You have to suspend a lot of belief to really love Yesterday by Felicia Yap, a sci-fi mystery where people either remember one day or two.

In Yesterday, the world is divided into Monos and Duos. The majority, the Monos, only remember one day’s worth of memories, while the elite Duos remember two. At the end of each day, everyone writes the day’s events in an electronic diary they read every morning. Apparently if they study their diary they can commit some of those things to their long-term memory, even though we’re told they can only remember one day or two.

This is where the shrugging shoulders emoji would come in real handy. But I decided to go with it and accept that this is how the world worked, and the more I accepted it, the more I started to like this book.

The crux of this story revolves around Claire, a Mono, and her husband Mark, a Duo, which is unusual. Monos and Duos don’t often mix, but Claire and Mark have been together for years, and until recently, Claire has felt happy. Her mindset starts to change as she reads her diary where she highlights shifts in Mark’s behavior. He’s becoming secretive and being more condescending regarding his Duo status. Claire’s suspicions grow stronger when a dead body turns up not far from where they live and a cop starts sniffing around their house.

Told in alternating chapters between Claire, Mark, the cop, and old diary entries of the dead girl, the mystery is revealed in the end, even though I got to it way quicker than the cop did. I didn’t see the twist coming, though, and really, why would I? Without giving it away, I suspended belief to accept how this world worked, but I could not suspend belief to accept the twist. There is no possible way it could happen. Not even in this imaginary, weird world does it make sense, or at least it’s not explained enough for it to make sense.

So if you’re willing to suspend all belief, Yesterday is a fun little mystery, but be prepared to take giant leaps from sanity to believe it all the way to the end.

Yesterday is a murder mystery set in an alternate world where memory plays a large part in where you place in society. This makes for an interesting setting for a murder investigation. A perfect genre blend of fantasy and thriller - the plot is fast-paced and highly engaging. Each viewpoint is distinct and intriguing. The writing is very strong. I look forward to Felicia Yap's next novel. Highly recommended to readers of thrillers. This is an original one well worth checking out.

A remarkable story from a brilliant debut author; I was definitely intrigued throughout and enjoyed reading this one! With no expectations, prior to beginning this novel, I had some reservations about whether I would be able to connect with the story line, characters and/or science; I should not have been concerned. Highly recommend!

Memory is one of those themes that has always intrigued me. How does it shape who we are and construct who we become? What happens when you can’t remember? Or when memory starts to work differently?

That’s what brought me to Yesterday by Felicia Yap, which can quickly be described as a less-extreme The Giver by Lois Lowry meets ABC’s Revenge!

This sci-fi mystery presents a world where people are divided not by race or sex, but by the amount of short term memory they have.

In Yap’s world, Monos retain one day of clear short-term memory after the age of eighteen, and Duos retain two days of short-term memory after the age of twenty-three. Each night, citizens of this world need to catalog the day’s experiences in their iDiarys, where they store carefully curated facts about themselves that they dedicate time to learning each morning.

But, the heart of this book is the murder of Sophia Alyssa Ayling, who claims to remember everything. We follow her vindictive journey to right a wrong that was done to her while also following Mark and Claire married, a married couple that gives the term mixed marriage a new meaning. What follows is a mix of political intrigue, and the science of memory as DC Hans Richardson races against the clock to solve this mystery.


Yesterday is a book that I want everyone to read and then come talk to me about. There are so many twists and turns, and even a few implications that I can’t discuss because I’ll give too much away.

This book puts facts and memories a really unique perspective and does so in a way that is easily digestible but still left me thinking about what it would be like to live in this world where you can’t trust your experiences.

The idea of having only one day stored on your short-term memory really intrigued me. The idea is that to maintain a life, you have to carefully curate “facts” about yourself and dedicate a portion of your day to learning those facts so that they are stored in your long term memory.

When I first heard this, my impression was: if you’re carefully curating facts, then everything a person presents to the world is subjective depending on what they later choose to commit to long-term memory, and that’s really the basis for this novel. The text only spans a single day for a reason, otherwise several of the characters would lose their vivid short-term memories. (Although a part of me would have liked to see that!)

What I really liked about Yesterday was how Yap blends the sci-fi and thriller genre. As a world, the England that we see in Yesterday is not that different than our own. Apple has cornered the market, the lack of short-term memory caused Steve Jobs to invent the iDairy (which is much cheaper than the iPhone, but not nearly as tricked out), and privacy laws are strict.

Yap, also inserts relevant quotes from novels, magazine articles, and snippets of diary entries between each chapter to flesh out what it’s like to live in this “forgetful” world.

Within this world, she creates the ultimate nemesis, a woman who can remember everything that has ever happened to her since the age of twenty-three. In the first pages of the novel, I really liked how upfront Sophia is. She sounds really menacing, and I couldn’t wait to get to know her a little more. In so many ways she reminds me of Emily Thorne from Revenge in regards to her goals and ambitions, but she also reminds me of the main character in Lois Lowry’s The Giver, except the society is less extreme.

