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Table of Contents
About The Book
When four friends find themselves thrown back in time to 1985, how will they handle being teens in their parents’ era? And will they ever get back to the future?
It takes Shannon a while to work out what’s happened. She went into the cinema in 2025 and came back out … in 1985? Somehow she’s travelled forty years back in time.
But this isn’t the first time something strange has happened to Shannon and her group of friends. Is there a chance that whatever mysterious forces brought them together a year ago have sent them back to the 80s with her? To find her friends, she’ll have to navigate a world with no smartphones, no internet, and – worst of all – no bubble tea.
As the group tries to find a way back to the future, some friendships are strained while others blossom into something more. Can they stay together – and stay friends – long enough to survive 1985?
In another warm, wise and life-affirming story, Tegan Bennett Daylight takes her beloved cast of characters from her debut YA novel Royals on a fresh adventure, to discover something about their roots and how far their generation has come.
It takes Shannon a while to work out what’s happened. She went into the cinema in 2025 and came back out … in 1985? Somehow she’s travelled forty years back in time.
But this isn’t the first time something strange has happened to Shannon and her group of friends. Is there a chance that whatever mysterious forces brought them together a year ago have sent them back to the 80s with her? To find her friends, she’ll have to navigate a world with no smartphones, no internet, and – worst of all – no bubble tea.
As the group tries to find a way back to the future, some friendships are strained while others blossom into something more. Can they stay together – and stay friends – long enough to survive 1985?
In another warm, wise and life-affirming story, Tegan Bennett Daylight takes her beloved cast of characters from her debut YA novel Royals on a fresh adventure, to discover something about their roots and how far their generation has come.
About The Author
Photograph © Russell Daylight
Tegan Bennett Daylight is a writer, teacher and critic. Her books include the Stella Award shortlisted Six Bedrooms and the novels Safety and Bombora. She lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two children.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia (April 30, 2025)
- Length: 256 pages
- ISBN13: 9781761429729
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Raves and Reviews
'Entirely beguiling.'
– Herald Sun
‘Tegan Bennett Daylight has the rare ability to make the extraordinary so perfectly ordinary, and so meaningful, so full of life. How to Survive 1985 is every bit as brilliant as Royals, and Shannon and her friends’ voices linger long after the story ends. I hope this is not the last we see of these teenagers.’
– Alice Pung, author of Laurinda and One Hundred Days
‘I gulped this book down—a compelling fall back in time, with characters, storyline and setting I connected to instantly. The novel asks us to consider what we’ve gained and lost in the past forty years, and what we might value enough to carry into the future.’
– Helena Fox, author of The Quiet and the Loud
‘Hilarious and heartwarming in equal measure. This is a bold book with big hair and questionable outfits that explores all the ways we find ourselves through our fraught and beautiful relationships with the people around us.’
– Felicity Castagna, author of Girls in Boys’ Cars
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
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Book Cover Image (jpg): How to Survive 1985
eBook 9781761429729
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Author Photo (jpg): Tegan Bennett Daylight Photograph © Russell Daylight(0.1 MB)
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