you had me at 'Back to the Future.'

I don't now why, but I could not stop listening to this book. Well, actually I do know. I am a mum of a teenage girl and would love nothing more for her to understand where I came from. Knowing how my life experiences have shaped me would perhaps get her to retract her claws somewhat during our occasional 'robust discussion'. I think Maurene really captured the conflict that occurs when a mother and daughter have different expectations and perspectives. The Gen Z girl bringing her future views to a time filled with casual racism, LGBTQIAmisia, misogyny and lack of environmental awareness/protection etc grew a little bit exhausting but was not out of place in the story. I am appalled to think of the terms and attitudes that were common place in the 80s and 90s and being the child of an Asian immigrant knew my father was on the receiving end of some of these unwelcome comments or opinions. As a, for want of a better term, 'white passing' Eurasian it was not something that impacted me personally but made me deeply uncomfortable when I witnessed it. Anyway, I found the story and the characters to be engaging and sped through this in one sitting. Great exploration of the 'American dream' and immigrants experiences trying to chase this. I think it also respectfully looks at the pressures placed on the children of immigrants to live up to the hopes and expectations of their parents, given all the sacrifices they made to give them a life in the land of opportunity.

[Joce (squibblesreads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

the amount of times this book made me cry is OBSCENE

[Shannon Miz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I loved this book so much I hardly have the words. I'm going to try to find a few though, yeah?

►I am a huge fan of books that delve into mother-daughter relationships, and this one does it even better by adding in a third generation! Oh, how I loved this! It's so amazing for Samantha to be able to see both her mother and her grandmother as just... women, doing their best, you know? Samantha has this gorgeous relationship with Halmoni, her mom's mom, which on a personal level reminded me so much of my relationships with my grandmothers. But Sam also knows that her mom and Halmoni haven't always seen eye to eye, and Sam mostly blames her mom. But when she's able to go back in time, she sees the nuances of their relationship up close and personal. She also gets to deep dive into what made her mother who she is today.

►A ton of focus on the experience of being the child of Korean immigrants in America. So, one thing that vastly differs between Sam's experience and Priscilla's is that Priscilla's mom was an immigrant. Halmoni did her very best to provide for Priscilla and her sister, but after the death of their father, things were extra difficult. Sam had never known such difficulty and struggling, and I was really glad that she was able to experience what her family had gone through. Even more, I loved that it showed how much our experiences can really shape us going forward, and it gave Sam a huge level of insight into Priscilla's actions.

►Times, they have changed! I mean. I know from a logical perspective that 1995 was nearly thirty years ago, and yet... It didn't seem as far until we see how different things are for Sam. How different her daily life is, and how freaking messy we were in the '90s! Also very interesting to see how hugely phones have changed our daily lives, that was quite eye opening for me, and super accurate once I actually thought about it!

►Time travel is just so fun! And I loved the way the author handled it here- via a rideshare? Cracked me up! But it is always so interesting to me to read the nuances of time travel in different books. I won't tell you too much about how this one went down, because it is fun to find out for yourself, but know that I adored it!

►The whole book is just heartwarming and full of emotion. Seriously, I laughed, I cried, I felt all the warm fuzzies inside. And that is kind of the best.

Bottom Line:  Loved this gem of a book about mother-daughter relationships, growing up, and learning to try to understand the whole picture of who someone is.

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

[Natasha Leighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maurene Goo’s coming of age YA beautifully explores the complex ties of inter-generational family relationships and the immigrant experience in this heartfelt and humour-filled, Back To The Future-esque romp.

Full of cliquey high school drama and tons of 90s nostalgia, I thoroughly enjoyed this and was completely blown away by the level of depth and emotion we see in Sam’s journey. Both in the intricacies of the mother- daughter relationship between Sam, her mum Priscilla and grandmother but, also in how their very different lived experiences (as first, second and third generation immigrants in the US) has shaped and defined them.

