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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DNF’ed @ 58%
This book was clearly not written by an actual emo kid from the mid-2000’s. A lot of the songs are from the wrong era (What The Hell and My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark are two songs from Avril Lavigne and Fall Out Boy respectively released post-2010 and post their “emo” eras) or they’re just the most cookie-cutter obvious picks you’d expect from someone who didn’t actually experience the emo/scene culture. No self-respecting emo kid is feeling nostalgia for the post-2010 mainstream pop Fall Out Boy music, it’s not happening.
Jumping off of that, the timeline makes no sense. The FMC supposedly left her hometown after graduation and has been gone for nearly 20 years. That means she would’ve graduated sometime around 2004-2006 2007 at the latest. She wouldn’t be nostalgic for half of the songs that are mentioned because they literally did not exist when she was in high school. Which means she would’ve had to have graduated even later like maybe in 2011-2014 but that wouldn’t make sense because the entire plot revolves around her finding a magical CD player and having a MySpace and being in the thick of emo culture, which was more around the 2005-2009 era. So many things don’t add up and if it wasn’t so egregious or maybe if I didn’t have firsthand experience with emo/scene culture I would have excused most of the plot holes. But these were too jarring and took me out of the story.
I also have to say that the FMC is really stuck-up, especially with the way she treats the MMC’s current partner. And it feels like the author has something against women who listen to Taylor Swift? As a former emo/scene kid who has been listening to Taylor’s music since 2006 I took a bit of offence to that 😅 Also the MMC was really dry and one dimensional. I felt like the FMC was in love with the idea of him and who he had been as a teen and didn’t really love the man he had grown into. This book just felt like a story about a 38 year old woman who could not let go of high school and her missed love-connection from her teenage years. It just felt sad and unfortunate, not really making for a good romcom.
A complete swing and miss attempt at recreating the magic of 13 Going On 30.
This book was clearly not written by an actual emo kid from the mid-2000’s. A lot of the songs are from the wrong era (What The Hell and My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark are two songs from Avril Lavigne and Fall Out Boy respectively released post-2010 and post their “emo” eras) or they’re just the most cookie-cutter obvious picks you’d expect from someone who didn’t actually experience the emo/scene culture. No self-respecting emo kid is feeling nostalgia for the post-2010 mainstream pop Fall Out Boy music, it’s not happening.
Jumping off of that, the timeline makes no sense. The FMC supposedly left her hometown after graduation and has been gone for nearly 20 years. That means she would’ve graduated sometime around 2004-2006 2007 at the latest. She wouldn’t be nostalgic for half of the songs that are mentioned because they literally did not exist when she was in high school. Which means she would’ve had to have graduated even later like maybe in 2011-2014 but that wouldn’t make sense because the entire plot revolves around her finding a magical CD player and having a MySpace and being in the thick of emo culture, which was more around the 2005-2009 era. So many things don’t add up and if it wasn’t so egregious or maybe if I didn’t have firsthand experience with emo/scene culture I would have excused most of the plot holes. But these were too jarring and took me out of the story.
I also have to say that the FMC is really stuck-up, especially with the way she treats the MMC’s current partner. And it feels like the author has something against women who listen to Taylor Swift? As a former emo/scene kid who has been listening to Taylor’s music since 2006 I took a bit of offence to that 😅 Also the MMC was really dry and one dimensional. I felt like the FMC was in love with the idea of him and who he had been as a teen and didn’t really love the man he had grown into. This book just felt like a story about a 38 year old woman who could not let go of high school and her missed love-connection from her teenage years. It just felt sad and unfortunate, not really making for a good romcom.
A complete swing and miss attempt at recreating the magic of 13 Going On 30.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of my favorite book trends I just noticed this yr is books with a playlist and this had a great one: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2pbSgFIwXqjEz7neBWsni5?si=ihUiIvwYQnCJ1KDi1DHWzA&pi=PvmCOonHReWwu
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The nostalgia I felt while reading The Backtrack hit me deep! While I never had a “what if” guy in high school, I loved revisiting the music of my teenage years and knowing that others dissected the lyrics as much as I did (and still do). Erin La Rosa masterfully layers her story, making it more than just a second-chance romance.
On the surface, we follow Sam Leto, a woman reluctant to return home to help her grandmother, Pearl, pack up her childhood house. But as we peel back the layers, we uncover themes of childhood trauma, parental abandonment, and the generational struggles of women doing their best with the circumstances they’re given. Beneath all of this is the romance between Sam and her high school best friend, Damon, which adds another emotional depth to the story.
One particular moment stood out to me-when Sam and Damon discuss a Blink-182 tour with Fall Out Boy and The All-American Rejects. I actually saw that tour in Albuquerque in 2009! Those kinds of details made the book feel even more personal and immersive.
Overall, I deeply enjoyed this book. It’s not a perfect 5-star read for me because the romance felt like it was missing something;I just can’t quite put my finger on it. But the nostalgia, emotional depth, and well-crafted storytelling made The Backtrack a book I won’t soon forget.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I really liked the way this was a bit of a twist on time travel, in that the female main character doesn't exactly travel back in time, but does get the chance to see how things would have played out in her life had she made different choices. And the things she saw did not quite go how I assumed they would, so that was a pleasant surprise.