Retro by Sofia Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman is a YA thriller about what happens when teenagers accept a challenge to go without modern technology for a year. Luna enters this competition because she and her family need the reward money. But strange things start happening to the competitors, and Luna needs to figure out what's going on before something happens to her too. I really enjoyed this story and the characters; I definitely recommend it! Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

On a scale of Lame AF to Holy Flaming Balls this is awesome this fell in the middle of meh. It had an intriguing concept but poor execution. I know when reading we're supposed to have a level of suspension of disbelief but there were too many issues that kept me from doing that. Between the idea that technology was completely absent during the 90s (a typewriter? Common on, we have computer labs in the 90s), to educators and parents being ok with a slew of cameramen prowling the hallways, to someone cutting a student brakes with no real emotional impact from said student was completely unbelievable. I also took issue with the cheap shot at foreshadowing at the end. There could have been a better alternative to excite on a possible second follow-up novel.

That being said the story wasn't completely terrible. There were certainly creepy moments in the novel like Andy our Limbo Mascot popping up at the most random times with crept keeper vague warnings and cryptic notes sprayed out on lockers this novel definitely had its moment. I also appreciated how the authors showed how Social Media is weaponized as a tool for cyberbullying and the lasting effects it can have.

I think this novel could have gone better if they choose the 80's instead of the '90s, separated the Retro students in detached classrooms for fewer disruptions, and show a little more emotional intelligence it could have shone a little better as a whole. Solid 3 stars.

I tried really hard to like this book. The premise sounded interesting, and as someone who grew up in the Eighties I was curious to see how kids of today would do with "coping" with the lack of all the technology. But before I knew it, this book went from a retro challenge to something else entirely -- it kind of gave me Hunger Games vibes, minus the arena and the deaths.

It was almost like this book started out as two different books that continued to fight against one another all the way through to the end. Major issues that teens deal with on a daily basis -- depression; anxiety; body dysmorphia; addiction to social media -- all of these were handled in what is best called a flippant way. At one point, when a character confesses to her mother that she was the one responsible for kicking off what eventually becomes a major cyberbullying attack, her mother just says, "Oh, I'm disappointed in you, but good job trying to make things better." What??

I did appreciate some of the funny writing, and I'm so glad the authors stayed away from the trope of a parent-teen struggle. But the absentee parent was still a tired cliche used over and over; in fact, none of the parents/adults seem to be present or even care much what's going on with the characters. This was okay when it came to the kids hanging out with each other, but when kids start going missing and no one seems to bat an eye...? It was too hard for me to swallow.

I wonder just what the authors were trying to say with this book. It wasn't clear what the main theme or idea behind it was supposed to be. It started out really fast and continued to zip along at what eventually becomes almost a breakneck pace.

In the end, this one wasn't for me.

I really wanted to like this one, since I've liked Jarrod's previous collaborations with his father, but I just couldn't.

Things that worked:
- the playlist at the beginning and QR code for the Spotify playlist.
- the chapters being named after songs on aforementioned playlist.
- it didn't shy away from showing ramifications of cyber bullying.

Things that didn't:
- the fact the "big bad" was so obvious and one-dimensional,
- the characters were unevenly developed.

What I loved
1. The formatting especially the linking each chapter to a song really worked for me
2. The inciting incident being tied to online bullying was painfully believable
3.. The challenge of spending a set amount of time without modern tech is one I know I would fail.
What Didn't work as well for me
1. The answer to our primary mystery was slightly too obvious to me. (this may be more of a me reading too many books in this genre thing than anything wrong with the book)
2.Dialogue felt off
Who I would Recommend this book for
Excellent read for younger readers wanting a modern murder mystery

I think this read a tad on the younger side than I generally like to read, but I still found this to be a fun and enjoyable read. I think the chapter being tied to a song is a fun and unique take. There are moments I feel are a bit exaggerated and added solely for dramatic purposes, but otherwise I think the story was okay.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

Interesting story on how technology can spiral. Is it really helping us or is it hurting us? This story shows how technology and social media apps can really have an impact on a person and break them down. It is a story to show the perils of not taking time to be mindful of what’s going on around you.

