All Our Yesterdays by Eleanor Wells | Green Day’s “Macy’s Day Parade”

I closed my eyes and for a moment in time it was eight years earlier and it was just me and him. Two kids who didn’t have the slightest idea where a few lingering glances would lead us. – All Our Yesterdays by Elenor Wells

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The nostalgia of the ‘90s and early 2000s music references absolutely pulled me into this coming-of-age story immediately. All Our Yesterdays by Elenor Wells took me by surprise, I was never quite sure which direction it would go next.

I saw it being compared to Normal People and La La Land, both of which still absolutely haunt me, so my curiosity was instantly piqued and my emotions were on hight alert. Both of those stories carry that same lingering“what could have been” feeling and the heavy ache of love slipping through your fingers through miscommunication, silence, and timing that can never align just right.

This is a story about a girl who spends years being seen through someone else’s identity, and what it takes to finally see herself.

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All Our Yesterdays by Eleanor Wells Synopsis

All Our Yesterdays by Eleanor Wells follows Marcy over seven years as she falls in love with Cole, an emerging musician whose world gradually then all at once explodes into something huge within the music industry. What begins as a deep and connected relationship slowly and painfully shifts as Cole’s career continues to rise year after year.

Marcy allows herself to be pulled into a life shaped by Cole: his music, his ambitions, and the public image of him.

Most of all, Marcy finds herself being identified solely as the muse to Cole. Over time she is forced to confront what it means to exist inside someone else’s narrative and success, and what remains of her own sense of identity when that “muse” version of you no longer fits.

Marcy’s story isn’t just about love, or even loss, it’s about what happens when you spend years being seen through someone else.

All Our Yesterdays Review

All Our Yesterdays felt painfully relatable in a way young loves do. The jealousy, the miscommunication, the staying even when something feels over but you’re afraid to exist without it because you’ve made them such a part of your identity.

Marcy’s identity doesn’t disappear all at once when she meets Cole, but gradually by becoming a core part of Cole’s story and the life built around him. It’s this imbalance of love where being close to something big and shiny can start to feel like it should be enough, even when it comes at the cost of your own sense of self.

I really loved the novel’s inclusion of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; making it an important part of Marcy’s story felt so intentional by author Eleanor Wells. The play echoes that same quiet dissonance of being seen, but not being fully known.

Nostolgia and Green Day

I loved the music references that had me texting my older brother like “do you still have this Nirvana CD” or “this book just mentioned Hurt by Nine Inch Nails.” So many great references from growing up. But there were the mention of two things that really stuck out to me: the Macy’s Day Parade and Green Day.

The Green Day reference occurred when Cole’s latest album dropped along side Green Day’s American Idiot. While Cole’s album was struggling and Green Day’s was literally soaring in success. Marcy and Cole listen to the entire album, appreciating it’s greatness and understanding it’s success, even with Cole’s success being overshadowed by it.

Macy’s Day Parade

The Macy’s Day Parade was brought up when Cole was invited to participate in the parade with a fellow musician, Olive. The parade is historically performative and designed to be watched and admired. It’s a spectacle of success, it’s something that looks so magical but is completely constructed from beginning to end.

Cole becomes part of the Macy’s Day Parade while Marcy watches from the sidelines, and her family really doesn’t care to watch at all. What feels monumental to Marcy is simply just background noise to everyone else. Her entire world is Cole, and that imbalance is literally their entire relationship. It truly mirrors her role as his muse.

OK, so let’s combine both references and what do we get? Green Day’s song Macy’s Days Parade. How does this song paralelle the book?

Marcy’s Day Parade

This song lives in that nostalgic emotional space full of of disillusionment, quiet acceptance, and ultimately stepping away from something that you once believed in. Oh, hello, Marcy.

From consumerism, performative happiness, to the material lies people buy into, this song tears down the idea of illusion. Both the song and this story are rejecting when illusion and identity are shaped solely for an audience.

What’s the consolation prize?
Economy sized dreams of hope

Green Day Macy’s Day Parade

Those “economy-sized dreams” reflect a life that appears all glitz and glamour from an outside audience, but inside it ultimately lacks the intimacy of something truly her own. Marcy mistook being close to Cole’s dream for having one of her own, and that becomes the consolation prize.

Both the song and story end with something that finally feels like it belongs to you.

And I’m thinking ’bout a brand new hope
The one I’ve never known
‘Cause now I know it’s all that I wanted

Green Day Macy’s Day Parade

For Marcy, hope used to come in the form of Cole’s music success and his love for her. Even if it didn’t feel right to her. In the end, her hope becomes something self-defined and no longer dependent on being chosen or written about. She is finally a version of herself not shaped by Cole.

All Our Yesterdays by Eleanor Wells Final Thoughts

I loved this book in a way that felt so nostalgic. Marcy’s story felt real in a way that lingers and has you reflecting on yourself. A little bittersweet, but ultimately so comforting.

I was given this ARC as an audiobook and the narrator did an amazing job at conveying Marcy’s emotions. I really liked the closure at the very end where a few other narrators come in as characters we learned about along the way. I won’t say why we get to hear from other characters and spoil this story for you.

Marcy’s story doesn’t end with the life she thought she wanted, but with the one she chooses for herself. It’s far more meaningful than anything she left behind. For me it’s like listening to Macy’s Day Parade, it’s a story that lingers so softly on nostalgia.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!