Sam as a character did come off as a little spoiled at first, with a confrontational approach to communication that kind of annoyed me at first. However, the journey she embarks on after finding herself stuck in 1995 really endeared her to me, and I ended up really loving her and the emotional development we see unfold as she begins to understand the challenges her mum (Priscilla) faces that aren’t too dissimilar from her own.

One of the turning points for me was when Sam realises the racist and misogynistic micro aggressions her classmates direct at her and the other non-white students won’t be called out—the defeat she’s ultimately left with in that moment was utterly heartbreaking.

There were, however, some lighter moments too and I really had fun watching how Gen-Z Sam coped in a world without Google, Social Media or 24-hr access to the internet. Her social faux pas, made from not fully grasping the nuances of 90s culture made for some really entertaining interactions, especially with Priscilla who finds Sam just a bit weird.

There is some romance which I felt was well written but do be aware the plot does mostly focus on Sam’s relationships with Priscilla and Priscilla’s relationship with her own mother. I can’t really say anything else without spoiling the ‘big reveals’ but I was pleasantly surprised by how things wrapped up.

If you love time travel plots, family based YA and general teenage shenanigans then I highly recommend picking this up—it was soo much fun!

Also, a huge thank you to Team BKMRK for the finished copy.

[CW ✨]

This is a warm and soulful story about mother-daughter relationships and bridging generational gaps and perspectives - but with time travel.

The story is cute and movie-adaptation-worthy, and I adore that it leans into the silliness of the situation, but I also did think think it loses its impact mid-way through the story due to pacing and lack of action. The little 'twist' was great, though.

Not sure whether this is a good or bad thing, maybe it is neither, but I did feel that this story was written for mothers, rather than teens. Nonetheless, I did feel the story honours both the main character and her mother's imperfect yet valid perspectives, deepening the emotional depth of the story.

[Tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite Maurene Goo so far, but still nice.
Interesting and well-written; the only thing that slightly bothered me was that the author tried a bit too hard to make her MC “woke”. Or maybe that was just my impression.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book from start to finish. It's my favorite thing I've read this year and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time to come!

I've never seen time travel done quite this way before. It was so modern and clever! All the 90s details felt perfectly on point. Even though I *was* in high school in the 90s, I remained in awe of how the author thought of endless details to bring the setting and time period so believably to life. It was just so well done!

I really loved the characters. They felt like real people, with their own mannerisms and ways of speaking. Even the "villains" felt like fully-realized characters. They had their own motivations and histories that came into play. I loved Sam as a heroine. She had a big personality and was the kind of person I'd love to have as a friend. She always did what she thought was right and stuck up for her friends and family. The relationships she had with her friends, family, and love interests all felt so real. I enjoyed watching the relationships transform throughout the course of the story.

There were some plot twists I expected, and some I never saw coming. This book had me laughing out loud at times, and I probably cried about four times, too! I don't usually connect with family relationship stories because I'm not close with my family, but this book really touched my heart, all the same. The way it concluded was probably my favorite ending to any story. Everything was wrapped up in neat little bows and everybody got the happy ending they deserved. I just loved this book so much and now I want to read everything else this author has written!

[Quill&Queer · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the surface, this seems like a fairly cliched story of a girl sent back in time to help her mom win homecoming queen. But really, this story is about Korean American identity, and the different ways Sam and her mom approach how they're perceived based on their upbringing.

Although there's a little bit of romance in this story that I rooted for, this focuses strongly on family relationships, and it was really interesting seeing Sam's mom Priscilla as a teenager compared to how she is as an adult. She's very carefully controlled, and Sam's relentless optimism really balances that out and makes for a great friendship.

The plot twist later on got me, I wasn't expecting it but it really strengthened the story and made earlier events make more sense. Although I felt Sam's story was wrapped up at the end of the book, the mysterious, magical ride share company was so interesting and I'd love to see a sequel featuring new characters.

[zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

a must-read for anyone with mommy issues

[Sasa · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 stars

you couldn't be above it all when you were the child of immigrants. that pressure, that feeling of indebtedness to your parents, it was woven into you like a fine thread.

