Spin Me Right Round

Seventeen year old Luis is a homosexual in America of the 2020s. He is extremely annoyed that the principle of his school will not allow two boys to date each other at the Prom. There is a freak accident with a piece of theatrical stage material during which Luis suffers a head injury. As a result of the accident Luis is transported back in time to 1985. He is now a student at an ultra-Christian and ultra-conservative version of his High School – together with the two people who are destined to become his parents.

In this timeline even admitting to being gay could result in expulsion. Can Luis find his way back to his own time and place and somehow save his future while improving the attitudes of people he encounters in the past?

As a character Luis is vibrant enough to fly off the page. Of course the most enlightening element of the novel is to contrast the rights that Luis enjoys in his own time, limited as he sometimes feels them to be, in contrast to the restrictions imposed on him in the past. For adults borne in the 1980s there are many cultural references they will remember. This reviewer’s main criticism is that the text describes a boy as dancing like a spastic robot. Even though the use of such terminology was probably common at that time, it strikes a jarring note in a modern text. In light of the current debate about women’s reproductive right in the USA, there is a strand relating to sexual abuse of young women with the risk of unwanted pregnancies.