Book Review: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill.

Product details:
Publisher: Bloomsbury.
Paperback, 362 pages.
Release date: August 1st 2013.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 12+
Source:Received from publisher for review.

A brilliantly brain-warping thriller and a love story that leaps back and forth in time - All Our Yesterdays is an amazing first novel, perfect for fans of The Hunger Games.

Em is locked in a bare, cold cell with no comforts. Finn is in the cell next door. The Doctor is keeping them there until they tell him what he wants to know. Trouble is, what he wants to know hasn't happened yet.

Em and Finn have a shared past, but no future unless they can find a way out. The present is torture - being kept apart, overhearing each other's anguish as the Doctor relentlessly seeks answers. There's no way back from here, to what they used to be, the world they used to know. Then Em finds a note in her cell which changes everything. It's from her future self and contains some simple but very clear instructions. Em must travel back in time to avert a tragedy that's about to unfold. Worse, she has to pursue and kill the boy she loves to change the future.

“You have to kill him.”

Present day: Isolated and tortured in the pursuit of information that will destroy the world, Em sees no future for herself. There’s no way out. Her only comfort is Finn, the boy in the neighboring cell who lifts her spirits and makes her laugh despite the fact that their whole world has fallen apart. But now Em holds a note in her hand, a note from herself that offers her a way out. Em must travel back to the past to save the future. She must kill the boy she loves.

Four years ago: Em and Finn arrive in a world where time travel hasn’t yet been invented; a world where love still exists.  Marina has been in love with her science-geek best friend James since forever, and it finally looks like he might be starting to notice her too. But then tragedy strikes and James’s world falls apart. Marina might be a little spoiled and selfish, but she would do anything to protect James. If it came to it; she’s sure she could even kill for love.

When past and present collide everyone is fair game, and somebody has to die if the future is to be saved.  

Confession: I have a love/hate relationship with time-travel novels. I love the idea of them; the fact that you might go back to the past to change your future, or that you might leap through time to get a sneak peek at what’s to come. In theory, time travel is totally my thing. However, when I read about time travel, boy does it tie my brain up in knots. I have to admit that time-travel more often than not doesn’t really work for me in books. It’s something that often seems to translate well to screen (Back to the Future – Yes!) but when it comes to books time-travel for me has been hit and miss. Until now. All Our Yesterdays is time travel done right. It’s time-travel made accessible.  Cristin Terrill doesn’t over-complicate matters, and though James, the boy whose dream it is to invent time-travel is a scientific genius, this book doesn’t suffer from an overload of scientific jargon. Phew for that, because science is so not my thing.

Romance, though, is, and Finn Abbott, you have my heart. I loved Finn from the start. I loved that he maintained his sense of humor and could make Em smile even when in life or death situations. Also, he’s cute.  As for Em, she’s a kick-ass heroine right from the start, determined to complete her mission for the greater good, even if it means breaking hearts; even if it means breaking her own heart.

One of the best debuts I’ve read in a long time, All Our Yesterdays is an unputdownable riot of action, adventure, time-travel and romance from start to finish, and is not to be missed. This book is also brilliantly plotted and though I thought the ending here was pretty perfectly formed, this one actually isn’t a standalone. A sequel is in the works! I look forward to much more from Cristin Terrill. This is an author to watch!