Description
When four friends find themselves thrown back in time to 1985, how will they handle being teens in their parents’ era? And will they ever get back to the future?
It takes Shannon a while to work out what’s happened. She went into the cinema in 2025 and came back out … in 1985? Somehow she’s travelled forty years back in time.
But this isn’t the first time something strange has happened to Shannon and her group of friends. Is there a chance that whatever mysterious forces brought them together a year ago have sent them back to the 80s with her? To find her friends, she’ll have to navigate a world with no smartphones, no internet, and – worst of all – no access to bubble tea. Plus, what’s with the hairstyles?
Once they’re reunited, things only get more complicated. As the group tries to find a way back to the future, some friendships are strained while others blossom into something more. Can they stay together – and stay friends – long enough to survive 1985?
In another warm, wise and life-affirming story, Tegan Bennett Daylight takes her beloved cast of characters from her debut YA novel Royals on a fresh adventure, to discover something about their roots and how far their generation has come.
Review
This is stand-alone story that features the characters from Tegan Bennett Daylight's previous book, Royals, which was included in our 2023 Standing Order selection.
What was meant to be a normal trip to the movies turns out to be anything but for Shannon! Walking out of the cinema, she suddenly has a feeling that things are not right. The street, the cars, the people, the shops, the smells - everything about it is different. But why, and how?
Upon realising that she is in 1985, not 2025, she now must figure what is going on. But with no modern technology to help, this is going to be harder than she thinks!
Realising that her mother would have been a teenager at the time, leads Shannon to track her down at her grandparents’ house. After meeting her future mother, Julia, who Shannon finally convinces of her story, they set out to see if the others, who Shannon has had a similar experience with before, are also back in 1985.
After coming across Akira, Grace, James and Juno, they spend the next few days experiencing life in this time, with the very different social standards and values to their own time. But there is always the underlying uncertainty of how they are going to get back to 2025, as well as the worry about how the decisions they make now might alter the course of their future...
Having been a teenager in 1985, this story took me back to those years just like it was yesterday! It features a diverse range of characters, and explores the differences between 1985 and now. It does include some swearing and underage drinking, so will best suit teenagers in the middle secondary years.