(DEEP SIGH) i need to stop writing reviews while crying because, omg, what a rollercoaster of emotions! throwback NEEDS to be a movie created by asians because it will revive 90's-2000's rom-coms for today's generation. it has everything i love about that era, with all the drama and angst of asian families, and nothing going unchecked that's appropriate for this era. the way korean generational trauma was illustrated was SO visceral and heartwrenching. i tandem read this physically with the audiobook and jennifer sun bell did a wonderful job in her performance! neither here nor there, but it's wild that my and my sister's anglicized names are in this book so i have an even more special attachment to throwback. this novel is a gem of a YA contemporary that triples as a nod to quirky hollywood sci-fi and a love letter to 90's and 2000's rom-coms.

---

original cover artist: kemi mai
paperback cover: jenna stempel-lobell
br & ru cover artist: ing lee
fr cover artist: ???

[Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun! I think if you were going to look too closely at the time travel mechanics etc you might find some big coincidences/flaws but like who cares we're here to have a GOOD TIME with NINETIES HIJINKS, I'm not a cop!!

I really loved Sam's ~journey~ of understanding where her mom was coming from, and as a millennial myself I really felt her mom Priscilla's pain. Also as a white millennial I don't personally know what Priscilla was going through but I've heard accounts from other Asian Americans how frustrating/conflicting it can feel to see K-pop and Japanese pop culture etc being super mainstream and popular now when it was stuff they got teased about as kids. So I thought having all of that in this book was really sharp and added a lot to the Back to the Future of it all.

A really fun read for millenials but I think teens who are intrigued by the 90s (and aren't they all now?!) will love it too, with added bonus for Korean American teens but also anyone who might relate to the kind of generational/cultural differences between Sam and Priscilla.

[liv ✶ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟

O livro conta a história de uma adolescente coreana-americana chamada Samantha, que é transportada de volta aos anos 90 e tem a oportunidade de conhecer sua mãe adolescente. Durante essa experiência, Sam começa a entender melhor a mãe e a si mesma, em um enredo que mistura elementos de viagem no tempo com temas de família, identidade e crescimento pessoal.

[Jeffrey G · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is almost entirely derailed by extremely heavy-handed social justice political bullshit. It's very sad to see this author go down this road. The book is borderline unreadable because of this shit, and one can only imagine what people will think 10 years from now when this idiotic fever dream has passed out of the zeitgeist.

There is a low-key charming story here, which is a spin on "Back to the Future". The second half of the book largely moves on from musings on gender and politics and becomes a mildly touching tribute to the immigrant experience in our country.

As with most people who focus on critical race theory as their political center of gravity, this book comes off as low-key racist quite often. There are many self-contradicting observations and claims in the book when it comes to race. If the boyfriend is racist, why is he dating someone of another race? If the football team is racist, why do they turn to a non-white player at the biggest moment of their biggest game? The point being, not that racial micro-aggressions do not exist, but rather that the prefix "micro" has a meaning. And in the bigger picture what you see is a school with a non-white homecoming queen and a mixed-race couple presiding over their homecoming court.

As a story, the book largely fails to deliver on the comedy inherent in the social differences between 2023 and 1995. Or the similarities, of course. The author has some funny ideas about the present and also about the past; for example, she thinks that people were incessantly bullied in 1995 but that 2023 kids are way too woke to engage in that kind of behavior. Actually, the bullying is worse than its ever been; just check the social media feed of your adolescent child if you want to know how bad it is. She inexplicably believes that in 1995 only white kids separated themselves according to interests or social groups and nonwhite kids separated themselves racially. There's some truth in that observation, both for 1995 and for 2023, but the reality is way more complex than that, as complex as all the different human beings in a school can be. The author amusingly assumes the teens of 1995 to be stupid and ignorant compared with the enlightened generation of 2023. You will have trouble stopping the eye rolls when the 2023 time traveler explains to the 1995 teens that they should make posters to advertise their run for homecoming court because, we are told, this is inspired by internet-savvy marketing that all modern teens have mastered. Actually, modern teens are dangerously gullible when it comes to online marketing of all kinds. The notion is put forth that a 2023 teen understands that she does not actually know influencers she sees online, but simply feels that she knows them, and that she can apply this psychological trait to manipulating other people. Today's teens are probably less socially adept and less sophisticated than the teens of 1995 because of the nature of the society today. The current generation, unfortunately, is extremely stupid and unsocialized compared to older generations because of missing large chunks of their schooling.

