In this first book by this author duo, RETRO takes teens back to 2000s where things were simpler but not always safer:
Luna makes a split-second
decision that will change more than her life, one that almost causes a life to
be lost, she posts and sends a video to a friend that features one of the
popular girls at school. What happens next is a plea by Luna for things to
change, to go back to simpler times where social media was not present and
interactions were done in person and not over an App. The social media company
LIMBO is happy to step in and offer the students a chance of the lifetime, go
RETRO for the rest of the school year and they will receive all expensive paid
to any college of their choice. Luna knows what this would mean to not only her
but her family as well and she will stop at nothing to make sure that she wins
the challenge.
First things first, this is the first book that I have read that had a link to a Spotify playlist for you to listen to while you read each chapter. Each chapter has a song related to it and related to what was going to happen in the chapter and set the mood for it. And the playlist really hits, I would play the majority of the songs on it at any given time.
I personally loved the idea around this book, as we are all often on our phones and social media too much and many don’t realize the consequences of what one does on them. From ranting to bullying to just passing the time watching video after video, I like that there was s social media company behind the idea/contest of people going RETRO. All that said, I think that Lapuente and Shusterman attempted to do too much in this book.
This book is touted as a mystery
book but it takes a long time to get to the mystery aspect of the book, most of
the book I'd say till around the 70% mark is just about going RETRO and the
teens discovering more about themselves, not really noticing anything mystery
related. So the whole friends missing thing really is rushed and not very
imaginative as to who the bad guys are. Also the teenage Drama was pretty predictable
and I honestly didn’t see why Luna was mad at Axel for things that his family
was trying to do when he had no part of it.
I think that this book would have
benefited from another POV. We only get Luna as she goes through the playlist
on her Walkman, describing what occurred and how she found herself in her
current situation. I think only having her POV didn’t allow for the mystery
aspect to shine through till the end. It was more about Luna trying to be a
teenager and doing RETRO things.
I loved the idea with the book
but I think that Lapuente & Shusterman got lost along the way as to what
book they wanted to write.
Cheers!!!
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