Review by Leah Edwards -- Yesterday by Samyann

[Leah Edwards]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Yesterday" by Samyann.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars.

Yesterday is described as historical fiction set during the time of the civil war, but begins its story in present day Chicago, following a young woman named Amanda as she meets a man she mysteriously believes she’s met before.

It’s a plot premise I can get behind, even with my usual aversion to historical fiction, but as excited as I was to read this book, the excitement quickly faded as I realised it wasn’t at all what I had envisioned.

The writing itself, I cannot fault (except for maybe the catastrophic text messages sent between Amanda and Mark in the second half of the book). It’s beautifully descriptive and incredibly easy to read, with there being next to no jarring moments which threw me out of the story. But whilst I was reading I kind of hoped there would be moments to pull me away from the story, because that’s how much I didn’t like it.

Amanda as a character is very much the damsel in distress wearing an extremely flimsy veil that pretends she’s strong and independant while simultaneously not being able to do anything in her life without the help of Chicago cop Mark. Mark is the stereotypical, rapey man you’d read about in novels in the fifties, where men grabbing onto women and telling them they’re ‘not leaving until [they] get what [they] want’ was seen as romantic rather than creepy.

He’s also written in a very infuriating style, where he seems to know the answer to everything, mansplains everything to Amanda even when she already understands it, and doesn’t listen to her until he finds evidence out for himself, which he will then pretend was his idea all along. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve considered not finishing a book, purely because I couldn’t handle another scene where Amanda spirals out of control until this man she’s only know for a few months talks her out of it and has sex with her in two different unnecessary scenes that add nothing to the story.

And it’s a shame. It’s a shame because the plot is really promising. I love the idea of these two souls being reincarnated and finding each other in every lifetime. It’s a beautifully romantic idea that just wasn’t executed nearly as well as it could have been, and my rating would have been higher if I wasn’t so disappointed.

I was expecting a great read, and instead? Instead I got Yesterday.

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Yesterday
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