I received a digital advance copy of Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson from the publisher (Sourcebook). Yesterday is History is scheduled for release February 2, 2021.

Yesterday is History follows Andre in the months after his liver transplant. After fighting cancer, and winning the organ lottery, Andre is ready to move on with his life.

Andre ends up moving on in a way he didn’t expect when he travels back to his current house as it existed in 1969. There he meets a boy named Michael. Thrust back to current day, Andre is tracked down by the family of the man whose liver he received so they can tell him his new liver comes with the ability to time travel. Their youngest son, Blake is charged with teaching Andre how to use his new ability. Andre is now torn between two whens and two boys he is attracted to.

This novel explored belonging and expectations. Where (when) does Andre belong? Should he live by his expectations for himself? Should he live by the expectations of his family? Should he live by the expectations of the liver he was gifted? Is there a way to balance all of those expectations? As a young adult novel, this is a common theme, and Jackson explores it in a new way here with the addition of time travel.

For me, this addition of time travel did not work particularly well. Jackson gives us a bit of a scientific explanation for how the liver granted Andre the gift of time travel. The problem was, this explanation did not quite make sense from a scientific perspective. I also found a lot of inconsistencies in the time travel elements, and sometimes was uncertain when exactly we were in time. I wish that Jackson had chosen a different concept to wrap his exploration of belonging and identity in.

Overall, Yesterday is History is a debut novel that introduces us to a new author who has important ideas and insights to share. While this novel had some weaknesses, I look forward to seeing what Jackson produces in the future.

This was an absolutely incredible debut novel. I cannot think of a single person I would not recommend read this.

This is a time travel story that isn't about time travel. Whereas the travel stories often fit into two categories, either romance or time travel to fix problems in the future, this was a story about people, about grief, about moving on.

Andre, the main character, was both realistic and mature in a way that was believable. He is the only child of two scientists who has spent the last couple year battle cancer, he's going to be a little snarky to his parents, maybe not perfect with relationships, but a completely real and likable character whose emotions are relatable.

I knew I was going to love Yesterday is History from the end of chapter 1. Just give it one chapter.

Jackson successfully blends strong BIPOC and queer representation into a unique tale of time travel and romance. The characters are well crafted, bringing this engaging story to life. Looking forward to more from this writer!

While I did enjoy Kosoko's writing and the concept of time travel was unique there was too much going on in the this book — romance, time travel, career decisions, race discussions and class discussions. It was trying to be all the things and I struggled to connect with characters and their struggles because they were struggling with all the things at once. It's not that a book can't contain all those things, but it was trying to treat all those things equally so no one thing came shining through leaving me feeling emotionally disconnected from the story.

Some spoilers!

I wanted to love this book. I really did. But it fell short for me. I really loved the premise, and I connected well with the characters. But the story felt rushed and sort of underdeveloped. I felt like the relationship between Andre and Michael developed too quickly and that we didn't get to see enough of it to make their intense connection feel believable. The relationship between Andre and Blake also felt a little like this, though less so than that between Andre and Michael. Overall, the book ended up kind of missing the mark for me.

This was an interesting twist on science fiction and time travel. The thought that there are families who’ve been able to time travel for generations, but can only travel to the past is intriguing. Even more so is the idea that this trait (or gene) can be passed to another person via their donated kidney. I wish more of the time travel was explored, but I understand that the story centered around Dre’s feelings for both Michael and Blake. Not sure it was realistic that Michael would have such strong feelings for Dre in such a short time, even putting his life on hold for the chance to see Dre for short bits of time. I was rooting for Dre and Blake since that relationship had more of a chance.

Andre needs a liver to beat cancer, when he receives one from a donor who was a young man who died suddenly he had no idea it would upend his life in every way. Suddenly he finds himself in love with two boys, traveling in time and questioning all his life plans. As he learns how to live he also learns how to communicate and help others around him be their more authentic selves and find true happiness. A truly lovely book that is a thoughtful read.

I think I went into this expecting a bit too much. I thought the main character kept making bad decisions. Also, unnecessary love triangle.

