Yesteryear

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.

As soon as I heard about this book, I wanted to read it! There was so much buzz about it and it was everywhere I looked in my IRL and online bookish spaces.

I was pulled into this one and really liked it right away. It was the kind of book that I didn’t want to put down. The way it teased out information via flashbacks kept me reading, and I loved how strange and messy the main character was. All of Natalie’s commentary and opinions on religion, feminism, marriage, motherhood, social media…I laughed, I rolled my eyes, I argued with her in my head. It was such an entertaining read, and was heading to a four star rating, but it lost me a bit at the end.

There was something about the end of Natalie’s story that I found unsatisfying, which was a bit disappointing given how much I enjoyed the rest of the book. But it’s very discussable, and I’ve had a lot of fun chatting about it with other readers, so I can see why it’s been popular with book clubs!

Despite my misgivings about the ending, I enjoyed it overall and recommend it!