Name: Yesteryear
Rating: 3.852409638554217 (83 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.

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

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.

thya

4.5 stars !!! very good read... I wasn't sad for anyone in this book tbh they all suck except the kids

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. 

Kaitlyn Wendler

If you think you know where the ending is going…no you don’t 

Ella Williams

Wow this book is really weird

If you think you know where the ending is going…no you don’t 

The concept is original and i love that it relates to the influencer vs reality. Natalie is such an unreliable narrator and the plot twist in the end was interesting. Overall a great feminist read.

Sheila Mae Moradas

Mormons, cult behaviour, and Mormon family YouTubers are for real my crack cocaine. 

All of the time I have invested in consuming all the content on Ruby Franke, Nara Smith and BallerinaFarm and many more has finally paid off - including that hellish interview from Nara with call her daddy… I do think that if you are not familiar with all of these stories you are missing a big chunk of context and references though, but fr sums up the Mormon YouTuber lore. 

It is sad that a lot of women and men are falling into these types of beliefs, hopefully they would get educated on these topics and also on the misguided reality of the influencers who promote these “trad family” values - and who also btw do NOT follow them! The trad lifestyle is a big fat lie!! 

Anywho, a very good book and more if you understand the lore. I can see why some people don’t like it, but I will just say que no entienden la puta vibra.

Denisse Garcia Ramírez 

Mormons, cult behaviour, and Mormon family YouTubers are for real my crack cocaine. 

All of the time I have invested in consuming all the content on Ruby Franke, Nara Smith and BallerinaFarm and many more has finally paid off - including that hellish interview from Nara with call her daddy… I do think that if you are not familiar with all of these stories you are missing a big chunk of context and references though, but fr sums up the Mormon YouTuber lore. 

It is sad that a lot of women and men are falling into these types of beliefs, hopefully they would get educated on these topics and also on the misguided reality of the influencers who promote these “trad family” values - and who also btw do NOT follow them! The trad lifestyle is a big fat lie!! 

Anywho, a very good book and more if you understand the lore. I can see why some people don’t like it, but I will just say que no entienden la puta vibra.

This book has broken my brain. It is so complex. No words. Would have liked to know how the interview went.

I loved to hate her until I just felt bad for the kids. Truly a prison of her own making!

The plot at the end really got me! (My mind went blank after finishing) And how ironic that she was always unknowingly projecting herself on Reena and the mad women and how she was so above it all!

Nina May

I loved to hate her until I just felt bad for the kids. Truly a prison of her own making!

The plot at the end really got me! (My mind went blank after finishing) And how ironic that she was always unknowingly projecting herself on Reena and the mad women and how she was so above it all!

Kind of hate/rage read it… great bookclub fodder

Isabella

Netra

Steph

If there’s one thing this book taught me, it’s to be careful what you wish for. Literally. In Yesteryear, we follow Natalie, a trad-wife influencer who preaches the traditional lifestyle—eat organic, shop local, be a loving wife. Basically, the kind of content that feels like it would set feminism back 100 years. One day, she wakes up in a cold, filthy world and realizes she’s now living the exact life she romanticized online: no modern technology, no nannies, no conveniences—nothing. I really enjoyed the satirical commentary in this book. As much as I hated Natalie’s character, I understood why she needed to be written this way. She’s the type of person you absolutely despise, yet somehow can’t stop watching out of spite. The author did a great job portraying that dynamic—how Natalie is fully aware that people hate her and her lifestyle, yet she thrives on the attention and outrage. Of course, everything eventually comes back to bite her. The ending was a twist I genuinely didn’t see coming. Was I shocked? Absolutely. It completely caught me off guard, but it also fit the theme of the story perfectly: be careful what you wish for. Sometimes the things you manifest come true—just not in the way you imagined.

