Name: Yesteryear
Rating: 3.83974358974359 (117 reviews)
ISBN: 9780008742782

Caro Claire Burke

'NIGHTMARISH, SHOCKING, BRILLIANT' STYLIST 'THE BOOK THAT WILL BE EVERYWHERE IN 2026' INDEPENDENT 'EVERYONE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT IT!' JENNIE GODFREY 'BOLD, BITING. WILL LEAVE YOU GASPING' NITA PROSE ‘WICKEDLY FUNNY' ABIGAIL DEAN 'SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR, LACED WITH DARKNESS' CLARE MACKINTOSH 'INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE' ASHLEY AUDRAIN

Yesteryear

biddy

All men wanted to become legends. It was so embarassing.

Bekki

And who was I? A flawless Christian woman. The manic pixie American dream girl of this nation’s deepest, darkest fantasies. The mother every woman wanted to be, and the wife every man wanted to come home to. Like a nun in a porno, it didn’t make sense, but also, by God: it worked. My name is Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

The boys would keep us fed when we were old and feeble, I liked to say, but the girls? They would dance around our wheelchairs, toss rose petals over our graves. Plus, I’ll admit it: they were easier to train. The boys occasionally resisted or got frustrated or bored, but not the girls. They could perform on film for hours without complaint, just like their mama.

I picked up the phone and pressed record, right as Clementine was getting into the passenger seat. 

“Girls,” I said, smiling into the lit-up screen, “what did you get at our very special trip to Target today?” 

Jessa and Junebug squealed in response: “A stuffie!” “Sparkly lotion!” “What about you, Clementine?”

 I angled the camera so it featured me, grinning, and Clementine’s form in the passenger seat. 

Clementine had gotten a new shade of nail polish. But she didn’t reply. 

“Clementine, what did you get at—” “Stop filming me.” I froze. My face flooded with heat. She’d never done that before. Not once.

When it comes to consent, do you think children are capable of— 

When it comes to consent and the use of children’s likenesses on public social media accounts— 

“Actually, I need to take a quick break to use the restroom. Would that be all right?”

“Now,” I said, “let’s pray on it.” 

We kneeled together at the foot of the couch. I pressed my forehead into my clasped hands and tried to breathe the anger out of me, but I couldn’t. 

It was like a germ. It just kept replicating in my stomach. 

Usually my husband’s failures were easy to forgive, but tonight I wanted to kill him. 

I could practically see his insipid prayers float past me, in little Comic Sans thought bubbles.

" Please keep my kids safe, Lord, along with the chickens. Help my wife continue to love me. A blow job would be nice, Lord, and if it’s not too much, I’d like the strength to become something memorable. I’d like to become a legend."

I wanted the whole entire world to see itself through my eyes. 

A new level of influence. That’s not the kind of thing you ask for directly, though, so I settled for something simpler. 

Please let this plan work, Lord. Please don’t let her win. 

And please give my husband a spine. I’m tired of him needing to borrow mine. Amen.

You’re so strong, just a few more pushes now, you can do this, Mama— 

In the instant before my daughter came screaming into the world, I felt, for the second time in my life, a debilitating certainty of the wrongness of the situation. 

I felt this certainty in the deepest parts of my body, and so it seemed inevitable that He would intervene before this mistake of parenthood developed further. 

Or maybe He was going to punish me in some other way: Caleb was going to slip and fall and hit his head on the corner of the bed, my mother was going to suffer a fatal car accident on the way to the hospital.

A trade must take place for this life to enter the world. 

As my body slowly halved open like a peach, I realized it was me who was losing my life; me who would vanish from the world to make room for this new child.

For one single moment, I wished the child gone. 

Not just out of me, but out of this world. 

Then the room was filled with her bellowing, and the fear fell away, and the love—or something like it—came tunneling back through.

“It’s huge.” “I know,” I said, matching her tone. “I told Caleb it was way too big.” 

That was the way women operated in my community: if you wanted to be a wealthy Christian woman and maintain good standing, you needed to publicly disavow your luxuries in order to maintain possession of them. 

It was a strange tug-and-pull I’d borne witness to my entire life. 

The only surprise was that it was finally happening to me. 

I was becoming the kind of woman other women were jealous of.

 Each time I looked at the ring, I felt an intoxicating combination of embarrassment and glee. 