#netgalleyarc I really liked the premise and summary of this book but once I started to read it I just found it kinda…meh. I loved the playlist that was provided and that the chapters were named after the songs from the play list but other than that the book was just okay.

I think this book had the right vision and potential to become a great mystery book, but I guess it was a little too slow for me and not enough build-up to “wow” me. It had a great concept, awesome characters who learn to develop themselves through trials, and a realistic story with a very realistic addiction to social media. The story telling wasn’t too strong and sometimes the characters seemed more suitable for a middle grade/early YA audience. Other than that, the book is a pretty good read and reminder to us all to take a break and “be retro” once in a while. :)

Thank you to netgalley for the eARC

RETRO by Sofía Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman is a young adult novel that begins with some drama between two long-time friends, the posting of a damning video, and subsequent concerns about mental health and technology use at a Northern California high school. It is a bit difficult to believe that the kids are as mean as they are portrayed to be, but even allowing for that, the clique conflicts ebb and flow in rather stilted ways (e.g., why is a super-popular guy suddenly into a loner girl?). Friendships do develop and it is fun to see a "brat pack" of sorts (think Breakfast Club) trying to support each other in their quest to not use pre-2000 technology for a year. The actions of the tech company, called Limbo, are also rather suspicious and the suspense about who will win the challenge and what will happen next does move the story along. However, the characters are rather unevenly developed. Look instead for DRY, a dystopian novel written by Jarrod Shusterman and his father, Neal, or for the action-packed FULL TILT by Neal Shusterman – that one is older, but still amazing and popular with student readers.

Have you ever read a book and thought, "well that was stupid...?" This is that book for me.

Honestly, starting out, my interest was piqued because I thought it had a good introduction and the chapter ending with Samantha swallowing so many pills was eerie in a really good way. I thought "Cool, if this is how the rest of the book goes, I'm in."

That is not how the rest of the book went.

It became dumber and dumber as it went on... a tech company named Limbo, which is essentially a generic prescription of TikTok, decides to implement a "retro challenge" for anyone who wants to give up technology with the winner receiving a scholarship to college as their way of taking a stance against bullying on social media. Yes, a social media company is looking to reward students who don't use social media.... make it make sense.

Throughout this shoddy plot, we have a popular heartthrob with anger issues (Axel), a vengeful ex-girlfriend who should seriously be arrested for putting people's lives in danger (Jade), an angry side character with no purpose (Vince), and a Latina mom who's about to be deported if she loses her job (currrrveball). As the volunteer Retros start disappearing, the remaining Retros try to figure out who is against them.

Isn't it obvious? Yes. Does this obviousness make the point of this plot any clearer? No.

I'm gonna stop writing now. I feel like I just read a stupid book that wasted my time. The end.

Could you live without modern technology for a year? Obviously, that is a question that I asked myself many a time during the course of this book. There is a lot of great commentary throughout the story, not only in terms of whether you can live without social media and technology, but whether social media and technology do more harm than good.

The whole thing starts off pretty devastatingly, when Luna goes a little too far to get revenge, the internet does its absolute worst to shame a young woman, and she nearly kills herself because of it all. That is a lot, but it's also very much a real thing that can and sadly, does happen in today's society. Obviously Luna never meant for it to go so far- in fact, she took down the video mere moments after posting it- but the vultures, they are swift.

The chapter titles are all of "old-school" (think 90s-00s) songs, which really brought me back, and also proved even more thought provoking. Because when I was listening to those songs in high school, the internet (and social media) was at the cusp of explosion. We had AIM, and email, and a few other sites to engage with each other. And even in that small, much smaller than now, space, there was drama. Frankly, I cannot imagine the struggle of growing up in this social media flooded landscape, but this book does a great job of illustrating the pitfalls.

