Yesteryear

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding show more industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: What a rotten human being Natalie is, phony, all about surfaces and appearances. And then one day, she's required to put in the effort she's faked for life as a momfluencer/farmfluencer. Remember Overboard, the 1987 film? Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell as truly terrible people, lying, cheating, using people around them as objects. This story reminded me of that, with Outlander as the backdrop.

There is a thing called a "tradwife" on the internet. It's as brummagem as the "manosphere" the right-wing owners of major media outlets likes to insist is worthy of attention so their employees yap on about it. Natalie and Caleb, her husband, are mouthpieces for this made-up cultural phenomenon. As will surprise no one over forty, the couple are complete fakes: the lifestyle they present as aspirational, as somehow attainable, is a profit-driven collective endeavor of many minions and two public faces, supported by a cast of their minor children exploited as accessories, as decorative objects.

If any of this sounds familiar, it should. It's got elements of the whole Ruby Franke debacle, the various terrible men in the right-wing talk circles, the young kids trying to be famous on YouTube because that's what they see as fame...none of this is different than it's ever been. Classes, courses, camps, schools teching acting, writing, cooking...mor acccurately chefing...all have done this since who-knows-when but certainly since Carême parlayed his successes serving super-fancy vittles to the power elite of the Napoleonic era into a publishing empire. Others came before, I'm sure. Humans like looking up to people who do things flamboyantly and publicly because the spectacle is fun, because we like novelty, because we enjoy the inevitable fall from the heights. I myownself have never felt more intense schadenfreude than I did at the fall of Beau Brummell. The word "comeuppance" was only coined in 1859, but might as well have been invented for him...and for Natalie.

As Natalie awakens to the reality of her comeuppance, she becomes...authentic, at least briefly, in her intense desire to get back to being artificial, groomed, and pampered. She'll take the misogyny, the fakery of her persona's religious trappings, wrap herself in the cocoon of decepetions if it will bring her back to luxury behind the cameras. The hollow and unsatisfying Caleb of the modern day? Fine, compared to the sterner and more effortful relationship with her nineteenth-century Caleb; and how the hell does anyone get raised in a world without nannies? Natalie doesn't want to know.

I'm painting a portrait of a woman as obsessed with surfaces and self-absorbed as any Dorian Gray. She is just as awful as he was. We know this because we hear her inner monologue. We are left in no doubt that her responses are genuine because there is no camera to play to, no audience except us, the invisible readers she is speaking to.

I am definitely the audience for this story: anti-religion, revolted by the fameseeking culture depicted herein, accepting of a premise that promises weirdness in the form of time travel. But there are limits. Yes, Natalie and Caleb exist in the world...Ballerina Farm...but this story's got to do more than regurgitate the headlines to succeed. Does Author Burke have anything to add to the conversation? Or are we here for the fun of Natalie's comeuppance? The ending is designed to offer that perspective, I think, but it did not land with me. That's why I only offer four stars.

Not being perfect, not sticking the landing is not in any way meant to vitiate the real pleasures of the read. It's the kind of story that book clubs will engage with eagerly, much to chew on, much to consuder. I think you're wise to pick it up in that context; this is a story best experienced as a catalyst of discussion.

Debuts that attract Anne Hathaway to adapt and then star in their film are rare. I see why this one won that lottery. Find a group to read it with! show less

Natalie was hilariously awful. I hated her and I couldn’t stop reading to find out what terrible things she would say next.

On a sprawling ranch named Yesteryear, social media star Natalie and her family pretend to live as if they were pioneers in the Old West. This novel's major concern, however, is the connection between Natalie’s performative femininity and her raging case of postpartum psychosis.

Author Caro Claire Burke is an astute observer of the twin phenomena of reality television and the rise of social media "influencers." This well-crafted, vivid narrative delivers sharp observations on both. For me, this book lived up to the hype.

I received an electronic copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.

The Short of It:

Innocently lures you in and then drops some very big ideas.

The Rest of It:

Natalie has created a perfect life for herself. She lives in a rustic farmhouse with her ever-growing family and stands up on Christian values, a TRADitional marriage, and prides herself on living simply. Her followers agree. She’s the real deal.

Does it matter that she doesn’t do it all on her own as her social media platforms suggest? Is it really so wrong to have producers and content managers and professional photogs at the ready to capture every splendid, clickable moment on the farm?

Something happens in Natalie’s world to make her question everything. She wakes up one day and doesn’t recognize her own children and her husband has show more grown…hostile. Spending her days doing laundry that only repeats its dirt cycle over and over again makes her want to lose her mind.

Who are these people? Always trying to guide her and tell her what to do. Who is this man who claims to be her husband? And goodness, she never has a moment to come to her senses because she’s either getting pregnant or having a baby. All those babies along with kids she doesn’t recognize.

Let me tell you how this book make me feel.

Enraged. Actual RAGE.

Besides the actual drama of it all, there is a lot to peel back here and I found myself getting quite worked up.

The world we live in is often created and curated for clicks. What we see is intentionally misleading and opens the door for comparison where we are often left wanting.

The conservative push to expand families without support for said families doesn’t make sense. Increasing the population when there are school children without lunch? Makes no sense whatsoever.