On December 22nd, 2020, Daniel McIntyre dies unexpectantly in a car crash. Andre Cobb, recently diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma, is the recipient of his liver through a transplant, and may end up gaining more than just a vital organ. When nodding off to sleep, Andre finds himself in the year 1969, under the magnetic pull of a mysterious stranger named Michael. Before long, he is whisked away back to his present-day Boston home, where he requires a little more than an explanation from the donor’s family. Blake McIntyre, Daniel’s younger brother, is tasked with ensuring Andre has the tools he needs to control his new-found time-traveling abilities, and while the two grow closer Andre just can’t seem to stay away from Michael. But it can be dangerous to meddle with the past, and at the end of the day Andre will be forced to make a choice that will greatly impact his future.

I was really blown away by this debut. I think it’s great for readers (such as myself) who tend to gravitate towards contemporary novels but enjoy a slight fantastical or sci-fi twist. Since Andre is just as new to time travel, it really felt like we were learning the law of the land right alongside him. Andre, as a character, was super dynamic for me, as he has been pushed in the direction of medicine for so long by his parents, even having a personal connection to it with his cancer diagnosis, but struggling to differentiate between pursuing it because he wants to or because his parents wants to. Additionally, he is fully aware that he has been handed a social disadvantage because of his race – Andre consistently is pointing out the prejudices put upon him by society as a whole and people in his life because he is Black. In terms of the McIntyre family, I thought this novel was an important portrayal of grief – Blake and his parents all have lost a loved one, due to tragic circumstance, and they each have their own way of dealing with the pain, but sometimes that blindsides them and they don’t see how their coping mechanism can actually hurt each other. It’s something to be worked through with communication and understanding. I’m usually not one to root for love triangles, but I appreciated what both Blake and Michael had to offer Andre (and in turn him to them as well) as a respective love interest. And the slow buildup to the climax was, well, something I definitely didn’t see coming, but looking back was really well incorporated into the story and I should have caught on. That’s just a nod to good writing and story-telling right there.

I could go on and nit-pick things that I found a bit off with the story, but overall I thought Yesterday is History was a wonderful debut own voices story, and I hope to see people picking it up when it’s released in February. *Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, for the e-arc, all thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Kosoko has something REALLY special in these pages!!!!! 5/5 isn’t enough for this title. The characters are so realistic that I was needed to remind myself that I was reading a book, not in reality. I highly recommend Kosoko’s book!!!! Great characters and amazing storytelling!

Yesterday is History is intriguing and entertaining from the very beginning. I'm a huge sucker for time travel in general, so you know that I went into Yesterday is History with huge hopes. I first want to just say how much I love this premise. I've always been entranced with time travel, all while knowing that for POC and queer people, time travel is more than just fantasy - it can be a source of danger. That not all times, not even now, are safe for these marginalized identities. So reading Yesterday is History - and the ways Jackson delves into these issues - was incredibly refreshing.

Now that Andre's life expectancy has been lengthened, what will he do with this future? What if the dreams that lulled us to sleep at night with promises, look different as they become within our grasp? Yesterday is History is a book that I loved for so many reasons. First of all, I adored the characters - all of them. They are detailed, caring, flawed, and endearing all at once. Exposing all their mistakes, failings, and limitations at once. Secondly, I loved the both the action and the pacing of the story. I never felt like the emotional tension was ebbing away. It always had just the right amount of give - which is so hard to nail! Finally, I loved the themes of this book.

I absolutely adored this book. Once I picked it up I didn't want to set it down (in fact I didn't, it's 3:42am as I write this and I have to be up early in the morning but I do not care because I loved this book so much.)

I loved Andre and his entire story. His story of self-discovery was beautifully written and, as the author has said, it was so lovely to see a story focused on a young Black boy where he is the main character, the love interest, and that his story is not only focused on his pain. The main characters all felt very fleshed out and real. I thought all of the characters were well written, though I would've liked more of Isobel and her friendship with Andre.

Really I loved everything about this book and I look forward to reading more from Kosoko Jackson in the future!

I received an e-arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I struggled with this story, in terms of the genre and character development.

First, what I liked: this is a quick read. I got through it in a day. Anyone in a reading slump might appreciate a story that moves at this novel's pace. And I absolutely loved reading a story from a Black teen's perspective that wasn't focused on police brutality or social justice. Don't get me wrong, I love those books too, but I'm also trying to find more that just let Black characters be heroes in their own stories and this delivered on that front. There were some comments and thoughts associated with being Black in today's society (and in history since this is a time traveling book, after all), reminding readers of the impossible task it is to divorce a Black character from the systemic racism that exists in the US. I appreciated that Jackson acknowledged that even though it was in no way the story's focus. He created a story where main character Andre did, indeed, get to be his own hero--and even gave Dre a supportive family in terms of his being out as gay, which I found so, so refreshing.

