Review by Casablanca -- Yesterday by Samyann
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Review by Casablanca -- Yesterday by Samyann
[Following is a volunteer review of "Yesterday" by Samyann.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Yesterday is a historical fiction novel by Samyann. The novel's plot centers around a young woman named Amanda who is uncovering her memories of a past reincarnation in order to resolve trauma from her past. I, with a heavy heart, would give this novel a lackluster 2 out of 4 stars. To begin with, I feel it necessary to say that the romance genre has never been my favorite, mostly because of the sexism and tired cliches. Ironically enough, I find that books not billed as romance, or solely romance, have better romances than the ones that are, which is part of my reasoning for giving this one a try. If Fifty Shades of Grey is any indicator of what the majority of readers are willing to accept from romances, it is a sad fact the trend of unhealthy, uncomfortable relationships in this genre will continue on. I am disappointed to see that Samyann had made no attempt to bring life back into the romance genre by throwing away the cliches and being innovative. Moreover, I find it jarring that author so heavily pushed the narrative of Yesterday's historical accuracy, as nothing in the book that is historically accurate would interest the average reader. Another qualm I have with this novel is its' length, which I will be returning to frequently in this review.
Yesterday begins with the reader gaining a view into the life of our heroine, Amanda Parker, who both on the surface and below the surface is the archetypal romance heroine. Traumatic past? Check. Submissive and weak minded? Check. Does she think that she's average, but is frequently complemented on her beauty? Check. The degree of annoyance I felt whenever the author wanted to describe Amanda was so high I don't even think there is a word for it yet. Samyann made it very, very clear that Amanda had blue eyes, and the way other characters noticed them the reader might think that nobody in this universe had ever seen blue eyes before. Amanda's eyes are described as dazzling or brilliant in some way a total of 8 times, and her eyes are mentioned as being blue a total of 15 times. Amanda's description of herself also manages to be annoying and unnecessary.
Amanda is an empty shell void of personality because the author makes the mistake of telling instead of showing. The reader is told that Amanda is brave and special and numerous other adjectives when the only things we are told about her that could make her a much more fleshed out character are glossed over. We are told that Amanda did something scandalous, something that could bring some insight into her character but is only brought up once and never mentioned again. Amanda has a cat named Oprah and the explanation behind it's name could flesh out Amanda's character but that isn't given either. I was hoping to get an explanation like: "Amanda watched talk shows frequently because seeing other people's problems helped to distract her from her own. Her obsession with the shows lead Amanda to name her cat 'Oprah'." What little personality Amanda has is another archetype- the old cliche 'won't love again because they've lost in the past'. The amount of people Amanda has lost was excessive. All this trauma makes for a great dramatic stage for Amanda to express her feelings and personality, but Samyann is not a skilled enough writer to convey this properly, so all the carnage feels unnecessary. Amanda is a flat character and not once I did feel concerned or invested in her life. The novel should of been longer as to develop Amanda's past and personality- in fact, overall, a major problem with the novel is that nothing in it is developed enough. It is like a cheap, painted Hollywood set instead of a vibrant and active setting.
Moving on to the love interest and romance overall, both are very tired and uncomfortable. Mark Patrick Callahan is an Irish policeman with towering height, dashing good looks and an ego bigger than his muscles. He has a charming partner who good naturedly jokes that he would of raped Amanda if it had been his life she had saved instead of Mark's.
de·mand
d??mand/
noun
1.
an insistent and peremptory request, made as if by right.
Samyann decides to rush their relationship and throw build up out the window. This is isn't that far into the book. Oddly enough, Amanda seems perfectly okay with this even though her only defining trait is that she doesn't want to be hurt again. Mark's defining trait is being controlling, as he frequently ignores Amanda's wishes and pleas. The two have no chemistry or build-up and Amanda is constantly flipping back and forth between confessing her love to Mark and pushing him away.
