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!

A year without cell phone and instant technology? And ability to be reached? Would you do it?

This book was so good. After a toxice life threatening social media post students are given a chance to start over and be free of their phones for an entire year in a chance to win a competition. For most students it’s not worth it but for so many it is. This book is about resetting and starting over. I loved the new outlook on life and they way they overcame obstacles.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

This was a very unique book. Part hunger games part pretty little liars and a few other parts. The chapters were all named after old songs so I was digging that.
Luna, the main character, becomes the focal point of LIMBO- a Facebook of sorts. And as we all know, social media has its ups but it also has its downs. Lina and her friends get together to try to find a balance in life- both real and on social media.
This was a fast read and it wasn’t boring or anything, but I’m just not sure I would recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review

TT Retro by Sofia Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman, 400 pages. Simon & Schuster, 2023. $20. lgbtqia
Language: R (67 swears, 0 “f” + Spanish swears); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
When cyberbullying goes too far, Luna contacts the social media app Limbo for help making the situation right. Limbo decides to come to Luna’s high school to issue the retro challenge: go a whole year without technology made since the turn of the century. Luna makes new friends, learns more about herself, and tries to figure out why students participating in the retro challenge start to go missing.
I feel like Lapuente and Shusterman make a lot of good points about the damage that can be done on social media and the connection we lose when they are exclusively online connections. Social media isn’t necessarily evil, but we can be better about being kind and responsible social media and technology users. Luna is the narrator, talking directly to readers. Her interruptions of the story were disorienting, but it also felt like they were intended to be that way. I didn’t really like those breaks, but it wasn’t good or bad, just a literary choice.
Luna is Spanish and Mexican, Kilo is Hawaiian, and Mimi and Axel are depicted as White on the cover. The mature content rating is for underage drinking, mentions of drugs, illegal activity, innuendo, mentions of penis and vagina, implied sex, and sexual assault. The violence rating is for cyberbullying, attempted suicide, and descriptions of scary scenes.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

When cyberbullying leads to attempted suicide, Luna knows that something drastic has to change. She reaches out to the social media platform where it happened in desperation, but she doesn't expect a response at all. So when Limbo shows up at her school and challenges everyone to give up their smart phones, Luna is ecstatic. Luna and her classmates try life without the algorithm, hoping for a second chance - but they soon find out that the influence of Limbo is harder to shake than they thought. High tension and higher stakes make Luna's story one you won't want to miss.

Jarrod and Sofia are undeniably a great team. Retro was a quick read, and the pacing kept me engaged until the very last page. The characters were likable, and I really cared about what happened to them. (#TeamLuna)

In Sofía Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman’s collaboration, Retro, a group of unlikely friends discover more in common than they thought when they decide to take the Retro Challenge. Giving up screens and other recent technologies gives way to authentic friendships as the group deals with issues with family, mental health, consumerism, addiction, and what it really means to be a friend. Unforeseen twists and turns bring questions of what is real and who to trust in this action-packed YA thriller.

1 Sentence Summary: When Luna enters a competition to live without modern technology for a year in order to win a scholarship, at first it’s all fun and games, but soon things turn sinister as her classmates start disappearing and she no longer knows whom she can trust.

My Thoughts: This was an interesting concept—it’s kind of like a YA version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but more of a thriller mixed with if TikTok goes wrong. My main problem with it was that it just wasn’t super developed, and the first half was a bit slow. It had potential but didn’t quite live up to it. The characters were interesting but got pretty cardboard cut-out stereotypes at times. Honestly, I didn’t really care that much about what happened to them. This book didn’t make me invested in the story.

I did enjoy how every chapter title was a different song and the book made up a playlist! I also liked how it explored the effects of social media. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either.

Recommend to: People interested in the darker side of social media explored in a YA thriller novel.

(Warnings: swearing; attempted suicide; bullying/cyberbullying; implied sexual content; kidnapping)

Sofía Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman’s Retro caught my attention for two reasons: Jarrod Shusterman. And the synopsis.

The premise here is definitely attention grabbing, hitting on so much that I’m interested in: social media, cyberbullying, bystanders’ responsibility, what it means to be online . . . all the time. All of that, couched in a suspense/thriller novel? I’m in.

I’ve read Shusterman’s work before, in Dry, the book he co-authored with his father Neal Shusterman, and it’s an amazing and thought provoking work of YA speculative fiction, just like this one. I’m in. Again.

The book definitely makes full use of suspense. It begins with protagonist Luna Iglesias, bleeding, locked in isolation by unknown captors, looking back over the year and telling her story.

That story is something. It begins with Luna’s betrayal by a friend and then by Luna turning on that friend in a cyberbullying incident that Luna unsuccessfully tries to take back. Eager to do penance, Luna reaches out to Limbo, the social media platform who enabled her cruelty, and she receives an unexpectedly robust response.