Homecoming is a major theme here and the author seems to be under the impression that it is passe or a dying tradition. Actually, it's going strong, maybe stronger than ever. The idea that no woke teens of today would even want to run for homecoming is patently absurd and counterfactual. And most of the book is like this. I do not believe for one second that society of 1995 was a lot more racist that society of 2023; I just don't think there is that big a difference.

The love story with Jamie is charming, but there's not enough of it. Incidentally, you will see the big twist with this character coming up 5th Avenue almost from the moment the character first appears in the book, but that does not diminish the charm of this storyline.

If you stick with this, you will find that the second half of the book is much better than the first half. But the first half is pretty annoying. By the 2nd or 3rd page, I was ready to dnf. But, by the end, I forgave a lot of the shitty stuff in the book because the charming parts were quite charming.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maurene Goo has done it again. Gen Xers, this is a Back to the Future meets Hanging Out with Cici (by Francine Pascal, pre Sweet Valley High). Here, Korean American high school student, Samantha Kang, is constantly at odds with her prim and proper mom, Priscilla. After a huge fight with her, Samantha ends up back when her mom was also a high school senior. And, she begins to understand how and why her mom is the way she is. What was especially well done, was how Samantha sees the complicated relationship Priscilla has with Samantha's beloved grandmother and each generation has the same miscommunications. Samantha begins to see the burdens of being being an immigrant, and how each generation wants to give the next, a better life. The misunderstandings between cultural divides, communication breakdowns and generational differences intertwine, leading to parallel estrangements. This book will have you rooting for Samantha and Priscilla in each of their time zones and it's such a satisfying read. TL:DR Reader, I loved this.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Laura Diamond · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a classic case of “I wish I liked it more”. I just found everything to be a bit lacking and overall I was a little disappointed.

I found Sam to be really hard to like. She was very aggressive, hostile, and critical of. . . well, pretty much everyone. She made a lot of good, strong points of course (in general, the ones regarding homophobia, racism, sexism, etc), but I wish she wasn’t the only one (I’m not counting Jamie, sorry). It put her on a pedestal above virtually everyone else. And yes, part of that was in regards to the time travel aspect, but it wound up making it feel like a lot of that important stuff was being shoehorned into the story in a clumsy way.

Side note: I had a HUGE problem with the reference to joking about guns in schools? It felt like it was done just for shock value.

The pacing was off too. It dragged most of the time and then the ending was rushed. Sam making up with her mom, Sam’s grandmother waking up and being okay, Sam winning Homecoming Queen, and finally, Sam reuniting with Jamie. A perfect ending that didn’t quite feel earned. It just didn’t work for me.

[Bevany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was cute, fun, nostalgic, and moving. It's a great story for mother daughter relationships and how we see things differently. I highly recommend this book to all mothers and daughters who sometimes struggle to understand each other. There is some language but no smut.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun.

And as a nerdy kid who spent a few weeks looking through old newspapers in the 90s-micrFILM has the rolls. MicroFICHE are flat sheets. You're welcome.

[Amber Novoselac · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for traveling back in time in books, what can I say. Sam, the main character, travels back in time to when her mother is a teenager. If you like reading about mother/daughter relationships this is the book for you. One of my best reads of the month.

[Sylvs (NOVELty Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Ever since I read I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Somewhere Only We Know I have loved Maurene Goo's books. When I got the review copy of Throwback I knew I was in for a treat. With a pitch like "Back to the Future meets the Joy Luck Club" how could you not get excited? I was saving this book knowing this would be my next bookish obsession and I was right! I feel a book hangover coming on.

