All Our Yesterdays

I’d like a time machine just so I can read this book all over again for the first time. My love for time travel is what drew me to this book, but my interest in the characters is what really held my attention.

First, I LOVE the way the way All Our Yesterdays uses time travel. I wrote a post about different timeline theories, and All Our Yesterdays uses the alternative time lines theory. The way Terrill plays with time and uses it to both create and explain paradoxes fascinated me. The time travel system in this book is intricate and it makes my head hurt a little when I try to think about it too much, but I’m in love all the same. The Em and Finn who are trying to prevent the invention of a time machine are like shadows in a different timeline of the original Marina and Finn. They’re the same, but yet not at the same time. Em is a bit tougher and harder than Marina–she’s had to be. Seeing the two sets of the same two characters took me a bit to get used to, but once I settled in I was along for the ride.

The villain in this book, the doctor, is so intriguing. It’s pretty easy to spot who he is early on in the story, and even if the reader doesn’t figure it out before hand, it’s not that far in when his identity is revealed. That being said, his character arc was heartbreaking and part of me wanted to kill him and part of me wanted to root for him just because of some of the things that happened. The villain is completely terrifying in the end, though–he’ll stop at nothing to complete his task, and has abandoned all sense of decency long ago. It makes the second half of All Our Yesterdays quite a race.

So the time travel system and the villain are both awesome, but man, the characters, Finn and Em, are the real stars of this show. They’re both so beat by everything that’s happened to them but they’re still holding on despite that. The romance is sweet and subtle–definitely a small part of the book–and it works so well because it’s between two people who have no hope of going back to where they were before the story starts. They know this may very well be the end for them, but they’re willing to do it to save the rest of the world, because the alternative situation is not acceptable.

And oh man, that ending. It fit perfectly with the book. It made so much SENSE. But oh, it was a heart-breaker, that one. I’m pretty sure when I finished reading I walked around my apartment in a bit of a daze. It sort of just took the wind out from me. That being said, I’m a little worried about the fact this book has a sequel, but you know what? Terrill did an amazing job with All Our Yesterdays, so I’ll continue to be optimistic.

Final Impression: This is such a “STORMY!” book that I had SO much trouble writing the review. I felt like this book was written for me. It has everything I absolutely love and I was so captivated by the story and the characters. This is definitely a time travel book I’ll be reading again.

From the very beginning I was hooked! There is so much action and suspense in this book I was biting my nails nonstop. I found myself yelling at this book telling them what to do and trying to make them listen to me. Unfortunately they didn't hear me :\ lol
I saw everyone talking about all the feels in this one, and let me just tell you, it is completely justified. I felt EVERY FEELING EVER while I was reading this. From being scared, to falling in love, to hatred, to triumph, to closure. Terrill is an amazing writer that will take you to happiness and before you can get too comfortable, will snatch it back and replace that glorious feeling with terror.
Speaking of all the feels... THAT ENDING! Holy crap, that ending! That's really all I can say or else I'll start rambling. I was glued to the pages and I loved every bit of it. I was so glad I was reading this by myself as I read it because I was shouting at the book, telling them all that they should've done. I was just a mess. I barely had any nails and my hair was a wreck from me running my hand through it. I'm not kidding you guys, it will do that to you.
With that being said, Terrill is an amazing author. This book is super intense and full of emotion. THROUGH OUT THE ENTIRE THING. Not just that superb ending, but through the whole thing. The chapters themselves had cliff hangers. It was just one of those books where you can't rely on "just one more chapter." It will leave you hooked on its pages until the end.
The time travel aspect of this is pretty good as well. It isn't confusing and you can easily tell when its the present or the past. And the small glimpse of the change is easy to spot as well. I just wish we had more information on it. Such as how it was finally done and what they needed to do it. I feel like it could've been explained a little more. (But I guess that's what the sequel is for... Right?)
The one complaint I have with it is the world building. I understand they're in cells in the beginning and all that, but I wanted to see what the world was like outside the cell. How the world looked as it was during war. We had that amazing cover, I was expecting to see some of that reflected in the book. It just wasn't there. I think had it been, this would have been a solid five star read for me.
All in all, this book is a force to be reckoned with. I was a little surprised to see that was a debut. It was a little over hyped, but that is easily overlooked as you fly through the pages to get to the end.

Oh my! This is what a true time travel story should be about.
The suspense, the confusion, the puzzled pieces that start to fit together, the world building, the character development (both in the past and the future)… Should I really tell you how much I loved this story? It was absolutely AMAZING! It blew my mind, so of course I loved it!

I’d spend all my yesterdays reading this book :) only to feel this joy with which it filled my heart, because there’s nothing better than finding a new favourite book – and this one here is a keeper.

I love the concept of time traveling, still it’s usually hard to find a good book that touches this subject. So, why “All Our Yesterdays” worked for me you wonder?
Well, it doesn’t spend a lot of time explaining how things work, but the details it gives seem believable. Also, the connection between present and past is really strong – the characters are completely different now, you see how time has changed them, but you also feel the need to see why is it that they changed so much, how wrong did things turn out for them in the time between, and how the future selves might make things better.

What I loved the most is that the characters are flawed, they make mistakes, but they have also depth; they fight for the right things, but they still have a heart to lead them. They seem real and they question the things they need to do, they fear the possibility failure (they can even accept it) and they simply want to make things better for each of them. I loved them all and it pained me to see how unfair life can be sometimes, and how easily some beautiful things can break into thousands of pieces just in an instant.

The decisions are hard to make, the plans go wrong more than right, there are turnarounds after turnarounds and even though you might feel that things don’t add up, in the end you will see that they actually do.

Conclusion: I loved it!
Review originally posted at: http://www.readingaftermidnight.com/cristin-terrill/review-all-our-yesterdays.html