If You Could Go Back and Change Things...Would You Do It?

"The truth is, the world is a fucked up place sometimes."
--Cristin Terril, All Our Yesterdays

Genre: YA Science Fiction and Dystopia

Publisher: Disney Hyperion, 368 pages

Publication Date: September 3rd, 2013

Source: Borrowed
Goodreads

Goodreads Description

"You have to kill him." 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 has 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 the day he moved next door when 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. Now someone is trying to kill him. 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.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

My Thoughts

Ok, so I have been hearing ALL the hype surrounding All Our Yesterdays. Debby was, like, freakin’ crying over Twitter about it and when deciding what to read next she won the Twitter war…I’m really glad she did. This book has everything the geek inside me wanted. Time travel, dual storylines, swoony boy, AND A QUOTE FROM SHAKESPEARE TO OPEN THE NOVEL. DONE.

The book grabs your attention pretty much immediately. Em is locked in a cell. The opening descriptions and vivid and you feel yourself right along side Em in this godforsaken hole in the wall. With the drain. Always about the drain. Oh yeah, and a mysterious boy that gets you through one hellish day after the other and lives on the other side of the wall *sigh* hello, angst of a romance. The pieces of the puzzle fit together slowly as to why she is there but then we also get Marina’s story from 4 years earlier. I love two perspectives in a story, I really, really do. Because I can’t delve too much further into the plot without ruining things, I’ll break down what I liked, etc.

Em—loved. She is cynical, a little bitter, but kind of a badass. She is running around with Finn after time traveling—YES time traveling—trying to race against the clock to basically save the world. My heart was breaking for her a lot of the story. She is a broken, a little damaged, but stays true to what she believes is right. Finn is right alongside her and you guys, I was swooning at page 21, just ask Debby. I love the Finn. Love love love. I could spend 2 paragraphs on why I love Finn but to ensure you keep reading and actually come back I’ll list adjectives. Snarky. Sarcastic. Strong. Lovable. Adorable. Smart. Brave. Compassionate. Caring. *sigh* Ok, that’s it for now.

Marina, however, took me a while to like her. She is superficial, a little stuck-up and naïve as all hell. BUT, you are the product of your environment a lot of the time and, again, without giving too much away, I liked seeing Marina grow throughout the book. She is not perfect, but it is her imperfections that I find endearing. Her strength in the face of tragedy is something to give her credit for. She grows, she adapts, she starts to see things from a different perspective and I love her for it.

Time travel. Hello, my geek card is calling and I am accepting all charges. I don’t read a lot of time travel books but I think this one was done amazingly. It was simple (if that can even be used to describe time travel) in a way that made the rules of this application understandable yet complex. I didn’t have to sit there re-reading the explanation over and over again, but I also didn’t understand every detail. Uh duh, I’m not an astrophysicist or whatever smart person job they use to do stuff like this. I liked that I could understand it yet also know a lot more was involved than the simple explanation. That make sense? Whatever, it was well done. That is all.

While we do get some explanation as to why the world went to shit, we don’t get a whole lot of detail. I would have liked a little more explanation on the world outside of our characters and I’m anticipating more answers and more of a breakdown in the next book.

So, I thought the book was a solid 4 almost the whole read through…then I get to the last 20 pages and OH MY GOSH THE FEELS?!? Where am I!? Where did they come from!? The ending is SO good! It twists in ways I NEVER saw coming and just when I THOUGHT I had something figured out, the entire book is flipped on its head again. I am happy with the ending…yet also not completely content. I am grabby hands already for the next book. Where is it?!

I loved this book. It brought a complex foundation, great characters and more feels than I’d like to admit to. Geeks of the reading world unite and read this book.

Should You Read This? Sci-fi, dystopia lovers will devour this.