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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
The ideas and metaphors are good in this book and I would say the plot is good and the twist worked for me. That being said the writing can be in your face and obvious at times and can be both predictable and corny. I do think the exploration of charecter and relationships within this world with the change of how memories work is interesting and well explored.
I bought into this one because it was an interesting premise - how do you solve a murder if you can only remember yesterday?
The story is set in an alternate reality where people are classed by their memory - Duos can remember the last two days whereas Monos only remember yesterday. Unfortunately, despite a brief attempt at a scientific explanation, the world-building of this alternate reality isn't sufficient to make it stack up.
This short term memory loss kicks in via a genetic trigger inhibiting a protein at age 18 for Monos or 23 for Duos. Overnight. I'm no biologist, but I don't think genes work like that.
After that, everyone relies on diaries. Memories can be transferred from short to long term memory by taking the time to learn them. Where everyone is supposed to find the time for all this writing, reading and learning and yet still lead fully functioning lives is never explained. All the diary entries that form part of the book are florid and novelistic. I don't know about you, but if I was writing a diary every day to remind myself who I was, it would be bullet points, not long-winded descriptions. It's a long stretch to be asked to believe that society and technology in particular would be as far advanced as we are today in such a world. And one of main characters is a novelist. Really? How does that work?
All in all, it feels like a gimmick, bolted on to a fairly pedestrian murder mystery, populated by unbelievable and inconsistent characters. The plot twist at the end is so obvious it barely qualifies as a mystery at all.
I found it disappointing. There were so many more interesting ideas that could have been explored:
Surely people would choose to remember very revised 'best versions' of themselves?
How about people who choose not to remember and never keep a diary?
Wouldn't this world be populated by a race of immature, emotionally under-developed perpetual teenagers?
Wouldn't youngsters be hot-housed while their memories were fully-functional?
For me there wasn't enough of a plot to make it a good thriller, and not enough thought or work put into the concept to make it an interesting piece of speculative fiction. I did like the structure though - each chapter is from one of the three main characters' viewpoint (one of which uses diary extracts rather than a real-time narrative) and between most chapters is an extract from a factual document or book from this world.
The story is set in an alternate reality where people are classed by their memory - Duos can remember the last two days whereas Monos only remember yesterday. Unfortunately, despite a brief attempt at a scientific explanation, the world-building of this alternate reality isn't sufficient to make it stack up.
This short term memory loss kicks in via a genetic trigger inhibiting a protein at age 18 for Monos or 23 for Duos. Overnight. I'm no biologist, but I don't think genes work like that.
After that, everyone relies on diaries. Memories can be transferred from short to long term memory by taking the time to learn them. Where everyone is supposed to find the time for all this writing, reading and learning and yet still lead fully functioning lives is never explained. All the diary entries that form part of the book are florid and novelistic. I don't know about you, but if I was writing a diary every day to remind myself who I was, it would be bullet points, not long-winded descriptions. It's a long stretch to be asked to believe that society and technology in particular would be as far advanced as we are today in such a world. And one of main characters is a novelist. Really? How does that work?
All in all, it feels like a gimmick, bolted on to a fairly pedestrian murder mystery, populated by unbelievable and inconsistent characters. The plot twist at the end is so obvious it barely qualifies as a mystery at all.
I found it disappointing. There were so many more interesting ideas that could have been explored:
Surely people would choose to remember very revised 'best versions' of themselves?
How about people who choose not to remember and never keep a diary?
Wouldn't this world be populated by a race of immature, emotionally under-developed perpetual teenagers?
Wouldn't youngsters be hot-housed while their memories were fully-functional?
For me there wasn't enough of a plot to make it a good thriller, and not enough thought or work put into the concept to make it an interesting piece of speculative fiction. I did like the structure though - each chapter is from one of the three main characters' viewpoint (one of which uses diary extracts rather than a real-time narrative) and between most chapters is an extract from a factual document or book from this world.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
The last chapter could of been left out of the book. I don't think it added anything to the story. Other than that I have nothing bad to say about this book
I received a free copy of 'Yesterday' in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars. It took me quite a while to make my mind up about this one... I was intrigued by the concept and enjoyed the way the author executed it. I found some aspects fairly confusing though! The story is set in a world where there are two types of people - 'Monos' and 'Duos.' Monos have a memory span of one day, and Duos, two days. The tale follows a married couple, consisting of a Mono and a Duo. A body is found and turns out to be the body of the husband's mistress.
The story is told from four different viewpoints, and I felt that this was a nice touch. I found some parts to feel slightly repetitive, but being able to read from different views helped that out a bit.
There are a couple of twists in the book - the first of which I found to be completely predictable. Though I really didn't see the next one coming!
The main thing I struggled with in this book, is how accurately some of the characters seemed to know parts of their past, apparently through 'memorising diary entries.' (Both Monos and Duos are required to keep a daily diary and learn important 'facts' from it.) It didn't affect the story, but I have to admit it bothered me a little! Overall, this is a good read with a very interesting concept. It was nice to read a murder mystery with a bit of a difference -it felt quite dystopian.
3.5 stars. It took me quite a while to make my mind up about this one... I was intrigued by the concept and enjoyed the way the author executed it. I found some aspects fairly confusing though! The story is set in a world where there are two types of people - 'Monos' and 'Duos.' Monos have a memory span of one day, and Duos, two days. The tale follows a married couple, consisting of a Mono and a Duo. A body is found and turns out to be the body of the husband's mistress.
The story is told from four different viewpoints, and I felt that this was a nice touch. I found some parts to feel slightly repetitive, but being able to read from different views helped that out a bit.
There are a couple of twists in the book - the first of which I found to be completely predictable. Though I really didn't see the next one coming!
The main thing I struggled with in this book, is how accurately some of the characters seemed to know parts of their past, apparently through 'memorising diary entries.' (Both Monos and Duos are required to keep a daily diary and learn important 'facts' from it.) It didn't affect the story, but I have to admit it bothered me a little! Overall, this is a good read with a very interesting concept. It was nice to read a murder mystery with a bit of a difference -it felt quite dystopian.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The premise alone was intriguing but then to add the suspense of a murder, affairs, forgotten memories, and liars all around and it makes for an excellent thrilling story. In my humble opinion, there was just enough twists and turns that once you started to think you had it all figured out, everything you thought you knew was turned on it’s head.
Ugh. I had this book on my to-be-read list for a long time. I’m kind of sorry I bothered.
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?