Tomorrow is a Mystery: A Review of Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

Happy Pride, Book Nerds. It’s the final full official week of Pride Month, but remember I will be continuing Pride here on RHRML through the first week of July. As for today, I have a new review for you all, but before I get to that, I want to leave you with a quote from famed poet Sappho.

Now please welcome to the stage: Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on the site, then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. I also have a quick content and trigger warning for this read. Yesterday is History deals with cancer, sudden death, and substance use. The novel is about time travel, and the main character is a gay, black teen who ends up traveling back to the late 1960s and experiences both the racism and homophobia that comes with the era. All the topics mentioned are extremely important to the story so please take care while reading. Now onto the synopsis!

There are three rules time travelers must always follow. One: you can’t go forward in time, only backwards. Two: you can only do one time jump at a time. No going back in time and then jumping back in time again, one must return to the present first. And finally, rule number three, and the most important rule: you can’t change anything that happens in the past.

Andre Cobb learns these three rules real quick. He also learns that time travel is indeed real and not part of a sci-fi fantasy. In actuality, time traveling is a very rare gene. Andre is able to time travel after receiving a lifesaving kidney transplant. The kidney came from a young man with the gene, and now Andre must learn to control it. Thankfully he will have the help of Blake McIntyre, the younger brother of the man whose liver Andre now has.

Blake himself cannot time travel, despite coming from a very long line of time travelers, but he grew up in the community, he knows all the rules and how things are done. Blake is still deeply grieving his older brother, and he doesn’t want to teach Andre at first, but the pair have an attraction towards one another and they slowly build a relationship. Though things are…complicated. You see, Andre constantly jumps back to 1969 where he meets a guy named Michael. Andre is attracted to Michael, he is drawn to him, the pair are inexplicably connected. So Andre has a major decision to make. The past and Michael? Or the present with Blake?

I think we all know who Andre chooses in the end, it’s pretty obvious, there’s really only one viable option. But my god, is Andre’s relationship with Michael tragic. The pair connect and bond so quickly, readers fall in love with the pair, and knowing they can never be together makes their interactions incredibly bittersweet. Things can never end well between the pair no matter how easy their relationship feels; it’s tragic.

As for Andre and Blake, they are the weaker couple; in my opinion at least. I found their relationship a bit rushed. Blake and Andre don’t start off on the right foot, plus Blake is still heavily grieving his brother, but Blake is plain disrespectful many times throughout the novel. While I appreciate they have issues to work through, I do find their relationship sudden and I don’t see the attraction. The pair go on a single date, but it feels like this date and subsequent relationship come out of nowhere. Again, I see no reason for the two to be attracted to one another. Any attraction that is there is purely physical.

While Yesterday is History is primarily a romance, it’s also part historical fiction. Andre is transported to 1969 and the early 1970s many times. During this time, civil rights and gay rights were being fought for. The Vietnam War was also occurring. While I understand not wanting to drop Andre into the thick of it, I would have liked to have seen more regarding these events. The history is more set dressing. These topics are mentioned briefly, but I would have liked for the author to dive deeper into them. They are major historical moments yet Andre practically ignores them when major conversations could have occurred.

Do not get me wrong, Yesterday is History is far from bad. In fact, it’s one of the better books I’ve read this year. Yesterday is History is a novel that made me laugh and cry. It’s a novel that brings forth every single emotion. More depth could have been added in places, namely the historical events, but the major themes of grief and love are excellently done.

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Books Nerds. I hope you had a lovely time here this week, and I will see you all next Wednesday with one final post for Pride Month. I missed the first week of Pride and I have to make up for it. If you can’t wait till next week to revel in literary goodness, then I highly suggest giving Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often for tons of fun. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books, then I highly suggest checking out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk about everything and anything. We have episodes on Disney, Scooby-Doo, Barbie, bad wrestling, and so much more. You can find the show on Spotify and YouTube. New episodes go live every Wednesday evening.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.  

See y'all then, bye!