All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction with a Twist
Blurb (on back of book):
Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.
Only Em can complete the final instruction. She's tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she's never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.
Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America's most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James's life crumbles apart, and with it, Marina's hopes for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it...at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.
All Our Yesterdays
is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.
MY OPINION: *****
All Our Yesterdays was an exceptional novel full of twists and turns. I would rate this book five stars because of many reasons, one of them being how the plot was. It had a ton of cliffhangers that made me want to keep on reading, despite it getting to be super late and I had to wake up early the next day. This book seems short, but in reality, it's short on the outside, but when you actually read the book, you have to be able to make predictions, inferences, and have clear thoughts on what you are reading in order to really understand the book and read a powerful piece of writing. So even though this book has a short amount of pages, and the font is relatively large, it's not something that you will finish in one day, unless you aren't analyzing. And if you don't analyze this book, it really becomes only one thing: confusing.
This book had a great plot. There is a major foundation of time travel. Unlike a lot of other time travel books I have read (those were great too), this book had a clear explanation of time travel and didn't leave me confused as much as some others that I have read. It had a great thesis and a clear understanding of how time travel (in the author's mind) works. It was really easy to understand if you just think about it a little more than you normally would about something else in a book.
I do not count this as a spoiler because it becomes really obvious towards the beginning of the middle (if that makes any sense): Marina and Em are basically the same person, but from different times. The blurb makes it seem as if they are two separate people, but both is a version of Marina. Em is Finn's nickname for Marina.
This also doesn't count as a spoiler in my opinion: the doctor is future James. I don't know why, but it actually took me a while to guess this. Maybe I was just not paying attention or thinking straight, but I finally got it. The doctor is basically "evil James". But I really do understand why the doctor did what he did: power and thinking that he was doing the right thing. So you can't exactly blame him as much as you would want to because he is just trying to do his thing, and just doesn't know that it isn't a good thing.
The thing about multiple perspective books is that once you start reading one person's POV, then you feel as if you want to continue reading about them, but the author always stops at a cliffhanger. When you are reading the next person's, you just want to read the other person's view again, but as you get into the second person, you don't want to stop and so on. I think that this is cool because it leaves me with a sense of wanting to read more. So I basically like multiple perspective books.
SPOILER ALERT
Nate's getting shot and eventually dying made me really sad. Nate seemed like such a good character, but was killed off before the readers had a chance to really get to know and understand his character and his personality. Nate had a big part in the book, if you think about it, even though he spent a lot of that time in a hospital bed. Like I said, sad.
When Nate died, I literally wanted to punch the book, even though I knew it was coming. There was no point to have him as a character, unless to keep James happy, and what story would there be when everyone is happy and there aren't any problems and conflicts? I think that this part, although sad, was definitely a needed piece in the book.
But the thing about Nate's shooters! I have to say, despite all of my predictions and thoughts, I honestly did not see future James as having led the shooting! I mean, I should have seen it. It's kind of obvious, now that I think about it, but I honestly did not expect that. It was so sad, and how must young, innocent James feel?
When Finn died, I was so sad, I almost cried. Both young Finn and old Finn were my favorite character(s) (I don't know, do they count as two separate characters?), and when the author, or I suppose future James killed him off, I just couldn't believe it. I felt like EVERYONE was dying in this book. Was Marina going to be the only one left?
Honestly, the ending was really confusing to me. Maybe it was because I was half-tired from reading for two hours when I was supposed to be sleeping, but I didn't really understand the ending. Didn't Finn die? Or was that only future Finn? I don't know. I do know that James died (both of them), but it was still confusing.
Charles Richter wasn't ever drawn on as much. We know he was a bad guy, but after a while, they just stopped talking about him.
The beginning was a little slow to me. She took forever to open the drain, but I guess that that was the point: to show how hard it was and to see how much effort she put into it. But the story didn't really start until after three or four chapters.
Also, didn't you all just love younger James? So smart and nice, and such a great person. He was literally my favorite character. Until I found out...
Spoiler. Ugh.
Finn's "idiocy" was actually super funny. It made me smile even at the worst times. He was definitely my favorite character, for that, and also how he is sweet and kind. Well, he is in the future...
I feel as if this review is really long, but in reality, it isn't. I feel like I am just writing a ton because this book made me think a ton. It really did.
The characters in this book were really well-drawn. Marina was really different from Em, which helped me to distinguish them really well, despite being basically the same person. Em changed her personality as she grew, and she really changed how she acted in situations. Finn also changed from the Idiot to Mr. Sweet Guy. and James...well, James changed a lot. Not going to say any more than that, so GO READ THE BOOK AND FIND OUT
Tamsin and Sophie were real jerks in this book. Oh my gosh.
For school, we sometimes have to do stop-and-jots, but for this book, I didn't have to. But this book made me think about things so much that I just had to write them down. For personal use. There is a bunch of sticky notes sitting by my bed now. All stop-and-jots.
OK, I think I am done now. Done. But not done with the book. Sometime in the near future, maybe I will reread it. Somewhere here or on iWrite, I talked about the effects of rereading, so I'm actually going to listen to myself sometime. Maybe I'll read this book next year. Maybe I'll read it in five. Maybe I'll read in a month. But I will most likely be rereading this book and creating a new updated post on this book and just talk about my new thoughts as a more mature reader and person.
I would recommend this book to anyone who liked Tamara Ireland Stone's
Time Between Us and
Time After Time, or to people who like time travel, romance, and a lot of adventure.
Main Character: Marina, Em
Sidekick(s): Finn (both), James (past), Nate, Vic, etc
Villain(s): Time, James (future), Mr. Richter, etc
Realistic Fiction with a Twist Elements: All of this could happen in real life except for the time travel. For now.
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