Grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this publication. Afraid to say it didn't really grab me, but read it to the end nonetheless.

An unsettling futuristic murder mystery!!
This is a spectacular debut novel by Felicia Yap.
It is set in a world populated by people with limited memory with class structure only defined by how many days a person can remember.
It asks the question: How do our memories shape our lives?
The novel follows the lives of 4 intertwined characters and a murdered woman.
Intriguing, page turning magic!!!

Good premise, makes you think about how long people actually hold on to grudges and how easily people forget the day to day things.

Who can you really trust? I really don't mind admitting that this novel got me thinking. The mark of a great thriller.

Another book in the popular mould of Gone Girl and the like. This is one of the better ones, but nothing particularly original.

Brilliant. Such a clever concept and very well handled. The twists and turns kept me hooked throughout and the detective was a compelling antidote to prejudice.

I struggled to keep up with the storyline in this book but I think that was more me than the story. I had to do a lot of thinking to catch up with it so didn't find it an easy read.

The premise behind this book - that once they reach maturity people are split into those either having a 24hr memory or one lasting 48hrs - sounded so intriguing. I was interested to see how different the world would be to our own, if this were the case, and what difficulties this would throw up. But this is where Yesterday didn't work for me because it chooses not to address that. There is no world-building save for the difference in people's memories. We're asked to believe that the world has continued to develop at the same rate as our own, and I couldn't see how that would be possible, especially for the good people of Apple, the investigating police officer, and the husband who's a novelist.

Where people used to use handwritten diaries to record their days (memories) they now use an iDiary to help them remember and spend part of each day both writing up that day but also reading prior entries to refresh their memory of past events. The aspect of the diary-keeping I did like was the fact that you're writing your version of your life and could have been writing complete fantasy all this time which once recorded become your only memory of events: the ultimate unreliable narrator. But how far back would you need to keep reading to refresh those memories? Was there some slow accumulation of residual memory you could build on each day? Surely the number of hours you'd have to spend writing up your diary and using it to refresh your memory would increase the older you got and the more years/memories you had to recall, and leave you less time to actually do anything?

I'm also not a huge fan of novels or films which employ a hefty misdirection: for most of the novel, we're asked to focus over here with these characters but actually find out towards the end that's not where we should have been looking all along, despite having spent the most time with them. This was disappointing and frustrating, even more so when this book clearly had had so much potential, thanks to its unusual premise.

Such a clever idea for a book. Imagine living in a world where you are a Mono who can only remember yesterday or you are a Duo and can remember the day before as well!!! How would you know if you committed a murder? Loved this story!

An original dsytopian story which was great. There are two types of people Mono's who remember what happened each day and Duo's that remember two days. Mono's are treated as inferior and are not allowed to take certain jobs. Both Mono's and Duo's keep diaries in order to keep track of their lives.

Overall a good book which I rate 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

An Exceptional Debut from an Exciting New Talent:
“Yesterday”, the debut novel by Felicia Yap, is set in an “alternative dimension” where the population is divided not by Class or Wealth but rather by Memory Length: Duos and Monos (those whose memory spans two days and those with a memory span of only a day). Duos are viewed as Intelligent and Monos not so. At first it takes a bit of getting into but, before long the reader is in the swing of things: manual jobs are for Monos and intelligent ones for Duos. Memory differentiation is also extended to marriage, so it is rare for a Mono to marry a Duo. Mixed marriages produce more Mono children than Duo. Criminals are mainly Monos, Politicians are Duos. Duos have money, Monos have none. Got the idea?
The storyline is set against this backdrop. A crime is committed and is investigated by DCI Hans Richardson (who should be a Duo but is secretly a Mono). Due to memory restrictions DCI Richardson has a day to solve what he believes to be a murder.
The chief suspect is Mark James (a Duo), a prospective Parliamentary Candidate. Mark is a successful author and married to Claire (a Mono). Yes, a mixed marriage. Mark had been having an affair with the victim (a Duo) and when his wife finds out all hell is let loose. The scandal could wreck Mark’s Parliamentary career before it even gets started. But with only a day in which to realistically solve the crime the race is on: DCI Richardson to solve the crime and Mark to save his marriage and career (although not necessarily in that order of priority).
Everyone uses iDiaries, conveniently invented by Steve Jobs in 1998 to remember what they did or didn’t do the day before (Mono) or the day before yesterday (Duo). Before you know it, you will wish that you had an iDiary too. In fact, some readers might believe that there is such a thing. I put one on my list to Santa to see if my wife would spot the error. Received a traditional diary with the letter "i" tippexed on the front.
"Yesterday" is a fabulously imaginative novel which has some valid points to make about the state of our technological society and society in general. And is great fun to read too. I can’t wait to read Yap’s forthcoming second novel “Today”. A great debut which promises great things to come.

Yesterday is an intriguing mix of fantasy and thriller. Felicia Yap has created a world that isn’t divided by race or religion but by how much memory one can retain. The memory limitation to one or two days means that everyone is supposed to record daily happenings in a diary so that they can recall facts. The narrative was a fast paced read and did hold my attention.
An entertaining first novel which is a mix of sci-fi and contemporary fiction.
My thanks to net galley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Yesterday is a debut novel that is innovative in its concept. In an alternative present day people are lose the capacity to store long term memories and are divided into two classes, Duos and Monos, their memories written down daily in electronic diaries. When a woman is found dead in a Cambridge river, an author and aspiring MP is the main suspect. Written from the viewpoint of the chief detective, the suspect and his wife and the murdered woman this is an unusual novel that challenges the meaning of memory and emotion.

