[Review] Throwback - Maurene Goo

Summary: Samantha Kang has always butted heads with her mom. Priscilla is first-generation Korean American, a former high school cheerleader who expects Sam to want the same all-American nightmare. Meanwhile, Sam is a girl of the times who has no energy for clichéd high school aspirations. After a huge blowup, Sam is desperate to get away from Priscilla, but instead, finds herself thrown back. Way back.

To her shock, Sam lands in the ’90s . . . alongside a seventeen-year-old Priscilla. Now, Sam has to deal with outdated tech, regressive ’90s attitudes, and a time-crossed romance with the right guy in the wrong era.

With the clock ticking, Sam must figure out how to fix things with Priscilla or risk being trapped in an analog world forever.

Sam’s blast to the past has her questioning everything she thought she knew about her mom . . . and herself. One thing’s for sure: Time is a mother.

Blending the time-bending thrills of Back to the Future with the nuanced themes of The Joy Luck Club, Throwback explores exactly what one loses and inherits in the immigrant experience. (Pub Date: Apr 11 2023)

 

I'm so glad we've been getting ownvoices not just from Black people, Latinx, and the queer community. I'm not a K-pop fan, but the Korean culture interests me a lot, and this book has a lot of it without the pretense of teaching us something. (I did learn nonetheless).

The story starts a lot like Back to the Future. Sam goes back in time to when her mother was still in high school, but not while part-timing with a crazy scientist. But this doesn't matter. She's not even sure what she needs to do to go back, just that she has a mission, and it all points to being: to fix her mother and grandmother's relationship, which derailed when her mother lost for prom queen. For that, she needs to (find a place to live), befriend her mother, and make sure the whole school of strangers from the 90's vote for her. And maybe enjoy some romance for herself in the way.

I loved this read! It is on point about the 90's being a little too much when it came to how people talked to and about whoever was judged different, but maybe the intensity with which the book wanted to reproach it was what bothered me the most. Of course, Sam isn't the most likable character in the beginning, but she grows a lot as the story goes. The incessant criticism of the 90's ways doesn't. Yeah, they weren't correct, but the way it's applied here is almost to say we are the best now, which really, really isn't the truth. So, why be stuck on pointing how how the past was cruel to the minorities when the present still is, though in other ways? There wasn't much to win pointing it out like this.

Aside from that, it's a pretty story. It develops the relationships too, not only among Sam's family members, but also with people in school, others in life. I like how fulfilling this part is. Plus, we have the romance developing, just the way I like it. 

I don't see enough elements for this to be among the best YA's ever, it could be more, sure, but I think it deserves more attention than it's been getting. I recommend it to anyone who likes contemporary YA (albeit partly taking place in 90's lol).

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 4 out of 5.