what I’m reading: yesteryear by caro claire burke.

Natalie Heller Mills is a tradwife influencer with millions of followers who promotes traditional gender roles, homeschooling, and farm life on her Idaho ranch. One morning, she wakes up in 1855 in a house resembling her own, but without modern conveniences, forcing her to actually navigate the pioneer lifestyle she portrays on social media.

I was so excited to read this book because it has been getting rave reviews. I was even reading it on the light rail one day when a woman sitting across from me noticed it and told me how much she loved it. She couldn’t wait to hear what part I was on because she thought it was so good.

Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me.

I kept waiting for the moment when everything clicked, but it never did. I have a feeling there was some social commentary that went completely over my head because I finished the book wondering why so many people loved it. For me, it was simply…fine. Not bad, but not nearly as memorable as I expected. It ended up being a solid three-star read.

Part of my disappointment came from what I thought the story was going to be. I expected a tradwife influencer who carefully curates a picture-perfect life online to suddenly find herself in the 1800s, where she’d have to make bread from scratch, manage a farm, and discover that real pioneer life is much harder than the aesthetic she sells. I imagined it would be a humorous fish-out-of-water story.

Instead, Natalie already hates the life she’s built. She keeps up the image because she believes it’s her calling—and because it pays well.

After I finished writing my own review, I finally read what other people were saying. It seems the novel is intended to be satire, whether about tradwife culture, social media, or both. That may explain why it didn’t land for me. I never found it particularly funny; instead, it felt more sad than satirical. I know we’re not supposed to root for Natalie, but I also didn’t find her story especially entertaining.

This is actually the book I mentioned in my July Wrap-Up as the one that helped send me into a reading slump. I went into it with really high expectations, and they just weren’t met.

That said, I’m clearly in the minority on this one. Plenty of readers connected with it, so if the premise intrigues you, I’d still encourage you to give it a try and see where you land.