I loved this book. The protagonist was deliciously unlikeable and sociopathic. Her voice was written at a perfect pitch. The quality of the writing was high and this is an elevated and layered novel.

The underlying themes of oppression, choices and faith worked really well and the author explored these with humour and thoughtfulness. I was hooked reading this and hadn't predicted the twisty ending.

This is an exceptional novel. I can't wait to see where the author goes next.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. The writing dazzles on a sentence level and the end blew my mind away. This might be one of those unicorn novels where the comparisons to Gone Girl are earned.
The author nails authenticity in so many areas - teenage attitude, toddlers attachments to their moms, a nanny's perspective, career oriented women's perspective, I could go on and on.....The ending broke my heart and I did not see the twist coming.
Brilliant! 10/10

I was absolutely addicted to Yesteryear. The twists and turns in the story had me completely gripped. By the time I reach the end I wasn't sure what I'd read - in a good way. This commentary on modern America is blistering satire. It's scary, gripping, and impossible to look away. It's like a car crash happening right in front of your eyes.
Fans of Margaret Atwood will love this. It is so contemporary and simultaneously extremely distopian.
Excellent, extremely unlikeable characters, who you some how feel empathetic towards and find yourself rooting for.

Natalie has the good Christian trad wife life down. A beautiful organic farm, a handsome husband, five gorgeous children and another on the way, a lifestyle paid for by her 2 million instagram followers who love and hate her in equal measure, literally buying what she has to sell (aprons, chopping boards, paint - if you can see it you can own it). Of course what those followers don't see is what it takes to be this perfect. The discipline, the long days, the modern appliances concealed behind doors in the traditional kitchen, the two nannies, farm hands and producer who keep the children fed and educated, the farm going and the camera rolling.
It's the hidden staff and the modern trappings which give Natalie to the time she needs to so lucratively cos play at modern pioneer living, selling an unattainable dream - until the day she wakes up in a version of her life, one she doesn't recognise. It's her house, but stripped of the concealed pantry with its fridges and mixers. an outhouse, no laundry. Her husband but not, children who call her Mama she doesn't recognise. Natalie knows what's going on, this is some kind of reality show, right? She's being tested and all she needs is to smile for the cameras. But as things get dark she is forced to consider the unthinkable, what if this really is her life?
Yesteryear is a darkly funny and scathing dystopian look at contemporary renactments of the past, feminism, American conservative Christianity, social media and the way all these collide in the modern world. Clever and compelling.

I found this book fascinating. Obviously it’s fiction but it illuminates; Family Vloggers, the Christian right and ‘Tradwives’. I could not put this book down.

This was an interesting read with well thought out characters and even some humor. I enjoyed it. 4.5 stars rounded up.
Thank you for the arc.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke was a wild ride! A novel where an influencer pushing polarising Christian family values from her kitch farmstead finds herself suddenly living the kind of life she preaches in her home that isn’t quite her home and with her family who aren’t quite her family. Has she gone back in time? Died and gone to purgatory? Been subject to a mad reality TV show set in the past? I had so much fun finding out! Yesteryear is out April 2026 🐄 🍞 👩‍🌾

This was amazing! Full of twists that I didn’t seen coming and I thus raced through the book. Fully recommend

Absolutely loved this book, a satire on the trad wife influencers and a sharp and often amusing look at how social media influences and affects not only those actively participating but also those dragged into the machine as it gathers pace.
The heroine Natalie is truly dislikeable until the very end - a sociopath with no empathy at all for anyone else but the author manages to make every character interesting in their own way.

A fabulously written gripping story that was a pleasure to read. I would absolutely recommend this book, it was brilliant

This is a book I didn't want to end, but couldn't help tearing through. The premise is great: Tradwife influencer Natalie in her fake homely homestead has millions of followers but her folksy bread making, warm egg-collecting and God-praising life is a sham.
Behind the scenes are nannies, Mexican farmhands, a microwave and a video producer, making it all look perfect. Then she wakes up in a far grittier version of Little House On The Prairie. It's cold, dark and grim. Has she gone back in time? Is it some extreme reality TV show?
We dip back into Natalie's life before Insta-stardom, including excruciating scenes of her as an insufferably prim student room mate, and learn how she marries into a US political family.
There's much to mull on, aside from the very entertaining forays into Natalie's (clearly) far from perfect family and husband. It's about women constantly being scrutinised and watched, self policing themselves.
It's about US politics and power and the insidious creep of social media.
It's about the far-right patriarchy sequestering religion and women to achieve their aims. Oh my, I loved it more than apple pie with a dollop of home-churned cream on top.
It made me angry and it made me laugh out loud. Bravo

