A bit too confusing for me, for some reason. I had trouble keeping up sometimes with who was speaking, and the plot was so convoluted and messy, I didn't really enjoy reading it. And what about the ending? Why just chop it off like that? It's almost like the author thought, "Yep, that's about enough. I'll stop there."

Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid.

Are you Mono or Duo? Confused?? I was when I embarked on one the most anticipated novels of the year. The confusion didn't last long before I was drawn in and totally hooked on this unique thriller.

So, what is mono and duo? Mono and duo relates to your memory and your capacity to remember. If you are mono, you remember everything that happened in the last 24 hours, if you are duo 48 hours.  Individuals are required to keep idiaries to record their daily life and to allow them to remember past 24 or 48 hours. Duo's are considered the elite within society, mono's with their capacity to remember less, are often thought of as less intelligent and treated as mere second class citizens.

All this is a little complicated when it comes to solving a murder and as the blurb on the book says 'how do you solve a murder when you can only remember yesterday'

That is exactly what police officer, Hans must do when the body of a woman is pulled from the River Cam in Cambridge.

Racing against time Hans sets himself the target of solving the murder in 24 hours, not easy when the main suspect is a high profile novelist and would be MP.

Meet Mark and Claire Evans. Supposedly happily married for the last 20 plus years, defying the odds that mixed mono, duo marriages can work, Mark is duo, Claire mono. Claire suffers from depression, and Mark is growing increasingly indifferent to Claire and their relationship and when it emerges he had an affair with the dead woman and is the prime murder suspect their relationship is plunged into complete disarray.

The body in the Cam is named as Sophie Ayling, a duo, a mysterious figure, with secrets.

Told from the perspective from Mark, Claire, Chief Inspector Hans and Sophie their pasts and what binds them altogether is slowly revealed.

This novel is clever, very clever, portraying a society ruled by idiaries, and a reliance on technology to document every part of a persons life. Yap is particularly adept at showing the effects it has on each of the characters, mono Hans racing to solve the crime before his memory disappears, and Sophie with her upper class duo mentality pouring scorn on those who are mono.

Sophie herself, is certainly the most interesting of all the characters and Yap is excellent at creating an air of mystery around her, slowly unveiling little bits of information to keep the reader hooked.

I occasionally got annoyed with Claire, finding her inability to deal with the situation a little tedious at times, but I guess this is perhaps how the author wanted us to feel. The authors use of Claire and Mark's relationship to highlight the inequalties between mono and duos was very cleverly done.  Mark always having the upper hand, Claire a little downtrodden until events force them to reexamine who they are as individuals and as a couple

The plot line twists and turns and the reader is never sure just who is guilty, who is telling the truth and who is lying. There is a twist towards the end that adds just that little extra!

Whilst it took me a while to get my head around the whole mono, duo theme this book is clever, engaging and enthralling. It is unique within its genre and a real breath of fresh air.

I would highly recommend yo read it!

Thank you to Wildfire and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Man, I've had a hard time reading lately. I am an incorrigible mess of a person but moving back from BC to England threw me out of my routine far more than I ever could have imagined. I am however beginning to get back into the swing of things and this book was the first I finished since arriving back on the 1st September. It's fast paced, engaging and unique and, for me has earned its Observer commendation of:

"The Thriller of the Summer"
Title: Yesterday

Author: Felicia Yap

Publication date: August 1st 2017

Pages: 352

Blurb: 

There are two types of people in the world: those who can only remember yesterday, and those who can also recall the day before.

You have just one lifeline to the past: your diary. Each night, you write down the things that matter. Each morning, your diary tells you where you were, who you loved and what you did.

Today, the police are at your door. They say that the body of your husband's mistress has been found in the River Cam. They think your husband killed her two days ago.

Can you trust the police? 
Can you trust your husband? 
Can you trust yourself?