Limbo sets up a competition challenge, asking teenagers to voluntarily go retro for one year. They can’t use any technology invented after the year 2000.

Luna is eager to jump in, to challenge herself, to make up for her mistake. She’s joined by a cadre of new friends who make for some compelling secondary characters.

Ultimately, this one checked a lot of boxes for me, and I do think it offers some nice chances for discussion about issues that our society—and our teenagers—deal with daily. Unfortunately, the writing held me back from loving the book. The dialogue, in particular, is wooden, offering chunks of exposition, and some of the characters’ epiphanies came with unwarranted ease.

The plot did pull me in, and I think Luna is a character with real appeal. There are just some elements that held me back from loving it.

2/5 stars! I WANTED to like this book. The cover was stunning and the premise sounded exciting. I was hoping to get something like a social-media-driven version of "Ready Player One." Unfortunately, this was not it. Sometimes you can tell the author(s) are just so far away from the population they are writing. The teenagers seem unbelievable which makes it exceptionally difficult to stay engaged in the storyline. I pushed through the book but it was painful at times. This was more 1,001 references and very little storyline to connect them.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

The cover sucked me in and the story kept me turning the pages. Who would give up technology for a year? I couldn't (don't want to) do it - even though the internet is a double edged sword. It was fun going back to my growing up days (when it was really retro and not acting). Add some teenagers, attitude, and adventure - and you have a book that's un-put-down-able!

Loved this YA Thriller with an Hispanic MC!

The adventure, the intrigue, the teenage angst, the possibility of life without technical advantages -everything rolled up into a fast-paced YA Thriller story that I didn’t want to put down!

Retro is a thrill ride of a novel, while also speaking to the dangers of social media.

Luna is in trouble for something she didn't do. While shopping with her friends Mimi and Samantha, she is detained for shoplifting. While holding Samantha's bag. Full of stolen items. And Samantha doesn't do anything to clear up the misunderstanding, even when she calls her lawyer mother to bail her out. So she's justified in posting an embarrassing video of Samantha trashing all her friends while she was drunk. Right?

Luna takes it down the next day, but it is too late. It has already gone viral, and Samantha's friends are bullying her, as well as the entire Internet. Samantha tries to kill herself, and then Luna feels even worse. She seems a video to Limbo, the social media giant, begging them to do something about cyber bullying.

And, surprise, Limbo actually does. They invent the Retro Challenge, and invite the entire high school to complete. If they can go without new technology for the year, they will get a full ride to college. The school becomes divided into the Retros and everyone else, and Luna is invested in being the best Retro she can be.

Even with a suicide attempt, this book starts off feeling lightheaded. Good things are going to come from the bad. Samantha is okay, and Luna is going to help her immigrant mother by winning a scholarship. One day, she can sponsor her and help her become a citizen.

But things don't stay so rosy. Luna makes new friends and discovers she is stronger than she thinks. However, when people in the challenge begin to disappear, Luna must draw on that strength and find out where her friends have gone.

There is a lot of drama in this book - friendships, romance, missing persons, creepy dead animals - this may not be a YA book younger readers will enjoy. And some will find it too preachy about the evils of social media. But it has a happy ending, and hooked me thoroughly.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

I am a huge proponent of nostalgia. I was an 80s and 90s kid and it was a great time to grow up. We called our friends on landline telephones, took photos that we wouldn't see for days, weeks, months (or even years at times), and spent very few hours on the "world wide web" as it took our phone line away. In Retro, the characters are challenged to "go retro", meaning abandoning all modern day technology for a chance to win a college scholarship. Of course, things don't go as the main characters expect them to. 


This story was extremely entertaining and fun, the characters really embraced going retro. It made me think about our world today. I've often thought that the birth of the internet and social media in particular has really been one of the worst things that happened to our world. The internet has been both a blessing and a curse. This book was extremely thought provoking and thrilling. The story takes off and never lets you go until the very last page. I did find some of the dialogue between characters a little cringe at times but other than that I loved it. Highly recommended!

I received this book from the author/publisher to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love so many things about this story. This read like a movie and I was eagerly anticipating everything that happened. I loved the characters and the idea behind the competition. At first, I thought, “this would be such an easy thing to do,” and then I thought about it and realized how much of my life is connected to my phone and present-day technology

There were two things that I didn’t really care for but did not change my rating at all. The first is that this didn’t really feel like a “thriller.” I can see how it can get labeled that way but it’s very light. The other thing is the dialogue between characters was sort of comical at times. It didn’t really feel like how teenagers would actually talk.

Overall, I loved this story and can’t wait for more between these two authors.