The thing is that while I found the premise initially intriguing, the further I got into this book I less I liked the characters. As things are revealed and we get to know them more, flaws come to the surface that makes you realize just how imperfect they are, but also, in turn, makes them more human.

Most of the issues that I had with the characters when I think about it, could be a result of just not having a reliable memory that can convert details and emotions into meaningful, and emotional, long term memories. In the back of my mind, I keep going to Inside Out when all the little emotions in Riley’s head are sorting their core memories. These adults haven’t formed anything beyond either the age of eighteen or twenty-three and that informs how they respond to situations. So relationships that seem cold, really aren’t, they just exist in emotional distance.

While the mystery of “who killed Sophia” kept the pages-turning I left Yesterday, asking myself more about how we develop as a human being, and what we need to learn from ourselves through everyday experiences, occurrences, and encounters.

What keeps me from rating this book at four stars are bits towards the end where I really wanted the characters to interact, but the dialogue was presented like a speech. In a book that has very few human connections, I thought that was a missed opportunity.

I also had more questions about the world in general after I put this book down! I wanted to know why eighteen and twenty-three? Don’t people develop at different rates and when you are talking about biology it doesn’t make sense that it would occur at eighteen and twenty-three on the nose like that. It’s similar to puberty in that way. I think there are more stories within this world for sure, and this one just scratches the surface.

Still, even without over analyzing, I did enjoy the read, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting some sci-fi in their murder mystery pile.

As soon as I read the tagline for Yesterday, by Felicia Yap, I was hooked. How do you solve a murder when you can only remember yesterday? This debut thriller has a few sci-fi elements combined with a fast paced plot that had me equally confused to what is going on and intrigued enough to let myself go and become lost within the world Yap has created.
The novel opens with the discovery of a body and Hans, the cop on the scene has about 13 hours to solve the murder before his brain, and every other duo, resets. The world is made up of monos (those who has memories for 24 hours) and duos (those who have memories for 48 hours); all of these members keep detailed diaries of their discussions and whereabouts for reference. So when the victim’s diary is discovered and a writer, turned politician, is the prime suspect, the race is on to bring justice before time (and memories) have run out. After all, how can a confession be given when no one remembers the crime?
Told through diary entries and personal perspectives, we hear from four different people directly affected by the murder: the victim (Sophie), the detective (Hans), Mark (the main suspect who happens to be a duo) and Claire (Mark’s wife and mono).
Sound a little bit confusing?
It is.
But do not let that deter you from this book!
I’ll be honest, it took me about 20% to really get into my groove, but once I understood the language of this parallel universe, I was completely hooked and entranced by Yap’s prose.
The characterization in Yesterday was my favourite part; every single character, big or small, adds something so significant to the plot. Are you a fan of an unreliable narrator? Well, imagine that every single character in a novel is unreliable. They physically cannot remember what happened days prior and are working solely off written “facts” in a diary. Absolutely none of these characters can be trusted and that is what makes this novel so delicious. There is nowhere to turn and no one to trust. No one’s motives are made completely clear.
And that cover? Come on.
Overall, the originality of the plot and the wit in Yap’s writing won me over completely; I do think this will be a love it or hate it type of book but I know that I loved it.

This book enticed me with its unique premise. In the world that Felicia Yap depicts in Yesterday, 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.

You know that movie with Dennis Quaid, "DOA", where the professor has been poisoned and has 36 hours to solve his own crime before he dies? This book reminds me of that movie. DCI Hans Richardson is a Mono; he can only remember things for one day and then they disappear. He doesn't die but it makes it difficult for him to solve murders, even with scrupulous notes. At the same time, the reader follows the story through the eyes of Claire, another Mono and wife of the main suspect, her husband. Through her we see how Monos are treated by the assumed superiors, Duos who can remember two days in their past. The concept was very interesting and Ms. Yap manages to find ways to handle most issues with the memory black hole. There were a couple twists in the book; one I guessed and the other I didn't. I am not sure if Ms. Yap gave away the first one to hide the second one or if I just guessed it. However, I felt like there was almost too much for the book to tackle. In addition to the bigotry between the two classes, there was also the relationship between Claire and her husband and his mistress, and how the detective handled trying to pretend to be a Duo in order to succeed at work. Honestly, his story was the most fascinating and I wish the book would have focused more on him, but that might not have been as interesting to a majority. No matter which part interests you, there is something in this book for everyone.

Fascinating concept with some great social commentary worked in- but the story fell flat in the face of all the world-building. The characters felt cartoon-y and the writing washed out and dull. I needed more reason to care than just seeing more of the world. I felt hit over the head constantly with the ‘see how weird this it??’ style of exposition. I had to slog through the end. Recommended for the setting; not for the story.