It was a rich, decadent piece of jewelry. 

If I looked at it for too long, I started to feel sick. 

It was too much, it was a shameful display of wealth, I should give it back and demand we find something smaller, and also: I’d launch a holy war before I parted with it.

As for Caleb, he insisted it was a perfect diamond for a woman like me. I was a flawless woman, he said. 

“I’ve been thinking about it, you know,” she whispered. 

“Getting birth control. Bryce doesn’t believe in it, but I heard you can just go to the doctor and get it. Without them knowing, I mean.” 

I sat up, startling her, and hissed, “Birth control? Lying to your husband? These are sins, Abigail.” 

“I’m sorry you’re having a hard time, but it’s not fair for you to project your issues onto my life.”

At one point he glanced out the side of the driver window and said, “See that?” 

 As he set down the soda, burped, and rolled into a long monologue about how we should file right away for dark sky protections, I reminded myself to set screen limits for my husband when we got home. 

He’d been spending too much time on YouTube these days. He was starting to sound like a hick.

“Well,” I said. “I’ll just let you get to it, then!” 

“Oh, and what’s your Instagram handle? I’d love to follow you!” 

“Oh. I don’t have Instagram, actually.” 

This was the strangeness of becoming famous online. 

I had a million followers, I could access more people in a single moment than any European king of the last thousand years, and then someone could effortlessly wipe my entire kingdom away with a single sentence: I don’t have Instagram.

Then she shrugged. “Okay. And your littlest one? Where is she?” 

“Our little firecracker. She’s sleeping. I’ll bring her to you at three.” 

Jessa was barely a year old, not so much a firecracker as a mushy puddle of need and want—but I’d needed a way to differentiate her online, a way for the Angry Women to know and remember her, and she had been very fussy lately, and so the moniker had stuck.

“Here we are!” I opened the door, and Nanny Aimee looked up at me from the lower bunk bed. 

“Nanny Aimee,” I said, “this is Shannon.”

A strange little girl was standing by the bed, playing with Nanny Aimee’s shoes. 

“Mama,” she said when she saw me. Right. 

Of course. That was my little girl, Jessa. Growing so quickly these days! 

I just didn’t recognize her because of the location—and her hair, it was braided differently—and well— Pregnancy brain! 

I dropped to a crouch and spread my arms wide. “Hello, darling girl!”

sina (she/her) 

In the world that I came from, divorce was a German word that translated loosely to a lifetime of destitution and misery followed by an eternity in Hell. 

I had high hopes for this book and really just struggled through most of it. But the last 50 pages made me sit up and had to reread some of it. Still annoyed it took good chunk of the book to get there.

Lauren Dale

Angeleeka

Felt a bit disappointed, I think this book is too overhyped and does not live up to it. 

Natalie lives a perfect, traditional lifestyle - and her followers are sick with envy. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy and her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What her followers don't know won't hurt them.

Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children - they're all familiar, but something's off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? Natalie knows just two things for sure: this isn't her perfect life, and she must escape, by any means possible.

As darkly funny as it is shocking and gripping. Yesteryear is an electrifying examination of tradition, fame, faith and the grand performance of womanhood. from a thrilling new talent in fiction.

leaf

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 Where do I even begin with this review. 1. The Writing: Her writing style was so captivating and unique we couldn’t stop listening/reading. What a way to narrate the thoughts of an anti hero character. A “good Christian woman”. 2. The plot: I swear I guessed like 15 different ways the book was going to end, and the explanation for her being in 1855 and in honesty, I did not expect the way it all wrapped up. There isn’t one solid reason why and how, it is so layered, so many discussions of reasoning. You get so lost and confused with everything because Natalie herself is so lost in herself and her narcissistic self. I feel like the reasoning was right in front of me from the beginning but I was so caught up with the internal dialogue of the main character I wasn’t thinking properly. 3. Overall: this book is the best trad wife book I have read so far. It is absolutely astonishing this is a debut novel. The writing, my god, I still can’t get over how well this book is written. It wasn’t too short or too long. The repeated words, the internal reasoning, the anger my god. Amazing. I will absolutely be looking forward to more books by this author. I have so many more words and notes that I WILL be re-reading this in physical form. Also, the narrator is absolutely astonishing. Even if you don’t like audiobooks, my god she can really pull you in.

