What readers think of Yesteryear, plus links to write your own review.

“So much of my life was dedicated to broadcasting a vision of nostalgia; a better and more beautiful version of America. A celebration of the days of yore.”

Yesteryear is the first novel by American author, Caro Claire Burke. The audio version is narrated by Rebecca Lowman. A decade after Christian wife, Natalie Heller Mills first begins posting on social media about the farm she and Caleb have bought, she has five children, with a sixth on the way, a cow, a horse and a coop of chickens, rows of vegetables, five million followers on Instagram, almost a million followers on Youtube, and a thriving online business selling cutting boards, aprons, salt blends and indoor paint.

Yesteryear Ranch is five hundred acres situated between two mountain ranges in rural Idaho and Natalie sees her roles of wife, mother, and influencer as seducing three lovers at once. Be it her marriage, her mothering, or her food prep, Natalie finds the best approach is faking emotions until she feels them. When a podcaster praises Yesteryear Ranch, she likens it to truffles: he has seen the rot but considers it a perfectly fermented version of America.

Not that everyone is convinced: there are plenty of comments from The Angry Women, whom she dismisses as women with crappy jobs, snotty kids and loser husbands, or single, whiny and depressed. And there are definitely some wrinkles below the surface of this seemingly perfect life…

When she wakes one icy winter morning to find she’s in a cabin that’s not quite her cabin, a kitchen like hers but more primitive, children that aren’t hers but call her “Mama”, and a husband who looks like Caleb, only harder, colder, she’s shocked. Is she hallucinating? Having a particularly vivid nightmare? Has she been abducted, put into a weird reality TV show set in the mid-nineteenth Century? She certainly feels like she’s being watched. Eventually, she begins to believe it’s a test from the Lord. If she passes the test, will she get her real life back?

With cleverly constructed alternating narratives, Burke gradually reveals how college student Natalie becomes influencer Natalie and how she finally comes to be inhabiting that bad dream. Not until much later in the tale does it become apparent that the narrative Natalie presents might be rather less reliable than it first seems.

Burke skilfully demonstrates America’s appetite for the trad wife image, and the double standards that see extramarital sex as manageable while gay sex is not. The story comments on patriarchy, politics and religion, has a truly nasty protagonist and a delicious dose of schadenfreude. Joanna Cannon said “perceptive, timely, wickedly funny and deeply disturbing” which succinctly summarises this exceptional debut.

Wow. What did I just read? At the risk of not letting that banger of an ending percolate more before I review this book, I will say this is a 5 star read wrapped in a four star package rounding out at 4.5. Caro Claire Burke is going to generate a lot of conversations, debate and excellent book club discussions with this outrageous, surprising and wild debut. Is Natalie the devout Christian tradwife she wants the world to believe? Decidedly not. But who is she really and why is suddenly living in an "authentic" (as opposed to social media curated) 19th century farm house with a family who is but aren't her family from the modern era? Strap in, enjoy the ride and the smart social commentary, and then prepare yourself for a doozy of an ending. Highly recommend.

Oh, the hype! And, yes, it's all true. Even the venerable New York Times fell all over itself with praise and made it their June 2026 online book club selection.

While this is not great literature and will no doubt fade from the literary canon in a matter of years, this psychological thriller is a gripping page-turner that speaks volumes about our current culture.

Written by Caro Claire Burke, this is the story of an Internet influencer who is blatantly and falsely using her tradwife status to find fame and fortune—lots of fame and fortune. Natalie Heller Mills grew up in a poor family—single mom, one sister—in Idaho and studied hard to get to Harvard. Once there, feeling totally mismatched and out of place, she meets Caleb Mills, the youngest son of an incredibly wealthy and political father and a mother addicted to pills. Natalie falls for Caleb and drops out of Harvard to marry him. The fun and romance end with the wedding reception.

Caleb is weak, stupid, and completely unambitious, having no clue what he wants to do. Through some conniving and planning on the part of his frustrated wife and rich daddy, Natalie and Caleb buy a massive farm in the Idaho mountains where Natalie realizes she can make a living for her growing family by posting videos online of how she lives a pioneer-style life. A life that is simple, where everything is done from scratch. Except it's pretty much a lie. All the appliances and kitchen conveniences are hidden behind cabinets. Also off-camera are the two nannies who care for the five children and the producer who shoots the videos, as well as the hired hands who work the farm fields and care for the animals. Still, she has millions of followers and an online store. She is raking in the money! But what goes on behind the scenes is appalling and if her followers only knew…well, let's just say, Natalie would be finished.

And then one day, Natalie inexplicably wakes up in her house (but not her house), with her husband (but not her husband), and with her children (but not her children). It's 1855, and suddenly—like it or not (and she mostly hates it)—Natalie is a tradwife for real. She is horrified and terrified and very, very confused.

