Rated YA-MA discussion

The group read for April is now open.

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I've had some interesting discussions with folks about the end of this book. Can't wait to hear what you ladies have to say!

Oh! I bought this one a while back. Maybe I'll finally get to it.

I find time travel books to be hit or miss. I just finished after struggling to read it for a few months. Needless to say, it was a big miss IMO.

BUT! All Our Yesterdays is one of my favorites :)

I really enjoyed this book too. Might have to read it again.

I really enjoyed this book too. Might have to read it again.

I read this 2 and a half years ago and gave it 4 stars but I can't remember the story so I might join in as a reread.

I have this odd recollection of a scene taking place in an office in a subway but can't remember more than that or if that is even really from this book. It's so strange the associations our brains makes.

Well I'm 28 pages in and I'm invested in the characters (view spoiler)[the moment when Finn is let out of his cell and runs straight for Em. THERE WERE FEELINGS (hide spoiler)] and want to know what the hell is going on-which I think speaks to the writing.

(totally off topic) Rachel, I've similar reviews for Passenger which is kind of a bummer for me. I liked the Darkest Minds trilogy and was looking forward to more work from Bracken but it seems like that book has some definite growing pains.

I am to chapter 13 (don't know page numbers since I am doing the audio book), and oh my gosh it has me on my toes and wanting to know what is next. I was spoiled a bit by a Goodreads reviewer on (view spoiler)[that Em and Marina (sp?) were the same person, so I missed that reveal (hide spoiler)] but otherwise I have enjoyed all the twists and turns. Can't wait to see where the story goes from here.

I just finished this -- was trying to read it in time for the other challenge, but didn't finish until today. I definitely found myself skipping large paragraphs towards the end because I wanted to figure out what happened (instead of getting the small descriptions).

I enjoyed this story more than The Passenger. It felt like time travel had a PURPOSE instead of just being a cool, supernatural element. (view spoiler)[The whole story is focused around the idea of fixing the past, and I think that's huge. It's something we all can relate to. (hide spoiler)]

So now for my feelings about the end, which have changed since I just realized that it's a standalone -- which I'm grateful for. (view spoiler)[I kind of wish they had explained time a little better in the end. Because yes, time is sentient. But they also said how time allows paradoxes to happen by maintaining imprints. The theory about time is based on those imprints still being allowed to happen. In the VERY end, none of those imprints happened, so why is it that he was able to go back and end everything before it happened? It makes it seem like the whole book never even happened. It felt a little too easy. BUT, since it is the ending of a standalone (and not a sequel), I actually like that ending better than the alternative (leaving M to clean up and deal with the mess).

Also, I keep coming back to this -- but losing a friend to suicide is a lot messier than the book makes it out to be, so that annoyed me a little bit. It made it seem hopeful even though it's supposed to be a sad and tragic ending. Having Finn and M rely on each other made sense, but there's such a hopeful note when something tragic just happened. Which just felt... tone-wise, wrong. (hide spoiler)]

Beyond that, I enjoyed it. It had a really good take on time travel. Making it a main focus instead of "Hey, look at the cool places we can go" was good for the plot and character development.

R.A. and Brandi, glad to know I'm not the only one how feels that way about The Passenger. And R.A., I think you're exactly right about the author's use of time travel. Despite it being a seemingly important part of the story in Passenger, it didn't feel like the actual act of time traveling did anything more than give the author a chance to write about a different setting. In other words, the new locations/times didn't do anything to move the plot forward. The conversation the MCs had in place x could have just as easily occurred in place y.

There was a book in the Fallen series by Lauren Kate (I can't remember which one, book three maybe?) that I feel like was the most egregious example of this.

All Our Yesterdays is a great example of what YA time travel should look like IMO.

Is it for sure a standalone now?

Yeah - Cristin wrote about it on her tumblr: http://cristinterrill.tumblr.com/post...

R.A. thanks for the post link!

Okay, so I'm far enough in that I've seen Em's story line, then Marina's and now back to Em. The hubs and I are huge fans of the The Arrow (the TV show) and they use that format (real time, then flashback, then real time) through the course of each episode and I like that format-I think it breaks up the story well.

So far I'm on chapter 5. haha I'm actually waiting for the book to come in the library so I can keep going. I read a sample excerpt from my kindle (I'm actually surprised it let me read that far).

From the few chapters that I've read I'm liking Em, she seems like a very strong character and I love her friendship with Finn so far.

I'm loving Finn and James, especially Finn because I always had a thing for dorky awkward characters.