Now, what I snagged on:

Genre. I read the summary and went in expecting one thing (contemporary with a strong sci-fi component and the necessary worldbuilding to support it). I got another (straight-up romance with a time travel to support it).

I can't really get mad that Jackson wrote a romance story if that was his intention, but that didn't at all feel like what the publisher was advertising. And I know time travel is tough to tackle. I'm not one of those readers who expects air-tight logic in that respect. But I do expect rules (and not just the three Andre was given, which I'll note he didn't even follow all that strictly, with no consequences when he broke them). I expect to understand why things are the way they are, and what happens if that internal logic is violated. It felt more like the time travel rules developed as the story unfolded, rather than having always existed, and I particularly struggled with references thrown in near the end that felt like they would've been crucial to know upfront--or, on the flipside, that felt thrown in to justify a plot point but otherwise had no applicable purpose to time travel rules as a whole. I can suspend disbelief for only so long before it starts feeling too convenient.

But if this was intended to be more of a romance novel with a time travel component, that makes more sense. On that front, I struggled with what felt like instalove with one pairing of this love triangle and a lack of chemistry with the second pairing. This is all fairly subjective, so while it didn't work for me, it might work for a different reader.

I suspect some of my difficulties with the romance component relate to not having a strong sense of who these people are as characters, which leads me to my next point ...

Character development. Many of the characters felt to me as though they were underdeveloped, from Andre's parents who alternated between supportive and overbearing and his best friend, Isobel, who felt like she only showed up when Andre needed something (and also never got upset when Andre shafted her for the entire novel to focus on his love interests). The entire McIntyre family, from whom Andre received his time traveling liver transplant after their oldest son died in a car crash, also felt underdeveloped. There was some acknowledgement from Andre that they were grieving, but I saw little evidence of it in their actions, particularly in the first half of the novel. The mother struck me at times as a cartoonish villain due to some of her mannerisms--and she wasn't even meant to be a villain! And Andre's love interest, Blake, the youngest and remaining son, went from being a hot-headed jerk with a great body to suddenly having feelings for Andre. I struggled with the quickness of that 180.

On the whole, it feels like this book could've (should've?) been longer and taken more time to fully flesh out the characters and plot (e.g., Andre missed school due to his medical condition and risked not graduating so he had to take college classes ... a plot point that ended up feeling like an afterthought, even though it was introduced in chapter one and felt like it was being set up to be pretty important). More worldbuilding surrounding the time travelers and more time to set up the affection between Andre's two love interests would've been ideal in my view as well.

I feel like I came at this book expecting one genre and then got another so I might just not have been in the right headspace to absorb a romance story (using Goodreads star definitions, my 3-star rating means "I liked it," for the record). I think Jackson developed an interesting premise that simply had a bumpy execution, but I'd read another book by him in the future.

The overall plot of this book - a book getting the ability to time travel after receiving a liver transplant - is a cool one and not something I had read about before. It did fall flat for me though. It's very fast paced, everything happening very quickly - there is very little space between each big event, it jumps right from one thing to another. The relationship between Andre & Micheal felt very instant love to me and Andre & Blake felt the same but slightly less instant because they were spending more time together.

I did enjoy how everything wrapped up and how well thought out the time traveling concept was thought out.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an advance e-copy of Yesterday is History.

I loved the premise of this. I loved the romance and the will they won't they, and I guess the 'love triangle'.

I really wanted the relationships to be a bit more fleshed out and a bit deeper.

This was an awesome book -- kept me turning the pages! Imaginative, thought-provoking, historical, current. Highly recommended!

DNF @33%

A great book that unfortunately was not for me. I read Kosoko Jackson's debut, enjoyed it, and wanted to continue to support the author even though the synopsis for this one was not in my reading preferences. Unfortunately, this book was just not at all geared to my preferences as a reader.

To be honest, I’m not even sure where to start this review. I loved this book endlessly and it’s been about ten minutes since I finished it, so I’m getting this out while my emotions are still so fresh. I got so excited when I saw the premise for this book and started it pretty much as soon as I got it, not thinking of much else outside of it because I was just so invested in Andre’s story. The book got interesting immediately and there were no moments at all that I felt it fell flat, which can happen with some books that try to tell a story like this from the very start.

