​Book idea/concept for a Science-fiction story

A teenager in the futuristic yet post-modernistic world of 2055 goes back in time to the late 90s. There he meets a girl and falls in love with her but that is cut short when she is tragically killed in a school shooting. The whole story is about the ethics of Time Travel and whether should alter the past to save her and if he should sacrifice his life in the future. Moreover, The story is also a love letter to the 90s era and the pre-9/11 optimism that American society had back then. It references popular movies, culture, and music, and commentates on the political climate. For this book, I was inspired by Stephen King’s 11/22/63, Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, and Robert Zemickis’ Back to the Future.

I conceived this idea during the pandemic when everything shut down. All the things I was excited about in High school such as graduation, prom, and forming friendships were gone. I felt I missed something vital in my development. And I wondered what life I could have had if I had been in the 90s, when technology wasn’t so pervasive, politics didn’t descend into culture wars human creativity wasn’t determined by algorithms, and people had things to be excited about.