This was incredible, an easy 4.5/5⭐️s. Yesteryear follows our main character Natalie, a trade wife/mommy influencer who just might be the most insufferable character ever with her self righteousness and insane lack of self reflection. We start of thinking she is the perfect Christian mommy/wife and slowly as the book evolves, her layers are peeled back and we see the rot that lies beneath. I really enjoyed the satirical take on this influencer aesthetic and the pacing/shifting timelines only added to the intrigue. Amazing, will definitely be keen to read more by this author!!!

I'd been fascinated by the premise of this book since I saw the announcement in The Bookseller and was beyond delighted when I was able to get my hands on it early. It was brilliantly written and has expertly captured the craziness of the Tradwife tradition that seems to be taking social media by storm.

I was totally absorbed when Natalie woke up in 1805 and found myself wanting to spend more time there than I did understanding the background of her life. At times it felt like there was a bit too much of Natalie's past and not enough time spent with her in 1805 but that was very much a personal preference. Somehow, I had expected a time slip novel (nowhere does it say this, but it was my personal assumption and I adore a time slip) and so I was a bit gutted by the ending but I think it was executed BRILLIANTLY. I loved how realisation of what is going on dawns on the reader at the same time as it does for Natalie.

The cast were throughly unlikeable but so well drawn. Such a top book and this is going to be absolutely huge next year, and it deserves all the success it gets. Thank you so much for the early copy.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke commences with Natalie Heller Mills, whose life outwardly embodies the archetype of rural domestic tranquility. She maintains a carefully constructed online persona, presenting her family and home as exemplars of traditional American values. This constructed reality rapidly unravels when Natalie is thrust into a far grittier, more primitive version of her world; one stripped of familiar comforts and reliant on sheer survival. The novel’s central tension concerns Natalie’s struggle to comprehend and eventually escape this jarring new environment, which compels her to reevaluate her sense of self and the reality she previously curated.

Natalie’s transformation operates on both a physical and psychological plane. Initially, she clings to the trappings of her former life: an idealized home, her family’s image, and her social media following. However, bereft of modern conveniences, she is forced to confront a more vulnerable and authentic version of herself. Secondary characters, her husband and children, undergo significant shifts as well, revealing unexpected strengths and vulnerabilities that disrupt the foundation of Natalie’s previously idealized existence. These evolving dynamics catalyze Natalie’s movement beyond superficial notions of womanhood, family, and resilience; her development is gradual, credible, and emotionally resonant.

Thematically, the novel interrogates the tension between tradition and reality, the performative aspects of contemporary femininity, and the dissonance between public image and private experience. Such concerns bear particular weight in the context of modern social media, where self-presentation, especially for women, often takes precedence over authenticity. Burke also explores concepts of faith and endurance under extreme adversity, prompting reflection on the degree to which identity is shaped by circumstance and the seductive nature of the illusion of stability.

Burke’s prose is direct and accessible, balancing a tone of wry humor with the suspense intrinsic to Natalie’s predicament. The narrative structure, transitioning from the comfort of Natalie’s digital existence to the starkness of her altered reality, effectively conveys the protagonist’s disorientation. The language is vivid yet unpretentious, capturing the dramatic shift in atmosphere from curated domesticity to palpable struggle. While there are moments where deeper emotional complexity might have enriched the narrative, the overall pacing remains consistently engaging.

Yesteryear distinguishes itself by integrating social critique with elements of psychological suspense, resulting in a text that is both thought-provoking and compelling. The novel situates itself firmly within the genres of suspense and speculative fiction, while also incorporating themes common to domestic drama and even horror.

Its most significant achievement lies in its probing examination of authenticity, survival, and the personal costs of performative living, leaving the reader with lasting questions regarding the nature of identity and the pursuit of perfection.

Yesteryear follows Natalie who lives a traditional lifestyle and has been called a trad wife on social media. She lives with her family on a working ranch as she is the homemaker and her husband a cowboy. It would seem Natalie has the perfect life but she hides the nannies and industrial-grade equipment behind the screens. Natalie’s perfect life could blow up when a scandal hits and one morning she wakes up in a different version of her life. It would appear she is in 1805, the Pioneer days. The world is horrible and she doesn’t understand what’s going on, her husband and children are familiar to her but she can’t quite make sense of it. She starts to think it could be a reality show or a test from God but she knows she has to find a way out of this world in order to survive.

