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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. When requesting this book I must not have read the description properly as this book has a sci-fi element to it that is definitely not a genre I have an interest in. Please bear this in mind whilst reading this review.
This book is set in current times but in a world where there are two classes of people monos and duos. Monos can only remember one day but duos can remember two and are therefore more superior. Monos are looked down upon. Claire and Mark are in a rare mixed marriage, Claire being a mono and Mark a duo. Both monos and duos have to keep a diary and memorise information. Away from the world building, the body of Mark's mistress turns up. Mark is the number one suspect in her murder. The detective just has one day to solve the case.
I felt that there was a few holes in this world that the author had created and I was a bit confused as to how some things were remembered and other things had to be searched for in their diaries. It made no sense to me. The story is told from multiple points of view which I liked. I didn't particularly warm to any of the characters though, they were all annoying for different reasons. I could be wrong but I felt at certain parts of this story the author wanted us to feel some empathy towards Mark, I just wanted to slap him. This book was something a bit out of my comfort zone and I am pleased that I finished the book without struggling. I commend the author for that.
This book is set in current times but in a world where there are two classes of people monos and duos. Monos can only remember one day but duos can remember two and are therefore more superior. Monos are looked down upon. Claire and Mark are in a rare mixed marriage, Claire being a mono and Mark a duo. Both monos and duos have to keep a diary and memorise information. Away from the world building, the body of Mark's mistress turns up. Mark is the number one suspect in her murder. The detective just has one day to solve the case.
I felt that there was a few holes in this world that the author had created and I was a bit confused as to how some things were remembered and other things had to be searched for in their diaries. It made no sense to me. The story is told from multiple points of view which I liked. I didn't particularly warm to any of the characters though, they were all annoying for different reasons. I could be wrong but I felt at certain parts of this story the author wanted us to feel some empathy towards Mark, I just wanted to slap him. This book was something a bit out of my comfort zone and I am pleased that I finished the book without struggling. I commend the author for that.
Thanks to Mulholland Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
YESTERDAY by Felicia Yap is definitely in a mystery/thriller category all on its own. This was an incredibly unique reading experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The synopsis was definitely right in comparing this to MEMENTO. So, off the bat, I'd say if you did not like that film and found it too confusing, then I'd say this won't be the book for you!
Imagine being divided into classes based on your memory - not necessarily what you remember though, its based on how much you can remember. There are two groups that society is divided into: the Monos and the Duos. The majority is the Monos, and they can only remember a day's worth, while the elite Duos can remember two days' worth.
We follow Claire and Mark, they're a rare coupling in this world. Claire is a Mono housewife, while her husband is a Duo novelist-turned-politician. Their marriage is one that is an example of their new hope for society between the classes. In Claire's mind, they have the perfect marriage - one of equality and tolerance. Until one day, a woman's body is discovered. This woman is Mark's mistress and that places him as the prime suspect.
The book jumps between four perspectives: Mark, Claire, the Detective, and the Victim of the murder. With everyone's memories erasing after a minimum of 24 hours, how are you supposed to solve a murder and find the truth?
Writing in diaries, notebooks, photographs with labels, and many other methods can be used to remind yourself of events or information. This is where the MEMENTO feel comes in. Where he has the specific things he reminds himself of every day - who he is, what he's doing, and other basic information. I couldn't imagine not being able to remember more than two days (if I was lucky enough to be a Duo).
This can be a confusing concept and I think that Felicia Yap did a great job executing this. Not only was it an intriguing read, but it makes you think about what you would do if this was our reality. With how often people say that the memory is imperfect and things can change, what if you didn't have lasting memories? How do you trust that what is written down is actually the truth?
I have so many more questions about this Mono/Duo society. I will say that the ending kind of took a weird turn, but overall I still enjoyed the read! If you're looking for a unique thriller and liked the MEMENTO concept, then this is the next book for you!
I give this one 4/5 stars!
YESTERDAY by Felicia Yap is definitely in a mystery/thriller category all on its own. This was an incredibly unique reading experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The synopsis was definitely right in comparing this to MEMENTO. So, off the bat, I'd say if you did not like that film and found it too confusing, then I'd say this won't be the book for you!
