Trapped in the Past

What if the only way to fix your future… was to confront the past that broke you? Seventeen-year-old Lennox Merritt is tired of holes—the ones in his story, his home, and his hope. When a glitch in an experimental beat machine hurls him three decades into the past, he lands in 1995 with nothing but a backpack and music the world hasn't heard yet. In a world of boom boxes, beepers, and block parties, Lennox meets people who feel too familiar—and a version of someone who never got the future they deserved. But getting back home isn't just about rewiring time. It's about feeling the grief he buried, the silence he inherited, and the choices he still has the power to make. Set in a rhythm-rich world where hip hop holds memory and healing moves through basslines, Trapped in the Past is a time-bending debut novel about rewriting what hurt you, reclaiming what made you, and remembering that the story isn't over just because the page turned.