Lady Danielle

Cover and synopsis fraud strikes ... yet again.

Not only do I feel annoyed, frustrated, and angry, I feel CHEATED. Cheated andtricked. I've read so many lovely reviews talking about how amazing All Our Yesterdays was. The total mind fuckery they've experienced whilst reading this; yet, queerly, the mind fuckery I've experienced wasn't in a positive way. There's no polite way to say this, but... I hated this book. And now I'm going to ask, again, what story has everyone else read? What did they love that I didn't? Why does it feel like I've read something else entirely? What am I not getting?

Over-hyping a book is somewhat precarious — if disappointed, the reader may end up hating the book more than they should because they not only expected something so much more, but they had high hopes. Yes, I'm talking about myself and maybe for other people. Of course, there's some good stuff in All Our Yesterdays -- okay I'm lying, I'm lying to myself to make myself see sense. I can't bring myself to give this two stars because I'll be lying to myself. The concept of this book is the only thing that's great. Usually I'll say to a book I've finished that I didn't like much, "it's not you, it's me", but this time, book, "it's not me, it's YOU".

Leading back to the statement "there's nothing good about this book": I did enjoy the first few chapters of Em narrating. It was very promising. However, once I'm introduced to Marina, All Our Yesterdays goes downhill rapidly. So much angst, so many things were very offending, so many times the book was trailing off the plot into an entirely new territory that I found vexatious. 

A drain and a girl... prisoner, more like.

There's something strange about this particular drain in Em's cell that she wants to uncover, she knows this drain has some hidden secrets inside. When she gets the drain open, there's a paper with a list of attempts tried and failed. Strike outs, notes-to-self, sentences she can't read since the writing has faded. Apart from that, one sentence sends chills down her spine:
You have to kill him.

When I read the synopsis, All Our Yesterdays became exceedingly predictable. I knew who "him" and "the doctor" was and I knew how the story was going to end. The minute the characters were introduced, I knew. Obvious, much? I predicated more things, but I'm not going to say because I'd spoil the story. The characters were not only flat and underdeveloped, but they were annoying. Especially Em and Marina (view spoiler), my god, I couldn't stop rolling my eyes. Incessantly I kept putting All Our Yesterdays down, not wanting to go on. I don't know why I finished.

I wasn't really feeling the whole "time travelling" thing, either. And I'm really interested in this scientific theory. This was just... bad. I will not be picking up the next book.