Review: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
Published: August 1st, 2013 (Bloomsbury Childrens)
Pages: 362
Source: bought
Series: All Our Yesterdays, #1
Buy the book: Bookdepository
Rating: ★★★★★


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.

Whoa. What just happened? Holy shit.

I would happily let that be my entire review, because I'm honestly a bit lost for words. Every once in a while, if I'm lucky, I find a book that knocks my socks off. One that blows me away, that sends me on a rollercoaster of feels, one that breaks my heart in all the right ways. All Our Yesterdays is one of those books.

Terrill writes the book in a way that is enormously cinematic. I felt like I was watching a movie rather than reading a book, it was that vivid. It was so easy to visualise that I often found myself lost in my own thoughts about everything I just read and I had to shake my head a bit to be able to continue reading. It was so easy to see what was happening, what the situation was, how everything played out. I don't often have this feeling when I'm reading a book, it's quite a rare thing, but this book managed to give me everything.

I thought it was a very interesting way of incorporating time travel and I absolutely loved how it was executed. I'm not particularly drawn by time travel books, even though I usually find them fascinating when I read the synopsis, because I usually get confused quite easily. However, this was just so wonderfully done that I'm about to go on a time travel readathon because I just want more. Thankfully, All Our Yesterdays leaves enough of the story unanswered at the end that there will be a sequel. A sequel! To this goodness! I'm not sure how I will cope. If I can cope at all. Whee!

The characters really came to live on the pages and I loved that. They were so vivid, it was like I was there. They had their own little quirks, their own little habits and their own ways of talking. I didn't need to read who was talking, I could tell by the way their talking was written just who it was. I always love when authors are able to make characters so distinct from the pages, considering you can't hear or see them, though you visualise them in your mind. I loved Finn especially, but I have to say I even loved James so that's major props to Terrill!

I can go on and on about how much I loved this book. Because I loved it a whole lot. I just don't think you'd be interested in a review that is 100 pages long so I'm just going to say that I loved it and I think that you would love it, too. No matter your preference in genre, I think this book is a great pick for just about anyone. Pick it up, seriously. Embrace the goodness.