All Our Yesterdays

by Cristin Terrill

All Our Yesterdays Series, Book One

Book Description

Marina has everything. She’s got money, popularity, and a bright future. Plus, she’s best friends with the boy next door, who happens to be a gorgeous prodigy from one of America’s most famous families.

Em has nothing. Imprisoned in a small white cell in the heart of a secret military base, all she has is the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

But Marina and Em have one big thing in common: they’re the same person.

Now Em must travel back four years in time in order to avert the terrible future from which she’s fled, and there’s only one way to do it. She must kill the person who invented the time machine in the first place: someone from her past. A person she loved.

But Marina won’t let them go without a fight.

“What would you include on a list of instructions to yourself?”


by Cristin Terrill

In my debut novel ALL OUR YESTERDAYS, my main character Em finds a note taped inside of the drain of the prison cell where she’s being held. The note contains instructions from other versions of herself on what she needs to do to save the world.

Since the stakes were much lower for me in high school than the fate of the universe, my note to myself, should I ever get the chance to write it, would be a little different.

It would be much longer too, since I wouldn’t be writing under the constraints Em was and since I did a lot of dumb things as a teenager. So here’s just a sampling:

41.  You’re never going to see any of these people after graduation, so try not to worry so much what they think. You do have the capacity to be brave.

42.  A package of peanut butter crackers from the vending machine and a Diet Coke do not actually constitute “lunch.”

43.  When you get accepted to your first choice college early decision, don’t withdraw your other applications like you’re supposed to. Not knowing where you would and wouldn’t have gotten in will drive you crazy for the rest of your life if you do.

44.  You’re actually not ugly, but even if you are, who cares? You’re so much more than that, so let that fear go.

45.  When that boy asks you to that school dance, even though school dances are the worst and he’s got trouble written all over his face, you should really consider saying yes anyway.

46.  Do NOT eat those waffles at that hotel in Houston unless you want to get violently ill. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ONE ENOUGH.

47.  You have a brain chemistry problem. No biggie, just get yourself some antidepressants pronto so you don’t waste years being unhappy.

48.  Don’t bother regretting most of the mistakes you make or wishing you could go back in time and change things about your life. Because bad things often lead to good things, and even if they don’t, they make you the person you are.

MY THOUGHTS: 4.75 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

I should start off by saying that this review will be rather short, because it is VERY difficult to review what I thought about so many things that happened without spoiling the multiple twists in the book. This is a time travel novel, after all.

With that being said, I also have to say that usually, I am put off my time travel movies and books. For some reason, my mind has a hard time following how someone doing something in another time affects the future. Luckily, for my sake, reading this book didn’t leave me confused (much).

The book starts off very bleak, but we see glimpses of how strong the main character Em is. She has to be–she’s being kept prisoner in a scientific facility until she gives up the answers her captors are seeking. But even though they are torturing her, and the boy she loves, she will stop at nothing to make sure she can go back to the past and fix what’s wrong with the world before it even begins to come to fruition.

The novel is told through two points of view: Em and Marina. I guess it’s not a spoiler, since it’s mentioned in the synopsis, but Em is the future version of Marina. It’s mindblowing how amazingly different the girls are, separated by only a few years. The reader forgets that they are one in the same person, and this is because Em has too.

Events move very quickly and you don’t have to wait long to find out who is behind everything, and why. The reader gets the sense they are running out of time, just as Marina and Finn are.

I liked the fact that there was definite romance in the book, but it wasn’t in your face and mushy, and it didn’t awkwardly slow down the pace of the book. Interactions between the characters feel intimate and natural, whether romantic or friendly in nature.

It’s difficult for me to say much else without spoiling anything. You should know that I thought the end was brilliant, and everything tied together nicely. Don’t be afraid of too much time travel/sci-fi talk…this book is aimed at young adults so fortunately you won’t find that here. I thought the book would be perfect as a stand alone, but it seems it’s the first in a series. Don’t pass this one up!

View all my reviews

About the Author

Cristin Terrill has a bachelor of the arts degree from Vassar College and a master of the arts degree in Shakespeare Studies from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. She currently lives outside Washington, D.C., where she teaches creative writing workshop for kids and teens. ALL OUR YESTERDAYS is her first novel.

Visit CristinTerrill.com to learn more about Cristin and her YA Novel!

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