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| Yesterday by C.K. Kelly Martin |
Summary from Goodreads:
"THEN: The formation of the UNA, the high threat of eco-terrorism, the mammoth rates of unemployment and subsequent escape into a world of virtual reality are things any student can read about in their 21st century textbooks and part of the normal background noise to Freya Kallas's life. Until that world starts to crumble.
NOW: It's 1985. Freya Kallas has just moved across the world and into a new life. On the outside, she fits in at her new high school, but Freya feels nothing but removed. Her mother blames it on the grief over her father's death, but how does that explain the headaches and why do her memories feel so foggy? When Freya lays eyes on Garren Lowe, she can't get him out of her head. She's sure that she knows him, despite his insistence that they've never met. As Freya follows her instincts and pushes towards hidden truths, the two of them unveil a strange and dangerous world where their days may be numbered. Unsure who to trust, Freya and Garren go on the run from powerful forces determined to tear them apart and keep them from discovering the truth about their shared pasts (and futures), her visions, and the time and place they really came from. Yesterday will appeal to fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner, Veronica Roth's Divergent, Amy Ryan's Glow, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Ally Condie's Matched."
NOW: It's 1985. Freya Kallas has just moved across the world and into a new life. On the outside, she fits in at her new high school, but Freya feels nothing but removed. Her mother blames it on the grief over her father's death, but how does that explain the headaches and why do her memories feel so foggy? When Freya lays eyes on Garren Lowe, she can't get him out of her head. She's sure that she knows him, despite his insistence that they've never met. As Freya follows her instincts and pushes towards hidden truths, the two of them unveil a strange and dangerous world where their days may be numbered. Unsure who to trust, Freya and Garren go on the run from powerful forces determined to tear them apart and keep them from discovering the truth about their shared pasts (and futures), her visions, and the time and place they really came from. Yesterday will appeal to fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner, Veronica Roth's Divergent, Amy Ryan's Glow, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Ally Condie's Matched."
Rating:
Freya, the protagonist, is swept into the year the 1985 [with no memory of the life she had in 2036]. She remembers travelling from Australia to Canada after her father died, but why do all her memories seem hazy? It’s as if she didn’t really feel them happen, but they’re all there inside her head? Still, life went on for Freya, she gets strange dreams and headaches from time to time though. Then she meets Garren, a guy she distinctly remembers to have met and hung out with. Garren feels otherwise, and thinks Freya’s a freak. That is until they came across puzzling pieces in their lives, and they start to question it all. Suddenly Freya and Garren are on the run – from what? Well, they have yet to figure it out...
Freya is a likeable character, relatable even in the beginning – but over time you don’t see much from her anymore, probably with all the confusing things she’s going through, you don’t expect to see some other side of her.
I was expecting to see some action by the time Freya and Garren were on the run, but I didn’t get that much. There was more running than fighting, and these two seem to have gotten off easy during their dire moments: gun shot that wasn’t that bad; hiding out and squatting in a house filled with food; getting money from people who can’t tell them the truth but are willing to help them financially. Seriously, compared to other protagonists from other books, they’re on the less dramatic side of things. That’s kind of hard to empathize with sometimes.
Yesterday is one of those books that started out incredibly awesome but didn’t get anywhere further than I hoped it would. I was completely absorbed over the first half of the book, and I was really loving it. The element of surprise and mystery was very endearing, and I couldn’t wait to see how it would go.
But there is such a thing as TOO MUCH suspense. By the time the author went out to put the pieces together, my patience had already grown thin. I understand the idea of building up all the questions but when the answers finally came through it came out overwhelming. Too much talk coming into one short scene, and the explanations over how they ended up in 1985 just came out confusing; maybe if it was given in bits and pieces, then and now it would’ve eased me into what kind of time travelling element I’d be seeing. With the way it was put out there in just one go – well, not all the details made sense.
*Thank you, Random House and NetGalley for the copy of Yesterday.