As a really big sci-fi and fantasy fan, it was so interesting to see how Kosoko Jackson wrote time travelling, and the way he wrote it to be genetic but also able to be passed on through other ways. It was just a fun twist that I rarely see done in media that covers time travel and I loved it. The lore behind the time travelling in this book was encompassing and if it became majorly accepted lore, I wouldn’t even be mad about it.

Okay, is it even a Max review if I don’t start talking about the characters for a full paragraph? First of all, I love Andre. He’s so interesting and real and passionate, I read this book like ‘Well, if I don’t get an Andre in my life soon.’ and that’s such a good feeling to get while reading, to like it so much you wish the characters could be real and in your life. And now the romance fan in me is going to touch on the love interests.

The journey we got to witness for Michael every time Andre saw him was just devastating but so important to me. The fact that his life wasn’t glossed over and always perfect, and that when Andre was gone he didn’t just forget him and instead had to find his ways to cope made me so happy. I really loved reading those scenes and seeing how he developed. Blake’s grief and how he handled it is what made him feel so real to me. He was flawed, but not so flawed it was hard to watch what happened and be truly happy as it unfolded. I didn’t love him from the very start but as his story progressed and I saw more of him, how could I not love him by the end?

The side characters also hit home for me, with Blake not having a perfect relationship with his parents and Andre having a well rounded best friend and parents who just didn’t quite get it, it didn’t feel like anyone was there just for the sake of being there, and I adore that.

The plot progressions pace changed often between fast and slow for me, but there wasn’t a time I wasn’t completely drawn in, as I mentioned before. I was never sure what was going to happen next and what direction the story was going in, and there were so many moments that just hit me out of nowhere with the twists. Sometimes when I finish a book, there’s some things I wish were different, sometimes just one scene I wish I could change. But with Yesterday Is History, there isn’t anything I can think back on to want to play out differently. It felt like every scene, every twist, every decision was there for a specific reason and altogether it was perfectly portrayed.

This is a five-star read because it made me cry more than once and yet I was just so happy when I read the ending.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and found it quite Interesting. I enjoy books about time travel. The romance between Dre and michael was very well done- the romance with Blake felt a bit forced. I feel like isobel is a character that can be written out completely as she didn’t add anything to the plot itself. But the end did bring a tear to my eye, and overall this was a good read. :
3.5 stars. Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

A few months after receiving a liver transplant, Andre Cobb discovers that he now has the ability to travel through time. He finds himself in 1969, where he meets Michael, a boy around his age who shows him the importance of following his passions and that he doesn't have to do what everyone expects him to do. Back in the present, he is contacted by the McIntyres, the family of his donor. They explain that time traveling is a genetic gift, and enlist their second son, Blake, to help Andre learn more about his new ability. Traveling between past and present and torn between the two boys, Andre has to reckon with finding his place in the world and figuring who he wants to be. When the consequences of time travel begin to catch up with him, he's forced to make a major decision.

Yesterday Is History is a short, but fast-paced and riveting read! As soon as I started, I was hooked and could not put the book down until I found out how the story would unfold. Andre was a strong protagonist and easy to empathize with, and his struggle with figuring out his future goals was easy to relate to. Both love interests were multidimensional and likable, which made it all the more difficult for me as a reader to root for one over the other. While the love triangle was enjoyable, I liked that the novel explored Andre's self-discovery rather than only the romance.

I would've loved the book even more if it were longer and had more world/character/relationship-building. I wish Isobel had been a more prominent character in the book given that the strength of their friendship was mentioned often. At times, the book did feel rushed, and I would have loved more time to get invested in the relationships and get to know the characters even more. However, it was executed beautifully given the length.

On Goodreads, Kosoko Jackson wrote: "YESTERDAY IS HISTORY was written because I wanted to write a book where a black boy is seen as a love interest. I wanted to explore things not often seen by black and queer authors - love triangles, adventures, coming of age stories that don't feature black pain." I think that the novel is a wonderful success in those regards. Beyond just being a fascinating, time-traveling romance, Yesterday Is History explores coming of age and loss with emotional authenticity and depth, while also being hopeful and uplifting. I'm very much looking foward to reading more of his work in the future! Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEFire Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!