Marina is slightly annoying but maybe because she's the most realistic character. Sometimes when I read YA books it's kinda rare to see the characters actually act their age, I always make them out to be older than they really are. In the case of Marina, she's seventeen, talking about boys, waiting for phone calls/texts, talking about sex, pretty much just a regular and realistic teenage girl.

Anybody else make YA characters a little older than they really are? I feel like characters (especially in fantasy) deal with situations that are a lot bigger than they are. I'm not complaining though, that's what makes them amazing.

R. A. wrote: "I just finished this -- was trying to read it in time for the other challenge, but didn't finish until today. I definitely found myself skipping large paragraphs towards the end because I wanted to..."

oh my gosh! Your comment about the ending is EXACTLY what I totally could never understand when I had read this book! ;)

(view spoiler)[Dude, YES! Absolutely NONE of the imprints happened and that totally didn't make any sense to me. I remember hurting my brain a tiny bit when I was trying to make it make sense, lol.

I copied & pasted my ???-wtf's-??? from my old review here:

So apparently, time is sentient to a certain point - it has a consciousness that can correct itself by “freezing” certain things, effectively freeing itself from paradoxes (but then, why did Em say in the beginning that they couldn’t go back to a time before James figures out the formula because the paradox would be too massive? Shouldn’t a paradox not be an issue since this sentient time thing would find a way to correct itself?) ANYWAY, according to the explanations this book gives, it freezes action (like killing your grandfather), but not passivity. And this freezing of action (again following the grandpa example), results in a “shadow” of yourself having killed him (the action), even though you are then in a state to have never been born. So. . . okaaaay. Then, WHY, at the end, is Finn still alive? Yes, I get that young James killed himself so future James shouldn’t be around anymore to wreak all his havoc, but shouldn’t a “shadow” of future James still have been the one to kill Finn? Wasn’t that an “action” that should have been frozen? Or. . .no?
(hide spoiler)]

If someone is able to figure out this ending and explain it to me, I will be super duper impressed ;)

So.....(view spoiler)[the reason they've gone back 14 times before is because they keep trying to stop time travel from happening in other ways because James created it right? And it doesn't work so they've finally come to the realization that they have to kill James? (hide spoiler)]

Just finished the book and I highly enjoyed it, although like others have said the ending was a bit interesting.

My favorite thing about the book was (view spoiler)[that there was no deus ex machina that saved James at the end. I spent most of the story just figuring there would be something where James saw the light, changed his mind, and everything was suddenly fixed. I am glad the author did not take the easy way out there at all. It was heartbreaking and I think everyone would have wanted things to be different, but for the story it was important that it happened that way.


The ending was interesting as I said above. I did not understand how all of the sudden Nate and Finn were alive, even with James dead they should have still been killed if the explanation of time travel in the book was correct. All I am going to go with is that time travel is complicated, so just leave your logic at the door and enjoy the ride. I figure the author wanted something at the end to show that James did make things better in the end. (hide spoiler)]

Christie wrote: "...All I am going to go with is that time travel is complicated, so just leave your logic at the door and enjoy the ride.."

Word. I think I'll go with that, too ;)

Well shit (view spoiler)[James is the Doctor? That sucks :( (hide spoiler)]

Brandi wrote: "Well shit [spoilers removed]"

Brandi, Goodreads totally needs a like button for this comment.

LOL ;)

Just finished! Overall I enjoyed the story, the characters, the plot and thought there were some definite emotional moments (view spoiler)[James keeps coming back to kill his brother??? (hide spoiler)].

Like Mich, I don't really understand (view spoiler)[how Nate and Finn could still be alive since James killed himself AFTER they died and that should be one of those 'sticking' points in time (hide spoiler)] but I am going to take Christie's advice and enjoy the ride because time travel breaks my brain anyway. So even though I find the ending improbable, I feel how it ended tied up the story nicely without being all HEA so I'm just going to go with it. ;)

Another thing I thought of though-James finding out that (view spoiler)[he's the one who has his brother killed (hide spoiler)] is the reason he makes the drastic decision he does that ends everything. But Em tells him that during one of the times they come back, they try to talk him out of building Cassandra and why didn't they tell him that then? In fact, they seemed reluctant to tell him what obviously is a game changer piece of information that could have ended things much sooner and at that point in the story, why would you not be trying every single possible thing you can think of?

Again, I really like the story and characters but I think any time someone tries to tackle time travel, there is going to be plot holes and stuff that doesn't make sense.

Moved to Science Fiction.