Review: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

All Our Yesterdays

Author: Cristin Terrill
Series: All Our Yesterdays #1
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Genre: YA Science Fiction/Time Travel
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
Rating: 4 Stars
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

"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 Review:

I had heard great things about this one and have been dying to get my hands on it since it was released. So when it showed up at the library for me I practically ran there. This book totally lived up to the hype.

It starts out with the main character, Em, locked in a prison cell. There’s just something about a book starting with the MC in prison that I love. It just immediately grabs my attention, sucking me into the story. What are they doing in prison? Do they deserve to be in prison? What happened that got them to this point? I immediately want to know more about the character. Em and Finn (the boy locked in the cell next to her) must escape from prison and go back in time to stop a crazy man called the doctor from destroying the world. They’ve attempted this mission many times before and failed. Now they are going to try one last thing, in the hopes that it works.

I really liked Em. She was strong and sure of herself. Confident in who she was. But Em was also human and it was the soft, human side of her that made her so believable.

The other main character, Marina, is just a normal teenage girl. She’s spoiled, rich, and completely in love with her best friend, James. So right when things seem like they are going to progress in the relationship, tragedy strikes and messes everything up. Marina was annoying to me and I really didn’t like her. However, I understood her. I saw my teenage self in her. She’s pretty whiny the entire book. She has horrible self-esteem. Like atrocious. It made me ache to see her hate herself so much. Her neediness is annoying, but explained. Her parents are pretty absent and, as much as she tries to deny it, it hurts her that they don’t seem to care.

There’s a lot of science-y stuff in this book about the way time travel works, but it was easy to understand and I never felt really lost. And honestly, if you are having trouble understanding, it doesn’t really matter as long as you believe that time travel exists. Some people don’t have to understand. I’m the kind of person that likes things to be explained and Cristin Terrill does an excellent job of explaining.

The plot of this book moves very quickly and is packed with lots of twists and turns. I started reading it one night, put it down and went to sleep, and then the next morning I picked it up and didn’t get out of bed until I finished it. The characters were all enjoyable even the secondary ones like Finn (who I loved!) and James. My only complaint with the characters is the relationship between Em and Finn. I had a hard time believing it. I know that they’ve been through a lot together, but we didn’t get to see all that and all the relationship building so it felt kind of abrupt to me. Because of that, I never really got any feels over their relationship.

So basically all of these characters end up coming together and the truth unfolds. Things get intense. Then really sad. The ending broke my heart. It made me cry. And then in the epilogue, there was something that I didn’t quite understand. While I was reading this, I was under the impression that it was a standalone. It read like one and everything was tied up neatly except this one thing that didn’t make sense to me. But then I found out that there’s going to be a sequel so perhaps it will be explained then. Although I’m kind of annoyed that there’s going to be a sequel because I felt like the book would have been fine on its own. But aside from these small things that bothered me, the book was excellent. I loved it and highly recommend it. Happy reading all!   

Have you read this book? What did you think? Were you confused by the same thing I was? Email me if you were so we can talk about it (lockhartbecca@gmail.com)!