Throwback
With all the humor and heart that are Maurene Goo’s specialty, Throwback is the fresh, funny, yet profoundly thoughtful time travel story you didn’t know you needed—but trust me, you definitely do. An absolutely delightful book.”
- Veronica Roth, New York Times bestselling author of Divergent and Chosen Ones
“A deft, delightful, and emotionally complex examination of intergenerational relationships.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
A Junior Library Guild Selection
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.
ISBN
9781638930204
Language
English
Edition
Hardcover
Sale date
April 11, 2023
Dimensions
5.5 x 8.25
About the Book
Moms.
More complicated than an origin story . . .
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 17-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 Now, Sam has to deal with outdated tech, regressive ’90s attitudes, and a time-crossed romance with the right guy in the wrong era.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.
Brimming with humor and heart, Maurene Goo’s time-travel romance asks big questions about what exactly one inherits and loses in the immigrant experience.
Reviews
“With a hauntingly hilarious premise—getting flung back in time to be besties with your mean girl mom in high school—Throwback is bright, warm and wholly engrossing. Brimming with breezy dialogue and wry fashion observations, Maurene Goo has rendered a captivating jaunt through the mid-nineties, complete with casual racism and vintage identity politics. Slyly provocative, compulsively readable, with an absolutely tantalizing twist, Throwback is a striking, heartfelt addition to the time-travel canon. I want to hang out with the Korean women in this family.”
“With all the humor and heart that are Maurene Goo’s specialty, Throwback is the fresh, funny, yet profoundly thoughtful time travel story you didn’t know you needed—but trust me, you definitely do. An absolutely delightful book.”
“Throwback is one of those rare books that manages to unearth deep truths with the lightest of touches. It’s funny and big-hearted, romantic, and delightfully unexpected in the best way. It was a true pleasure to read.”
“I absolutely adored Throwback! It’s fun and laugh-out-loud funny—but with a message that resonates and characters I couldn’t stop thinking about. A tour de force from Maurene Goo, and a book I know I’ll be returning to again and again.”
“Inventive, fun and fresh, Throwback explores the mysteries of destiny, identity, and more than one kind of love.”
“Throwback is as fun and feel-good as your favorite ’90s teen flick but wrapped up in a beautifully written and poignant story of mothers, daughters, the immigrant experience, and the ‘American dream.’ Maurene Goo writes with heart, humor, tenderness, and an unabashed optimism that will remind readers what’s worth believing in—and the importance of being true to yourself. No other author out there is doing it like Maurene and Throwback is her best yet. An absolute triumph by an unparalleled talent.”
“No one can blend family, humor, satire, and love into a single perfect story like Maurene Goo can. I inhaled this book in a single sitting, lost in the magic of this tale of mothers and daughters and the weight of generational divides. I laughed, I sobbed, and now I want to hand this book to everyone I know.”
Maurene Goo
Maurene Goo is the author of several acclaimed books for young adults, including I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Somewhere Only We Know. She’s also written for Marvel’s Silk series. She lives and writes in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and cats.
