Yesteryear: A GMA Book Club Pick
A Novel
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4.2 • 812 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
#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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this satirical literary thriller, a social media star finds herself trapped in the harsh reality behind the domestic fantasy she sells to her audience. Big-league influencer Natalie Mills has perfected her tradwife pitch—the charming farmhouse, the handsome cowboy husband, and the six perfect kids—which she markets relentlessly to her eight million followers. But when she wakes to find herself in the real pioneer world of 1855 with all its challenges, she must struggle to survive and unravel the strange circumstances that landed her in this rustic nightmare. In her stunning debut, author Caro Claire Burke brilliantly alternates timelines and scenarios: swinging from the ultrapolished performance of the present day to Natalie’s harsh new reality. With piercing wit, her social satire skewers the selling of the unattainable tradwife fantasy and all the hard and hidden work it entails behind the scenes, not to mention the toxic notions lurking underneath. This fascinating and timely novel left us gasping.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A tradwife influencer gets trapped inside the harsh life of an early-19th-century homesteader in Burke's crafty and cutting debut. To her millions of Instagram followers, Natalie Heller Mills is a "flawless Christian woman" leading an idyllic life on the self-sustaining Yesteryear Ranch with her hardworking husband, Caleb, and their five kids. In reality, the family's remote Idaho farm is a money pit, Caleb is an internet-addicted conspiracist, and nannies raise the children while a live-in producer curates Natalie's content, which pays the bills. When Natalie wakes one morning in a rustic facsimile of her home with a family that resembles hers but isn't, it appears that she has traveled back in time to 1805. Is she a kidnapping victim, an unconsenting reality show contestant, or something more bizarre? All she knows for sure is that the bear traps and boredom of the early 19th century might kill her before she finds out ("Tomorrow, I will not have to shit in a rickety old shed outside"). Burke's scathing satire of the conservative media complex unfolds from Natalie's increasingly delusional first-person perspective as the action ping-pongs back and forth in time. Though the big reveal undercuts some of the book's bite, the narrative is plenty riveting. Burke is off to an auspicious start.
Customer Reviews
Yesteryear
I found this book difficult to read. I think it was the jumping from one decade to another and one reality to another . Natalie was an interesting character and the premise of her life choice was relevant and interesting. But the disjointedness of the family and characters was difficult at times.
Couldn’t wait to see how this turned out
I haven’t read a book that weaves the culture of today so seamlessly with the pining for life if the older days. Exquisite writing! Wild twists and turns with every chapter. Wish I could wipe my memories and read it again for the first time.
Oh my god, the boredom!
I tried, i kept reading through the excruciating boredom of the insignificant details, hoping it would get better, that something would happen, then, about halfway through, i decided not to torture myself and stopped reading this disaster of a book. I am only sorry i wasted my time trying to like it