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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
What should I say about this book? It's a mystery and thriller, genres I'm not too used to reading, but I picked up the book from a used-book store bc I was excited to read something by a southeast asian author. I liked the creativity of a setting where humans can only remember one or two days, and really appreciated the "scientific" papers that backed it up (altho the reader still had to put in work to suspend disbelief for the worldbuilding to succeed). I also liked the different narratives and diary entries split by articles and papers and book/diary quotes.
Unfortunately, the writing style was not something I was a fan of. It was written in the same way that Hans describes Mark's writing, using an excess of flowery words. It also used a lot of dramatic sentence structure over and over again, something I'm more than familiar with as being overly present in my own old writing. It's something that gets old real fast.
In terms of mystery, I think it did okay. I remember halfway through the book, I'd come to a fairly hard conclusion as to who the culprit was (it felt like the mystery had already solved itself) and I worried that the end half of the book would only be unnecessary filler. However, there were a couple of light twists at the end that did not actually disappoint me. Although I'm still confused by the first page in Chapter Zero where she writes "your own mug shot" tho......
What was actually disappointing was the handling of characters and their relationships. The "uppity hoity-toity" way that Sophia wrote was one thing, but the entirety of Mark looking down on Claire for 20yrs of marriage, his resultant cheating, and not to mention predatory behaviour (as a 26yo preying on a 19yo barely adult)??? And never is he truly punished for any of it?? Claire even stays with him in the end??? And that's after she deems his cheating as a result of her failing as a wife to keep her husband by her side too. Needless to say, the outlook of women and their perceived roles left a nasty taste in my mouth.
Unfortunately, the writing style was not something I was a fan of. It was written in the same way that Hans describes Mark's writing, using an excess of flowery words. It also used a lot of dramatic sentence structure over and over again, something I'm more than familiar with as being overly present in my own old writing. It's something that gets old real fast.
In terms of mystery, I think it did okay. I remember halfway through the book, I'd come to a fairly hard conclusion as to who the culprit was (it felt like the mystery had already solved itself) and I worried that the end half of the book would only be unnecessary filler. However, there were a couple of light twists at the end that did not actually disappoint me. Although I'm still confused by the first page in Chapter Zero where she writes "your own mug shot" tho......
What was actually disappointing was the handling of characters and their relationships. The "uppity hoity-toity" way that Sophia wrote was one thing, but the entirety of Mark looking down on Claire for 20yrs of marriage, his resultant cheating, and not to mention predatory behaviour (as a 26yo preying on a 19yo barely adult)??? And never is he truly punished for any of it?? Claire even stays with him in the end??? And that's after she deems his cheating as a result of her failing as a wife to keep her husband by her side too. Needless to say, the outlook of women and their perceived roles left a nasty taste in my mouth.
Also posted on The Travelling Bibliophile.
Felicia Yap grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and studied biochemistry at Imperial College London, then earned a doctorate in history at Cambridge University. FACT: I have not come across a lot of Southeast Asian authors who have been published by any of the top publishing companies in the UK/US. The only other one that comes to mind is Zen Cho, who has written The Sorcerer and the Crown. So as someone who grew up in the same region, I was positively excited for Felicia and for her book -- nevermind that I don't personally know her (although I did get to meet her earlier this year, and she was the sweetest!), but I was keen to support a fellow Southeast Asian!
However, Yesterday does not involve any Malaysian/Southeast Asian cultural annotations. It is distinctly a crime mystery thriller, with a hint of science fiction thrown in. The book starts off explaining how this alternate world works: when the memory loss happens, how people have coped with it (they have iDiaries, an invention courtesy of Steve Jobs), the politics and daily nuances that are involved between these two classes of people, Monos and Duos. No one has figured out yet a guaranteed method of how people can get all their memories back.
The main protagonist is Claire Evans, a Mono married to a Duo, Mark Evans, a celebrated author who was running as an MP at the present time of the story. He is being accused of murdering a woman, Sophia Ayling, and the lead investigator of the crime is Hans Richardson, who is known in the force to solve cases in one day. Each chapter of the book is told from the point of view of each of these characters. With their limited memories, they can only recall past events by reading it on their iDiary, and that is dependent on how much detail they have written. To solve the crime, it would involve looking back on previous events, and I was vastly entertained as a reader trying to figure out the mystery as well. Each character has a secret they are trying to protect which makes them unreliable narrators (with the exception of Mr. Richardson, who is mostly there to unearth secrets and solve the crime).
