No spoiler overview
It feels like most of my Instagram feed is talking about Yesteryear. I was not personally drawn to the premise, but so many people were talking that I got curious. If you aren’t familiar, the novel follows Natalie, a tradwife influencer, who mysteriously gets plopped back into the era that she’s glamorizing.
One reason this book is getting so much attention: it’s already been picked up by Anne Hathaway and Amazon MGM for a film adaptation. I didn’t realize this until reading the acknowledgements, where Burke thanks Hathaway for “workshopping” Natalie’s character with her. While I understand the gold standard has become having a book adapted for the screen, this rubbed me the wrong way. A book is a book… I don’t want it influenced by “the next thing” while it’s being written.
Generally, I have a harder time with books that are hyped up to this level. I like going into a book blind; the lack of expectations helps me get a real sense of my own view. Because I had already heard so much, I think my expectations were a bit too high. This was not a must-read to me. It’s a very promising debut novel on a topical, controversial subject that people already feel strongly about.
Check out Yesteryear from Trove Bookstore
Full review
The main reason I felt this book didn’t meet the expectations is because of Natalie herself as a character. She was made out to be deeply unlikable, disgusting to many. I didn’t feel that way about her. I didn’t like her, but I mainly felt sorry for her. The girl made her own jail, brick by brick. Natalie decided early on that everyone was beneath her, then used that foundation to build up hate and mistrust of everyone in her life until it broke her. As the people in her life started to change their views – her mother, her sister, her daughter – she dug into her beliefs even further. She couldn’t make all of the pieces fit into her view anymore, and it drove her mad.
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like Natalie’s character was developed enough to really drive this point home. There’s not enough to make the big decision to turn the ranch “back in time” very understandable. It still feels like a super bizarre choice, and it also isn’t justified that anyone in their lives would let that happen.
While I think satirizing the tradwife moment is justified, that bigger point got lost to me. I also think there were a lot of subthemes to the story, so it felt like nothing was able to really land well.
Renting with Trove Bookstore
I could tell before I read this that I was not going to want to keep it on my (already limited) bookshelf. But being number 1000 on the hold list at the library was going to take quite a while to get it. Enter: Trove Bookstore. Their model allows you to rent new books for 30 days for around $10-15 (depending on the title). If you like the book, you can pay the remaining to keep it. If not, you’ll print the return label and send it back at the end of your rental period.
Check out Trove Bookstore using “JDL10″ for 10% off your order (limit one per customer).
Disclosure: This book rental was gifted to me by Trove Bookstore