Throwback follows Samantha Kang, a seventeen year old girl who has a rocky relationship with her mother. Where Sam perceives her mom as cold, stoic and obsessed with presenting a good image, Samantha can't help but feel like they are worlds apart. When a fight leads to Sam taking a magical ride share all the way back to 1995, Sam realises that maybe her mom and her have more in common than first thought. She realises that by helping her mom win Homecoming Queen and preventing a fight afterwards between her and her grandmother she can return to her timeline and complete the mission she was brought back in time for.

Admittedly, this book took me a while to get into. I wanted it to be a little more fast paced because it did have a slow build up. The build up was necessary to develop the characters and their backstories but I was just waiting for a bit more action during the first two thirds of the book.

Action aside though, the build up was necessary because it meant we wouldn't be able to connect with Priscilla and Sam otherwise. We were meant to side with Sam of the present and see Priscilla as unreasonable but in all honesty, both characters had their flaws and none of them could be framed as bad, just misunderstood. This was the case when Sam time traveled to when her mom was a teenager where she discovered the girl behind her mom's tough exterior. Sam started understanding her and her mom started understanding her back, discussing how even though they don't understand each other all the time, they still love one another and show this in ways the other may not always understand.

It did take me a while to like Sam to be honest. She always saw her mom as unfair but in the process of showing her mom as such, she seemed that way herself. By the end though, I started to like her. I liked Priscilla, the 1995 throwback version, from the get-go. She seemed tough like her future self but I liked how the closer she and Sam got, the more those layers fell away and we got to see this girl who just wanted to fit in and live out her dreams.

And the ending? The ending made the whole book all the more worth it. I loved every bit about the ending and found it so perfect. If you are a rom-com fan, this will definitely make you swoon and happy grin like I did reading on my iPad. I'm so happy about Priscilla's ending and Sam's ending. I'm giddy just writing about it.

All in all, if you want a feel good book with the kind of 90's vibe you felt like you've been missing, definitely give this book a read. If you're in the mood for a rom-com that's more than just the girl gets the guy with a few shenanigans thrown in the mix, that discusses big themes and has lots of heart, then this one is for you.

ACTUAL RATING: 3.9 STARS

[cluedupreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compulsively readable and moving book that will have readers cheering [waives pom-poms]—and grabbing a power bank and USB wall charger before hailing their next ride-share.

When I had read that this time-travel novel was "partially inspired by Back to the Future" and "pitched as a John Hughes movie meets Freaky Friday meets The Joy Luck Club," I knew that I must read it! Thank you to Zando Young Readers for the ARC.

The universal and timeless themes in this intergenerational and young-love story will resonate with readers of all ages, but the issues are ideally suited to woke teens. Excellent choice for a mother-daughter buddy read/book club.

CW: language

4.5 stars (heavy on woke culture / light on '90s culture)

[Joshua Glasgow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am pretty sure I had THROWBACK on my WTRs from a Goodreads Giveaway (which I lost, of course—is there any other kind?). The premise was appealing: it’s basically a riff on Back to the Future, except instead of a generic white guy going back 30 years from 1985 to 1955, here it’s an American girl with Korean heritage being transported from 2025 to 1995. I would never refer to myself as a “ ’90s kid” because I think it is embarrassing for a middle-aged man to call himself a “kid”, but I was in fact a kid in the 1990s, albeit more middle-school age than high-school age so I don’t know whether I have the same level of nostalgia for the era as someone who was a little older and therefore a little more aware of the world might. Still, I do have some level of ’90s nostalgia.

For that reason, I’ve been circling this title each time I finished a book and needed to pick a new read from my list. I’d been looking at it specifically as an audiobook, but I hesitated because the audiobook’s length is a little more than I feel I can typically handle. I listen to audiobooks sssssllllllooooowwwwwly. However, my last 1.5 months of reads from-the-page were two non-fiction books and Jane Austen’s EMMA—and all three of these were physical books; that is to say, I’d had a run of heavier books (in both a figurative and literal sense) and so I was in the mood for something lighter. This fit the bill, and I decided at last that I could just read this as an e-book instead of continuing to reject it as an option on audio.