The mystery was somewhat easy to solve, although that may just be me since I made annotations on the margins and dog-eared pages. Felicia dropped those crumbs strategically well and it definitely encouraged me to keep turning the pages! (I remember Faber Academy's Richard Skinner sharing this tip in his talk at the Emerald Literary Festival, and Felicia is an alumni of Faber Academy) I was not expecting the plot twist at the end, however, and I personally found it anticlimactic. I wasn't convinced of the motive for the crime, but I can also objectively say that that is my individual take on it, as I'm sure other real-world crimes have been committed for much less.
What interested me the most is the concept of the two classes. There is no mention of race, but there is class discrimination -- Duos are considered the better class, and they are the only ones allowed to hold positions of authority in all sectors of society. A Mono marrying a Duo is considered going up the society ladder, while that same Duo marrying the Mono will most likely be disowned by his family. One of the characters is a Mono masquerading as a Duo due to career aspirations. It somewhat echoes our current world, and so it is not hard to imagine the world that Felicia has created in her book.
Yesterday is a well-paced thriller; you can put it under the category "page-turners" and it's an entertaining companion to take with you on a holiday, or even on a long commute! It is by no means perfect, but it was thoroughly captivating -- I finished it in one day!
Felicia Yap grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and studied biochemistry at Imperial College London, then earned a doctorate in history at Cambridge University. FACT: I have not come across a lot of Southeast Asian authors who have been published by any of the top publishing companies in the UK/US. The only other one that comes to mind is Zen Cho, who has written The Sorcerer and the Crown. So as someone who grew up in the same region, I was positively excited for Felicia and for her book -- nevermind that I don't personally know her (although I did get to meet her earlier this year, and she was the sweetest!), but I was keen to support a fellow Southeast Asian!
However, Yesterday does not involve any Malaysian/Southeast Asian cultural annotations. It is distinctly a crime mystery thriller, with a hint of science fiction thrown in. The book starts off explaining how this alternate world works: when the memory loss happens, how people have coped with it (they have iDiaries, an invention courtesy of Steve Jobs), the politics and daily nuances that are involved between these two classes of people, Monos and Duos. No one has figured out yet a guaranteed method of how people can get all their memories back.
The main protagonist is Claire Evans, a Mono married to a Duo, Mark Evans, a celebrated author who was running as an MP at the present time of the story. He is being accused of murdering a woman, Sophia Ayling, and the lead investigator of the crime is Hans Richardson, who is known in the force to solve cases in one day. Each chapter of the book is told from the point of view of each of these characters. With their limited memories, they can only recall past events by reading it on their iDiary, and that is dependent on how much detail they have written. To solve the crime, it would involve looking back on previous events, and I was vastly entertained as a reader trying to figure out the mystery as well. Each character has a secret they are trying to protect which makes them unreliable narrators (with the exception of Mr. Richardson, who is mostly there to unearth secrets and solve the crime).
The mystery was somewhat easy to solve, although that may just be me since I made annotations on the margins and dog-eared pages. Felicia dropped those crumbs strategically well and it definitely encouraged me to keep turning the pages! (I remember Faber Academy's Richard Skinner sharing this tip in his talk at the Emerald Literary Festival, and Felicia is an alumni of Faber Academy) I was not expecting the plot twist at the end, however, and I personally found it anticlimactic. I wasn't convinced of the motive for the crime, but I can also objectively say that that is my individual take on it, as I'm sure other real-world crimes have been committed for much less.
What interested me the most is the concept of the two classes. There is no mention of race, but there is class discrimination -- Duos are considered the better class, and they are the only ones allowed to hold positions of authority in all sectors of society. A Mono marrying a Duo is considered going up the society ladder, while that same Duo marrying the Mono will most likely be disowned by his family. One of the characters is a Mono masquerading as a Duo due to career aspirations. It somewhat echoes our current world, and so it is not hard to imagine the world that Felicia has created in her book.