Honestly, I think this could be my favourite book of 2025. I cannot stop thinking about this book and the reveal has blown my mind. If you only read one book in 2026 then it needs to be this one. The writing was great and the story so compelling. At first, I thought this was just going to be a book about the new tradwife trend on social media but this is such a complex story. It deals with religion, social media and the abuse/neglect children can experience from things like momfluencing. This book has so much to say and I loved every second of it. I never guessed what the reveal was and it’s been haunting me since I finished reading this. This was absolutely amazing. It had some snarky humour and some interesting conversations on changing religious beliefs. I found it easy to relate to young Natalie and how she felt isolated from her peers and I found it fascinating how her character developed. To sum up: I loved this and I won’t stop thinking about this book for a long time.

This book completely gripped me. It’s one of those rare books that feels both timely and timeless — a story about image, identity, and the curated lives we present to the world, told through an utterly original lens.

From the opening chapters, Burke builds an atmosphere that’s unsettling and absorbing. The writing is sharp and confident, and the pacing is masterful. What really stood out to me, though, was Natalie herself. She’s deeply flawed, not a good person, and she goes to some really dark places, but I couldn’t look away. Even when I thought I didn’t like her, I realised I was completely gripped by her Burke allows her to be both the victim and the architect of her own story, and that nuance makes the novel feel real and emotionally resonant.

The structure — part dual timeline, part psychological puzzle — is clever without ever feeling contrived. Each shift in time adds another layer to Natalie’s life, her choices, and the illusion of perfection she’s built. The book explores modern womanhood, motherhood, and the pressures of public identity with a wit and honesty that feel incredibly fresh.

The ending was perfect too - not overly neat, but still deeply satisfying. It tied together the story’s threads while leaving enough room for reflection, which felt exactly right.

Burke’s use of voice and tone, along with her ability to balance satire, suspense, and emotional depth, made this an unforgettable read. I truly couldn’t predict where it was going next, and that’s rare for me. A stunning, intelligent debut that I’ll be recommending widely.

Loved this! It's so clever. It does require a big suspension of disbelief BUT that was fine by me. It feels really fresh and so on-the-nose for today's culture. Funny and sharp.

A very interesting read and very inventive. If you're a good Christian traf wife, why not publicise your goodness and family values on social media.

But, just what does it takes to maintain an illusion of perfection and old fashioned family values.

What happens when you start to believe all the hype yourself and end up doing anything you can to attract more followers.

A very different read and well worth picking up the book

wow this was incredible from start to finish. such a good plot line - ballerina farm meets a thriller. I read this in one sitting and I was captivated trying to figure out all the twists.

Love, love, love this novel! I really needed this book. So totally different to anything else out there currently. The story of an All American Trad wife who becomes a huge social media star and influencer. Youll know the type. . We've all seen the perfect family poses in the country, the perfect lifestyles. This novel takes us behind the scenes. Told with great humour, painfully accurate and perceptive. Theres a dark side too, and i was constantly left guessing which way it would twist and turn next.
A brilliant read. Highly recommended.

Natalie has made herself the envy of millions on social media through her account of her life on Yesteryear Farm, where she lives a supposedly simple, natural lifestyle with her cowboy husband, adorable children and cute animals. Adored and loathed in equal measure for her anti-feminist, back-to-basics portrayal of family happiness, she conceals the many staff, mod cons and chemical additives that keep things going behind the scenes. but then one day she wakes up to find herself living the harsh realities of the early prairie homestead life she has championed online- in other words, living a nightmare rather than a dream. This unusual, sharp novel skewers the modern myths seen in “tradwife” presentations, the deceptive but powerful world of social media and the ability of the wealthy to invent lives for themselves which are really just playing at reality. Some incidents are so ridiculous as to be hilarious, but a sadness also underpins the narrative- these delusions can be damaging. Thought- provoking and insightful, there are several twists that keep the reader guessing through to the stunning ending.

Damn! Now THIS is an amazing book. I read it cover to cover today because I HAD to know what in the world was going on. Natalie and her husband run Yesteryear Ranch and she has amassed a hug social media following. However, things are not as they seem. And then one day she wakes up on a distorted version of Yestyear, a version stuck in the 1800's. Can she get home or is she trapped here forever?