I’m glad to have finally picked it up. I wavered when rating THROWBACK on whether I should give it 4 or 5 Goodreads stars. My general feeling about the book is similar to how I felt about BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, which is that although it might not be the “best” book I’ve read this year in terms of its overall artistic merit or whatever, it is one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had reading a book and that has to count for something. THROWBACK is a book I read compulsively. In fact, I ended up reading probably the last 1/3 of it staying up past midnight (on a school night!) because I couldn’t bring myself to put it down. It is a very good book, but it still is somewhat lightweight. That’s exactly what I wanted, but it’s also why I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving it 5 stars if I were judging it on the writing alone. I’d probably say 4 stars if I were judging the book in a vacuum. But when you factor in the way it made me feel—the excitement and eagerness to stay in this story to find out what happens next—it’s an easy 5. Between these two impulses, I’d say it really lands at 4.5 stars, but gee whiz—4.5 stars is pretty damn close to 5.

The story centers on Sam Kang, who has a great relationship with her supportive grandmother and a contentious relationship with her severe mother whose only thoughts are about what Sam can do to get into a good college. Her grandmother winds up in a coma following a heart attack. Her mother and grandmother have had a strained relationship ever since an argument between them after her mother lost her own high school competition for homecoming queen. When her mom learns of the grandmother’s coma, Sam’s mom doesn’t seem to react and afterward takes Sam to the mall in a misguided effort to channel her bottled-up grief into shopping for Sam’s homecoming dress—something Sam couldn’t care less about. Sam reads this as heartlessness and selfishness, leading to a blow-up between them just as a storm begins to pour. Sam tells her mother she hates her and her mother tells Sam to find her own way to school, leaving her stranded at the mall. Sam searches for a rideshare service on her phone and gets picked up by a taxi service advertising itself as Throwback Taxi. The tornado picks up Dorothy’s house and plops it back down again in Oz, and now the story really begins.

Sam is dropped off at school, but everything is different, newer. She goes to class and knows nobody there. Her elderly teacher is young and attractive. She then runs into her mother as a teen and realizes at last that she’s been sent back in time. Because of a cryptic message that she needs to “find what you’ve been looking for”, Sam determines that her mission is to help her mother win homecoming queen in hopes of averting the argument that occurred after her loss. That is, Sam has to put right what once went wrong. In case you’re not following me, I’m suggesting it has shades of ‘Quantum Leap’ in addition to BTTF. She introduces herself as a new student and the rest of the book is about her attempts to ingratiate herself with her teenage mother by leading the charge to get her crowned homecoming queen, coming up with campaign ideas based on her understanding of human psychology gleaned from the social media era, e.g. the idea that oversaturating the field with her mother’s name and image is more likely to lead to engagement.

Over the course of the book, of course, she comes to have a deeper appreciation for her mother—to see her in a new light. Her constant reaffirmation of her good intentions makes her mother, who is otherwise cold to most around her, open up about her feelings. For instance, Sam’s grandfather died before she was born and it’s something her mom never really speaks about. In 1995, the death was relatively recent—within the past 6 years. The hurt was still fresh, and the difficulty her mom’s habit of shoving her grief down is more apparent to Sam. There is also a bit about racial/cultural identity that gets explored here. There are a lot of, let’s say microaggressions Sam encounters in 1995, though thankfully few outright racist episodes. Meanwhile, her mother, Priscilla, wants to fit in with her white classmates; she doesn’t want to be seen as the Korean girl. Her mother—Sam’s grandmother—was not born in the United States, and so there is a tough dynamic at play here of both wanting to become Americanized and wanting to preserve their Korean-ness. There’s a lot of unspoken feelings about racial identity because of the push to fit in with their white peers; in fact, Priscilla visibly flinches each time Sam references their “white” classmates because she feels it’s taboo to mention.