Imagine being divided into classes based on your memory - not necessarily what you remember though, its based on how much you can remember. There are two groups that society is divided into: the Monos and the Duos. The majority is the Monos, and they can only remember a day's worth, while the elite Duos can remember two days' worth.
We follow Claire and Mark, they're a rare coupling in this world. Claire is a Mono housewife, while her husband is a Duo novelist-turned-politician. Their marriage is one that is an example of their new hope for society between the classes. In Claire's mind, they have the perfect marriage - one of equality and tolerance. Until one day, a woman's body is discovered. This woman is Mark's mistress and that places him as the prime suspect.
The book jumps between four perspectives: Mark, Claire, the Detective, and the Victim of the murder. With everyone's memories erasing after a minimum of 24 hours, how are you supposed to solve a murder and find the truth?
Writing in diaries, notebooks, photographs with labels, and many other methods can be used to remind yourself of events or information. This is where the MEMENTO feel comes in. Where he has the specific things he reminds himself of every day - who he is, what he's doing, and other basic information. I couldn't imagine not being able to remember more than two days (if I was lucky enough to be a Duo).
This can be a confusing concept and I think that Felicia Yap did a great job executing this. Not only was it an intriguing read, but it makes you think about what you would do if this was our reality. With how often people say that the memory is imperfect and things can change, what if you didn't have lasting memories? How do you trust that what is written down is actually the truth?
I have so many more questions about this Mono/Duo society. I will say that the ending kind of took a weird turn, but overall I still enjoyed the read! If you're looking for a unique thriller and liked the MEMENTO concept, then this is the next book for you!
I give this one 4/5 stars!
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
This book enticed me with its unique premise. In the world that Felicia Yap depicts in [b:Yesterday|33140164|Yesterday|Felicia Yap|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480298308s/33140164.jpg|50248985], society is divided into two groups: the majority, Monos, who only have a day's worth of memories, and the elite Duos, who can remember up to two days. When a woman is found dead, the detective on the case is literally racing against time to solve the mystery before his memory resets itself. When I read the summary, it reminded me a bit of the Nolan film Memento, which I love, so I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it was a major letdown.
My first major disappointment with this book came when I realized that Yap hadn't created a futuristic universe, but rather, a sort of half-baked parallel one. The events in this story take place in 2015... just a different 2015, where people have limited memories. But Virginia Woolf was still a writer, Quentin Tarantino is still making movies, and Steve Jobs is still patenting Apple products. It doesn't make any sense, and it feels lazy, like Yap took the easy road rather than putting sufficient effort into the world building. Am I really supposed to believe that civilization would have developed at the exact same rate with this massive neurological deviation?
The characters have this handy device called the iDiary, in which they record their activities each day, and which they can peruse at their leisure to recall details. Characters say things like 'According to my diary, I think she's a very nice woman' and 'According to my diary, I saw them have a fight last week.' So even though they can't 'remember' everything, they still have easy access to information, and the memory twist starts to feel more like a gimmick than a quintessential thread that holds the story together. Why does it matter that they can't remember, when they have the information at their fingertips anyway?
The mystery itself is bland and uninteresting. Without the memory twist, is there much of a story here? Not really. It's just window dressing. So with that in mind, what does this book have to offer? Not much. The characters are boring and paper thin, the writing is clumsy and amateur... There's nothing here that's noteworthy except for the premise, which is never utilized to its full potential. I'm glad I stuck with it, because it picks up steam about halfway through, but I have to admit I was quite relieved when I finished.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley, Mulholland Books, and Felicia Yap.
My first major disappointment with this book came when I realized that Yap hadn't created a futuristic universe, but rather, a sort of half-baked parallel one. The events in this story take place in 2015... just a different 2015, where people have limited memories. But Virginia Woolf was still a writer, Quentin Tarantino is still making movies, and Steve Jobs is still patenting Apple products. It doesn't make any sense, and it feels lazy, like Yap took the easy road rather than putting sufficient effort into the world building. Am I really supposed to believe that civilization would have developed at the exact same rate with this massive neurological deviation?
The characters have this handy device called the iDiary, in which they record their activities each day, and which they can peruse at their leisure to recall details. Characters say things like 'According to my diary, I think she's a very nice woman' and 'According to my diary, I saw them have a fight last week.' So even though they can't 'remember' everything, they still have easy access to information, and the memory twist starts to feel more like a gimmick than a quintessential thread that holds the story together. Why does it matter that they can't remember, when they have the information at their fingertips anyway?
