Book Review: All Our Yesterdays

All Our Yesterdays

By: Cristin Terrill

Published by: Disney Hyperion

Release date: Sept. 3, 2013

Genre: YA science fiction

360 pages

Buy it at Amazon, IndieBound, Book Depository, or Barnes & Noble

Source: borrowed from the public library

What's a blogger to do when she has a review date to fill and no Advanced Reader Copy for the job? Hit the library, and cruise the award winners rack. That's where I found All Our Yesterdays, snuggled in among the Missouri Association of School Librarians' Gateway Award nominees.

This is Cristin Terrill's debut, and if this is a good measure of her skill, she has a long, prolific career ahead of her. All Our Yesterdays was original, well-paced, and had just enough twists to keep the reader's interest without becoming confusing.


The book is told in two perspectives: Em and Marina. Their worlds collide in an epic scene near the end of the novel, but the stories they tell leading up to that point are a fabulous comparison and contrast. Learning how the two view the world so differently makes the conclusion all the more fabulous. Those last few pages are absolutely killer good reading.

This book's central device is time travel, so it's difficult to discuss without giving spoilers. If you are at all interested in teen sci fi, especially when it includes a variety of male/female/spoiled/tough/good/evil characters, This one is definitely worth a try.

Summary:

What would you change?

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 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, 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.