We chat with David Valdes, whose upcoming YA novel Spin Me Right Round is a fun twist on the iconic movie Back to the Future, starring a gay Latinx teen with a lot of heart and even more pizazz! We got to ask David all our burning questions about his favourite 80s movies, intersectionality and future projects!
Hi, David! Thanks for joining us! What are three essentials you need for the perfect movie night?
If it’s movie night at home with my daughter, we need a picnic blanket for the floor, Chinese food (including scallion pancakes, the food of the gods), and the lights off to replicate that sitting-in-a-theater feeling. If the movie night is actually in a theater, then I want Butterfingers and recliner seats that actually recline—I don’t even need a third thing.
Now, onto Spin Me Right Round! What can readers expect?
A blast, I hope! It’s a book with a super out gay lead, all my favorite time travel tropes, and a love triangle. Serious things happen but the book leans into joy overall.
Spin Me Right Round is a twist on Back to the Future. What are your favorite iconic 80s movies besides that one?
Tricky question because so many of them read so differently now that I’m older and the world has progressed. So many teen faves now feel sexist and icky, not to mention all-white (say, the John Hughes catalog). But back in the day, I loved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fame, Beetlejuice, and Princess Bride, which I pretty much memorized. Not a lot of Cuban or gay kids in these films, so I was making do with other people’s lives!
If you had the chance to go back into the past on your own terms (i.e. decide when you return), where would you want to go?
Havana, pre-Revolution, just to understand the world my dad lived in before exile, and to get a better picture of the loss that has shaped his feelings about Cuba and the US ever since.
Luis is such a fierce, unapologetic and snarky character that draws readers in right from the beginning. Without spoiling too much, did you have a favorite moment while writing his perspective?
Well, there’s a promposal he delivers that I like because I’m a ridiculous romantic, but you asked about his snarky side, so I’ll say that there’s a moment when Luis offers to let a homophobic classmate rummage around in Luis’s shorts if he likes.
Spin Me Right Round both offers a glimpse into how far we’ve come in terms of inclusivity and equality but also how long we still have to go to achieve equality for everyone. What do you want readers to take away from Luis’s time travel adventure?
The heart of this book is that no road is walked alone. Luis has to learn that people came before him to make his life possible and that it can’t be all about him now.
If Spin Me Right Round were to be adapted, what 80s songs would have to be on the soundtrack for Luis’s adventure?
Well, obviously the title track would be the book title, but also Drive by the Cars for sure, Take On Me by A-Ha, Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love for You, Smooth Operator by Sade, Would I Lie to You by Eurythmics, and, naturally, Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves.
What other iconic movies could you see yourself taking a much-needed intersectional spin on?
This isn’t quite what you asked, but I love Christmas stuff, and one project I keep imagining is a high school version of Scrooge with queer and BIPOC kids taking over the narrative.
With Spin Me Right Round releasing soon, are you already working on another project? If so, can you share a tidbit about it with us?
I’m working on YA novel about three kids discovering the gaps between their online personas and life in the real world, as well as an adult novel about the ripple effect of a gay teen’s disappearance on those who remain behind in his small home town.
Last but not least, do you have any book recommendations for us?
For YA, I just read Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender, which is beautiful and sharp, a love story about learning to love yourself. Before that, I loved how Kara Lee Corthron’s Daughters of Jubilation weaves together black magic, white supremacy, and coming of age. And I’m a sucker for a good summer thriller, so I recommend Hostage by Claire Mackintosh (but maybe don’t take it on the plane with you…).