Yesterday is a well-paced thriller; you can put it under the category "page-turners" and it's an entertaining companion to take with you on a holiday, or even on a long commute! It is by no means perfect, but it was thoroughly captivating -- I finished it in one day!
Yesterday has to be one of the most buzzed about thrillers for 2017. The cover has a quote from the Observer saying it’s the thriller of the summer and I’m inclined to agree. (I have also spent more time than is appropriate trying to figure out what the cover actually is and I still have no clue.OH WAIT it’s a diary???) It’s also a pretty unique thriller because the whole concept of the novel is that in this interpretation of the world, people can only remember their memories from yesterday or from yesterday and the day before (monos and duos). And so, when a detective rocks up to Claire’s house accusing her husband Mark of murder, she doesn’t know who to trust or what to believe because, as a mono, she can only remember yesterday. The whole concept of Yesterday is brilliant. That you can write down what happened in your life, but you won’t really remember the finer details. That if you don’t want to remember a particular aspect of your day, you don’t write it down and it’s gone when you wake up. It’s so simple and so clever. I, of course, had questions. How do police officers do their job correctly? Doctors? How does something become a fact, that you know as soon as you think of it (how Claire remembers when she and Mark met, for example). Yet all these questions are answered and a lot of it comes from the iDiaries people carry around that retains all the information. Obviously the downside to that is that a diary can’t remember what emotions you felt for a particular event, just the words and it’s such a good concept.
Yesterday has short, snappy chapters that really keep you hooked - we meet Claire and Mark who are at the center of everything, Detective Hans who is investigating the murder and then we have the murdered girl Sophia Ayling, or her diary anyway. The characters were difficult to get to know - with limitations on their memories they’re hardly reliable. When all that tells you about your past is something that could entirely be fictional, you have to take every character at a pinch of salt (although I liked Detective Hans). But it’s the plot that really pulls you in - it’s fascinating unravelling Sophia’s life and how it relates to Claire and Mark’s lives as well.
I am MEGA intrigued by that ending, mind. There is a book up for pre-order from Felicia Yap called Today, so I am hoping that it’s a continuation because we are so not done with this story. Yesterday was just so, so intriguing. The plot, the characters, all the different variants to the characters that came to light while reading (some of it pretty intense and scary). And I liked the anchoring figure of Detective Hans. I do hope this is only the start of this fascinating series as Felicia Yap has really hit into a pretty unique twist on the thriller genre (something the thriller genre was gasping for, let’s be real). Felicia Yap is a super talented writer, she really gets under your skin and I really enjoyed Yesterday.
In a present that is almost our own, the world is split in two: the Monos who can only remember yesterday and the Duos who can also remember the day before. Everyone keeps a diary, meticulously recording the important events of each day in order to study them tomorrow in the hope of learning them as facts.
When a beautiful woman turns up drowned in the Cam, her diary makes clear she was having a torrid affair with a famous author - one on the verge of running for Parliament. Can his career - and his marriage - survive? Can he and his wife ever be sure what he may have been up to more than a day ago?
This is a great concept, and I was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, it's badly executed, and I ended up finding it tedious, repetitive and overwrought. While I can forgive unlikeable characters (especially in narrative like this one), they've got to be interesting.
Full review.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
When a beautiful woman turns up drowned in the Cam, her diary makes clear she was having a torrid affair with a famous author - one on the verge of running for Parliament. Can his career - and his marriage - survive? Can he and his wife ever be sure what he may have been up to more than a day ago?
This is a great concept, and I was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, it's badly executed, and I ended up finding it tedious, repetitive and overwrought. While I can forgive unlikeable characters (especially in narrative like this one), they've got to be interesting.
Full review.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Yesterday, by Felicia Yap, is set in an alternative, contemporary world where memory is limited to the previous day (monos) or the day before that (duos). In order to function adults are required to keep diaries where they write down significant thoughts and events. If not written down and subsequently learnt, there can be no recollection of actions or feelings.
Duos consider themselves superior and hold the majority of the powerful and lucrative positions. Intermarriage between monos and duos is rare and frowned upon. As well as the perceived intellectual superiority, few duos are willing to risk creating a mono child.