Firstly, a very big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

So, I'm just gonna jump right in here. Yap paints a picture of a world almost identical to ours, the only difference being the way individual memory works. There are monos and duos in the world: monos remember only one day prior, duos (the higher class) retain two days of memory. She clearly draws comparisons between cultural and class divides that have existed in our own society and makes political comment on not only how wrong they are but what a huge influence they have on progression and change. Ultimately the story is about the solving of a murder but the way it unravels the human experience is awesome and if you're good at guessing plot direction please read this and tell me how soon you solved the murder. 

I will admit I found this to be a slow starter for me despite its compelling tag line. Mostly I put this down to one of the main characters being so wholly unlikable. I didn't care about Mark enough to want to read his story. Whilst he was clearly written this way deliberately Mark's character was a dominant narrator early on in the book and it took me a good while to generate enough interest in the story to keep reading. Rookie mistake. Yap nailed this book and I'm so glad I pushed past my initial reservations about it. I give the likeability of characters way too much of a hold over my enjoyment of reading and I was converted by this one. Yap's characters were complex and real.

The shifts between characters were well handled and worked seamlessly to create an intriguing and fluid story. It's themes and messages lingered with me a while after I had finished reading. The way our perspective shifts alters how we view each of the characters as the story progresses. The more of the truth that is uncovered, the less black and white things become.

She addresses how memories and experience define not only our experience of the world but define us as people; how what parts of truth we retain control our perception of others. How love is intrinsically tied with memory and the value of truth. If you ignore the weirdness of the alternate reality she's based the whole premise off of, it's brilliant - high concept and riveting. Actually, it's all those things anyway - I truly admire Yap for this creation. Whilst her version of the world is flawed it is executed very cleverly and the mechanics of her memory crazed world are explained very clearly throughout. A concept that might have been hard to get your head round is handled beautifully and provides a fierce difference to the plot, opening up new possibilities for the boundaries of the story. 

To be honest the real winning quality of this read was its sheer originality - it was unlike so many of its contemporaries and it had enough twists and turns to keep it from being predictable. It's maybe not the genre I am most compelled by but that is something that, following *this* novel I may choose to adjust. I am, since reading 'Yesterday' more inclined to pick up a thriller. It's unusual to find a mystery so intelligently disguised as this one. Yap completely made her own little niche in the genre with this one, combining elements of detective stories, relationship novels, social commentary and a sprinkle of what I might call dystopia. It's more that she altered the real world rather that going full sci-fi and making something grand and new. The very slight change to society as we know it was extremely effective at changing the story's whole dynamic - a feat I'm sure many writers find difficult to achieve.

Once I had it in my head (whilst I carried thoughts of it around for a while before picking it up again) I simply had to find a solution - I don't think it's a book you can be satisfied with without finishing. Seriously if you get stuck, really persevere with this one - it pays off I promise.  I hate DNFs as my Instagram followers will no-doubt notice, it often is the reason I get stuck in slumps - I'm obsessed with completion. This book *has* to be read from cover to cover to be truly appreciated and I'm 150% glad I fought past my jet lag and was able to truly appreciate Yap's talent and skill for storytelling.



 4 out of 5

 

It's not my genre but it certainly was a compelling and intelligently written read.

If you liked 'Yesterday' try Linwood Barclay's 'No Time for Goodbye'

This book wasn't one of my favourites, that being said it was an interesting concept and I'm sure others would enjoy it more than I did

I’m not sure I can really call this ‘science fiction’—‘alternate history/contemporary world’, rather?— and for once I find ‘speculative fiction’ is actually more appropriate. ‘Yesterday’ is set in a 2015 world where people, due to a gene getting inhibited when they become adults, lose their short term memories. ‘Monos’ can only retain the previous days, while ‘Duos’ can retain two days… but nothing more. In order to function, people therefore have to keep writing in their diaries, and make a conscious effort to learn the important ‘facts’ that happened to them.