Yesterday was an amazing novel. An engaging mystery, a creative world, and unique and entertaining characters. Yesterday will go down as one of my favourite mysteries for the year.

Claire is a mono, meaning she can only remember yesterday. When a detective comes knocking at her door, accusing her husband Mark of murdering a young beautiful woman that wrote in her diary that she was Mark's mistress, Claire must piece together what has happened the past few days, and what secrets her and Mark's history truly contains.

This novel had some amazing characters. Right from the start I really liked reading from Claire and Mark's point of view. I was a little salty at first with the detective's point of view, I would have much rather either read from the two main characters view points or from the diary of woman that was murdered. Eventually I ended up liking the detective and his story, although I never liked him as much as the other characters.

I loved the mystery aspect and the world that the author created. The fast that she wrote a mystery in a dystopian world where you can only remember either the day before or two days, and have to use a diary to remember the rest was extremely creative. The feeling of not knowing whether you killed someone or not because you can't trust what your past self wrote in a diary is crazy when you think about it. This story was so entertaining, I loved the dystopian world and the mystery was fantastic.

I was a little disappointed while reading that the mystery was being too obvious. When the plot twist hit, I nearly fell off my chair. I totally wasn't expecting the ending and it honestly made me love the book so much.

Overall, the characters, the world, and the plot was absolutely fantastic. I truly loved this book. If it wasn't for the detectives point of view not being as enjoyable as the rest and the obvious beginning of the mystery, I would have given this book a full 5 stars. Either way, I still recommend this book to all mystery, thriller and dystopian lovers.

How do you solve a crime in a world where no one remembers more than 48 hours of their past? That is the high-concept premise of Yap's novel. As a concept, it is certainly thought-provoking. I found myself wondering how much of one's time would be spent memorizing "facts" about one's own life, how easy it would be to lie to oneself, how easy it would be for someone to hack the whole system, and what it would be like to know your own life experience the way we know facts learned in history class. It also made me wonder about the mechanics of things like literary prizes and PhDs in a world where you could not remember what you had read two days before or what you had learned in class the previous week.
So thought-provoking, yes. But, unfortunately, not well executed. The prose is trite and full of cliches, almost to the point of being cartoonish at times. And, without giving too much away, some of the consequences of the memory premise did not hold up logically.
I admit, however, that the end surprised me, which ultimately is what you want in a mystery novel. Definitely had mixed feelings about this one.

Claire and Mark are a rare mixed marriage in a world that is divided not by race or religion but by how long of a memory you are born with. Claire is a mono, as is most of the population, that can only remember one day of her life at a time. Mark however is a duo and can remember that extra day which makes duos consider themselves better than monos. Every citizen however keeps a daily dairy to study to try to remember that which they forget.

One day a body of a woman is found nearby where Claire and Mark live and soon a detective shows up at the couple’s door looking to talk to Mark. It seems that the victim had written quite a bit about Mark in her diary which is now property of the police and he is brought in for questioning in the woman’s murder. The detective has his own secrets and is insistent he will solve the case in a day with Mark being his primary focus.

Yesterday by Felicia Yap is a bit of mix of fantasy and thriller which really had me intrigued when reading the synopsis. Being one that loves when an author goes a bit out on a limb and tries something a bit different than you normally find I just had to pick this one up and really wasn’t disappointed as I found it a fun one to read.

The story is told from several different POVs, Mark, Claire, the detective on the case, and the also victim through her diary entries. It’s easy to follow along though and fun to see all sides of the story as it developed.

I did however find a few flaws with the book but it really didn’t bother me too much and bring down my enjoyment reading the story. Just in my opinion it could have used a tad more world building in the fantasy side and the thriller side really only had a few options so it isn’t too hard to guess the outcome. However, being that the author took a chance and included both sides in the story I would still recommend checking this one out.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I was intrigued from just the description of the book and then was thrilled to discover that a world limited in memory was every bit of a fun as a setting for a mystery as I had anticipated.

Yap sets up some really compelling social ideas for how society would chose to divide over length of memory instead of by religion or skin color. While there was also plenty of compelling reasons to explain why the memory issues existed for all human beings, the only thing I wish I understood better was exactly how long this issue had been effecting people.

I also really enjoyed the way that the technology that has become such a standard part of our daily lives has been reappropriated to fit within the world the author has created. I won’t spoil anything beyond that, other than to say that I had a chuckle over this kind of blend of real world people and other world ideas.

What surprised me the most about this story is that there are really three main threads to the narrative, one being the most obvious- the attempt to solve a murder, the second being a B plot about the detective’s desire to hide that the fact that he is a mono (this is revealed fairly early on) and the third and most surprising is that the story turned out to have a lot of real love at the heart of the story. I don’t usually find a lot of genuine romance in murder mysteries, at least not in the kinds I read.

Overall this book offered a unique world and an intriguing murder with some fun twists in the end.