Throwback: A Reese's Book Club Pick

Originally reviewed on Cyn's Workshop

A literal throwback, Throwback captures the 90s with perfection with some excellent Back To the Future vibes.

As a 90s baby, this novel was pure nostalgia, leaning into that and capturing most mothers and daughters’ struggle with connection.

Storytelling

Throwback follows Samantha, who, after a fight with her mother, is stranded at the mall with nowhere to go. But she’s a millennial, so what does she do? Uses her phone to download an app and calls a car. And while the campy car takes her to school as requested, it doesn’t precisely drop her off on time.

In a quick moment, Samantha soon discovers she’s in the 90s…and her mom is there, prim and proper as usual.

I love the complexity of developing the relationship between mother and daughter. She’s seeing a different side of her mother, learning that growing up for her, a daughter of a Korean immigrant and a single mother, was not as easy as she thought. The grandma she knows as easygoing is not the same person in the past.

Samantha is learning that not everything is how she thought it was, allowing her to understand her mother more than it locks her out.

Samantha goes on an incredible journey through time to fix a wrong. Still, it’s also a chance to understand her mother and form the relationship she wishes she had with her. The novel is an opportunity to look at life and moments, grow from them, and understand them.

There was complexity in Throwback, making it thoughtful and emotional. The author made many scenes feel like gut punches because they were both high-tension, realistic, and relatable.

And the nostalgia was terrific, too. I loved the feel of the novel, the way it was reminiscent of Back to the Future without being a copycat.

Final Thoughts
Throwback is an exceptional novel. It’s emotional, thoughtful, heartfelt, fun and complex. It explores the complex dynamics between parent and child. It delves into the even more complex relationship between mother and daughter. And for fans of the 90s and Back to the Future, this is a must-read.

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“As we made our way downstairs, my brain tried to absorb the fact that I was almost 100 percent sure my mother named me after a doll she had always wanted. A doll that represented an intense girlhood desire that never left her. It wasn't a lot to live up to or anything.”
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“Throwback” was a perfect blend of both nostalgia & heart. The time travel trope has been done so many times, but this book stood out from the others thanks to the attention paid to the mother-daughter relationship at the center of its story.

Sam is the Gen Z daughter of Priscilla—and they don’t get along. She has a close relationship with her grandmother, but is out of the loop on why a divide exists between the two older women. Next thing you know, a magical ride share app is downloaded & Sam is driven back to the 90’s and finds herself living out a high school experience as her mother’s classmate.

It’s a fun hypothetical dynamic, but seeing Sam’s understanding of her mother evolve as they become friends made the thought experiment stick. Priscilla’s modern-day quirks that Sam previously wrote off are explored, and her character is gradually portrayed in a more empathetic light. It felt reminiscent of the transition many of us go through with our parents; we start to see them as people similar to ourselves, rather simply as the adults who raised us. For Sam, this also means understanding how Priscilla’s experience as a first generation Korean-American impacted how she presented herself to the outside world.

Overall I loved this book, and it is officially one of my favorite YA novels! I can’t believe there was ever a time when I barely ever read the genre….but unlike Sam’s story, that’s now all in the past for me!