I found this premise quite interesting, especially when it came to setting a mystery in that world: how would an investigator go about their job, link clues together, if they can only rely on written facts and not on actual memories? Because they’re bound to forget to write some details that would then become important, only at the time they looked so trivial they didn’t think them so. This is DI Richardson’s conundrum, as the main investigator in Sophia Ayling’s suicide-or-murder case, since he knows he has to solve this very quickly, otherwise he may miss some important clues. Just like potential suspects will literally forget what a crafty interrogation session could have made them say. All of this, of course, while keeping in mind an important question: are diaries reliable?

The story revolves around four characters’ narratives and diaries: Claire Evans, a Mono ex-waitress who married a successful Duo writer, but struggles daily with her feelings of inadequacy compared to her husband’s ability to remember more; Mark Evans, whose career as a writer isn’t so satisfying anymore, just like his marriage, and who’s tempted to veer towards politics… and mistresses; Sophia Ayling, a woman with the rare ability to remember everything… including tiny little slights that built up into hatred and a deep desire for revenge; and Hans Richardson, the inspector determined to crack the case in one day, but who also harbours secrets of his own.

In itself, it was a fast-paced enough read (everything happens over 24 hours, after all), and one that kept my attention; the plot twists were easy enough for me to guess, yet at the same time I still wanted to see how the characters themselves, with their limited day to day memories, would go about making sense of everything that happened to them.

In the end, though, the memory limit proved to ask more questions than it provided answers, making the world building kind of… shaky? The society depicted here seems to have been built on the short term memory problem as if it had been here from the start. But while I can see how modern technology (paper diaries, then iDiaries—hello, parallel world Apple that I thought interesting in spite of being a little too obvious) would allow people to function, it makes one wonder how science and said technology developed in the first place: at some point, how was writing invented, if people couldn’t remember what they did two days ago, and couldn’t put it in written words? For me, it would’ve been more credible if the genetic shift had happened later in history—well, maybe it did, but the story doesn’t tell.

The ending, too, left me sceptical. I see what the author did there, but it felt too convoluted and resting on chance events (or perhaps, should I say, on a stroke of genius on one character’s part, but what led to it seemed too much like a convenient plot device?). Also, I would’ve expected the inspector character to make less blunders—either that, or other characters bearing on him for making them, because in the end there were no real consequences.

Conclusion: 2.5 stars. It is an entertaining first novel, I just wished the memory loss premise had been exploited better.

This was a good idea which just did not work for me.
Mono's remembering one day and duo's remembering two days.
Due to keeping a diary you were supposed to be able to read back and remember what happened on previous days.
Well in my mind I would be writing the same thing every day.
Read diary, write in diary.

Yesterday was a great book divided into two groups of people, those who only remember yesterday (mono) and those who also remember the day before (duo). We meet Claire who is a mono and her husband Mark who is a duo. Throw into this mix a murder, a young woman known to Mark. Who murdered her? I won't spoil it for you.
A great book and loved the twist.

Even though the premise of this story feels like a sci-fi alternate universe, it actually takes place in 2015. Society is split between MONOs ... who can only remember yesterday. They are considered the lesser of importance. DUOs are those lucky enough to remember 2 days. They are allowed to hold office and do important things.

Mark and Claire are a mixed marriage. She is a MONO. She types notes on a computer to help her remember what happened yesterday. He is DUO and is a novelist turned politician. Together they represent tolerance and equality.

When a woman is found dead, she is identified as Mark's mistress. He is now the prime suspect in her murder. Mark has secrets and the investigating detective has secrets. But with both of their memories being erased every 2 days, how can anyone learn the truth?

This story is told by 4 distinct voices ... Mark, Claire, the Detective, and the Victim. Its fast paced or maybe it feels that way because the clock continues ticking as their memories start to disappear.

This is an intriguing first novel by this author. It's well written with characters that stand out. It's a mix of a little bit sci-fi, a little bit contemporary fiction. Amazon has it listed as a Technothriller.