Another huge issue with the book and the plot as a whole was the way the reincarnation theme was handled. The concept was simplified and confused and I found it strange that the author boasted about her knowledge of history but did not speak at all about her research into reincarnation and the various religions that believe in it. The whole process of seeing previous lives is glossed over and poorly explained aswell. A plot point that made me wince was that of Amanda's previous reincarnation, Bonnie, who lived during the Civil War, as the plot summary states. Samyann subtly justifies enslavement throughout the book.
Here's what Amanda thinks when listening to someone talk about slavery:
In all, the largest issue with the book is all the characters are just poorly sketched out backgrounds to a foreground that is nothing to look at. I can see why some people would enjoy this book as a quick romance (even though the book doesn't even do that properly half the time) but as a serious read, I cannot recommend this book. The book was just too short to pull off it's theme properly with fleshed out characters. Really, all I can say is that this just wasn't for me.
******
Yesterday
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2 out of 4 stars
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Yesterday is a historical fiction novel by Samyann. The novel's plot centers around a young woman named Amanda who is uncovering her memories of a past reincarnation in order to resolve trauma from her past. I, with a heavy heart, would give this novel a lackluster 2 out of 4 stars. To begin with, I feel it necessary to say that the romance genre has never been my favorite, mostly because of the sexism and tired cliches. Ironically enough, I find that books not billed as romance, or solely romance, have better romances than the ones that are, which is part of my reasoning for giving this one a try. If Fifty Shades of Grey is any indicator of what the majority of readers are willing to accept from romances, it is a sad fact the trend of unhealthy, uncomfortable relationships in this genre will continue on. I am disappointed to see that Samyann had made no attempt to bring life back into the romance genre by throwing away the cliches and being innovative. Moreover, I find it jarring that author so heavily pushed the narrative of Yesterday's historical accuracy, as nothing in the book that is historically accurate would interest the average reader. Another qualm I have with this novel is its' length, which I will be returning to frequently in this review.
Yesterday begins with the reader gaining a view into the life of our heroine, Amanda Parker, who both on the surface and below the surface is the archetypal romance heroine. Traumatic past? Check. Submissive and weak minded? Check. Does she think that she's average, but is frequently complemented on her beauty? Check. The degree of annoyance I felt whenever the author wanted to describe Amanda was so high I don't even think there is a word for it yet. Samyann made it very, very clear that Amanda had blue eyes, and the way other characters noticed them the reader might think that nobody in this universe had ever seen blue eyes before. Amanda's eyes are described as dazzling or brilliant in some way a total of 8 times, and her eyes are mentioned as being blue a total of 15 times. Amanda's description of herself also manages to be annoying and unnecessary.
First off, it's writing 101 that an author should never describe a character's appearance in a mirror because doing so is lazy and cliched. The description is unnecessary because at this point, the reader already knows what Amanda looks like from the POV of Mark, the love interest (more about him later). Amanda goes as far to point out her graceful neck, high cheekbones, and almond shaped eyes but then in next sentence calls her face ordinary and unimpressive. This is highly contradictory given what Amanda had said about herself a sentence beforehand. Amanda's low self esteem at the end of description seems like it was placed in only because Samyann felt compelled to write in another romance cliche. It's very frustrating that romance writers don't seem to understand that beautiful people in real life are often very aware of their looks. Writing a stunningly beautiful woman like Amanda with low esteem doesn't make her relatable- it makes her look like a fool for not noticing that men are drooling over her all the time. The author couldn't even give Amanda a real flaw, which, since real people actually have those, would make her more relatable. Instead, Amanda's inner monologue sounds like: "My legs are too long, like a gazelle, and my lustrous, sun kissed skin is too damn tan.""Morning sun streamed through the window in the bathroom and Amanda glanced up at the oval mirror. Dark brunette hair created a striking contrast with her pale skin. A long, graceful neck complemented high cheekbones and the almond eyes of a distant Cree ancestor. Too long, like a damn giraffe. Altogether an ordinary and unimpressive face."