In 1995, Sam gets the opportunity to spend time with her grandmother, who treats her much as she does in present day but who Sam sees speaking dismissively toward her mother. Aside from the opportunities she gets to see and interact with her mother and grandmother, there’s surprisingly little exploration of the time travel aspect of Sam’s situation. Which is not to say there is none, just that it’s lighter on this than I would have expected. She really doesn’t see any other persons she knows from present-day aside from the teacher I mentioned earlier. She doesn’t really run across anything that it is shockingly different from her present-day in terms of, like, buildings being there or not being there. At one point she and Priscilla go to a mall which is hanging on by a thread in 2025 but was thriving in 1995, but there’s not a ton of description of what that’s like. To the extent the 30-year difference is mentioned, it’s usually in terms of how limited these high school students’ lives are without access to the internet. For instance, Sam notes a lot of interpersonal drama in the school and comments, “It was just so foreign to me—this open hostility, this underlying current of competition. As if there was some scarcity of attention at North Foothill high – this tiny, nothing place! I thought of my easy access to the entire world beyond this city—all the randos I followed on social to learn about their weird snacks, pets, and ways to get hard-water stains off stainless steel. I guess these guys only had crappy magazines selling them a very specific version of teenagerhood.”

That said, I kind of liked the idea that in a lot of ways the world is not so jaw-droppingly different. She mentions, for instance, that the style of dress the kids at school are wearing is not SO very different from today; not like going back to 1955 and seeing poodle skirts and greaser jackets, for example. Another lovely moment comes when Sam visits the library in order to do research for a school project. Because she’s pretending to be a student at the school in 1995, she is of course required to do schoolwork. She at first asked her partner on the project where they should go to do their research and his response was basically, “Um, the library?” Sam was still thinking in terms of having ready internet access and being able to conduct research from any location. When they enter the library, she looks around and finds that it is “[f]amiliar and unfamiliar, like all the places I’d been visiting in the past. The carpet was a different color, the furniture more mid-century modern than its current depressing hospital-waiting-room vibe. But everything was laid out the same. The beautiful old clock int eh center fo the main room the same, the smell of books the same, the giant wall of windows letting in yellow afternoon light the same.” This familiarity in the unfamiliar is kind of nice.

One thing that’s definitely different about this library is MICROFICHE !!! My wife and I have been watching a lot of ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?’ this year. That series is pure ’90s and honestly their wardrobes are very different from what people would wear today: usually very colorful and strangely patterned in ways that I think gets associated more with the 1980s than the 1990s but which I find very cool. The other thing about AYAOTD? is that occasionally in the show the characters will have to go to the library and use microfiche to find an old newspaper article that proves to them that a classmate is actually a ghost or something, and every time microfiche shows up in the shows it’s a source of excitement for me. It’s like getting to see Plinko on ‘The Price is Right’ or one of the few episodes where the Power Rangers don’t form the MegaZord and instead use their DinoZords individually. C’mon ’90s kids, you know what I’m talking about. This is all to say that having a freakin’ microfiche scene in this book was one more selling point for me.

This leads me into another topic which I HAVE to talk about, although it gets into real SPOILER territory. I’m going to put this review behind a spoiler tag because of it, but we gotta talk about it. So throughout the book Sam has been crushing on this boy in her classes named Jamie. She’s got a boyfriend 30 years in the future, though, so despite flirting with him blatantly and constantly, she keeps telling herself this can’t go anywhere. There’s also the fact that he’s, you know, like 50 years old in her actual timeline – which makes this whole thing kind of skeevy. HOWEVER, later in the book Sam and Jamie are discussing the success of one of her homecoming campaign ideas when Jamie jokes with her, “Yes you can, Obama.” Sam is stopped dead in her tracks. “WHAT did you just say?” He tries to play it off, oh, you probably don’t know him, but… but no, it’s true. As it turns out, Jamie is a time traveler, too, except he hails from 2023 (the year this book was published) instead of 2025.

Incidentally, there is a moment when Jamie asks Sam to tell him who the President is in 2025, adding, “I wouldn’t be able to handle it if—” He doesn’t finish the thought, but it’s clear he’s saying he couldn’t handle it if the traitorous, racist, child rapist Donald Trump were re-elected instead of being shot by a firing squad and his bloated body sent to the bottom of the ocean like we did with Osama bin Laden. Sam deflects, arguing that time-travel rules mean she can’t give anything away about the future, but partly this is because when the book was written Maurene Goo genuinely did not know what the results of the 2024 Presidential election would be. Knowing now that the traitorous, racist, child rapist Donald Trump was in fact permitted to continue breathing and to piss and shit all over the carpets of the Oval Office yet again, Sam’s deflection reads now as a sad kindness, letting him live in relative serenity for a few more months.

