By: Rachel Lynn Solomon
I am a big fan of two of Rachel Lynn Solomon’s previous books, The Ex-Talk and Today Tonight Tomorrow (I have Weather Girl in my very big TBR pile) so I was very much looking forward to SYY. It has the hallmarks of a Solomon book: crackling dialogue and emotional angst, but I was left feeling a little flat at the end. The writing itself is really good, I just did not connect much to either of the main characters. So much so that I am having a hard time writing this review. I finished this book a few weeks ago and I write a sentence or two and then just …. stop.
September 21st is Barrett Bloom’s first day of college at the University of Washington. She has a Gilmore Girls-style relationship with her young mother– meaning, they are more friends than parent/child. Unknown to her mother, she had a pretty terrible high school experience. As a member of the school newspaper, she unearthed a cheating scandal from the boys’ tennis team, which caused the tennis team to forfeit the championship game causing several students to lose their college scholarships. Both the school and administration took out their frustration on Barrett. She protected herself by developing a tough exterior shown through her caustic barbs and sarcasm. In true Carrie fashion, a boy asks her to prom. She attends and afterwards, she joins him in his hotel room and they have consensual sex. By the following Monday, he told everyone and there is a hashtag about how he “de-bloomed” her. I mean, my god. What. A. Shit.
Barrett sees college as a time to reinvent herself, but her roommate ends up being an ex-girlfriend of one of those same tennis players. She attends her first college class, Physics 101, where she realizes she did not do the assigned reading due to an IT email issue. The boy next to her calls her out on it and embarrasses her in front of the professor and the entire class. Her last straw is when she heads to a frat party and accidentally sets it on fire. Falling asleep on the couch in the common area of her dorm, she doom scrolls a new hashtag connected to her name, realizing this is not the new start she imagined. When she wakes up, however, she finds herself back in her dorm room and that it is September 21st all over again.
Soon Miles, Barrett’s Physics 101 nemesis, confronts her and explains that he too has been repeating September 21st, but for months. The two decide to join forces to figure out how to escape this loop. First, they try Miles’s approach which consists of researching in the library all day. After several days, Barrett convinces Miles to forgo the library and instead live life to the fullest- getting tattoos, buying an ice cream truck, adopting all the puppies, etc. Through all of their hijinks, the two start to reveal their true selves to each other and to themselves.
Barrett and Miles reminded me too much of those in TTT and I should disclose, I am not usually into fantasy or supernatural stories. I cannot figure out how/why they were able to break out of the time loop. (In fairness, I also did not try so….) I did really enjoy each character’s growth. I think Solomon does a fantastic job of evoking those early adult years of anxiety and fear of not knowing who you really are, or who you should be. I did feel some of the antics were over the top, and the embarrassing incidents could have been toned down.
I genuinely cannot think of more to say about this book. It is a pass from me, but I look forward to reading Solomon’s other works.
Rating: 🌟🌟/5
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/see-you-yesterday-rachel-lynn-solomon/1140376388?ean=9781665901925
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