The plot twist at the end is big, but the author leaves several small clues and one big clue so we readers who pay attention are not totally blindsided.

While the plot is so compelling that it's hard to stop reading, I felt torn about the book for one simple reason: Natalie is not a likeable protagonist. She is not only meanspirited and unkind, but also malicious and spiteful. She actively dislikes—and even hates—her family and treats them accordingly. I found it difficult to sympathize with her.

I'll be honest: I almost bounced off Natalie Heller Mills in the first thirty pages. She is not designed to be liked, and Burke doesn't soften that. But Yesteryear earns its unlikable protagonist by doing something more interesting than a simple tradwife takedown — it uses the time-travel conceit to literalize the gap between performance and reality until that gap becomes genuinely frightening. I've seen marketing that calls it "darkly hilarious," which undersells how specifically uncomfortable the comedy is. Burke's humor is a cringe-laugh: it lives in Natalie's near-pathological inability to read another person correctly, the way her sharp edges keep missing what's actually in the room. The dual-timeline structure takes a chapter or two to find its footing, and the ending is a stronger idea than it is a felt experience. Still, the novel's central question — what happens when a woman who has only ever curated herself is forced to be herself — stayed with me. A formally ambitious debut, and one worth the conversation it's already generating.

YESTERYEAR
By Caro Claire Burke

Behind every perfectly curated life is a reality waiting to crack.

In this debut darkly satirical psychological novel, we meet Natalie Heller Mills, a social media “tradwife” influencer known for promoting a nostalgic, “perfect” lifestyle online.
But when her carefully curated image begins to crack, she’s forced to confront the reality behind it. One day Natalie awakens in the year 1805, living a life that isn’t hers—a living nightmare, a hoax, or something more sinister? Yesteryear explores social media culture and the tension between appearance and reality with a sharp mix of satire, humor, and psychological insight.

This isn’t like any book I’ve read before. I’m not really into social media; however, I still found myself absorbed in this bizarre world of Natalie and her family. The steady pacing and sharp, satirical writing create a darkly humorous and unsettling look at curated online lives.

The characters (except for the kids) are not very likable. I love an unreliable protagonist, and Natalie definitely does not disappoint. She has a childlike outlook and constantly misreads others, leading to moments that are strange, darkly funny, and unsettling. I was surprised by the ending and felt it left me with a few questions that weren’t fully addressed.

If you enjoy unreliable, selfish, and flawed characters, you’ll probably appreciate what Yesteryear offers. I look forward to what this talented author has to share with us next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House | Knopf for the eARC.
Publish Date: April 7, 2026

Now being adapted into a major film starring Anne Hathaway.

A tradwife and influencer, Natalie Heller Mills, wakes up one morning and finds herself transported back to 1805 "living the old style life she's been peddling." This is such a clever premise, satirically funny but deeply sad too.

Every woman wants to be Natalie. Her life is perfect. She runs a flawless house, cares for five children with a sixth on its way. Her ranch in Idaho, Yesteryear, is the ideal place for any woman who wants to live a healthy Christian life. But not all is what it seems.
Behind the perfect facade lies a web of secretes and lies that eventually gets exposed and Natalie 's world starts to crumble at which point she's back in the time that her on-camera persona had projected her to be.

Natalie is an interesting character. For me she's the kind of woman I love to hate - perfect beyond reason and too full of herself. She's also very shallow, "bitchy, narcissistic, an uncaring" but also has a way about her that still captures your interest.
The book makes some highly political statements about our times. It probes the meaning of what it means to be a woman today, about ambition, kindness and consumerism. It makes you question reality - especially as it seems today we live in alternative one and just like Natalie we don't how we got there.
Interesting read.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House for allowing me to read this ARC.

Based upon the hype and early reviews I really look forward to reading and loving this book. The premise is intriguing; and the ‘trad wife ‘ phenomenon is of the moment.

The initial chapters easily met my expectations. However, once Natalie awakens in 1855, the plotting became erratic. Perhaps because I’ve spent years studying the history and material culture of the Antebellum era and have participated in Living History events of that time, I have overly scrutinized the depiction of Yesteryear 1855. But, I also felt o empathy for any characters but perhaps Clementine and Maeve.

I started skimming pages for the last third of the book. The conclusion ultimately felt rushed, disconnected, and preposterous in 21st Century America.

Overall, a decent debut novel that over promised and under delivered.

When I read about this book, I thought it might present some profound social statements about the "trad wife" trend, influencers and women who don't appreciate the gains that women have won. I guess this anticipation contributed my disappointment over this book.

I don't object to time travel (I like Outlander) but this a pretty silly story and not believable. The "heroine" is a character you can't sympathize with at all, and the book really does not make any grand social statements except to emphasize that women were treated horribly in the 1800's, and narcissism leads to tragedy. OK, enjoy the ride if you can.