Yesteryear follows Natalie, a Trad Wife Influencer, who, after an incident with her producer, wakes up in what feels like an alternate universe where her life is nearly exactly the same as it was before, but it is now 1855. She wakes up in a house that is exactly the same as her old house, except all modern luxuries are missing, and she also has a family that is somehow familiar but entirely alien to her at the same time.
I will start off by saying Natalie is one of the most unsympathetic characters I’ve ever experienced in a book. I hated her from start to end, which I believe is the point and makes her very realistic, because she felt like someone who would exist.
Her entire influencer empire is built upon lies; while she is a Trad Wife, everything else is a front. Her organic farm uses pesticides; she has off-camera nannies taking care of her kids; she has all the modern appliances hidden away in the pantry, and they hire migrant workers constantly to keep what crops they have alive because her husband certainly can’t do it. She pretends that her husband, Caleb, and she do it all themselves, when really they have Caleb’s daddy bankrolling the whole thing.
This is a book that was honestly a great read, and it left me guessing where they were going with the story. I had partially guessed where it would end up, but it did leave me satisfied with where it ended up.
Yesteryear is one of those books where I’d rate it 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for literary value, but maybe a 3 raccoon 🦝🦝🦝 for how much I enjoyed reading it. That had entirely to do with how much I hated Natalie.
This would be great as a book club read, but otherwise I will not be re-reading this at any point in the future.
If you’re interested in checking it out, you can get it here: https://amzn.to/4xI5eDZ
Katastrophe Chef 
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