How to Survive 1985, by Tegan Bennett Daylight

In this sequel to Royals, teen Shannon and her friends once again face a time dilemma as they find themselves in Sydney forty years in the past. It poses the question – were things really better when your parents were your age …or ten times worse? The answer is, of course, both – in different ways for different people. In echoes of Back to the Future, Shannon gets to meet her mother as a teen and has to decide how much to tell her about the future and how much she can influence it. Her previous time loop experience in the shopping centre proves helpful in navigating the past as she looks for her friends so they can work out how to get back to their own time. It’s cleverly done, with warmth and wit, but that’s probably enough now.