Anyway, the reason I bring all this up after the microfiche scene is that apparently in that scene—which is before they learn they are both time-travelers and so both think the other truly is from 1995—Sam and Jamie are talking about their families and Sam mentions her brother being in college, casually mentioning her mother texting him frequently. Later, when the truth comes out, Jamie comments that he should have figured it out when Sam used the term “texting” during the earlier conversation, but adds that because the term is so common to him in 2023, it didn’t strike him as odd in the moment. I actually went back in the book—as I’m confident a lot of readers will—to confirm that she had in fact said “texting” in that moment. It had not pinged my radar, either, but sure enough, there it is. Placing this breadcrumb into the text of the book is pretty neat, in my view, especially as it was one that was easy for readers who similarly find the word unremarkable to miss.

That said, I am a little bothered by the fact that when they inevitably return to their own timelines (as they must… you didn’t think either of them would get stuck in the 1990s, did you?), Jamie has to return two years before Sam does. She doesn’t permit him to seek her out immediately; instead, he has to wait two years before they can resume their chaste-for-now romance. Whereas when she gets back in 2025, she gets to immediately look around and see him there, natch, and they can embrace and kiss. I feel like the book doesn’t address the strain this puts on him and that bums me out a bit.

Two other things I want to mention: first, each chapter begins with an imagine of a cell phone battery slowly decreasing in charge. Sam is using her cell phone sparingly, mostly to record voice notes for her grandmother upon her return, but that image does add a level of tension which I appreciated. Second, again spoiler, Sam DOES succeed in getting her mother crowned homecoming queen. However, she doesn’t leap out immediately afterward. She instead remains through the after-party, where her grandmother shows up and derides Priscilla in front of her friends just as she did in the original timeline. The fight was going to happen one or way or the other. Here, though, Sam is able to join with her mother, tell her that her grandmother’s behavior was shitty but doesn’t mean she doesn’t love her, and helps her get through the moment with a little more dignity than she otherwise would have. When Sam returns to 2025, her mom and grandmother do have a better relationship with one another, which is great… but the fight between Sam and her mother which preceded the magical taxi cab ride, it still happened. Her mom is still focused on college for Sam and unlikely to take accountability for her own behavior:

I waited for more—an apology for the things she said. But it didn’t come.
The pang of disappointment was harsh. She hadn’t changed. Somehow, I hadn’t changed our relationship. Maybe … maybe when I traveled to the past it was just me that was supposed to change. And I had. Because even with my mom not doing exactly what I hoped she would do, her response didn’t fill me with despair or frustration.
I knew why she was like this now, why she kept her emotions so locked up. And I never knew it before—that this steely strength which seemed so cold was necessary for her back then. It kept her from falling apart under all the weight of her family’s dreams. It didn’t completely erase my frustrations with her, but it helped. It reminded me that not everything was about me. That my mom existed beyond being my mom.

I like the fact that what Sam did in the past didn’t magically transform everything. I love the fact that there’s still dysfunction there, but that Sam has a softer response to it than before. This is exactly what therapy accomplishes, and the small win of it, to me, it so much more rewarding than if she had come back to a perfectly pat happy ending. Don’t get me wrong, she does get a perfect happy ending in a lot of ways. But in this respect, at least, there’s still a lot of humanness and I dig that.

So I reiterate: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I don’t know if it’s just happened to hit me in the right way at the right time. Would I have felt differently if I had recently read several other light YA novels, for instance? I don’t feel inclined to interrogate this feeling, though, so much as just revel in it. I had an excellent time reading this book. It was fun, it was emotional, it was fast-paced despite being largely about planning for a high school homecoming dance. LOL It was a blast. I really liked it.