Mark and Claire Evans defied this popular prejudice resulting in Mark, a duo from a wealthy family, being disinherited. Now a successful author and aspiring politician, he is risking his twenty year marriage to his mono wife by indulging in an affair. When his mistress is found dead in a nearby river he becomes a suspect in a potential murder investigation. The police must gather evidence quickly before ‘live’ memories are lost. People choose what they write in their diaries so the records will always be skewed and incomplete.
Chapters narrate events from a variety of points of view. Sophia has recently been released from a mental asylum after seventeen years and now seeks revenge on those she blames for her incarceration. Claire suffers from depression, is appalled by her husband’s behaviour, but does not believe he is a killer. Mark is fighting to salvage the career of his dreams but has much to hide, especially from his wife. Hans, the detective investigating the murder, has access to the dead woman’s diary but struggles to accept that what he is reading could be true.
To enjoy this story it is necessary to suspend belief, as is of course the case for many fictional tales. There have been a number of thrillers written recently which deal with the memory loss of a protagonist who then suffers manipulation from supposed loved ones. This story involves an entire population of amnesiacs. Readers must accept that the likes of doctors have somehow found a way to qualify and do their jobs in this environment, that it is possible to make certain facts integral to being.
Aspects of the plot brought to mind The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (Fay Weldon). I also enjoyed the occasional news report or excerpt from official guidelines which helped to put into context this society’s habitual limitations.
The tight prose skips along apace. The issue of memory is fundamental – how each person curates their experiences and subsequently presents them, how identity is shaped. Initially I found the characters lacking in depth in a way that reminded me of my first impressions of Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro). As the story progressed this was shown to be fitting. The population are forced to rely on the veracity of their own written words to work out who and what they are. I pondered if this is so very different to more common forms of memory curation.
Although it took me some time to fully engage, the story developed into a thought provoking tale. Issues explored would make it an ideal choice for a book group. This was an enjoyable read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Wildfire.
Duos consider themselves superior and hold the majority of the powerful and lucrative positions. Intermarriage between monos and duos is rare and frowned upon. As well as the perceived intellectual superiority, few duos are willing to risk creating a mono child.
Mark and Claire Evans defied this popular prejudice resulting in Mark, a duo from a wealthy family, being disinherited. Now a successful author and aspiring politician, he is risking his twenty year marriage to his mono wife by indulging in an affair. When his mistress is found dead in a nearby river he becomes a suspect in a potential murder investigation. The police must gather evidence quickly before ‘live’ memories are lost. People choose what they write in their diaries so the records will always be skewed and incomplete.
Chapters narrate events from a variety of points of view. Sophia has recently been released from a mental asylum after seventeen years and now seeks revenge on those she blames for her incarceration. Claire suffers from depression, is appalled by her husband’s behaviour, but does not believe he is a killer. Mark is fighting to salvage the career of his dreams but has much to hide, especially from his wife. Hans, the detective investigating the murder, has access to the dead woman’s diary but struggles to accept that what he is reading could be true.
To enjoy this story it is necessary to suspend belief, as is of course the case for many fictional tales. There have been a number of thrillers written recently which deal with the memory loss of a protagonist who then suffers manipulation from supposed loved ones. This story involves an entire population of amnesiacs. Readers must accept that the likes of doctors have somehow found a way to qualify and do their jobs in this environment, that it is possible to make certain facts integral to being.
Aspects of the plot brought to mind The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (Fay Weldon). I also enjoyed the occasional news report or excerpt from official guidelines which helped to put into context this society’s habitual limitations.
The tight prose skips along apace. The issue of memory is fundamental – how each person curates their experiences and subsequently presents them, how identity is shaped. Initially I found the characters lacking in depth in a way that reminded me of my first impressions of Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro). As the story progressed this was shown to be fitting. The population are forced to rely on the veracity of their own written words to work out who and what they are. I pondered if this is so very different to more common forms of memory curation.
Although it took me some time to fully engage, the story developed into a thought provoking tale. Issues explored would make it an ideal choice for a book group. This was an enjoyable read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Wildfire.
Cool concept and a page turner. Still trying to untangle how I feel about it as a whole.