Habe es als Hörbuch gehört, nicht gelesen, aber hat mir echt gefallen, war sehr spannend und mal eine andere Geschichte.

Asmae

Fun, interesting story with a mostly unlikeable but interesting main character that you also find yourself sympathising with. 

Rebecca Berg 

Allysen

This is one of those books that you can’t put down. Natalie is a horribly unlikable narrator, but why is she so relatable? Why do we care so much about what other people think? Why is pretending to have the perfect life and lying to yourself better than admitting you need a divorce, that you were never meant to be a mother? As the story unfurls, the slow accumulation of lies—to herself, to her family, to her online followers—only results in her own unhappiness.

This is the perfect kind of book that sucked me into Natalie‘s world and made me look differently at the life I’m living now. Am I faking happiness? Sometimes I wake up and I’m not sure how I got there. Why am I in a different country who made all the decisions that led me to be here? Is this what I really want? Do I even have a choice? How long can this go on, will I be happy in the end, or will I ruin my own life, like Natalie?

To be honest, I think Natalie's life could have turned out a lot differently, if only she'd been kinder to Caleb sooner. A little more patience, and he might have found his own path. Instead, she used him as a pet, and because she didn't trust him to be capable on his own, she plotted out their own future for him. I was surprised that he stayed with her through her psychotic episode for over a decade--this either proves his true love for her, or his complete lack of ability to do anything on his own. Could any of this have been avoided, after all?

Tiff W

This is one of those books that you can’t put down. Natalie is a horribly unlikable narrator, but why is she so relatable? Why do we care so much about what other people think? Why is pretending to have the perfect life and lying to yourself better than admitting you need a divorce, that you were never meant to be a mother? As the story unfurls, the slow accumulation of lies—to herself, to her family, to her online followers—only results in her own unhappiness.

This is the perfect kind of book that sucked me into Natalie‘s world and made me look differently at the life I’m living now. Am I faking happiness? Sometimes I wake up and I’m not sure how I got there. Why am I in a different country who made all the decisions that led me to be here? Is this what I really want? Do I even have a choice? How long can this go on, will I be happy in the end, or will I ruin my own life, like Natalie?

To be honest, I think Natalie's life could have turned out a lot differently, if only she'd been kinder to Caleb sooner. A little more patience, and he might have found his own path. Instead, she used him as a pet, and because she didn't trust him to be capable on his own, she plotted out their own future for him. I was surprised that he stayed with her through her psychotic episode for over a decade--this either proves his true love for her, or his complete lack of ability to do anything on his own. Could any of this have been avoided, after all?

A morbid satire commentary about tradwife lifestyle mixed with influencer culture. the concept is interesting where Natalie is trying to market the aesthetics of being a tradwife in the 1800s on social media but the tables turn when she wakes up and thinks she has transported to the actual time period she was trying to romanticize. As she’s in this alternate place, she realizes that the life of a dutiful, perfect wife and mother during the 1800s is not what she desired.

Reading this through Natalie’s religious and conservative mindset was interesting especially seeing Natalie’s thoughts on what she deems as successful and what a “good” woman is supposed to do. Needless to say, I thought she was a bitter, hateful woman. Upon further analysis, Natalie’s character is so bitter because she is living this performance of a life for other people. Her whole life is not a making of her own but for her husband and for business as well as what she thinks the Lord would want for her. Yes Natalie is doing what she is supposed to based on the patriarchal standards of society but she is not truly happy. There were times I felt bad for her but most of the time, her character was insufferable (which is probably the point).

Is Caleb a manchild or was it weaponized incompetence? Even though, his character seemed like a side character, it’s good to note how he came to be in the end and how that is linked to how the patriarchy influences men. His character progression was interesting where when we first meet Caleb he seems naive and sweet in a way. No one believes he can accomplish anything especially his parents but he still wants to do something as well as be a part of society. At some point Caleb falls into the manosphere because he craves to be a part of a community. Throughout the story, Natalie views Caleb as her manchild husband that can’t think for himself but there was moments where you realize maybe he knows more than he’s letting on like when he catches Natalie hoarding money into her own bank account instead of their shared one and he convinces her not to do that. Through Caleb’s character, the author explores the impact of how patriarchal/manosphere content can completely change someone especially someone who has no true sense of self. Caleb's character progression from soft naive to hardened abusive which I realized the author used Caleb's flaccid dick to symbolized that LMAOOO 

The concept and the story did peak my interest. However, the book lost me with the tedious pacing and frustrating perspective of the narrator. Honestly what kept me reading was trying to figure out the mystery of the alternate world she found herself in. Anyways, the reveal for the alternate place was lukewarm to me like I wasn’t really wowed. Maybe bc this book was overhyped for me that I had high expectations.