Many thanks to the author / Wildfire / Netgalley for the digital copy of this first novel. The author will bear following. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This book confused me, it's set in a time where the characters aren't like we are today, where we have memories, instead they live in a time when they can either remember the events of one day (Monos) or they can remember the events of two days (Duos). In order to know what they had done in the previous days/months etc everything is written in their idiaries. The first problem for me was that it's set in an alternate 2015 - if it had been set in another 100 years or so it may have intrigued me more. I found it a tedious read and as the story progressed started questioning things more. I wasn't keen on the characters, they didn't come alive in my imagination and I felt the author, despite having an interesting idea for her story, had missed the mark.

"How do you solve a murder when you only remember yesterday?" That was all that was needed to catch my attention, it was so intriguing, I had to read this. It even started with one of the charecters admiting "I remember everything...I'm the only person in this world who remembers her past. All of it." After this I knew I was going to be second guessing everything that came next.
Everything takes place within one day, the police find a body and the detective is determined to solve it by the end of that day. The characters often refer back to their diaries for details on what happened on previous days. However, what was going through my mind was... what happens if they lie/omit what actually happened? How is anyone supposed to solve a murder then? I didn't need to worry, as it was these questions that got me thinking and trying to work it all out along with them and try to solve it!!
It has a brilliant twist at the end, if you enjoy murder mysteries then you will love this!!

What a superb and gripping story. I was pulled in by the clever writing and the sheer intensity of it.

Imagine a world exactly like ours (right down to male stripper been compared to Channing Tatum) except for one massive difference. Society isn't divided by race, religion or gender. No in this world there are two types of people. Duos and Monos. Duos can only remember the last two days, Monos merely the day before. Due to this Duos are considered superior and generally do all the supposedly better jobs(doctors lawyers etc) whereas Monos do the more menial tasks. In this world we meet Claire and Mark. Mark is a Duo and a successful writer, Claire a Mono who previously was a waitress. Their mixed marriage is almost unheard of. But it's not a happy marriage. This is proven on the morning that the police turn up saying Marks mistress has been found murdered. A mistress who has previously claimed she can remember everything. The question is how can you solve a murder when you can only remember yesterday?

Well I have a lot more questions than that. How on earth has this society got as far as it has on such little memory? They record their thoughts in IDiaries (Yes Apple rule in this world too) but previously pen and paper did the trick. But how did they create written language (or even a fully developed oral language) with a maximum of two days memory? Am I been too literal? Is this something that happened over time if so how/why? Or has thus reality always been like this? I need more facts!

Anyway back to the plot. The story is told by Mark, Claire, Sophie and Hans, the Mono detective posing as a Duo. It's a fast paced and interesting story let down by both a too neat ending and also slightly preposterous one. Sophie and Hans are by far the most interesting characters, in fact I could see Hans having his own series of books. There's some neat little devices used such as in one of Marks books he describes a world with memory (much to the disgust and disbelief of some readers) plus what might happen to them when they get hit on their head as opposed to what might happen to us....

Despite struggling with the logic of the story I did enjoy this. It's got genius and daftness in equal measures which somehow appeals to me. Suspend your disbelief and you could be in for a treat.

I received this from Netgalley for an honest review.

Yesterday

I'm delighted to say that this 'memory loss' thriller is so much better and so very different to other titles to which it's compared. For starters, it's not repetitive. The point is made but the reader doesn't have to relive the minutiae of life and loss with every chapter.

This book is genuinely clever. Just a sprinkling of sci fi and fantasy to make the setting sufficiently plausible for those who enjoy a psychological thriller. The narrative viewpoint changes, but develops the plot and, more importantly, requires the reader to revaluate their understanding of truth and reality. What started as a mystery, for me, developed into a far more satisfying and thought provoking read. What an intriguing debut from a new young author; one with much more to offer. Enjoyed this and my thanks for a review copy via Netgalley.

This story has an intriguing premise set against an essentially factually correct England.

The multi person point of view is a little confusing to following, made more so by the positioning of the diary excerpts before the chapters.  However, it should be noted that I was reading an ARC, and so a fully formatted e-book version may not have those particular issues.

Overall, I thought that this was a kind of unique examination of the meaning of love and a parallel look (albeit with at an extremely superficial level) at discrimination.