So sure, it is in part a cautionary tale, but it ends up being more than that. There is a mystery/thriller aspect involved, though I won't talk more about that since it doesn't appear until a bit further into the story. My personal favorite part of the story was the character growth, which there is obviously a lot of. Not only does Luna undergo a ton of growth, many of the characters around her do as well.

Bottom Line: Equal parts timely, relevant, and thought provoking, Retro provides a great look into the perils of social media in our society.

Retro by Sofia Lapuenete & Jarrod Shusterman was a ya contemporary with a little of fanatsy LGBT+ standalone novel! I was sent a finished copy from Simon & Schuster company so thank u so much and thank u Netgalley for anb e-arc as well!
So before reading this book I wasn't sure if I was going to like it because I haven't been reading a whole lot of Ya contemparoires lately. They have been on the back burner for me since I've been reading a lot of thrillers/fantasy! But I will say this was fun read and a very fast pace book! I would say check the trigger warrnings before going into this book because there is talks about sucicde sadly. Also before I forget my rating I give this a 4/5 stars, it wasn't a five star because the begninning was a little slow in my taste but once I got to page 150 it started to go fast from there. There was a lot of twist and turns and some shocking moments I didn't see coming. I'm excited to see what these two authors have in store for their furter works and can't wait to read more from them both! Happy reading and hope u have a great day or night or not the choice is yours!(:

Luna Valero Iglesias has never been one of the popular kids at El Dorado High School, and that’s just fine by her. She’s not even jealous that one of her best friends, Samantha Darby, runs with the Goldens, as that elite clique is known. Luna, Samantha and their other friend Mimi have more than enough fun together whenever Samantha can escape the beck and call of the rest of her moneyed and beautiful crew.

So when Samantha lets Luna take the fall for a terrible thing, Luna is both blindsided and infuriated. It isn’t just the damage to Luna’s reputation that has her so upset. Samantha could clear up this very expensive mistake by speaking up, but chooses not to. Enraged, Luna decides to erase every trace of Samantha from her life, including digitally. It’s while going through her phone, deleting pictures and other media of her now former best friend, that Luna discovers an incendiary video Samantha accidentally recorded on the wrong device:

QUOTE
I never was supposed to have that video, but there I was marveling at it–as if I had my very own Picasso in the palm of my hands. Beautiful and grotesque all at the same time.

The world needed to see this work of art.

If I was going to get scapegoated and lose all the money in my bank account, then the school deserved to see Samantha for who she really was. She wouldn’t get to pretend that she’s so perfect anymore.
END QUOTE

Luna uploads the video to the hottest social media site, Limbo, using an anonymous account and tagging Mimi. She doesn’t expect for it to go viral, or for the rest of the school to start bullying Samantha as a result. When things take a near-fatal turn, a distraught Luna begs the Limbo help desk to take down the video’s now many remixed copies.

After hearing her plight, Limbo decides to do one better than merely scrubbing the humiliating clips. With the agreement of Luna’s high school, they decide to sponsor a competition to help reinforce the concepts of kindness and connection between otherwise social-media-saturated teens. Students who manage to give up all technology developed after the turn of the 21st century and “Go Retro” for the duration of the challenge will win a full-ride scholarship to the college of their choice.

Even if she weren’t stricken with guilt over what happened to Samantha, Luna would leap at the chance to win this extremely valuable reward. Business at her family’s movie theater isn’t what it used to be, and not having to worry about how to pay for college would be a relief for both her and her widowed mother. But a classmate who decides against participating provides her with a much needed reality check:

QUOTE
Suddenly I was hit with panic.

Miranda’s question was asked with such conviction that it allowed doubt to creep in. <i>What am I really getting myself into?</i> I hadn’t thought about the consequences of going without modern technology. But I knew deep down that this was what I needed. It was the only way to begin to correct what had happened. I was being offered a chance to escape this world. A chance to be “young, wild, and free.”

