In this quirky 90’s-esque, Back To The Future YA contemporary fantasy, a modern teenager must help her (then) teen mother come out on top as Homecoming Queen.
Unlike most typical YA books trickling into the typical themes of Cheesy Teen Romance, Good vs. Evil, and life-changing events changing the course of their entire life, Throwback by Maurene Goo provides a more real and refreshing take to the genre. Sam (Samantha Kang), the leading character of the story, who is your everyday Korean American teenager with very average traits. Despite the wishes of her parents, especially her high-expectations, no B.S. mother, Sam is happy with who she is. She doesn’t need to be popular, join all of the clubs simply to impress colleges, and is okay with getting B+ grades. But when Sam’s mother gets word of her being on the Homecoming court, things take a turn for the worst. After a huge fight leads their relationship to rock bottom, Sam finds herself at school but thirty years into the past. Better yet, she sees Priscilla (who is none other than Sam’s mother) as a drop-dead gorgeous teen who to no surprise, is running for Homecoming Queen. As Sam learns to navigate her way through the prime teen years of her mother, will she able to help her win the Crown, and tie up the loose and messy ends that their relationship holds before going back to a time she knows? Only time will tell.
I appreciated this novel in many ways. Firstly, Sam is one of the most relatable YA characters you could read about. She is not the girl next door everyone yearns for who is pretty, smart, and perfect. She’s the average girl who doesn’t feel this need to impress everyone she knows, takes what she gets for grades and is okay with it, and is a lover of video games. And quite honestly, this is what I think the genre needs more of. Give us the characters who want to take a stand and appreciate where they are at! Sometimes showing content personalities can lead the characters into bigger avenues they never thought would go down.
Contemporary fiction with a dash of fantasy are always fun stories. The worldbuilding was easy to visualise, and the plot never strayed too much off of the main mission Sam sought to complete. Its uniqueness stems from a blend of modern times, with the trends and lingos associated with the 90’s. I mean, imagine walking into high school in 2025 thinking it’s just a normal day, just to end up in the era of your parent’s teen years. Sam knows she already sticks out like a sore thumb. But having to learn:
- To rock the loud and wacky clothing and hair trends
- How little student diversity exists on campus
- Cell phones, social media, and technology are virtually non-existent
- About the high school drama heard by word of mouth, and
- How popularity was the most analogue way of marketing your teen self
This is anything but familiar to her, and this is where the reading became really fun! The use of blatant and straightforward language, political, and social gaps seen nearly thirty years before Sam’s time was also very refreshing to read about. This is because it bridges a more open-minded understanding of what it was like growing up in an era quite close, but totally different from your parents. A lot of things have the potential to change in a short amount of time, and Sam experiences and recognises these things in the era of her mother.
Mother-daughter relationships, especially with those who come from first- and second-generation immigrant families, was the big highlight of this book for me. Sometimes, it’s really hard to see eye to eye with your parents. They only want the best for you, and their ways of showing it can be very different from what you might want. This is exactly what Sam’s time travel mission is all about. To better understand why her Mom is the way she is in the present, and how she can help Priscilla understand this better in the future.
The only real note on this book I had was that YA genre plotlines can often get repetitive. You have a young protagonist trying to navigate the unfamiliar world to better themselves from either generational trauma, psychological, or physical distress, and learn from it in some way shape or form. However, this was well-done in most senses of YA and would recommend it to readers who yearn for relatable characters, is a sucker for time travel tropes, and wants to better learn and understand from generations past.
Throwback is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
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.