The epilogue adds a twist that I didn't see coming and ultimately, the story works, even if I wasn't completely sold on the delivery.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book.

How do you solve a murder when you only remember yesterday? It was his line that drew me to this book and I was expecting an absolute thriller, sadly I felt disappointed.

In this world you have monos who only have one days worth of memory; and duos who have two. Monos are excluding from things such as high ranking jobs and are often seen as the lower class of society. People function by completing their I-diaries daily and using these to remember last experiences and interactions.

Claire is a mono housewife and her husband, Mark, a duo is a successful novelist. One day, a woman is found dead on the banks of the river Cam. She's Mark's mistress and he's now the number one suspect.

I found the first half of the book extremely slow. The second half picked up the pace but I was quite disappointed by the whole book. It just didn't grip me and draw me in like other thrillers do.

Thank you to NetGalley, Headline and the author for the chance to review.

Yesterday by Felicia Yap.
Yesterday has a great, unique idea for an alternative society in which as a person turns 18 they lose thei ability to remember normally and become either a Mono, where they can only remember yesterday, or a Duo, where they can remember yesterday and the day before. They keep diaries in which they write down as much or as little as they see necessary, and 'learn' the most important aspects of each day which enables the info to move to their long term memory which they still do have.
This concept isn't although the main part. It is at heart a crime story told by the main characters in a very enjoyable story.
I found it well written, easy to follow with good character development.
Indeed the idea of the mono's and duo's would be a great idea for a second more dystopia type novel.
I look forward to reading more from this author.

The whole concept behind this book is and extremely interesting one. The idea of an alternate reality with monos and duos facinating.

The book itself was well written but I failed to connect to any of the characters. I enjoyed the story and read it in a day but feel the last chapter was unnecessary and unbelievable. I can't say why without spoilers.

Overall the reading experience was a mixed bag but it was a good story that has the potential to be turned into a series.

„Yesterday“ is one of the most unique books I read so far. It is set in an alternate reality where people can remember only for a short time. In this alternate world a murder takes place. There are two different kinds of people: Monos, who could retain just the day before and Duos who have memory of the last two days. Duos think they are superior to Monos. They think they are cleverer and there are jobs which are only given to Duos, although most of the people are Monos. Children and teenager can remember everything, but at a certain age things change and they become Monos or Duos. They start to write diaries. They write down what they think is important to remember and the next day they learn these things. So it gets into their long-term-memory and they remember it. This situation is not really explained in the book. It is just treated as a fact. Reality is like this in this book. It is not a Dystopia; it is just a book which takes place in a different reality. At first I found that very confusing. I was not sure if this could work and how it all worked. I was checking all the time if everything that happened was according to this memory situation. But while I kept reading and the more things developed and got explained I got used to this setting.

I am not going to tell too much about the story itself. I was fascinated by this memory thing. Being a Duo or a Mono divides the society into two classes. There is a lot of discrimination going on. The story about the murder is very complex and told from different POVs. There are many twists and unreliable characters. Writing a diary is a very delicate thing. The characters write to remember their own past. But they choose what they think is necessary to remember. That can also mean that they choose to leave something out so they will forget it. The story is very unique and is told with great earnest. The author adds more and more details. It is a really unusual story with an unusual setting. The thing about the murder could have been a little bit more gripping. The main thing here are the characters and their problems. With their life without remembering important things and without the learning effect they bring. I was not absolutely gripped by the book but it was interesting and I enjoyed reading it.

Felicia Yap has created an alternative universe that could have come straight out of a Stark Trek episode. Cleverly conceived Duos and Monos inhabit a world where trust, deceit selfish occupation is the normal. The characters are untrustworthy,each with their secrets and motives to hide. I was captivated by the concept. However,the twists weren't always believable. I thought the final twist was implausible and improbable and the detective's 'secret' would have definitely be revealed not only suspected. I await Yap's follow up 'Today' with interest.

This was a really original concept for a novel and one that worked really well. A refreshing change to the usual fodder.