05/29/2026
Trad wife culture, family vloggers, manosphere ideology, curated femininity and the rotten underbelly that performative perfection hides. Oh, how I wanted to love Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. For those that don’t know, this novel is about a trad wife influencer who finds herself thrown into the reality of 1855.
The premise for this novel had all the ingredients for a sharp, unsettling social “horror” story being marketed as a psychological thriller. Unfortunately, I think the author bit off a bit more than she could chew for her debut novel. Separately these are all great themes to write a novel on. They’re reactive and they're modern topics currently trending online but together all at once it’s overcrowded, and impossible to fully develop causing it to read choppy and in places hard to follow.
The book is very obviously inspired by the TikTok sensation and “queen of the trad wives” Hannah Neeleman aka Ballerina Farm and with the addition of Shannon the social media producer in the book it gives a slight nod to the Sunday Times profile by Megan Agnew who brought to light how problematic the trad wife trend is.
That said, there are certain areas that I really enjoyed. There’s allot of dark humor that had me chuckling and the part where her husband Caleb (not to be confused with “old Caleb”) with his whole chest explains that rats are the reason ALL New Yorkers are stupid it had me rolling with the absurdity. And of course, the end. While I could kind of see where the end was going (as would any M. Night Shyamalan fan) it is actually well written. Which makes me wonder if this wouldn’t have been better as a short story.
Overall, I fully believe that the hype for this book was paid for by BookTok. But I can also see where Yesteryear shows a bit of promise and I honestly look forward to Caro Claire Burkes next book. If you're interested in checking this book out I do have one copy left at the bookstore and will be open 5:30-8:00 tonight!
*Reading is deeply personal, and what doesn’t work for me may absolutely work for someone else. This review reflects my experience with this book. This is not a judgement of those who loved it or the author.*