I finally started breathing out the pressure that had clenched my chest these past days.

Even if this challenge was some publicity stunt–I didn’t care.
END QUOTE

At first, going Retro is indeed as fun and liberating as Luna hopes. She even makes unexpected new friends, while bonding further with Mimi. But as people start abruptly disappearing and strange things start happening in the woods, Luna has to face the fact that something sinister is also going on. When Mimi is the next competitor to vanish, Luna will have to lean hard on her faith in both herself and her newfound friends if she hopes to stand a chance at recovering Mimi and exposing the truth behind what’s happening to their town.

This Young Adult thriller is very of-the-moment, skipping agilely between current pop cultural references and those of the late 1900s. It raises important issues of social media dependence and consumer responsibility that young readers may not already be cognizant of, in addition to sympathetically presenting the plight of people dependent on fickle work visas to keep their families together. There were parts that felt less than thought out – for example, there’s no way those terms and conditions would be enforced on a minor, even one who’d gotten her mother to sign a permission slip allowing it – but the overall aim of the book is worthy, if a little heavy-handed. As an adult reader, it was also fun to re-experience the 1990s through Luna’s gaze, and to see her help pull her town together for a common cause.

There’s no secret that I will basically read anything with the Shusterman name. I might never read Roxy because of its topic, but I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read that Jarrod has co-written. I’d love to read something of just his eventually, so hopefully he writes solo. Also, I can never tell who writes what during a co-written but I’ll definitely be interested in seeing what Sofía Lapuente writes in the future!

I knew I had to read Retro. I am so glad that I did! This was such a lighthearted, wholesome, fun ride from the very first page. I had been in a bit of a slump, so I was afraid that would hinder whether I enjoyed this book but it didn’t! If anything, this book helped with my slump a little bit.

We follow our main character, Luna, as she does something unthinkable. Then to right her wrongs, she joins the Limbo competition. A one year competition to let go of modern technology and to live “retro.” Each person who joins the Limbo competition gets to choose how retro – what decade or style – they want to go. If you break the rules, you’re eliminated. If you win, you get a full ride scholarship to any college of choice.

Not everything is as it seems.

Our main group of characters can all benefit from winning the Limbo competition, so when things start to go awry, they start to question each other. It seems everyone has something to hide. Luna and her mother’s immigration status, Kilo and his sexuality, Axel and his anger issues.

However, despite all that . . . they form one hell of a bonded friendship. They don’t go into the competition as competing against each other, but they’re just going with it together. The friendships were so genuine and wholesome. I absolutely love reading about characters you’d never imagine being friends forming an unbreakable bond with one another.

My only “complaint” was Mimi. Her character seemed out of place. Like, a little too sarcastic and trying to be funny even during serious moments. I guess it worked to lighten the mood, but it made a few of the scenes lose their “moment.”

I don’t want to spoil too much about the main plot, so I’m going to avoid talking about that. But there’s some mystery and suspense, who is responsible for events that are happening, with a little splash of romance. There are quite a few hilarious one liners that had me giggling throughout the entire book. I also learned some Spanish words and phrases throughout.

Oh! Each chapter has a song, so the entire book is a playlist. I, personally, cannot listen to music while reading so I’ll be listening to the playlist soon (courtesy of Jarrod Shusterman: https://sofiandjarrod.com/retro-playlist — also available via QR code in the physical book). But the music is so late 90’s (for the most part), that it’s perfection.

There are a lot of elements here that remind me of This Is Not The Jess Show by Anna Carey. The only difference is that our main character(s) know they’re being watched and observed, and are willingly living retro and without technology.

If you’re looking for a fast, fun, wild ride with friendship and blast from the past . . . Retro fills those checkmarks.

