Review: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
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 industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? 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 ruthless 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.
Review:
Dear Caro Claire Burke,
Someone at work mentioned your book and I looked into it a little bit. At first glance the topic did not interest me at all and mention of satire almost scared me off. Satire of any kind is a hard sell for me. The descriptions of the reviews seemed so polarizing though, that I decided to see what the fuss was all about.
I finished. I have no idea how to review this book. The blurb describes what happened perfectly. And I did find the events unfolding gripping enough that I kept turning pages to find out what really happened with the year suddenly becoming 1855. No, I cannot tell you what the reveal was. The main character was strange. No, not because she was pretending to live a traditional wife lifestyle without any help whatsoever, but because she seemed like a massive hypocrite and because her comments at times felt like a very liberal commentary to me.
As I said Natalie “time traveling” in 1855 was a very fun plot twist. At first I thought that God really did decide to teach her a lesson and show her how hard the life really was for women at that time and her playing dress up as traditional wife really was not it, but no, the book did not suddenly became a religious fable. I will let you find out what really happened, but be prepared for the dark turn of events.
In fact this book worked hard to make sure I did not find *any* adult character likable. I know we are supposed to decide that a couple of the side ones begin to change their ways at the end, but I still could not find much sympathy. The kids deserved better for sure.
Let me go back to the book being satire. I mean I get that it was making fun of certain things. No, I do not think it was making fun of women who choose to be stay at home moms. I think it was making fun of the all the fake and hypocritical things the main character and her husband chose to engage in, but it did not make me laugh at all. Of course I am aware that satire is supposed to make us laugh differently than humor, but it just was not funny to me, it was sad and with the ending it got even sadder.
Grade: C+
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I’ve not read this book, Sirius, but it certainly has generated a lot of comment both positive and negative. Reading your thoughts and then rereading Jennie’s earlier review illustrate how books can impact readers so differently.