The mystery itself is bland and uninteresting. Without the memory twist, is there much of a story here? Not really. It's just window dressing. So with that in mind, what does this book have to offer? Not much. The characters are boring and paper thin, the writing is clumsy and amateur... There's nothing here that's noteworthy except for the premise, which is never utilized to its full potential. I'm glad I stuck with it, because it picks up steam about halfway through, but I have to admit I was quite relieved when I finished.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley, Mulholland Books, and Felicia Yap.
I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Yesterday by Felicia Yap was just the novel I needed to break me out of a reading slump. The concept was refreshing, fascinating and added whole layers to the story while the characters were deplorable yet you ended up rooting for them regardless.
It is a thriller, set in world divided in two: those who can remember the day before (Monos) and those who can remember two days before (Duos). Due to their limited memories, the Monos tend to be treated as second-class citizens and marriage between Monos and Duos are both rare and frowned upon. As well as this, people can only remember their lives by writing ‘facts’ down in their journals, to be gone through the following morning. Add a murder to the mix and you have the recipe for a compelling novel about memory, society, fact and fiction.
There are four principal characters in Yesterday, all of which have their own point of view. Mark is a famous Duo novelist running for a political seat whose position stems heavily on his advocacy of mixed Mono-Duo marriages, being in one himself. Unfortunately, his Mono wife, Claire, feels inferior to him and unhappy in their marriage as a result of their memory differences. Enter Sophia, a woman who has just been released from an asylum after 17 years, who claims to have full memory capacity and blames Mark and Claire for ruining her life. Finally, we have Hans who is the detective tasked with solving the central murder of the novel, and whose whole career rests on the fact everyone thinks he is a Duo when, in fact, he is a Mono. This combination of characters makes for an intriguing cast, with conflict, emotion and revelations appearing in nearly all their interactions.
All in all, despite the characters and the intrigue surrounding the central mystery, what really drew me into this novel were the questions it raised around fact vs. memory. Hans, being a Mono, must solve the case in one day in order to be fully aware of all the facts. These facts, however, are mostly defined by what other characters have written down, and people could write down anything. The inability to remember gives people license to change the past but also allows that past to be taken away from them.
The novel itself isn’t perfect. The society is difficult to get your head around and the characters are very difficult to like. I also didn’t enjoy the ending and, if I were to read this novel again, I will probably stop reading before the epilogue, which just felt a little bit unnecessary and added a reasonable amount of confusion when it should have been rounding everything off. However, the writing and concept of this novel did capture my attention and, ultimately, Yesterday was the perfect novel for helping me to get back into reading.
Yesterday by Felicia Yap was just the novel I needed to break me out of a reading slump. The concept was refreshing, fascinating and added whole layers to the story while the characters were deplorable yet you ended up rooting for them regardless.
It is a thriller, set in world divided in two: those who can remember the day before (Monos) and those who can remember two days before (Duos). Due to their limited memories, the Monos tend to be treated as second-class citizens and marriage between Monos and Duos are both rare and frowned upon. As well as this, people can only remember their lives by writing ‘facts’ down in their journals, to be gone through the following morning. Add a murder to the mix and you have the recipe for a compelling novel about memory, society, fact and fiction.
There are four principal characters in Yesterday, all of which have their own point of view. Mark is a famous Duo novelist running for a political seat whose position stems heavily on his advocacy of mixed Mono-Duo marriages, being in one himself. Unfortunately, his Mono wife, Claire, feels inferior to him and unhappy in their marriage as a result of their memory differences. Enter Sophia, a woman who has just been released from an asylum after 17 years, who claims to have full memory capacity and blames Mark and Claire for ruining her life. Finally, we have Hans who is the detective tasked with solving the central murder of the novel, and whose whole career rests on the fact everyone thinks he is a Duo when, in fact, he is a Mono. This combination of characters makes for an intriguing cast, with conflict, emotion and revelations appearing in nearly all their interactions.
All in all, despite the characters and the intrigue surrounding the central mystery, what really drew me into this novel were the questions it raised around fact vs. memory. Hans, being a Mono, must solve the case in one day in order to be fully aware of all the facts. These facts, however, are mostly defined by what other characters have written down, and people could write down anything. The inability to remember gives people license to change the past but also allows that past to be taken away from them.
