See You Yesterday Published by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers on May 2022
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 432
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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Barrett Bloom is hoping college will be a fresh start after a messy high school experience. But when school begins on September 21st, everything goes wrong. She’s humiliated by the know-it-all in her physics class, she botches her interview for the college paper, and at a party that night, she accidentally sets a frat on fire. She panics and flees, and when she realizes her roommate locked her out of their dorm, she falls asleep in the common room.
The next morning, Barrett’s perplexed to find herself back in her dorm room bed, no longer smelling of ashes and crushed dreams. It’s September 21st. Again. And after a confrontation with Miles, the guy from Physics 101, she learns she’s not alone—he’s been trapped for months.
When her attempts to fix her timeline fail, she agrees to work with Miles to find a way out. Soon they’re exploring the mysterious underbelly of the university and going on wild, romantic adventures. As they start falling for each other, they face the universe’s biggest unanswered question yet: what happens to their relationship if they finally make it to tomorrow?
Barrett Bloom is hoping college will be a fresh start after a messy high school experience. But when school begins on September 21st, everything goes wrong. She’s humiliated by the know-it-all in her physics class, she botches her interview for the college paper, and at a party that night, she accidentally sets a frat on fire. She panics and flees, and when she realizes her roommate locked her out of their dorm, she falls asleep in the common room.
The next morning, Barrett’s perplexed to find herself back in her dorm room bed, no longer smelling of ashes and crushed dreams. It’s September 21st. Again. And after a confrontation with Miles, the guy from Physics 101, she learns she’s not alone—he’s been trapped for months.
When her attempts to fix her timeline fail, she agrees to work with Miles to find a way out. Soon they’re exploring the mysterious underbelly of the university and going on wild, romantic adventures. As they start falling for each other, they face the universe’s biggest unanswered question yet: what happens to their relationship if they finally make it to tomorrow?
I don’t know what it is about Rachel Lynn Solomon’s YA books but they just captivate me. This utterly charming and heartfelt nugget was the perfect read for me. I like Barrett’s edges. She was awkward and said the wrong things at the wrong times. She could b impulsive and had real insecurities and felt totally human to me. Also, her backstory of what happened to her in high school broke my heart. She might not be a typical likable character, but there was something very endearing that spoke to me.
Enter Miles, the only other person who seems to also be stuck in this loop. I think Miles was… okay. He wasn’t as colorful as Barrett (which was good because he evened her out) but I did feel a little bit like she liked him because he was the very obvious only option for her over a long period of time. Also, yay for a half Asian Jewish boy! That said, he was a good balance to her personality and I liked his family backstory a lot. He wasn’t as rounded or clear to me as Barrett was, but he was cute and I liked his science brain.
Which brings me to the time loop.
Oh how I love a time loop.
Props to Solomon for actually including Groundhog Day film in the story. I really enjoyed this because it brought about some very interesting questions about character and humanity. If you were able to redo the day over and over again, what would you spend your time on? Selfish tasks? Making things better? Revenge? I love how each of these was explored by the characters and how it effected them throughout the novel. Some of the topics did go a little dark and I appreciated that too. Sure, a time loop is fun maybe the first few times but after months and months? Yeah, that can go to a dark place. I also really like the secondary characters. Max, Miles’s brother was brief but gave a good sense of Miles’s home life. And Lucie, Barrett’s enemy/roommate was a great supporting character for Bennett, who slowly transformed through Lucie’s help.
Overall, I think See You Yesterday was the perfect blend of YA romance with a layer of deep life questions.
Kimberly majored in Songwriting and currently works full time in the music industry. When she's not listening to music, knitting or writing, you can find her outside reading her favorite genres: Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Mystery, and Romance.
