Historical Fiction

Throwback / Maruene Goo

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Throwback
By: Maurene Goo
Genre: YA
Number of Pages: 368
Published: April 11, 2023
Publisher: Zando Young Readers
Dates Read: April 4, 2023 - April 12, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook / Library Book / Hardcover

Samantha Kang has never gotten along with her mother, Priscilla, they’re just too different. After a huge fight between them, Sam gets left in a parking lot and has to use a rideshare app to get to school. She gets there, but instead of her time, it’s now 1995… and Priscilla is a 17-year-old senior.

Now, Gen Z Sam has to fit into an analog world. The fashion she gets, but everything else is baffling; what’s with the casual racism and misogyny? And what is “microfiche?” Also – why does Sam feel like she would actually be friends with Priscilla??

Will Sam be able to figure out what she needs to fix in order to get back to her own time? And what about these feelings she’s getting for a boy in 1995?

So, I have a soft spot for time traveling; it’s not something I gravitate towards per say, but if the book catches my eye and I see it has time traveling in it, then I’ll most certainly read it. Add to the fact this one was set in the 90’s and I was most definitely going to read it.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Sam and her mother and the exploration we get to have with it in this novel. As someone who is pretty close with her own mom, I think it would be so fun to go back in time and be friends with her in high school (though she would have been in the early 80’s).

Though this is a YA book, I can see both teenagers and adults enjoying it – especially the adults that grew up in the 90’s, but the culture shock from Sam can be enjoyed by both. Those who have a complicated relationship with their mothers could also enjoy this.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this time traveling, throwback to the 90’s novel and can’t wait to put it in the hands of a few friends of mine.

*Thank you Zando Young Readers and Edelweiss+ for a digital advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Wandering Souls / Cecile Pin

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Wandering Souls
By: Cecile Pin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 240
Published: March 21, 2023
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Dates Read: March 5, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

Trigger Warnings: Death, massacres, drowning, grief, war, racism, mentions of alcohol and drug use

Wandering Souls opens in 1978 in Vietnam as Anh and her brother, 14-year-old Minh and 10-year-old Thanh are packing for their trip to a refugee camp in Hong Kong ahead of the rest of their family before they make their way to their Uncle in America. Anh and her brothers make it to Hong Kong, but the rest of the family unfortunately don’t make it through their journey. The siblings eventually get accepted into Great Britain and over the next number of years, struggle to carve out a life for themselves in a country that’s not their own.

Told mostly through Anh’s POV, historical research, voices from lost family, and an unnamed narrator, Wandering Souls follows the lives of the last members of a family marked by war and loss and their persistence in the pursuit of a better future that they set out for years ago.

I read this book in one day, in roughly three settings. The prose of this novel were beautifully written and an emotional rollercoaster that will warrant a box of tissues for sure. Cecile Pin sprinkles in news articles and historical facts, along with personal experiences from an unnamed narrator between sections from the siblings.

This novel really deals with grief and survivor’s guilt of the three siblings. Their parents had such high hopes and dreams for them in America, but when they don’t make it there and are instead in the UK, they have to figure out what they will do instead.

Wandering Souls also opened my eyes to a lot of the horrors Vietnamese people experienced around the world as a result of the Vietnam War. I didn’t know who “boat people” were and both the piracy that could happen to them or the horrid conditions they had to travel in. Or the Koh Kra Island refugee massacres. Even in their own country, the psychological warfare the American would put them through with recordings of voices in the forests.

The dark side of immigration is shined on by Pin, but even with all the heartache, racism, and struggles the characters go through in this book, overall, it’s still about family, love, and grief. I couldn’t put this book down and I can see many others opening their hearts to this family and their journey.

*Thank you Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for a digital advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review