A 400+ page book that felt like 200 and I still didn’t want it to end.

Yesteryear is the definition of Instagram v reality, but more literary.

Natalie seems to have it all. The handsome husband, photogenic children, trad-wife aesthetic, the online following, the fantasy. What more could she want? But when that “traditional” life becomes her actual, inescapable reality, it all becomes too much. What follows is rage, grief, longing, love, and the kind of emotional discomfort that sinks its teeth in and won’t let go.

This isn’t quite the magical realism the blurb may make you think, but it doesn’t need to be. Every character is a little unbearable and somehow unforgettable. deeply flawed, occasionally tender, and impossible not to care about.

And the ending? Wow. Clever. Original. Devastating.

Five stars, no hesitation. I already know I need a physical copy for my trophy shelf of all time favourites.

Thank you @4thestatebooks and @netgalley for the early read, this one is going to stay with me

Would you love to see what happens if one of those farmsteading-type #tradwives got sent back to the actual age they romanticize?

I would - which is the itch Yesteryear (by @caroclaireburke) scratches:

Natalie Heller Mills is a hit on Instagram, with her perfect life and her perfect family on her gorgeous, perfect farm. She’s showing all those awful feminists she went to university with. (Well, she started uni with them anyway.) She just knows how jealous they are.

I don’t want to tell you more as not to give away too much, but it delivers all this in a book that’s both dark and funny. It’s a book I think you’ll be heating lots about on 2026. (The film rights have already been been snapped dup after an 11-way auction won by Anne Hathaway.)

Yesteryear is the most compulsive read I’ve had in a while. (I’ve read lots of books that I loved, but not ones that I was itching to pick up and read more pages to see what is going to happen next). The pages just fly by. It touches on everything that’s bubbling in our culture: the #tradwife trend, influencers and social media, the involvement of children - and the trim of religion and politics around it all. It’s the book that you know as soon as you pick it up, “this is the story I want to see” (then, “dammit, why didn’t I think of writing it?!”)

I have some…thoughts...about it: there’s an aspect of the resolution which mentally pulled me a bit out of the story - but the result isn’t a book I’m itching to critique so much as have a good chat about! Speaking of: if you’ve read, it, what did you think? I’m eager to know!

I could not stop reading this book. The whole way I was trying to figure out what was really going on and I did not succeed so the ending was a great twist. If you like unlikeable characters then this book is for you, the main character is not a nice person but everything she is going through and thinking just draws you in to hear what's going to happen next.
This is a fantastic debut and I can't wait for more from this author in the future.

An incredible book that kept me hooked until the end. I was completely drawn into the concept of the ‘mommy-bloggers’ but the twists and turns this took I could not have predicted. Really well written, I will definitely look out for more by this author!

Yesteryear is a bravura fever-dream of a novel I didn't want to end, apart from it was stopping me from doing anything else until it was finished. With hints of Little House on the Prairie (which I just loved as a kid)! and more recent memoirs of social-media influencers' put-upon kids, such as Shari Francke's In The House of My Mother, Yesteryear is a book you won't forget in a hurry.

With thanks to the publisher for the ARC and Lucy Ayrton for the recommendation.

In one lifetime, Natalie Heller Mills is a 'good Christian woman' a bit too smart for her own good and hard to like, who marries a man without ambition from a rich political family. Mildly screwed up by her own upbringing (her mother keeps referring to her father as being dead when he isn't), she fails to make friends at college until Caleb comes along. Realising he may not have been the best choice, she quickly realises she has to pad out her finances with Instagram money even after a significant loan from her presidential-wannabe father-in-law Doug, who is rallying rural Americans by preaching of oncoming civil war.

In another lifetime, Natalie wakes up in a dark, amenity-free house, similar to what the Ingalls family might have experienced in real pioneer times, with four additional children she hasn't met before and a husband who is brutal, but better at satisfying certain needs than she remembers...

The story unfolds at breakneck speed, leaving the reader gasping. A thought-provoking take on faith, Christianity, the roles of women and men and family love - despite everything - this deserves to be up there with Gone Girl, One Day and The Names.

