YA Time Travel Romance: The Class of ’83
Magz, a senior at Saint Christopher’s High School, can’t wait to graduate and leave Santolsa, a sleepy desert town in the middle of nowhere. Her parents are never around, busy running from one business trip to another. Her best friend Jack is like a brother to her as they fend off bullies and a boring lifestyle. Magz believes her destiny lies elsewhere.
Mrs. Willis, Magz’s English teacher, assigns a writing task comparing and contrasting St. Christopher now to the school it was decades ago. To this end she passes out old yearbooks and Magz gets 1983.
Inside her yearbook is a brass key. Very weird. As Magz flips through the pictures one face stands out—Sammy Ruthven—the hottest guy she has ever laid eyes on. But if he were still alive, he’d be old and wrinkly. When Magz inquires about him to her teacher, who was a staff member back in ’83, Mrs. Willis weirds out, which was very unlike her favorite teacher.
One day, when the class is working on their yearbook project, Mrs. Willis leaves the 1983 book in the bookroom. Magz is asked to retrieve the book, but when she asks about a key, the teacher says, “You have the key.”
Magz finds the bookroom, closes the door and when she re-enters the hallway things look quite different. The teenager is transported back in time to 1983 to find her destiny.
Victoria Maxwell’s novel, Class of 1983, is well researched, creative, and inspiring. Her plot is fast paced, the characters are fleshed out nicely, and the settings are as vivid as if looking at a photograph.
Class of 1983 is obviously written for the YA audience, but older readers will be reminded about their own teenage angst. They will witness how Magz is transformed into Peggy and watch her develop as a young woman.
Warning: Class of 1983 is very hard to put down and thankfully, a sequel is promised and hopefully published soon.
About the Author
Victoria Maxwell is a self-published author, retired high school teacher, and a 1980s movie buff. She loves to shop in bookstores and thrift shops, and adores reading time travel books. Class of 1983 is her first novel.
Someone who graduated from high school in 1983 is only about 55, not quite old and wrinkly yet; I wonder what Sammy looks like now and I hope the book reveals that.