Don’t just read See You Yesterday…Experience it!

I read See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon when I couldn’t get my hands on her book Today, Tonight, Tomorrow. After Reading See You Yesterday, I know I’ll be making a point to read everything of hers!

Here goes: All Barrett wants is to leave high school behind and start fresh at college, but when on the first day of class she discovers she’s stuck rooming with a girl she despises, bombs her newspaper interview and maybe becomes a felon, things aren’t looking so hot. So, when she’s granted an unexpected clean slate from the universe it seems like a gift from above. Only Barrett wasn’t expecting so many clean slates. Let’s just hope she’s not the only one experiencing the universe’s benevolence, because  when your reality becomes science fiction it’s nice to have someone to lean on.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good time loop flick? Maybe the most iconic is Groundhog Day, but there are so many more films that take on this trope. Looper had a great twist. I watched and enjoyed Happy Death Day when I was in the hospital for an extended time and felt like the TV was my only friend. Personally though, I’m a fan of Palm Springs. I mean, it’s got Andy Samberg who just so happens to be my favorite digital short developer from SNL, who went on to create comic gold in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as well as Parks and Recreation, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and 7 Days in Hell. That last one is a tennis parody made for HBO that I never saw coming. When it did, I didn’t want to turn it off.

In Palm Springs, Andy plays Nyles who is stuck in a time loop on what might be one of the worst possible days to have to relive: his horrible girlfriend’s friend’s wedding. He isn’t stuck alone. He’s got the bride’s sister, Sarah, who’s having serious issues of her own, and, oh yeah, a bitter psycho trying to hunt him down and make every relived day as painful as possible. While See You Yesterday is different from Palm Springs in many ways, there are similarities that seem to be fairly common from this genre. 

When stuck in a time loop:

• Try to stay awake. If you don’t go to sleep, you can’t wake up on this day again—that has to work, right! Right? Seriously, how do you get your eyes to stay open forever?!
• Try to do selfless acts, the more demeaning to you the better. Surely that will inspire the universe to let you go back to your normal timeline. Yeah, definitely! In Palm Springs, Sarah has an especially good one—depending on how you look at it.
• Give up and do whatever is fun—life is officially meaningless, so, why not? Que montage designed to elicit uproarious laughter…bonus points for a dance number!

There are some similarities even more specific between the book and the movie, but I fear revealing them would lead to spoilers, and that would just ruin your reading fun. I would never do that.

There you have it. Do yourself a favor and read See You Yesterday. When you finish up, find Palm Springs or another great time loop movie to experience to make some comparisons of your own. Maybe it will help you catch something in the book that you didn’t before.

If you haven’t already read See You Yesterday, what are you waiting for? If you already have, why not pick it up again? Either way, take my advice when you do—don’t just read it, experience it!

Want information about purchasing this book from Neighborhood Reads, a local Washington, MO book store? Click the book cover above!