To conclude, a woman’s worth is so much more than getting married and having kids

A morbid satire commentary about tradwife lifestyle mixed with influencer culture. the concept is interesting where Natalie is trying to market the aesthetics of being a tradwife in the 1800s on social media but the tables turn when she wakes up and thinks she has transported to the actual time period she was trying to romanticize. As she’s in this alternate place, she realizes that the life of a dutiful, perfect wife and mother during the 1800s is not what she desired.

Reading this through Natalie’s religious and conservative mindset was interesting especially seeing Natalie’s thoughts on what she deems as successful and what a “good” woman is supposed to do. Needless to say, I thought she was a bitter, hateful woman. Upon further analysis, Natalie’s character is so bitter because she is living this performance of a life for other people. Her whole life is not a making of her own but for her husband and for business as well as what she thinks the Lord would want for her. Yes Natalie is doing what she is supposed to based on the patriarchal standards of society but she is not truly happy. There were times I felt bad for her but most of the time, her character was insufferable (which is probably the point).

Is Caleb a manchild or was it weaponized incompetence? Even though, his character seemed like a side character, it’s good to note how he came to be in the end and how that is linked to how the patriarchy influences men. His character progression was interesting where when we first meet Caleb he seems naive and sweet in a way. No one believes he can accomplish anything especially his parents but he still wants to do something as well as be a part of society. At some point Caleb falls into the manosphere because he craves to be a part of a community. Throughout the story, Natalie views Caleb as her manchild husband that can’t think for himself but there was moments where you realize maybe he knows more than he’s letting on like when he catches Natalie hoarding money into her own bank account instead of their shared one and he convinces her not to do that. Through Caleb’s character, the author explores the impact of how patriarchal/manosphere content can completely change someone especially someone who has no true sense of self. Caleb's character progression from soft naive to hardened abusive which I realized the author used Caleb's flaccid dick to symbolized that LMAOOO 

The concept and the story did peak my interest. However, the book lost me with the tedious pacing and frustrating perspective of the narrator. Honestly what kept me reading was trying to figure out the mystery of the alternate world she found herself in. Anyways, the reveal for the alternate place was lukewarm to me like I wasn’t really wowed. Maybe bc this book was overhyped for me that I had high expectations.

To conclude, a woman’s worth is so much more than getting married and having kids

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I enjoyed this so much more an I anticipated. I genuinely laughed, sighed, screamed throughout this read. Natalie is a very unlikable woman, yet the author still makes her sympathetic in some ways. There’s times where I deeply understand her and root for her, and others when I want her to get exactly what I think she deserves.

There at two reasons this is not a five star book for me. The first is that I would likely not reread this, which is usually how I gauge a perfect score. The second is that I wish we got more time with her in the pioneer era setting.

Overall, I had so much fun reading this. I haven’t looked at the criticism for why some people didn’t like this, but I can’t imagine it would sway me.

Nik ✨

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I enjoyed this so much more an I anticipated. I genuinely laughed, sighed, screamed throughout this read. Natalie is a very unlikable woman, yet the author still makes her sympathetic in some ways. There’s times where I deeply understand her and root for her, and others when I want her to get exactly what I think she deserves.

There at two reasons this is not a five star book for me. The first is that I would likely not reread this, which is usually how I gauge a perfect score. The second is that I wish we got more time with her in the pioneer era setting.

Overall, I had so much fun reading this. I haven’t looked at the criticism for why some people didn’t like this, but I can’t imagine it would sway me.

I wanted to only start this book today but here I am 7 hours later, having finished it. 

Oh wow. 

I wanted to only start this book today but here I am 7 hours later, having finished it. 