Retro brings us a premise a bit unimaginable in these times: would you endure a year without any technology? This is what our protagonist Luna faces when she accepts to participate in the challenge that the social network Limbo is proposing at her school, with a prize that could change her life and save her future. But not everything is as good as it seems, is it?

Well no hehe it isn't. This book forms a mystery from the first page, even if you don't quite realize it. Interspersing scenes of present and past, it gives us an idea of what is going to happen and yet, you have no idea how the whole situation got there. I really liked it because even when I knew something bad was going to happen, I managed to enjoy the little clues and moments that created this atmosphere.

It's a very young adult book, and I like that it was believable the way the characters acted, and the jokes they made were half childish but I couldn't help but stop laughing because YES THIS BOOK IS FUNNY. It's the ideal balance between seriousness and fun. I recommend it if you're looking for a light and quick mystery to read, with its part of romance and young friendships.

First off, thank you so much for giving me access in advance. I do have to admit I was let down a bit by this book. I am a huge fan of Dry, and so when I saw Jared Shusterman was releasing a new book, I had to get my hands on it. It, for me, was just too slow and too back and forth with little context of what was happening in the beginning. It was a good read, and I enjoyed it, it just didn't live up to my expectations.

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Title: Retro
Author: Sofía Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman
Format: Ebook-Thank you to @netgalley
Genre: YA
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

One Line Synopsis: One event, one challenge, and a whole lot of change!

📌Review

This author duo is a force to be reckoned with!

I loved this book for so many reasons. The pace was very fast and readers will get hooked in the first 30 pages. Each chapter has a song title that matches with the contents of the story. Each song is from the 90s, which I really loved because I was born in the 90s. My husband thought I was strange when I would turn to a new chapter and sing the song as I was reading.

The characters are so lovable and explorative. Luna was a great mix of leadership and pure fun. Her friends each added a little bit to her development, which was very interesting to read. The little love subplot was fun too and not too overpowering for the story.

The Retro challenge and big man little fish plot opens a great conversation about technology. The last paragraph of the book blew me away and I still think about it since reading the book a few days ago. Do we as a society today have a good relationship with technology or did we lose ourselves because now technology exists more than it did before?

Happy Book Birthday to this adventurous fun time!

The premise of this is a group of high schoolers give up technology as a challenge, but there may be something sinister behind the company leading it. I like that a lot, especially with how much the world relies on modern inventions to function.

The execution was lacking. The characters were supposed to be seventeen or so, but felt more like fourteen. There were a lot of signs as to what was going on, but no one paid attention until the end. There was also some pointless drama and the main character Luna flip flopped a lot in trusting her friends or thinking they were out to get her. I also thought some parts seemed unbelievable, even within the context of the story. No one wondered what was going on? No parents doubted their children just ran away?

This is being tagged as a thriller, but it didn't feel that way to me. The climax seemed easily dealt with and the reveal of what was really going on wasn't a surprise or even as dark as I wanted it to be.

I think younger teens might enjoy this, seeing how kids improvised without their phones or internet and learning about some throwback things. It just wasn't for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Simon & Shuster and NetGalley for the copy

Thank you for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of Retro!

Retro follows high school student Luna, who is trying to redeem herself after she makes a big mistake and really hurts her friend. I found the concept of this book really intriguing, and I was sucked in to the story right away. I thought Luna and her friends were lovable, and her romance with Axel was engaging, too.

However, there were quite a few moments where I found myself thinking the story was too repetitive or trying too hard to push the mystery aspect. There were many moments where the narrative was like "And we never expected what happened next" and I think that those moments really weren't needed because, as it is a mysterious book, we do expect surprises and don't need to be reminded that there will be twists.

That being said, I really do think that it was an interesting wake-up call to the amount of data social media companies could get from us. It also was a unique narrative on a cyberbullying storyline that didn't make me immediately drop the book. I did enjoy it overall, there were just moments that took me out of it!