Yesteryear was one of those books I picked up knowing very little about and finished in a way I didn’t see coming. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
At its core this is a story about what we see versus what is actually there. We’ve all done it, scrolled through someone’s feed and found ourselves wanting their life, their kitchen, their husband, their routine. What we never see is what’s behind the camera, the setup, the mess, the reality that doesn’t make the cut. Yesteryear pulls back that curtain in a way that feels both wildly entertaining and uncomfortably honest.
Natalie is a tradwife influencer with millions of followers who believe she is living the perfect traditional life, homemade bread, a handsome cowboy husband, a farmhouse full of beautiful children. The reality, of course, is something else entirely. Nannies, producers, industrial appliances hidden behind the aesthetic. And her husband, who reads as the perfect partner online, is in reality a man with no work ethic and very little spine. We romanticise homemaking and farm life so easily from a distance, and Yesteryear doesn’t let you forget how different the reality actually is.
Image: Courtesy of Knopf/Penguin Random House
When I first started the book I found Natalie genuinely unlikable, the way she speaks about her life and the people in it is grating and at times uncomfortable. But that’s exactly the point. As you learn more about how she became who she is, something shifts. She didn’t arrive at this life out of ambition alone, there’s a desperation underneath it all, a need for control that makes her choices make a certain kind of terrible sense.
Then the book takes a turn that I won’t spoil, but Natalie wakes up somewhere she doesn’t fully understand, and the whole time you’re reading you’re asking yourself where is she really? What is this life she’s woken up into? The back and forth between timelines kept me completely hooked, and the questions the book raises about authenticity, performance and what we’re willing to believe about the lives we see online linger long after the last page.
It’s darkly funny, a little unhinged and completely impossible to put down. One of the most original books I’ve read in a long time and one I’d recommend without hesitation.
A note on spoilers: This review is intentionally vague because the less you know going in the better the experience.
You can find Yesteryear on Amazon or support an independent bookstore through Bookshop.org.
Rating: ★★★★★
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If you enjoyed this review you might also like my thoughts on Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, another character driven story that will leave you questioning everything.
