What starts off as a light-hearted competition to live without modern technology for a year turns into a fight for survival in this unputdownable young adult thriller by New York Times bestselling author Jarrod Shusterman and debut author Sofía Lapuente.
Intrigued? Well we are thrilled to be revealing the cover for Jarrod Shusterman and Sofía Lapuente’s Retro! Releasing on January 24th 2023, Retro is now available for pre-order, so read on to discover the synopsis, cover and what the authors think of their stunning cover!
To save her struggling family, Luna enters a competition offering reward money to anyone who can successfully live without modern technology for a year. But when this social experiment turns sinister and her classmates start disappearing, her family’s livelihood might not be the only thing she’s in danger of losing.
“Retro came from the desire to show that behind every screen and profile is a person with feelings and a beating heart. And making our characters go through the Retro Challenge was the perfect way to do that. Sometimes you have to disconnect to reconnect. They go on a crazy fun adventure which will ultimately push them to conquer their fears and come together to resolve a thrilling mystery. We wanted to offer an escape, loaded with positivity and a lot of heart!
Writing together is a labor of love! We have so much fun working together, and because our characters are pieces of us, we feel like they are all our living creations. So, we really care about what happens to them. Sometimes Sofi says things and I think, ‘that’s so Luna!’, so we write it down!
For us it was really important to represent Sofi’s Spanish culture in this novel—because as authors, what we put to page is an authentic reflection of who we are. We think it keeps the telling unique, because we’re exploring a perspective that’s been underserviced in YA literature.
We really want readers to think about how we treat one another behind the guise of our online profiles, and also how we treat ourselves. Our characters all have their own journeys going Retro, so we want readers to feel like they’ve gone Retro too!”
There will be an in-person launch event for Retro featuring Jarrod and Sofía in conversation with Neal Shusterman occurring on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at Skylight Books (1818 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027) at 7:00pm PT.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sofía Lapuente is an author, screenwriter, and avid world traveler who immigrated from Spain to the United States to realize her dream of storytelling. Since then, she has received a master’s degree in fine arts at UCLA, worked as a producer and casting director on an Emmy nominated show, and received coauthor credits in Gleanings, the fourth installment of the bestselling Arc of a Scythe trilogy, with her partner, Jarrod. Together, the couple writes and produces film and television under their production company Dos Lobos Entertainment.
Jarrod Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of novel Dry, which he is adapting for a major Hollywood film studio with Neal Shusterman. He is also the coauthor of the accoladed novel Roxy. His books have all received critical acclaim and multiple starred reviews. Sofi Lapuente and Jarrod are partners in every sense of the word, with love and multiculturalism as an ethos—living between Madrid, Spain, and Los Angeles, California. If they are not working, it means they’re eating. For behind-the-scenes author content and stupidly funny videos, follow them on Instagram and TikTok @SofiandJarrod.
This cover is cool as hell, I love it!