Amanda is an empty shell void of personality because the author makes the mistake of telling instead of showing. The reader is told that Amanda is brave and special and numerous other adjectives when the only things we are told about her that could make her a much more fleshed out character are glossed over. We are told that Amanda did something scandalous, something that could bring some insight into her character but is only brought up once and never mentioned again. Amanda has a cat named Oprah and the explanation behind it's name could flesh out Amanda's character but that isn't given either. I was hoping to get an explanation like: "Amanda watched talk shows frequently because seeing other people's problems helped to distract her from her own. Her obsession with the shows lead Amanda to name her cat 'Oprah'." What little personality Amanda has is another archetype- the old cliche 'won't love again because they've lost in the past'. The amount of people Amanda has lost was excessive. All this trauma makes for a great dramatic stage for Amanda to express her feelings and personality, but Samyann is not a skilled enough writer to convey this properly, so all the carnage feels unnecessary. Amanda is a flat character and not once I did feel concerned or invested in her life. The novel should of been longer as to develop Amanda's past and personality- in fact, overall, a major problem with the novel is that nothing in it is developed enough. It is like a cheap, painted Hollywood set instead of a vibrant and active setting.
Moving on to the love interest and romance overall, both are very tired and uncomfortable. Mark Patrick Callahan is an Irish policeman with towering height, dashing good looks and an ego bigger than his muscles. He has a charming partner who good naturedly jokes that he would of raped Amanda if it had been his life she had saved instead of Mark's.
Twice when they barely know each other, Mark demands that Amanda go out with with him.“That’d been me, I’d ‘a been trying’ to figure out how to slip it to her while we were Rollin’ around on that sidewalk.”
“Cell number. We’re going to dinner.”
Um, yeah that's a demand."“Dinner. Tomorrow evening. 8: 00.” It wasn’t a request, but it wasn’t a demand either. A statement."
de·mand
d??mand/
noun
1.
an insistent and peremptory request, made as if by right.
Samyann decides to rush their relationship and throw build up out the window. This is isn't that far into the book. Oddly enough, Amanda seems perfectly okay with this even though her only defining trait is that she doesn't want to be hurt again. Mark's defining trait is being controlling, as he frequently ignores Amanda's wishes and pleas. The two have no chemistry or build-up and Amanda is constantly flipping back and forth between confessing her love to Mark and pushing him away.
Another huge issue with the book and the plot as a whole was the way the reincarnation theme was handled. The concept was simplified and confused and I found it strange that the author boasted about her knowledge of history but did not speak at all about her research into reincarnation and the various religions that believe in it. The whole process of seeing previous lives is glossed over and poorly explained aswell. A plot point that made me wince was that of Amanda's previous reincarnation, Bonnie, who lived during the Civil War, as the plot summary states. Samyann subtly justifies enslavement throughout the book.
Also, if you loved reading Gone With The Wind, here's some more of that precious slave dialect."The black people who worked for Papa like Ben and Magdalene were family."
"Magdalene furrowed her brow at Ben and looked at Penelope. “But dat ‘mancipation paper, dat be de law.”"
Here's what Amanda thinks when listening to someone talk about slavery:
By the book's logic, owning another person is just fine as long as you don't beat them to often. The reason why I like Gone With The Wind is that it shows the Confederates for what they were: old fashioned racists trying desperately to hold on to their way of life. Yesterday fails in the sense that it tries to get the reader to sympathize with the Confederates because as the book says, slavery wasn't always that bad."Amanda spoke into her drink. “They weren’t always treated as slaves.”"
In all, the largest issue with the book is all the characters are just poorly sketched out backgrounds to a foreground that is nothing to look at. I can see why some people would enjoy this book as a quick romance (even though the book doesn't even do that properly half the time) but as a serious read, I cannot recommend this book. The book was just too short to pull off it's theme properly with fleshed out characters. Really, all I can say is that this just wasn't for me.
******
Yesterday
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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Latest Review: "Yesterday" by Samyann
