In Rewind It Back, Tomforde portrays young-adult caregiving as an all-consuming role that exacts an immense and often invisible toll. The novel argues that for a young person like Hallie, caring for a parent with a chronic illness requires deep sacrifices that are deliberately hidden from the world and even from the person being cared for. These concealed burdens manifest as destructive financial debt, stalled professional ambitions, and a deep social isolation that separates the caregiver from her peers. The narrative reveals that the true weight of caregiving lies not just in the responsibilities themselves but in the secrecy required to bear them alone.

The most significant and private toll that Hallie endures is financial. To fund her father’s participation in a clinical trial for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, she secretly takes out massive loans, a fact she hides from him to prevent his guilt. She tells Rio, “[H]e wouldn’t have done the trial if he knew that, and I needed him to get better. So, I told him everything was covered” (293). This debt dictates her entire existence in Chicago. She works a full-time design internship during the day and a secret second job as a bartender at night, admitting to Rio that this is what she must do just “to make ends meet” (124).