Early Review: See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon

 See You Yesterday

by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Publishing May 17, 2022

3.5 stars out of 5

From the author of Today Tonight Tomorrow comes a magical romance in the vein of Groundhog Day about a girl forced to relive her disastrous first day of college—only to discover that her nemesis is stuck in the time loop with her.

⌛⌛⌛

This could be called Barrett Bloom and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It’s her first day at college and… everything has gone wrong. Not just wrong. Epically, disastrously bad. The day culminates in her nearly burning a frat house down. But luckily (or not) when she wakes up the next day, it’s not the next day. It’s the same day as before. She gets a do over. But Barrett needs a redo for more than just her first day of college. She’s kind of running from her past, which adds an extra element of interest to the story and some emotional weight.

Barrett is smart and witty but her brusk demeanor eventually got on my nerves a bit. She tends to be somewhat hostile and abrasive and her rudeness got old after a while. But I did really enjoy her narration and first person POV. Her banter with Miles is very entertaining. 

The time loop concept as a storytelling device is a tricky one since the novelty can wear thin quickly and it has to have a function in the narrative that nothing else could accomplish. I think See You Yesterday handles it in a way that gives Barrett the chance to experience the range of emotions one would expect in this circumstance, but for the first half of the book it felt a little tedious. Solomon makes sure to reference Groundhog Day several times throughout the book in a self-aware nod as if to say "We're not just re-doing Groundhog Day, I promise!" 

The tedium of the time loop arc left me wondering if we were going to get to the point of it anytime soon. It plodded for me up until the halfway point. Then we see Barrett and Miles making some emotional headway finally and the time loop starts to feel like it’s serving a purpose. I was honestly getting so bored with the book for a while that it was hard to keep turning pages. In addition, there was a character introduced that could potentially help Barrett and Miles with their time loop situation but I thought the way Solomon utilized this character was disappointing. The way she was mentioned made me think much cooler things were in store for her than there were. I also thought the third act breakup was a little contrived, and it reinforced aspects of Barrett’s personality I didn’t care for.

In the end, I have to give the book credit because what Barrett was dealing with was traumatic and she had to work out for herself how to take back her life - which she did. She started with questionable tactics but eventually realized that confronting the issue straight on and with honesty was the best way to go. And Miles and Barrett's relationship was very sweet. I was definitely invested and rooting for them the whole time.

So it was an up-and-down reading experience for me, and probably not in the way the author was intending. But in the end I’d say it was an interesting and largely satisfying read.

3.5 stars out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/SimonTeen for providing the digital ARC.