What a story. 

chewed through this much quicker than i anticipated. kind of absurd and strange, begging the question of how far are you willing to take a delusion if your survival hinges on it? what does agency really look like? i think there's an element of class here that's kind of evident but not really as dug into as it could be? which is kind of a running theme throughout the novel. to be fair i don't think this novel comes across as some sort of answer or call and response, but takes the concept of tradwife and religious fanaticism and sees how far it can stretch it. and it 

despite being the main hinge of the book, for a large part of the reading i actually found the 'time travel' bit to be the least engaging until like the third act i would say? like her current life is way more compelling in my opinion, though the payoff towards the end i think is worth it. 

natalie as a main character is not very likable but someone i find personally kind of interesting. again the idea of class and indoctrination play a part, and watching her try to maintain some semblance of control while also realizing how little of it she has in the first place is, to me, what drives the story. hate to bring other voices into my own review but i feel like the responses to her as a character have been kind of polarizing? like yeah she sucks and is like not a good person and is a bitch! and it might get stretched to the extreme (it's a satire??) but i still think her character did have some level of nuance and maybe isn't as flat as she's accused of. 

towards the end i do think things got a bit too big for their britches. and also contained two of my pet peeves, one being when a character thinks something and realizes belatedly they said it out loud (boring! lazy!) and the other being when someone uses all caps to depict a character yelling (you already said they roared! i get it!)

overall absurdist to me and engaging. not sure if it's either the best or worst read of the year but can see how it got everyone talking.

tiff <3

chewed through this much quicker than i anticipated. kind of absurd and strange, begging the question of how far are you willing to take a delusion if your survival hinges on it? what does agency really look like? i think there's an element of class here that's kind of evident but not really as dug into as it could be? which is kind of a running theme throughout the novel. to be fair i don't think this novel comes across as some sort of answer or call and response, but takes the concept of tradwife and religious fanaticism and sees how far it can stretch it. and it stretches it. 

despite being the main hinge of the book, for a large part of the reading i actually found the 'time travel' bit to be the least engaging until like the third act i would say? like her current life is way more compelling in my opinion, though the payoff towards the end i think is worth it. 

natalie as a main character is not very likable but someone i find personally kind of interesting. again the idea of class and indoctrination play a part, and watching her try to maintain some semblance of control while also realizing how little of it she has in the first place is, to me, what drives the story. hate to bring other voices into my own review but i feel like the responses to her as a character have been kind of polarizing? like yeah she sucks and is like not a good person and is a bitch! and it might get stretched to the extreme (it's a satire??) but i still think her character did have some level of nuance and maybe isn't as flat as she's accused of. 

towards the end i do think things got a bit too big for their britches. and also contained two of my pet peeves, one being when a character thinks something and realizes belatedly they said it out loud (boring! lazy!) and the other being when someone uses all caps to depict a character yelling (you already said they roared! i get it!)

overall absurdist to me and engaging. not sure if it's either the best or worst read of the year but can see how it got everyone talking.

Maddy

I get the hype!! This book was a ride from start to finish. It was unpleasant to be inside the mind of someone like that, but I love an unlikable narrator. I guessed the twist wrong, but love the way this twist played out. And I think it’s quite powerful to ultimately make the book about the child endangerment in the entertainment world - having it end on her daughter’s book’s prologue. Enjoyed it thoroughly! 

Harlee K

An extremely hard to finish due to how plain and shallow the conflicts are… Sure it depicts the issues lots of children of so called influencers are facing, but I believe they are more multifaceted than how they are described in the book. First third of the book was promising until the issues got repetitive.

Alisha

Certainly don't feel it lived up to its hype.

It was intriguing but I felt my motivation to keep reading was merely to find out the twist or reveal as opposed to enjoying it as it was. I found the language quite childish and not at all eloquent. Obviously we're not supposed to LIKE the characters but they were so one dimensional, like stereotypes, not real people.

Emma Fagan

Certainly don't feel it lived up to its hype.

It was intriguing but I felt my motivation to keep reading was merely to find out the twist or reveal as opposed to enjoying it as it was. I found the language quite childish and not at all eloquent. Obviously we're not supposed to LIKE the characters but they were so one dimensional, like stereotypes, not real people.

love the back and forth from the present and the “past”. Captured how easy it is to become swept up into social media, and how quickly the lines blur from reality and an online personality. Fun way to get back into a reading streak!

riya

What the helly? Reeeally disliked the narrator. But also think that was kinda the point. 3 stars because there was still something addictive about this read. 

Yesteryear

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