Throwback by Maurene Goo

e-Audio, 11:27:22
Narrated by: Jennifer Sun Bell 
Release Date: April 11, 2023
Published by: Zando
Read from: April 13-20, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Racism, Misogyny, Racial Slurs, Toxic Friendship, Classism, Bullying, Death of a Parent, Body Shaming, Alcoholism
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Science Fiction, Time Travel, YA, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, 90’s fans

    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.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I got this in the mail and was immediately like OMG MORE MAURENE GOO! I’ve read a lot of her books before, so I was hella excited to read this one. I was a tad bit worried because I am not time travel fan, but I was still willing to give it a try because of the author. And of course, this was the right choice lol

Ok so first things first, the time travel aspect. I LOVED it. I’m not a huge fan of science, so that’s why i was like ehhhh when I first heard about it. But I also was hella interested because she was going back to my era. I was an 80’s baby, but i was a 90’s kid. I couldn’t wait to see how she portrayed my era! But I think I can attribute that to the time travel not being overly complicated. That’s usually why I don’t like them, but this one was simple.

The pacing and plot was where this got a bit furry for me. It dragged in the middle. It was filled with a lot of fluff to me. Well that’s what her and her mom’s campaign felt like, fluff. It was funny at first, but after a while it got boring. I did like it enough to finish it and not skim it tho.

I thougt the rep was also really good. I am not part of the community in this book, but the author is. I’m sure she was speaking on her own experiences. I also liked the romance, but I thought it could have done without it, tbh. It felt like it was a plot device. Just like there to fill the fluff. Idk, it seemed like he was infringing on the main character’s story lol

This was just okay to me. Not overly good and not bad. I thought it was cute enough to tell my friends to about, but I still think it could have been a little better But I guess, a win is a win.

Overall, i give this