ARC Review: All Our Yesterdays (Cassandra Chronicles #1) by Cristin Terrill

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
368 Pges

"You have to kill him." Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.

Marina has loved her best friend James since the day he moved next door when they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles apart, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Now someone is trying to kill him. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it. At least not as the girl she once was.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

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 “Is there evil in me?” “Could I become a terrible person someday?”

I’m trying to figure out what I can say about this book without giving it away. First off, it’s amazing. Everyone needs to read this. I was hooked by the first chapter, where we find Em and Finn being held captive in what appears to be a dungeon type building. They are being held by someone who calls himself the Doctor and tortured daily for the location of certain documents. It is here where Em finds a list written in her own handwriting explaining what scenarios she has already tried and failed. It is here where she realizes in order to save the world from what it becomes she must Kill him.

Kill who? And why? And how? And more importantly, what???

Time travel. This book deals in time travel.

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If you’re like me, you may find time travel confusing. It’s such a hard subject to wrap your mind around. If you go back in time to change something that happened but you had already been there before but now things are different with different outcomes that change the future, how did you know to go back there if you had never been there? AHHHH What???

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Time is so confusing.

What Terrill has done so brilliantly is mixed the scientific world of time travel with real life problems. Em and Finn aren’t going back in time to look at dinosaurs or stop World War 1 or any of those other places people go in other time travel stories. This is a character driven story with science as a subplot. Em and Finn in “present” time, and Marina and James in the past. Both sets of characters were so real and honest. I loved the strength in Em and Finn’s unconditional love for her. They were fighting for a better future, knowing what losses they would incur in the process. I loved James’ drive to make the world a better place. He loved his family and friends to the point where it blinded his decisions, and Marina loved him, blinded by everything else.

I adored every second of this book. Parts I predicted and cheered when I was right (even though for some I didn’t want to be) and some things just came out of nowhere and hit me in the gut, even bringing the tears. It didn’t even matter that I didn’t completely understand the last chapter (no seriously, if anyone can help me out, send me a message lol).

This is the story of friendship, love, loss, and surviving…with a little time travel thrown in. And I am counting down the days until the next one is released. Brilliant.

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.