All Our Yesterdays

Terrill, Cristin. All Our Yesterdays. 2013. 360p. ISBN 1423176375. FIC TER on the library shelves.

Em has been imprisoned in a secret military facility with her friend Finn for the last four months. The director and the doctor are torturing her and Finn so she will reveal the location of a series of mathematical equations necessary for the Cassandra project, a time travel device located on-site. Alone in her cell, with Finn’s voice next door, Em has more than enough time to consider unlikely means of escape. She is fascinated by the drain in the middle of her cell, not knowing what it is for.

When she manages to steal a spoon and unscrews the cover of the drain, she discovers a letter she wrote to herself, with the 16 different ways in which she and Finn have travelled back in time and tried to stop Cassandra, from stealing the plans to killing the engineer in charge of the project. On this 17th try, the only thing they haven’t tried is kill the doctor, the man who created and designed Cassandra. So now they must escape and travel back four years to eliminate him.

Marina has been in love with James Shaw ever since she moved next door to his D.C. mansion when she was six. A boy genius with an I.Q. off the charts, James has always been awkward around her, and she’s never known whether he loves her back as a sister or more. She’s invited to attend a fundraiser where Nate Shaw, James’ brother and a Congressman from Connecticut will speak along with the Vice-President.

But when Nate is shot, Marina’s world collapses around her. James goes into a tailspin, and threatens to break apart at the seam. An attempt is made on James’ life at the hospital where Nate is being treated, and Marina thinks she recognizes the assailants as older versions of herself and James’ friend Finn. The two timelines intersect, and the race is on to stop the doctor’s plans before they come to fruition.