A heartfelt thank you to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster's Children Publishing and Sofia Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman for providing me with an e-ARC of this book. This is my voluntary review and the opinions expressed are solely my own.

To be honest this book was on my radar long before I requested it on NetGalley. As a child of the 80's/90s, this tugged at my heartstrings. Then my heartstrings turned into goo the second I opened the e-ARC and looked at the playlist. I even compiled notes for some retro songs that I was not aware of. I would have to re-read the book to really digest if each song title fit in perfectly with the chapter, or not.

This book is timely with its themes of social media and bullying. I would love to see Retro incorporated into classrooms around the country to discuss the infiltration of social media, its uses for good and for evil and bullying and how social media amplifies a lot of problems with young adults.

Lapuente and Shusterman wrote a wonderful novel with, yes, the stereotypical characters, but all characters were fully fleshed out and had their own voice. Not once did I feel that the stereotypes were amped up or just there to prop the story along.

I especially enjoyed Mimi and Darnell's voice. I loved Luna's feistiness and being bilingual, enjoyed the Spanish that was woven throughout the novel.

This is a thriller, which will appeal to fans of Karen McManus, however the body count here is considerably less than in McManus's books. It also shares concepts with Anna Carey's This is not the Jess Show, which I also loved.

I loved the sub themes of culture, found family, and standing proud in your values and principals.
The found family of the core Retros and extended Retromanics made this a feel good read.

I laughed and cried and gasped out loud at strategic places throughout the book.

Retro is a fast paced read and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of RETRO!

My rating: 4/5 stars
TW: attempted suicide, bullying, parental death (mentioned, not shown), deportation (mentioned as a possibility, never shown)

This action-and-humor-packed challenge/social commentary Young Adult novel by debut authors Sofia Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman is one you don't want to miss. With a diverse cast of characters, RETRO reiterates that what you post on the internet matters, and it can and will stay there forever.

Luna, our MC, is a firecracker child of a Spanish mother and Mexican father who makes a heat of the moment mistake and posts a video of her close friend, Samantha, bashing on her and others in their school after Samantha lets Luna take the fall for a crime she did not commit. In turn, this ruins Samantha's life, resulting in Samantha attempting suicide. During the fallout, Luna, feeling guilty, appeals to the social media app she posted on, Limbo, for help. Limbo issues a challenge as part as an anti-bullying campaign to El Dorado high school: live like it's before the turn of the century and get a full ride scholarship to your college/program of choice. This seems like a no-brainer for Luna and some of her friends, but when the challenge takes a dark turn, would it really be worth it?

This book had some pacing issues that didn't deter me a whole lot, but it was noticeable. I also felt like some of the dialogue was a little too forced, and some action bits felt choppy and jumpy to me. However, the plot as a whole was unique and thought-provoking. I loved all of the characters; they all added so much to the story and made it convincing and real to me. If you're looking for a fun/challenging/tense YA read, this is it for you!

I enjoyed the premise of the book but, I didn't like the plot of the book. I can't put my finger on exactly what was wrong but, everything was a little too over the top to be believable. The timeline didn't flow smoothly either.

What a way to start 2023! I don’t remember the last time I finished a book in less than 2 days. It surpassed my expectations. I loved the message(s) that Jarrod and Sophia flawlessly showed throughout the book. This is a book everyone should read once in their lifetime.

High schooler Luna enters a competition from social media giant Limbo to go without modern technology for an entire school year. If they make it they will win a scholarship to the college of their choice. Everyone is offered this opportunity after a bullying incident at El Dorado High. The ones who accept all have their reasons for doing it. A challenge like that is not easy for anyone let alone social media obsessed teenagers. But going without phones and TV won't be the only problems they have. After students go missing it's clear something is not right.

Retro is described as a young adult thriller. I would say the book feels very young and usual fans of young adult might have a hard time relating. Of course the characters are teenagers but they act very young for their age.

The story opens with "now" and it's clear something major has happened. Then we go back to just before everything starts with a few check ins to the present along the way. This seems like a great set up for a thriller. You know something is coming. So I kept reading. Retro is a fast read but I couldn't help feeling that I was reading to find out if something was going to happen rather than what was going to happen.

I liked the premise of the plot but I wanted to see more of how the characters dealt with going without technology. Many times the story moved forward in time by either quite a bit or an indeterminate amount of time. So I would go back thinking I had skipped something.

I didn't find the reveal shocking or realistic. I have a hard time thinking of Retro as a thriller. I appreciate the message of the book but it doesn't feel high stakes or new to me. It might make a good movie which I felt many times while reading.

The cover intrigued me but the story did not. I wanted to love it but the story didn't hit right. The concept was interesting but the execution fell short for me.