“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.”
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Content Warning: graphic racism, misogyny, racial slurs. Moderate toxic friendship, classism, bullying. Minor death of a parent, alcoholism, body shaming.
Hodder Children’s were ever so kind to reach out to me regarding Maurene Goo’s (she/her) newest novel, Throwback. I’d not heard of Maurene before, but I am glad that I agreed to accept a copy as it just missed out on being my favourite book of May!
Throwback holds kind of a modern take on Freaky Friday meets Back to the Future in the sense that the main character, Samantha Kang, travels back in time in order to fix her current relationship with her mother, Priscilla. Their relationship has always been rocky, with Priscilla being an uptight parent, and Sam quite the opposite.
After an argument between the two after Sam’s grandmother ends up in the hospital, Sam finds herself magically transported back to the 90s alongside her highschool age mother thanks to a magical taxi service. Here, she has to find a way to make her mother win homecoming queen, which will resolve their present-day relationship problems.
I really enjoyed this one, but one thing that kind of got on my nerves as it went on, even though realistic, was the constant slang throughout. I must be at an age where I don’t feel the need to shorten words whenever possible. I did love how the main focus of this YA book was family and not romantic relationships, even though there was a tiny side plot. It’s refreshing seeing a family-based book, no matter the problems, it only makes it that more realistic, I think.
Thank you to Hodder Children’s Books for the ARC!
All the love,
Jade x
Tea Stains and Book Spines 