What on "God's" snowy Idaho mountains was that?!
This book was a wild ride! I had high expectations going in and wanted to wait until the new year so I could start it with a banger of a read and this absolutely delivered!
Natalie is a typical "tradwife" influencer and lives the seemingly perfect life with her seemingly perfect family on her seemingly perfect farm. One day though, she wakes up and everything is far from perfect...
It is a testament to the book that I stuck with it to the end. Never once did I consider putting it aside despite having no idea what was happening until about the 80% mark and the 1st person narrator is probably the most odious character whose head I've ever had the displeasure to enter.
We have two different timelines and the way they were handled was so well done. I particularly appreciated the way they <spoiler>started to blur into each other towards the end, adding to the confusion as we were getting closer to the reveal</spoiler>.
There's so much going on here: commentary on social media and influencer culture is most prevalent but I also really appreciated all the misinformation and conspiracy theory mentions and how pervasive that is among people who should know better. Religion, privilege, misogyny and the circus that is American politics are also featured throughout.
My one gripe was <spoiler>the thing with Shannon. I'm not sure making it a sexual assault was necessary. It came from nowhere and it took me out of the story as there were zero flags for that. And even if I believe Natalie was a closeted lesbian because of all her religious fanaticism this gives off "bad, scary lesbian" energy which I don't feel comfortable with either</spoiler>.
If you don't enjoy an extremely unlikeable protagonist you might want to skip this but I loved every second I spent hating this woman!

This is dystopian writing at its very best! What a roller coaster ride; filled with humour and sneaky stabs at sheeple followers of influencers who believe everything they see and a shallow materialistic society in general. It’s quirky, but in a good way because despite not being of the generation that’s obsessed with social media, I found the whole premise both fascinating and intriguing. The lifestyle portrayed is an illusion. The perfect wife, husband, children, ranch etc all come at a price and the 2 million followers don’t see behind the scenes. Then the nightmare begins. Absolutely pitch perfect in building the dream then pulling the pin to watch it unravel and present a different reality. I loved this and I’d happily read anything this articulate and inventive author writes.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

This was such a fun ride! Really not what I was expecting and by all means certainly surpassed my expectations. Thought it was deftly written and packed with some brilliant comical insights into the influencer/online culture we are experiencing. The setup is great and what unfolds (I don't want to spoil anything!) is so original and engaging. A real stand out book for 2026!

I heard @caroclaireburke talk about this book at the @4thestatebooks showcase last month and I wanted to pick it up immediately. It's such a fun concept that is also extremely dark. 

Natalie is the perfect trad wife influencer, she had 4 beautiful children with a 5th on the way and a fantastic social media platform from which she showcases her family and their farm. However, behind social media perfection life isn't exactly what it seems. The children hate her and spend their whole lives with the nannies, the farm has so many helpers and Natalie and Caleb don't really get on. 

Natalie then somehow gets thrown back in time to a real homestead, in which there is no electricity and the man really does rule the roost. She thinks she must have been kidnapped or maybe in some kind of reality TV show. The fact that whenever she tries to leave she is stopped doesn't help this. We then flick between Natalie in the past and the lead up to the day everything changed. 

I absolutely loved this book. It was funny and incredibly dark. I was also thrown by the ending. When this comes out next year you have to read it. I can't wait to reread it again.

Yesteryear has been one of my most anticipated reads of 2026 and I was so excited to get to the right stage in my TBR to start reading it.

Natalie is a Christian tradwife influencer who has it all – the cowboy husband, a beautiful barn house and 5 children with one on the way, all as God intended. One day, she wakes up and something is not quite right - the team of nannies and producers are nowhere to be found, all of her electronic gadgets have gone and the height mark notches on the wall say ‘1805’. Can she work out what is happening and escape?

From the books I’ve read so far, it really feels like 2026 is the year of the unlikeable, female protagonist. Natalie is no exception to this – she’s bitter and twisted, sociopathic and unempathetic. Through the plot we learn more and more about her life and the more we learn, the worse she gets. The chapters alternate between the events in the 1805 ranch and flashbacks of Natalie’s past – starting at university and moving forward all the way up to the events of the first chapter. This writing style had me hooked throughout and every chapter provided important context for Natalie’s backstory and personality. There are also some great moments of humour throughout which had me laughing out loud.

I don’t want to give too much away with this review – I would urge you to read it and find out what is happening for yourself! I would say I think the reveal will divide readers, it’s a fun twist but some parts of it don’t make much sense on closer inspection. I think it will be a book that will be talked about a lot in 2026 and I’m excited to read reactions – I imagine they’ll be a few ‘angry women’ who have opinions!

Overall, Yesteryear was one of my most anticipated reads of 2026 and it certainly did not disappoint – a Kindig Gem for 2026! Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.