The novel itself isn’t perfect. The society is difficult to get your head around and the characters are very difficult to like. I also didn’t enjoy the ending and, if I were to read this novel again, I will probably stop reading before the epilogue, which just felt a little bit unnecessary and added a reasonable amount of confusion when it should have been rounding everything off. However, the writing and concept of this novel did capture my attention and, ultimately, Yesterday was the perfect novel for helping me to get back into reading.
This was so unexpectedly good. Unexpectedly, because I got it from Dollar Tree on a whim. Good, because Yap writes incredibly well. I did not want to put it down and I finished it within the day. Cliched, but truly a page turner. Also, if you're feeling like crushing men with stilettos, this is the book for you.
This one was solidly midline for me. Interesting premise of a murder mystery in a society divided into monos (people who have one day's worth of memories) and duos (people with two days'). However, around 3/4 of the way through it devolved into melodramatic exposition, and I found myself rolling my eyes repeatedly. I probably would have stopped listening were it not for the STELLAR voice performances of Rory Kinnear and Indira Varma, who really, truly kept me hooked. The ending provided a few final twists that made me glad (ish) that I decided to stick it out. So yeah. Midline?
Yesterday is a high-concept thriller, set in a world where no one’s memory lasts more than two days. The majority of the population are “Monos”, who retain all memories before the age of 18, and just a single day’s worth of short term memories. “Duos” are luckier - they remember up to the age of 23, and have two days short term memory to play with. Everything else is based off the facts that people record in their diaries every night and strive to learn.
I was intrigued by the concept, and especially by the premise of a murder mystery set in this world. I would have liked much more world building. How do people in professions cope? Especially doctors, who yes, have time to fit in five years of medical school before the memory shut down, but must have to learn every other development thereafter as “fact”, alongside all elements of their personal lives.
The novel doesn’t really address this, although we are presented with a Mono detective who strives to pass himself off as a Duo, and feels pressured to solve his cases within 24 hours. One of the main characters is a novelist, and the text notes that books in this world only take around four hours to read - which still seems like a supreme waste of time given the memory restrictions.
The characters here were widely dislikable, especially the victim, who is blessed with a full memory. It never felt believable that she’d spent seventeen years in an asylum before having to be told by another inmate that the way to release was just to pretend to be a Duo and resume writing in her diary. For all the extra insight she was supposed to have, surely that would have been obvious?
Few of the novels “twists” are surprising, and the detective is often lagging behind the reader in terms of realisations, which can be frustrating. Still, it’s a really interesting concept, and this is only Yap’s debut novel - I’ll be interested to see where she goes in the future.
Sincere thanks to Wildfire for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.
[Review originally published on my blog at Line After Line.]
I was intrigued by the concept, and especially by the premise of a murder mystery set in this world. I would have liked much more world building. How do people in professions cope? Especially doctors, who yes, have time to fit in five years of medical school before the memory shut down, but must have to learn every other development thereafter as “fact”, alongside all elements of their personal lives.
The novel doesn’t really address this, although we are presented with a Mono detective who strives to pass himself off as a Duo, and feels pressured to solve his cases within 24 hours. One of the main characters is a novelist, and the text notes that books in this world only take around four hours to read - which still seems like a supreme waste of time given the memory restrictions.
The characters here were widely dislikable, especially the victim, who is blessed with a full memory. It never felt believable that she’d spent seventeen years in an asylum before having to be told by another inmate that the way to release was just to pretend to be a Duo and resume writing in her diary. For all the extra insight she was supposed to have, surely that would have been obvious?
Few of the novels “twists” are surprising, and the detective is often lagging behind the reader in terms of realisations, which can be frustrating. Still, it’s a really interesting concept, and this is only Yap’s debut novel - I’ll be interested to see where she goes in the future.
Sincere thanks to Wildfire for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.
[Review originally published on my blog at Line After Line.]
A very clever idea - to reimagine a world where people have either 1 or 2 days of short-term memory. The author did a good job of creating this as a believable world. The murder mystery was gripping, although the resolution felt quite unrealistic. But it was a great book - and with room for a sequel, I feel!