allison ✒️ reviewed Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
4.0 stars
My head feels rattled by this book. There are many layers, and it's pretty intense. I read it quickly, too. I'd like to go back and read more slowly again. The way the protagonist angered me, yet at the same time I felt like she was naive and I felt bad for her -- these feelings made the book so complicated, and well-written. The layers of performativity and expectation for women throughout the novel become incredibly dense as it goes on. Those layers make women stressed out, miserable, confused, and sometimes just crazy.
The protagonist is thoroughly unlikable. I don't think I've read a book where I hated the protagonist so much. And that's how well she's written. She is not a badly done character. She is a kind of woman who exists in the world -- though a bit exaggerated. The intense conservative beliefs, the way she has …
My head feels rattled by this book. There are many layers, and it's pretty intense. I read it quickly, too. I'd like to go back and read more slowly again. The way the protagonist angered me, yet at the same time I felt like she was naive and I felt bad for her -- these feelings made the book so complicated, and well-written. The layers of performativity and expectation for women throughout the novel become incredibly dense as it goes on. Those layers make women stressed out, miserable, confused, and sometimes just crazy.
The protagonist is thoroughly unlikable. I don't think I've read a book where I hated the protagonist so much. And that's how well she's written. She is not a badly done character. She is a kind of woman who exists in the world -- though a bit exaggerated. The intense conservative beliefs, the way she has trapped herself in her life, and the fact that she thinks she's better than others for doing so. I couldn't help but be enamored with a pure look of disgust. When talking about her Instagram account, she talks about people who hate-watch her because they actually want to be her. That may or may not be the case, but I feel similar to those viewers because I couldn't look away from her. I'm amazed by this debut.
Natalie is ostensibly a happy wife and mother with an aspirational life on a huge ranch. She cooks, and plays, and feeds chickens. And she's so happy doing it. She's so in love. Everything is perfect. But that is so not the case, and this is slowly revealed. After the first chapter detailing all of this, Natalie wakes up in the 1800s. No electricity. An outhouse. A gruff husband and children she doesn't recognize. This is the life she was playing at, and now this is the life she has. The book unfolds with flashbacks of present-day Natalie's life leading up to the first chapter of the book, and what's happening in the 1800s.
I was enthralled nearly the entire time. This book is definitely a slow-burn, which is not my favorite kind of story. But I kept going and going because I needed to know more. My rating is also not 5 stars because some things get pretty repetitive. On the one hand, there's a point to it. As the plot quickens and sharpens, the repetition makes a lot of sense. But at other times, it just felt like Natalie was rehashing a lot more than she needed to.
I would definitely re-read this and recommend it. I think its message and story could be enjoyably analyzed because Burke put so much into those layers.