What makes a good marriage? Should give and take not be a part of it? Women are being encouraged to return to TRAD wife lifestyles. Stay at home. Have babies. Take care of your husband. But what do you do when your husband is as useless as Caleb is? Well, Natalie is not only expected to stand by him but she is expected to support him to boost his ego.

I could not help but question the role of children. Yes, living on a prairie long ago probably warranted a lot of children because work on a farm is never done but are they supposed to do the work of adults? Do they have a voice when they see it all going sideways? No.

I understand that Yesteryear has gotten a lot of attention. Anne Hathaway has already optioned it for a movie that she will star in. And it’s been said, that the book took its inspiration from a well known influencer who is currently battling a raw milk fiasco. All this aside, it definitely makes you feel things. It’s a book that needs to be discussed.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

She makes June from Yellowface look stable.

Just a few pages in, and I’m trapped in the mind of Natalie Heller Mills—this brilliant, narcissistic antiheroine who left me mentally and emotionally exhausted. I could NOT put the book down!

I’m impressed that Yesteryear is Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel because the way this story was written is so well done. There’s this toxic fascination with Natalie’s unhinged character that made me keep turning the pages.

I've created a post on Instagram answering 15 questions my book club couldn't agree on!

Seriously, to write a character readers will loathe with every fiber of their being while making the book itself utterly unputdownable is a TALENT.

Natalie’s fake-sweet performance during show more interviews, those FAQ-style Q&As that interrupt chapters is my favorite because they made me laugh and forget, momentarily, like for a few microseconds, my anger towards Natalie.

The pacing does drag in the middle, which I later felt could have been intentional?

It’s fascinating how Natalie is never, at any point in this novel, unwatched. Her mother starts it, marriage reinforces it, then social media scales it. And when that whole structure cracks, she cracks with it.

Yesteryear is uncomfortable and unforgiving. You can say it’s the literary equivalent of a car crash you can’t look away from. I think it’s the most divisive book of 2026! show less

Rating: 4.5

In a nutshell:
Natalie is a tradwife influencer with five kids and one on the way. She lives on a farm and posts on social media about her life (keeping the two nannies and many farmhands off screen, of course). One morning she wakes up and finds herself still on the farm, but her children are different and it appears to be some time in the 1800s. Is she dreaming? Is she part of some sort of reality show? What is happening?

Best for:
Anyone who enjoys social commentary and exploring various concepts of feminism, femininity, and culture.

Quote that made me think (or, in this case, laugh out loud):
When discussing her children getting ready for another day of filming for social media: “Their clothing was a rainbow of show more neutrals.”

Why I chose it:
I heard about it literally the day it was released. That coincided with my monthly Libro.FM credit, and there was indeed an audio reading available so I immediately snatched it up. It just sounded intriguing as hell. And apparently I’m woefully behind things in the book world, because this book went to auction for purchase, and the film rights were sold before the book was released. There’s a lot of hype around it and I’d say it lives up to it.

Review:
I finished this book a couple of days ago but wanted to sit with it to see if my thoughts on it might change. They haven’t. I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it covers some interesting and relevant concepts.

If you are familiar at all with ‘Ballerina Farm,’ then a lot of who Natalie is will ring familiar. The type of person who is clearly very smart in some ways but chooses to ignore things like science (raw milk, anyone?) because it doesn’t fit with the aesthetic she is promoting. She is heavily religious, and claims to defer to her husband and focuses on tasks and roles that some parts of society associate with women or femininity. At least, what’s who she presents herself as on her social media accounts.

She’s someone who views (her version of) feminism in a very negative light, and pities the lives other women choose when they don’t align with her choices. She thinks they are all dumb, while calling them out for things she herself is doing. It’s fascinating to watch the mental gymnastics she has to perform to be consistent in her world view.

Even though every chapter is from Natalie’s point of view, author Burke is still providing commentary about her and the world she operates in. It isn’t that Natalie’s way of life is wrong and others are right, and it’s not even vice versa - life is complicated and the choices we make have ramifications because of the capitalistic soup we live in. One can’t even truly ‘opt out’ like Natalie would claim she is doing because her whole life is reliant on connecting with viewers (including those who hate follow her) in the modern world.

The book is set up in a way that goes back and forth in time, across three parts. Basically, there’s the Natalie social media tradwife star storyline. Then there’s the Natalie in the 1800s storyline. From the 1800s version we go back and forth (it’s hard to say what we should call it, because it’s her past but also the future?) as Natalie grows from a kid all the way to when we first meet her in the beginning of the book and beyond a bit. I think if I were reading a physical copy (I read the audio book) I might have followed it a bit better, but it wasn’t actually that hard to keep track, as Burke pretty quickly lets the reader know what era we are in.

This film rights to this book have already been sold and an actress attached - I strongly urge you NOT to look up who that actress is until you’ve finished reading the book. Just trust me.

Would I recommend it to its target audience:
Absolutely. show less

There's a lot to unpack here but first, I have to say that I cannot believe that this book is Caro Claire Burke's debut novel. She really did an amazing job. Natalie Heiler Mills is a traditional wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle to millions of her social media followers. She has a handsome husband and six adorable children. But, behind these perfect scenes, there are nannies and producers, industrial-grade refrigerators and ovens. What her followers don't know won't hurt them. Until one morning, she wakes up to a life that's kind of familiar, but wrong. This is the kind of book you will be thinking about for awhile!