A review by kota19
Throwback by Maurene Goo

4.0

I took a deep breath. “It’s essentially about how the past never leaves you. For better or for worse.”

How far would you go to help solve your family's problems? 1995? That's what Sam is forced to do after a fight with her mom sends her all the way back to her mom, Priscilla's, senior year of high school during homecoming week. There, Sam feels like it's her job to make sure Priscilla wins homecoming queen, doesn't get into a fight with her mom, and grows up to be less of a hardened, distant mother to Sam because of it.

This book was so cute, I loved the way that it depicted even well-meaning parents passing down their issues from their own parents to their kids. It was nice seeing Sam understand that there are reasons behind the way her mother acts and what Sam sees as distance and Priscilla not wanting a daughter like her was actually just a response to the way that Priscilla's own mother treated her and the pressure she put on Priscilla as an immigrant and single parent living in America.

Seeing Gen Z Sam try to understand life in the 90s and being shocked by how different things were (in a good way and a bad way) was so funny. I loved the time travel function in this book and I felt like it was a really cute twist on being sent to the past that tied current technology in, but also added a layer of challenge to the story for Sam being stuck in 1995.

In the end of the book, I liked that all the loose ends were tied up as far as the things that Sam changed in the past and even her befriending Priscilla during high school had a cute explanation.

The main thing I didn't like about this book was the romance -- I really feel like there are a lot of books (especially YA) that have a random romantic storyline tossed in even where it isn't necessary and this was one of them. At first, the romantic interest was kind of weird because

Spoiler

he's literally her mom's classmate, meaning he is her mom's age in the present day, even though they're the same age in 1995?

and even though this gets resolved and it's explained later on in the book, I still felt like it was unnecessary to randomly make the two of them fall for each other amidst what the two of them were going through. It was cute, not distracting, and didn't ruin the book, but it really felt like the book wouldn't have lost anything without it.