Tomorrow

by C. K. Kelly Martin

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

978-1492250876

248 pp.

Ages 13+
2013

Reviewed from Smashwords Edition

It seems like only yesterday that I reviewed Yesterday, the prequel to Tomorrow, but it has been just over a year (November 26, 2012 review).  Luckily, C. K. Kelly Martin's writing does not exclude readers who missed Yesterday if they choose to go directly into Tomorrow. Without just presenting a dystopian world of our future, C. K. Kelly Martin has created a cautionary tale of the course by which our disastrous tomorrow will arise, and how by looking back at yesterday, we may be able to prevent tomorrow from being ultimately fatalistic.

In Yesterday, teens Freya and Garren discovered that they had been sent, as were many others, from 2063 United North America (UNA) to save them, in the hopes of finding a way out of the impending environmental, political and health disasters of the future.  In order to keep their knowledge of the future from being shared, or destabilizing 1980s society with knowledge of a time chute, these time refugees have had their memories wiped and covered with new ones. But Freya's memory wipe was not "successful" and she was able to recognize Garren when she sees him in 1985 Toronto.  Now they're on the run from the UNA who consider them a threat.

Tomorrow begins just over a year after Yesterday ends. Currently living together in 1986 Vancouver as Holly and Robbie, seventeen-year-old Freya waits tables at a restaurant and nineteen-year-old Garren tends bar but they live with the anxiety that they could be discovered and lose everything, most especially each other.  And when they notice that key events in 1986 don't fit with the known history, Freya and Garren recognize that the UNA is at work.  After Garren finds Freya missing from their now-ransacked apartment, he is convinced that they may do more than just wipe your memory.

Garren's reminiscences from 2063 when he found himself seeking out the hard-core fringe faction of the grounded movement (contrary to the ideas of the UNA) are key as he throws himself into finding Freya. While Garren recognizes that Freya has always been the force behind their survival and the one who could tell when someone was lying or when something was going to happen, he is the one now who must take up the gauntlet and do what he can do to make things right.  Garren doubts his capabilities and constantly worries about who to trust, but he manages.  With his singular motivation of saving Freya, Garren's determination is boundless.

Freya's ultimate fate is wrapped up tight in the disaster that is 2063 UNA and the efforts of the radical faction of the grounded movement.  Without naming names and sharing secret alliances and conflicts, I can tell the reader that Garren's journey to Freya is not a direct one, and that conspiracy plays a significant role. Sadly, it's hard to tell the conspirators from the allies.  But that's what makes Tomorrow a true thriller.

Never does C. K. Kelly Martin convince the reader that the outcome is predictable.  Never.  I could never tell the bad guys from the good guys and Garren feels the same way.  And that's what keeps the story moving forward, albeit leaving you on the edge of your seat.  Be prepared.  You may know what you want in a happy ending, but C. K. Kelly Martin makes sure that you never see how she's going to get there, or even if.  Every book of hers that I have read (My Beating Teenage Heart, Random House, 2011; Yesterday, Random House, 2012) has kept me engrossed in her unique and passionate characters and their struggles whose outcomes are never obvious.  Tomorrow is a worthy and complementary addition to C. K. Kelly Martin's literary collection, and I look forward to future volumes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Months ago, I added the book trailer for Tomorrow to CanLitforLittleCanadians Book Trailers' site.  But it's never too late to enjoy it, especially before you purchase your own copy of the book. http://canlitforlittlecanadianstrailers.blogspot.ca/2013/07/tomorrow-yesterday-book-2.html

Yesterday

by C. K. Kelly Martin
Doubleday Canada
978-0-385-66845-3
355 pp.
Ages 13+
2012


Sixteen-year-old Freya just wants "living to feel the way it should." (pg. 78) Not like her sister Olivia (10) isn't really her sister. Not like Freya has all the details about her life but can't recall what she likes or feels or can do well. Not like she can only remember the facts of the memories but not the memories themselves. What she does know is that it is 1985 and that she, her mom and Olivia have recently come to Canada after the death of Freya's father, a diplomat, in an explosion in New Zealand.  And she gets lots of headaches and can almost tell what's going to happen before it does.

While at the museum with her class, Freya sees a handsome, green-eyed boy on the street and she is convinced that she knows him.  Following the young man, she learns where he lives, and returns another day to confront him.  Through questioning the boy, Freya learns that Garren's dad was also a diplomat who was killed in an accident in Switzerland but Garren does not recognize Freya at all.  In fact, he is infuriated with her insistence that he should know her.  It isn't until Freya returns with family photos and newspaper clippings that the two realize they share the same grandfather, Henry Newland, and both were seen by Dr. Byrne when they were stricken with the flu when they arrived in Canada.  But confronting their grandfather just sets them on the run when Freya "sees" him contacting men in dark suits with guns to come after her and Garren.

To avoid putting their families at risk, Freya and Garren hide out while they try to find some answers.  In fact, Freya convinces Garren to let her visit a hypnotherapist to help clarify her memories.  What Freya learns is that her memories are actually 78 years into the future, in the year 2063, and that Garren was a part of her life then.  Unfortunately, Garren's trust in Freya's memories is waning, realizing that he is giving up everything to follow her and help her while he himself has no memories of a life in the future.

So Freya's Yesterday is actually taking place in the future, or has taken place in the future, or will take place in the future.  I'm not really sure what verb tense is appropriate here.  But, while I may be confused with the timeline of Freya's life, those shortcomings are my own; C. K. Kelly Martin has no difficulty conveying those details to the reader.  Freya's anxiety about feeling out of place, actually out of time, is expertly handled by C.K. Kelly Martin whose book My Beating Teenage Heart (Random House, 2011), reviewed here, similarly takes the reader back and forth between times and experiences.  As a teacher-librarian, I know that this play between the past (future?) and the present can be a difficult concept for younger readers to follow and appreciate for its complexity and the richness it lends to storytelling; young adult readers of Yesterday should have no difficulties grasping and relishing this approach. 


I've just learned that C.K. Kelly Martin has her own YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ckwriter where you can see a book trailer and teaser for Yesterday, as well as trailers for several of her other books.  For those readers who enjoy video overtures for books, I'd recommend checking the author's channel out. I will include her book trailer for Yesterday here, though.

Yesterday Book Trailer

Published on June 24, 2012 by ckwriter to YouTube.