Book review: Yesteryear

​Yesteryear has been impossible to avoid lately, and for good reason. Anne Hathaway read it, attached herself to it, and the book landed a publishing deal and a film deal essentially at the same time—instant hype, and instant online debate about tradwives and influencer culture.

The novel follows Natalie Heller Hills, a tradwife and Christian influencer pregnant with her sixth child, who is living what looks like her dream life: recreating pioneer living on her farm, Yesteryear. As we get deeper into her world as a successful influencer, the layers peel back, and it becomes clear that "online Natalie" and "real-life Natalie" are locked in a quiet battle for dominance. Then Natalie wakes up in a nightmare version of reality—actually living as a pioneer woman, with only her memories of the influencer world and the contemporary life she left behind. Is someone playing a prank on her? Is this real? The book holds that uncertainty well, and the payoff, when it comes, is sublime—the hope of it is worth the ride.

What makes Yesteryear so interesting is the tension it exposes in the tradwife concept itself. The "traditional wife" archetype is supposed to be the stay-at-home woman who cooks, cleans, does everything, and submits to her husband. But the influencers performing that role online are often the ones actually earning the money—they become the primary breadwinners, which quietly flips the whole dynamic the archetype is built on. Burke digs into that contradiction with real insight, and it's the same tension that makes something like *The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives* so compelling to watch—women who look like the tradwife ideal on the surface but are, in practice, bucking it constantly.

A couple of lines from early in the book stuck with me. On page five:

"And who was I? A flawless Christian woman, the manic pixie American dream girl on this nation's deepest, darkest fantasies, the mother every woman wanted to be and the wife every man wanted to come home to. Like a nun in an apron, it didn't make sense, but also by God it worked."

And on page six:

"That's the thing about being a mother and a wife and an influencer all at the same time. It's basically like breastfeeding three babies simultaneously, like seducing three lovers at once."

Both had me laughing out loud, and both capture exactly what the book does best: holding up the fantasy Natalie sells online next to the reality of what it costs her, and exploring the psychological toll of curating a "perfect" life for public consumption.

Yesteryear is a contentious book—people seem to either love it or hate it, and I don't think anyone reads it impartially. I loved it, toll and all. I'll be watching the movie when it comes out. Anne Hathaway, do it for me.

Rating: Recommended, especially if you're drawn to stories about motherhood, faith, feminism, and the strange economics of internet fame.