Michelle Dsouza

This book is unhinged, and completely in control of it. Yesteryear genuinely left me sitting there afterward wondering what the hell I had just read, in the best possible way. The book follows Natalie Heller Mills, and from the beginning it promises a very specific kind of experience: intimate, chaotic, psychologically messy, and deeply tied to Natalie’s voice. It’s written in a stream-of-consciousness style that completely traps you inside her head, and the wild thing is… it works brilliantly. This is one of those books where the voice is the engine. Natalie’s narration feels so alive that the book becomes less about “plot” and more about emotional immersion. You don’t just observe her spiraling, rationalizing, performing, loving, resenting, and unraveling, you experience it with her in real time. One minute you’re rooting for her, the next you’re horrified by her choices, and then somehow five pages later you’re back to empathizing with her again. That emotional instability is what gives the novel its tension. There’s this constant unresolved feeling underneath everything, like Natalie herself doesn’t fully understand whether she loves her life, hates it, or is simply performing it because the cameras are rolling and she no longer knows how to stop. And honestly? That is fascinating. The character work here is incredible. Natalie feels contradictory in a way that real people are contradictory. She wants the tradwife fantasy while also quietly suffocating inside it. She wants validation, love, attention, purpose, and escape, often all at once. The book understands that people can deeply desire something and still be destroyed by it. The supporting cast adds to that unease perfectly. Caleb is painfully ignorant in a way that feels disturbingly believable. Doug is manipulative and predatory without ever becoming cartoonishly evil. Caleb’s mother feels emotionally hollowed out by her own life. Even Shannon, who arguably has the best intentions in the book, still drove me insane half the time. Nobody escapes cleanly. What impressed me most is how controlled the writing actually is underneath the chaos. Stream-of-consciousness can so easily become self-indulgent or unreadable, especially in a debut. But every scene here feels intentional. Every emotional swing, every absurd moment, every uncomfortable laugh is building toward something. The book constantly shifts your understanding of Natalie, her relationships, and even the kind of story you think you’re reading. And it’s funny. Genuinely funny. I caught myself laughing out loud multiple times, especially in the little moments that reminded me so much of older religious women I’ve known. The “curse then immediately apologize to God” energy felt painfully familiar. My own mother does this constantly, which somehow made parts of this feel even more real to me. When I finished this book, my head was spinning. I felt stunned, unsettled, confused, deeply shaken, and honestly a little emotionally manipulated, but in a way that made me admire the book rather than resent it. This is my favorite book of 2026 so far. And the fact that this is a debut novel is insane to me. The confidence, control, and distinctiveness of the voice feel like the work of someone who has been doing this for years. This book will stay with me. In Jesus Name, Amen.

erin

Your mother lies to you, and then you lie to your children, and then your children lie to their children, and then you are an old woman, looking back at your own life, lying to yourself.
it's interesting how there is a spark of feminism in her but it quelled by her own superiority complex and jealousy. she's well-aware of the fact that misogyny rules the world and that her religion is a tool to oppress women, but at the same time, she's surprised that feminism exists and that women dare to hate men and that all women do is perform for the patriarchy instead of enjoying the abuse endlessly. many such cases!

My husband wanted too little from his life. And me? I wanted too much. Suddenly it was so obvious: Caleb should’ve been born a woman, and I should’ve been born a man.

I really enjoyed this satirical writing. The main characters were all insufferable, but it was addicting at the same time! I don’t read many books where the villain is the main character so that’s always refreshing. 

I think the ending was well thought out. All the loose ends were tied up. I would definitely recommend this book for an easy/entertaining read. 

Hadley 

I really enjoyed this satirical writing. The main characters were all insufferable, but it was addicting at the same time! I don’t read many books where the villain is the main character so that’s always refreshing. 

I think the ending was well thought out. All the loose ends were tied up. I would definitely recommend this book for an easy/entertaining read. 

Freaky as hell. Loved every bit. Read it 2 days! A little bit like M. Night 

 The Village, a lot a bit Ballerina Farms. Fascinating, funny, creepy and kind of relatable? Just glad someone’s addressing all of it. Thought the grocery store veggies / the fact that they can’t actually farm and her inability to make a good sourdough loaf was just hilarious and I loved the way all of the pretend ends up coming full circle, completing it all nicely for the reader.

Lily Dendy

Freaky as hell. Loved every bit. Read it 2 days! A little bit like M. Night Shyamalan‘s The Village, a lot a bit Ballerina Farms. Fascinating, funny, creepy and kind of relatable? Just glad someone’s addressing all of it. Thought the grocery store veggies / the fact that they can’t actually farm and her inability to make a good sourdough loaf was just hilarious and I loved the way all of the pretend ends up coming full circle, completing it all nicely for the reader.

Loved this deep dive into the facade of social media.  Felt a real connection to the protagonist, despite her flaws.  It was beautifully written, and visceral.  The “it was all a dream” style ending could have been cliche, but connected back through the story in such a way, that it was profound.  

Emily Hylton

Enjoyed while I was reading but fell apart in some spots esp the end. And a tradwife that can't make a good sourdough loaf... what??? 

Patsy Koss

Yesteryear was a highly anticipated read for me. I am a mood reader, so I usually don't get around to reading new releases when they are still hot off the press. However, last year I saw many glowing ARC reviews and the premise of yesteryear seemed so unique and refreshing that I bookmarked its title, and as soon as I saw it was available, I jumped at the opportunity to read it.  I wish in the review I could tell you it was so worthwhile; however, in honesty, I am mostly disappointed. 

First, I want to clarify that, unlike some other readers whose criticism of the book stems from a dislike of how the main character is written, I actually think the characterisation was one of the strong points of this book. Yes, the main character is absolutely reprehensible; she is completely indoctrinated into white supremacist alt-right Christian talking points. So selfish and heartless that it is sickening. Yet that is the point, yesteryear is satire, we are not meant to feel any sympathy for Natalie. She mirrors what many tradwife influencers are like with only slight exaggeration. So her characterisation didn't really bother me. In fact, I like the way all the characters were almost cartoonish in nature; it worked well in creating the atmosphere for the book. 

