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A Novel
by Caro Claire Burke
Book Reviewed by:A traditional American woman, a 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 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.
BookBrowsers ask Donna Everhart, author of Women of a Promiscuous Nature
I wish! Nothing yet, but I've had TONS of people say the books should be turned into movies. I don't know how much (if any) input I'd have. I think it works differently, perhaps, depending on who options a work. they might ask for input, and they might say, "Hey, we got it from here." Hopefully i...
-Donna_Everhart
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (3/5/2026)
...t inserting a spoiler. And now I'm reading a review book: https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/23224/yesteryear Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. A "tradwife" influencer gets transported back to the 1800s. From there I'll move on to the upcoming discussion book, https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_b...
-kim.kovacs
Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke's first novel, introduces readers to Natalie Heller Mills, a 32-year-old Instagram star who chronicles her life as a "tradwife"—a woman who embodies a conservative lifestyle harkening back to earlier times. She awakens one day to a reality that is familiar yet … not. Her carefully designed house has become a ramshackle cabin with no heat, running water, or bathroom, and the four children in residence look somewhat like her offspring, yet they're strangers to her. She is forced to put into real-life practice the skills she demonstrated on Instagram while trying to return to the more comfortable lifestyle she knows and loves. Natalie herself is an amazing creation, and Burke's depiction of her is remarkable. The author splendidly illustrates her evolution from true believer to heartless social media mogul. Her progression is gradual and extraordinarily believable. Yesteryear is an excellent debut, and Burke is an author to watch; I look forward to reading whatever's next for her...continued
Full Review
(800 words)
(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Hannah Deitch, author of Killer Potential
Yesteryear is unapologetically political fiction in the tradition of The Stepford Wives or The Handmaid's Tale. Burke takes us right into the belly of the beast. Enraging, thrilling—often grimly funny in the way of good satire, but still intensely humane. Easily one of my favorites of the year. Louise O'Neill, author of Asking for It
I could barely put this book down. Such a clever excavation of motherhood and faith and online fame. Highly original and utterly addictive.
The protagonist of Caro Claire Burke's novel Yesteryear is a social media influencer who promotes her lifestyle as a "tradwife." A portmanteau of the words "traditional" and "wife," the term is defined by Dictionary.com as "a married woman who chooses to be a homemaker as a primary occupation and adheres to or embodies traditional femininity and female gender roles, often associated with conservative or alt-right political values." This phenomenon is especially prevalent in the United States but is becoming popular throughout Europe as well.
Women have assumed the role of homemaker for millennia, and a large part of being a tradwife is indeed accomplishing the daily tasks one would generally expect of a housewife, such as bearing and ...
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