Retro - Jessica M Goldstein

 

Description

✨ PRE-ORDER THE ZEITGEISTY TIME TRAVEL DEBUT WITH A TWIST ✨

'I want to travel back so I can read it again for the first time!'
Casey Scieszka, author of The Fountain

'So much fun!'
Holly Gramazio, author of The Husbands

EVER WANTED TO TRAVEL INTO THE PAST? WELL NOW YOU CAN!*
*exclusions and exorbitant fees apply.

Ash is a failed actress who is done trying to ‘make’ something of her life when she scrolls past an ad for Retro. The algorithm thinks she can afford recreational time travel? Then she sees the caption: Come away with us! We’re hiring.

Time Travel Agents, the guides who lead ultra-wealthy explorers on trips to the past on the ‘Retro Metro’, must blend seamlessly into any historical period. Ash is a perfect fit. She’s an actress after all. Or at least she used to be.

So begins Ash’s life at Retro, chaperoning rich tourists through history’s most Instagrammable eras. She wrangles bachelorette parties chasing hunky cowboys in the Old West, throws ‘'20s for your twenties’ birthday bashes at speakeasies, and rolls her eyes at Wall Street men trying their luck in the Gold Rush.

For the first time in years, Ash’s life feels enviable. She barely notices the strange glitches in her memory or the way her present-day relationships are starting to slip.

But as the trips intensify and her present begins to fray, Ash confronts an unsettling question: Was diving into the past ever really an escape, or just another way to lose herself?

***

'A magnetic read—equal parts charming, melancholy, and strange—perfect for those with sharp tongues but yearning hearts.' Emily Hunt Kivel, author of Dwelling

'Shrewd, witty and original' Aisling Rawle, author of The Compound

'Retro provides a whip smart critique of influencer culture and the ultrawealthy, while being utterly readable and compelling' Tasha Coryell, author of Love Letters to a Serial Killer

Review

I love a time travel novel and was eagerly looking forward to this book. 

Ash hasn't made it as an actress and is currently in an office job. Then she sees an advert for a Time Travel company that are hiring. I immediately began to think of the Jack Finney short stories set in a similar vein, although this is 21st century time travel. So all the clients want to go to Instagrammable locations and the time travel scenario is well publicised.

I was all in with the concept and mostly interested in the recreational time travel that the agents were allowed to undertake. When they chaperoned clients it was mainly spoilt rich people who wanted a 21st century experience in the past. 

Unfortunately for me I found the book became a little pedestrianised in its pace after a while. Going back in time was great, but when we got there not a lot happened. Plenty of details but not much action. Luckily I stuck with it, because in the last part of the book, I literally became so scared for Ash. Different outcomes were racing through my head and what "would I do" scenarios playing out in my mind. Then nothing. I re read the ending but "nothing". It felt like the wrong ending to me, a let down.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.