Review: All Our Yesterdays

All Our Yesterdays

Release: September 3, 2013

Source: eARC 

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"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. 

When I first began reading this, I knew two things about All Our Yesterdays:

1. It was a Time Travel Book

2. A girl goes back in time, because she has to kill the man she loves to prevent the world from destruction/chaos.

I got a book that was MORE than just your average time travel book. Cristin Terrill has written a fantastic, and smart, novel that doesn't spoon feed its readers. I admit, I was confused in the beginning, but I was intrigued enough to keep on. And as I kept reading, the pieces began to fit.  Everything made sense. This book is brilliant, heart-pounding, and heart breaking. 

Marina is a girl from the past, very much in love with a guy friend, James. James is sophisticated, and far too smart for his own good, except when it comes to relationships. The same girl, Em, is from the future and has traveled back in time to save the world from the devastation that's come to her world, thanks to the time machine James invents. Each time, Em uses the time machine Cassandra to prevent the the time machine's development until only one option remains: she must kill James, the man Marina loves.

Character wise, I loved Em. She was flawed, but sympathetic. Her companion, Finn, was also sweet easy to root for. In fact, each of the characters were complicated and intriguing. But how, and why, everything plays out the way it does is something better left unsaid. But I can say that it's a time travel book I'll recommend for years to come.