Yesteryear: A GMA Book Club Pick

A Novel

By: Caro Claire Burke

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR) • A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—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.

"A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear…will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page."
—Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series

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.

Hmm.

I was excited to listen after reading a NYT review. The premise was interesting and if the point wasn’t just to pillory the main character for being a tradwife influencer where was the author going to take the story?
I honestly kept wondering right up to the last couple of chapters and now that I’ve had some time to think about it I’m just bummed that was ending the author chose.
I thought for a while that she was really going to go deeper, explore the dichotomies between the tradwives and ‘angry women’. But as the story went on it became clear there would be no redemption and the conclusion felt absurdly like exactly what an ‘angry woman’ would have written and that’s the opinion of someone who could be considered an angry woman herself 😂.

Horrible reading

If your over 40 I bet you won’t like it. This reaks first book. This book was all about who you know. I got through it o lot because it drives me crazy not to see how something ends.

Unrealistic and pessimistic

I disliked every character in this book. The author seemed to focus on everything bad about society,which left me feeling discouraged in general. I regret spending my time reading this discouraging book with an unrealistic plot.

The length

I wish I would have bought the physical copy of this book. The narrator was just too much for me. Her voice had one tone that was filled with over excited angst the whole book. It was like being stuck in a 13 hour long poetry slam. The actual story was okay. Not what I was expecting.

Wow! I’ll think twice before I like.👍🏻

This novel made me seriously question who I follow and watch on social media.
Who could they be hurting and what are they pretending to be.