Yesteryear

I'll be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to like Yesteryear. It's been sooo hyped up and when I heard it was also literary fiction (among quite a few other genres),  I almost heard a death knell in my head. But I ignored all that and dove in (without reading the blurb) and I was surprised at how much I liked this book ... at least for the first 75%.

The story is told in two timelines -- present and 1800's. In her current life, Natalie has a social media empire, a gaggle of kids, a useless man-child of a husband, struggles to connect with others and hides the truth from her followers. She's a total self-serving bitch who is 99% flaws (and a character readers are supposed to hate). She was compelling, I'll give her that, and it was fun to see her stumble in the 1800's timeline when she's met with a harsh reality of what life was like for women and she can't rely on her smoke and mirrors to get through the day.

There are some interesting topics addressed - social media promoting false images, societal expectations on women, the pressure to keep up with the proverbial Jones' and it shines a light on what women are up against.

There's quite a bit I did like about it ... but I can't say I loved it. First, the characters were pretty one-dimensional and the twist? I didn't like it and expected a lot more after that long build-up.  

This book is totally bonkers and has future TV series written all over it. It's interesting, maddening and uncomfortable with a total bitch at the helm and while I'm still not sure what genre(s) it's in, it would make for a good book club pick.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Caro Claire Burke

Genre: Contemporary/Historical, Literary

Source and type: trade paperback from public library

Publisher: Knopf Canada

First Published: April 7, 2026

Read: Oct 1-3, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads: A traditional, 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 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 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.