The rest of the writing, I had way more issues with. Yesteryear is written in a very dry way, and the pace at which major events occur is disjointed, which meant at times it was challenging to read. Throughout my reading, I was waiting for something to happen that would wow me, that would make me think wow this book is so clever, so well done. That moment never really came, leaving me underwhelmed.  The prose is split into a dual narrative, one which shows us how Natalie rose to fame, and the other shows Natalie 'stuck' in the past. Both narratives are not equally well written. I didn't really actually enjoy Natalie stuck in yesteryear. After the initial shock of her getting there and one or two escape attempts, nothing much happens... she's just there. I enjoyed reading her backstory to date much more and found myself irritated when we cut back to yesteryear, which I feel defeats the purpose of the book. I wasn't interested in a tradwife influencer being stuck in a historical period; she glorified views and clicks. I am interested in the mind of a tradwife influencer. The somewhat fantastical element of this book is not well done, a shame because, like many other readers, that is what initially brought me to pick it up. This is just a theory, but it's as if this book was written with the express purpose of being adapted into a TV show or movie, which I think it could actually work better as. However, as a book, it often felt long and drawn out.

This is a spoiler, but the fact that Natalie wasn't actually stuck in yesteryear and was rather just living as a recluse kind of ruined it for me. I think I was just expecting something different; however, this is a personal gripe.

Finally, when it comes to the social commentary of this book, the way it examines tradwife influencers, misogyny, religion, and expectations on women, it felt a bit blunt and clunky at times. I think it does well to delve into the mind of someone who is a tradwife influencer, what forms their belief system, and how they manage the inherent contradiction of aligning themselves with being homemakers but managing multi-million dollar businesses at the same time. There was a lot this book managed to discuss; however, to me, it felt a bit surface-level. At times, it felt like things were being brought up because the author wanted to make sure they mentioned multiple aspects of misogyny and the flaws of this brand of white supremacist thinking; however, any sort of analysis or meaningful insight was lacking for me. 

In all, yesteryear did not live up to my expectations. 

Marz 

Yesteryear was a highly anticipated read for me. I am a mood reader, so I usually don't get around to reading new releases when they are still hot off the press. However, last year I saw many glowing ARC reviews and the premise of yesteryear seemed so unique and refreshing that I bookmarked its title, and as soon as I saw it was available, I jumped at the opportunity to read it.  I wish in the review I could tell you it was so worthwhile; however, in honesty, I am mostly disappointed. 

First, I want to clarify that, unlike some other readers whose criticism of the book stems from a dislike of how the main character is written, I actually think the characterisation was one of the strong points of this book. Yes, the main character is absolutely reprehensible; she is completely indoctrinated into white supremacist alt-right Christian talking points. So selfish and heartless that it is sickening. Yet that is the point, yesteryear is satire, we are not meant to feel any sympathy for Natalie. She mirrors what many tradwife influencers are like with only slight exaggeration. So her characterisation didn't really bother me. In fact, I like the way all the characters were almost cartoonish in nature; it worked well in creating the atmosphere for the book. 

The rest of the writing, I had way more issues with. Yesteryear is written in a very dry way, and the pace at which major events occur is disjointed, which meant at times it was challenging to read. Throughout my reading, I was waiting for something to happen that would wow me, that would make me think wow this book is so clever, so well done. That moment never really came, leaving me underwhelmed.  The prose is split into a dual narrative, one which shows us how Natalie rose to fame, and the other shows Natalie 'stuck' in the past. Both narratives are not equally well written. I didn't really actually enjoy Natalie stuck in yesteryear. After the initial shock of her getting there and one or two escape attempts, nothing much happens... she's just there. I enjoyed reading her backstory to date much more and found myself irritated when we cut back to yesteryear, which I feel defeats the purpose of the book. I wasn't interested in a tradwife influencer being stuck in a historical period; she glorified views and clicks. I am interested in the mind of a tradwife influencer. The somewhat fantastical element of this book is not well done, a shame because, like many other readers, that is what initially brought me to pick it up. This is just a theory, but it's as if this book was written with the express purpose of being adapted into a TV show or movie, which I think it could actually work better as. However, as a book, it often felt long and drawn out.

This is a spoiler, but the fact that Natalie wasn't actually stuck in yesteryear and was rather just living as a recluse kind of ruined it for me. I think I was just expecting something different; however, this is a personal gripe.

Finally, when it comes to the social commentary of this book, the way it examines tradwife influencers, misogyny, religion, and expectations on women, it felt a bit blunt and clunky at times. I think it does well to delve into the mind of someone who is a tradwife influencer, what forms their belief system, and how they manage the inherent contradiction of aligning themselves with being homemakers but managing multi-million dollar businesses at the same time. There was a lot this book managed to discuss; however, to me, it felt a bit surface-level. At times, it felt like things were being brought up because the author wanted to make sure they mentioned multiple aspects of misogyny and the flaws of this brand of white supremacist thinking; however, any sort of analysis or meaningful insight was lacking for me. 

In all, yesteryear did not live up to my expectations. 

Adele Etheridge Woodson

I couldn't put this down, especially the ending. Really interesting seeing the world through Natalie's POV and her anger.

Jenny Engel

an interesting book! definitely dragged at times especially the parts set in the past. but overall entertaining enough to continue reading

jacq bridge

The main character is so unlikeable but that’s what makes it so compelling. 

Yesteryear

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