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OLDER FICTION
Goo, Maurene

Throwback

368 pp. | Zando | April, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9781638930204 $19.99 | Ebook ISBN 9781638930211 $10.99
(2) YA Twenty-first-century Korean American teenager Sam Kang and her mother, Priscilla, do not get along. Free spirit Sam feels the disappointment of her high-achieving, buttoned-up, country club–aspiring parents, and her mom, whose homecoming-queen hopes were dashed in high school, has relocated those pressures onto Sam's shoulders. When things come to a head after Sam's beloved halmoni (grandmother) has a heart attack, mother and daughter have a brutal argument in which hurtful words are exchanged. Left without a ride to school, Sam downloads a rideshare app--Throwback Rides--and finds herself back in 1995, at her mother's high school, just days before homecoming. Bewildered and disoriented, Sam must find a way to help Mom win homecoming queen to make it back home--or so she thinks. Goo has created a vivacious, authentic teen voice (one that at times wanders into didacticism as Sam tries to tone-police her nineties classmates). Perfect for those looking for a lighthearted read, the story also introduces plenty of Korean cultural elements into a tale of family relationships and intergenerational connections.
Reviewer: J. Elizabeth Mills | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

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