Book Review: ‘Yesteryear’ by Claire Caro Burke (a trad wife takedown)

‘Yesteryear’ is already one of the most-talked about books of the year and it’s barely been out a month, but I completely get why. I was in when reading this and I struggled to put it down; it hooked me immediately and I loved it. It’s clever, brilliantly written, and with a twist that made me gasp aloud on a train…

Natalie lives in a picturesque ranch with her cowboy husband, broadcasting her life as she makes perfect sourdough loaves in her simple (but eye-wateringly expensive) natural linen dresses to millions on Instagram. It’s absolutely fine that they can’t see the nannies and the producers that help her run her life.

One morning, following a series of stressful and potentially life-altering events, Natalie wakes up in the 1800s with an altered version of her home, life, and family. Is it a prank? A reality TV show? Whatever it is, it’s not the life she signed up for and she needs to escape. Right now.

It’s no secret that ‘Yesteryear’ is a novel eviscerating the trend of trad wife influencers and that alone intrigued me. One of my guilty YouTube pleasures is homesteader vlogs, only a step below the trad wife influencers in terms of who I watch, but I can see the beginnings of it and I find the way that they live fascinating, and it’s impossible not to see the perceived simplicity with a sense of wistfulness.

‘Yesteryear’ highlights how the idealisation of the traditional lifestyle: having a farm, growing your own food, scratch cooking everything, homeschooling, and having a whole brood of children, is only enjoyable with the conveniences of 2026 and a whole lot of outside help. The way that the behind the scenes are slowly unfolded and kept from Natalie’s audience is brilliant and it really made me think about what I don’t see of the channels that I watch.

It’s very obvious that though Natalie preaches the traditional life, she doesn’t actually live one, and when does, she’s horrified. When she finds herself in the past, the realities of living without modern amenities are brutal and horrifying. An injury genuinely risking death, nearly starving when the land doesn’t produce as it should, doing washing for so many people making her hands bleed, and the realities of being a woman in pioneer times.

That’s a lot of what ‘Yesteryear’ explores: womanhood. Natalie scorns modern women. They’re reluctance to get married and have kids, their focus on a career and independence. She thinks them secretly miserable and longing for her life; but she thinks that they’re afraid of her and the life she preaches because they’re feminists and they shouldn’t want it. It’s a common misinterpretation of feminism, often shouted by certain demographics of which Natalie is a part of. It’s fascinating to watch her slowly start to feel envy for these modern women and their freedom, especially when she finds herself in the past she gets everything that she was pretending to have. It’s a brutal realisation and while Natalie is an awful person, I did occasionally feel a flicker of pity for her instead because being a woman in any time or place is hard and confronting and filled with oppression.

‘Yesteryear’ is an eviscerating takedown of influencer culture and glamourising the past when living without its realities. I loved it and I’m already eager to see what Caro Claire Burke writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fourth Estate for the review copy.