After seeing this book around on social media for a few weeks I just couldn’t resist requesting it on NetGalley and I was thrilled when I was approved. I actually read this quite a few weeks ago now but due to ill health I haven’t managed to finish my review until now, but I can say that this is a book that has stayed with me which is the sign of a great read!

I’m fascinated by books about memory and I do love an unreliable narrator so this book really appealed to me and I’m so pleased to say that it absolutely lived up to the appeal. The novel is unsettling from the start because it’s set in our world in the present day but everyone is either a mono (with a memory span of only the last 24 hours) or a duo (who can remember the previous 48 hours). This means that everyone has to keep a meticulous record of their lives in order to recollect anything beyond the time span on their memory. Obviously the duos have an advantage as they can remember things for longer so marriage between monos and duos is very much frowned upon. Claire is a mono, and her husband Mark is a duo. As far as Claire is concerned they have been happily married for a number of years but the only sadness is that they can’t have a child.

Claire is shocked one day when the police turn up at her door to tell her that her husband’s mistress has been found dead near their home and they think her husband killed her. The novel builds with such pace and tension from this point on as we see how Claire begins to try and put together any memories she can find about their past and if there is any hint that her husband has been cheating on her. She only has her diary to rely on for memories and this really ramps up the tension in the novel.

The novel then follows four perspectives – Claire, Mark, the mistress and the police detective – and all four have secrets. Some are dark secrets, and some are things that you can understand and have some sympathy for link in the case of the person who is trying hard to hold on to their career. Everyone in this novel is relying on their diaries and that makes this novel fascinating and makes for a book whereby all of the characters are unreliable (and I do love unreliable narraters!). The unfolding of all the secrets and lies makes for a very tense and thrill-filled novel and I found this very hard to put down!

I did find it a slightly difficult to get into at first as this is a novel set in the present day but obviously monos and duos don’t exist so it was a bit strange. I very quickly got into the story being told though and this aspect became something that fascinated me and I really enjoyed this novel.

This is a really different thriller to anything that I’ve read in a long while and I found it so refreshing. It has twists and turns along the way and some of the reveals I managed to work out and others just blindsided me, which I loved. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a sophisticated and different take on the thriller genre! I loved this book and it’s one that has really stayed with me.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yesterday is out now!

Yesterday starts as it means to go on, and on and on! You can't help but feel you've read this book before, but it is worth persevering as it tells a good tale which you want to see concluded.

For me this book just did not work. I think the author used the premise of memory loss to meddle with the story line to the point that i didn't understand who was who. The prose was messy and the premise unbelievable. How did authors write novels if it took more than a couple of days for example. The characters were unlikeable

Well this book was certainly unique and I have to say I really wasn’t quite sure about it, until I began to read! Then wow happy days what a great book. So basically it’s kinda strange world with two types of people with two types of memeory, one type can recollect the last day, the other can recollect the last 2 days. All of them have a daily diary where they write everything down so they can remember events.

So then you have a couple called Mark & Claire; Claire can remember 1 day and Mark can remember 2. This kind of coupling is frowned upon and so for them to be a couple is a rarity, and then a woman’s body is discovered and it seems from her diary she knew Mark quite well.

The story then starts to unravel into who she was and obviously who killed her, with the story told from Claire, Mark, victim and the DCI’s POV. That’s all I’m going to say 😉

Tbh I really liked the books and even though it flipped about it wasn’t confusing, it’s was full of twists and I eventually was like yes I know who it was haha and then the e ding said no I didn’t!

A great read and a different read too, breath of fresh air for sure I loved it.

This wasn't exactly what I expected - it was way better! With elements of traditional crime/ mystery novels, mixed in with sci-fi elements (which I'm not always a fan of, but it's done so well in this novel), Yesterday is a hugely enjoyable novel which kept me turning the pages.

It was in no way predictable, which novels in this genre can fall into, and I found myself surprised along the way as more and more is revealed. I loved the whole idea of there being just two 'races' as such, determined not by skin colour or ethnicity but by whether you are a 'mono' or a 'duo'. Monos can remember only the last 24 hours, Duos can remember the last 48 hours - and are therefore seen as far superior. I liked the nod to Apple's increasing popularity (everyone carried around iDiaries to help them remember) and I loved the element of mystery. I couldn't wait to find out what had actually happened to Sophie, and how Mark and Claire may or may not have been involved. 

We hear the story from detective Hans, Sophie, Mark, and Claire's point of views, and this means you get to piece the missing elements together as the characters do and, at some points, know more than each individual does. There's still plenty of surprises, though, and the fact that the characters have to rely on their diaries to remember things means you're never quite sure who's completely reliable and who isn't - adding extra interest to the story!

I'd definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a new mystery/ crime novel with a difference. It's original, intriguing and beautifully written novel which I'd highly recommend - it might not be everyone's tastes I suppose, but I loved it!

There were some formatting issues with the copy i received which meant chunks of text were missing making it difficult to read the book, so much so that i had no choice but to mark this as a DNF albeit a reluctant one as i was enjoying it. I found the idea of the story to be an interesting one and will be looking to purchase a paperback copy for myself just as soon as i have the funds available.
Based on what i had been able to read this was going to be a comfortable 4 star... perhaps higher.

Received a free copy from NetGalley

The concept of this book had potential and it's what drew me to the book in the first place. However I could not get into the book at all and have struggled my way through it (whilst hoping it was going to get better ! ).

I had an issue with the writing of the story, felt it was confusing and disjointed. Due to this I couldn't connect with the characters or the story and found them to be one dimensional.

Overall a frustrating read.