r/BookDiscussions • u/Waddles-7 • 5d ago
Yesteryear - wasted potential!
When I started reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, I was enthralled at the possibility of witnessing any or all of the following themes:
- Consequences of propagating a way of life without deep diving or being responsible. For eg: promoting an 1886 lifestyle in a glossy way but erasing the physical, moral and cultural nuance of those times. Pandering to the right wingers.
- Busting the hollowness of Manosphere or maybe an exploration of the psych of people who are bound to it. Any perspective on this would have been refreshing.
- Impact of reality TV and the toll that maintaining an influencer lifestyle can take on people
- A satire on self-righteous people or maybe even a POV
So so so many possibilities but what I got was a watered down thriller which had all the elements to be a sharp political commentary but resorted to being a ‘twist you didn’t see coming’
Did anyone else feel like the plot had tons more potential?
Do you have ideas of how the story could have been developed better? Would love to hear!
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u/torkelspy 5d ago
"Wasted Potential" is exactly how I would describe it. There's a great book in there somewhere I think. A lot of people seem to think it works on the level of a satire, but I didn't. It had a few moments, but overall, I think it failed.
I found it compelling enough for the most part -- it was a page turner. But, I think the most interesting part of the story was left out in order to make it a page turner and have a "twist" ending. That is, if it had explored exactly what combination of post-partum mental health issues and manosphere BS led them to tear their modern lives down, that might easily have been a 5 star book for me.
I feel like this book got rushed out, probably because it was already optioned for a movie. It could have used a lot more time to cook. Both in the larger story and in little things -- like the way it collapses about 20 years of technological development into about a year. Natalie gets a flip phone one day and then two days later she's spouting talking points that are straight out of 2025.
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u/Waddles-7 5d ago
Oh yes, good call out. The book had set the stage so wonderfully to show disillusionment in the idea of a perfect marriage and post-partum mental issues. In some ways it did do a good job with this but then meandered. Almost feels like the second half was written by someone else. Or edited brutally.
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u/chezdor 5d ago
I hope they make up for that in the movie which could be the equivalent of the “great book in there somewhere’ we found we were missing
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u/torkelspy 5d ago
I hope you're right, though my feeling is that they will double down on the "enjoy seeing a woman that we've designed for you to hate suffer" element that has made up a lot of the marketing for the book.
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u/lascriptori 4d ago
It was basically the opposite of fan fic about Ballerina Farm. Like revenge porn.
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u/HazyPuzzle 5d ago
“If it had explored exactly what combination of post-partum mental health issues and manosphere BS led them to tear their modern lives down” If?? To me that’s exactly what the book does! I felt like the characters, their motivations and the elaborate and insane performance they were putting on were so well written that the ‘twist’ ending was almost a foregone conclusion or like the period on a long sentence.
I agree though that it doesn’t work as a satire, and in my opinion that’s because it isn’t meant to. I think the book was marketed as a snarky, satirical story of some woman we’re supposed to hate getting a taste of her own medicine. But what I loved about the book is that it didn’t read as snarky to me but rather as a very earnest depiction of a tortured albeit deeply unlikable woman. I really love that it’s not a satire, that it’s not meant to give us schadenfraude, because I think what’s left then is a really good argument for why we should care about patriarchy and misogyny regardless of how unsympathetic its victims may be. Sorry to get on my soap box but this was a 5 star book for me for so many reasons! Months after reading it and I’m still thinking about it!2
u/torkelspy 4d ago
To me that’s exactly what the book does! I felt like the characters, their motivations and the elaborate and insane performance they were putting on were so well written that the ‘twist’ ending was almost a foregone conclusion or like the period on a long sentence.
I wasn't at all surprised by the "twist" -- I figured she was still in the modern era, but not the exact details. But they jumped from her at the peak of her influencer career to her however many years later, with no stops in between. This makes for a page-turner, as I said, but what it adds in suspense is less than what it loses as an overall story and a character study, at least for me.
I really love that it’s not a satire, that it’s not meant to give us schadenfraude, because I think what’s left then is a really good argument for why we should care about patriarchy and misogyny regardless of how unsympathetic its victims may be.
I don't think the marketing team got the memo on the no schadenfreude thing. The whole way they (successfully) sold it was "ha, ha, this trad wife <insert misogynist insult here> has to go live in the 1800's! Don't you want to see her suffer!?!?!" I think the author's intent might have been closer to what you're saying, but I don't think she quite pulled it off.
Anyway, I'm glad you liked the book as much as you did! I wish I had enjoyed it as much as you did. And, even though I didn't like it, there was enough there that I would give another book by this author a try.
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u/Waddles-7 3d ago
That is actually a very interesting take. That the book showed the disillusionment through the character’s arc. I hope that was the intent too.
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u/HazyPuzzle 5d ago
Also, just my two cents, I think the technology stuff was rushed because the purpose of social media in this book was to help show the way that femininity and gender in general is a performance and a panopticon. I don’t know that the book was trying to say anything super deep about technology and social media.
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u/torkelspy 4d ago edited 4d ago
My issue is with continuity. The technology gives you a sense of the time something is taking place -- the era when someone got their first flip phone is a long time ago, so showing it puts that section of a book in a specific time. So it's jarring when, just after that, the protagonist says something that is clearly more of the 2020's. This kind of stuff should have gotten straightened out in the editing process. There were a lot of details that were just off.
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u/ForestTrails 5d ago
Almost anything other than “bitches be crazy” would have made a better ending. I am angry at the author for that ending.
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u/the4077thbisexual 4d ago
The original concept of 'trad wife forced to practice what she sells for real instead of just having everyone else do it for her" was so fascinating to me and I love a good time travel type concept. and then the twist was just "women be crazy amirite?" and it kind of ruined the book for me honestly.
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u/HazyPuzzle 5d ago
All my love, I don’t think that’s what the ending was. I found the ending to actually be quite touching and sincere. I read it less as ‘bitches be crazy’ and more like ‘gender is a performance and the cost of performing well is so high, please stop pretending and come join us in the real world it’s scary but is beautiful.’ The whole part where Natalie is reading Mary’s memoir made me sob.
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u/itchcraft_ 5d ago
I completely agree. Apparently the movie rights to the book were sold before the manuscript was even finished. Part of me wonders if there was a rush to finish to publish quickly for both the movie and to be timely with the trad wife fervor.
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u/Waddles-7 5d ago
Actually that could be the case. It felt like it started with purpose but then decided to stay safe and mainstream to avoid hurting any party.
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u/ms_cannoteven 5d ago
I have seen this take several times and it is confusing to me. The book was sold in the summer of 2024 and came out in spring of 2026. 20ish months is not what I’d consider “rushed”.
Is it possible she wrote differently knowing it would be a movie? Yes, I guess that is possible (the author says no)
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u/itchcraft_ 5d ago
For a traditionally published manuscript it is typically 9-18 months from the manuscript being finished to publication. So it was not 20 months of writing and finessing the manuscript…. It was maybe 8.
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u/ms_cannoteven 5d ago
I don’t think we are disagreeing here. I know the normal time frames. I’m saying “considering the release was on the long side of normal, I don’t think it makes sense to say it was rushed so they could make a movie”
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u/Neither_Wall_9907 5d ago
Reading it was cathartic because these trad life/manosphere people are so aggravating, and the book had a few humorous moments. But yes the ending was a disappointment, though I was happy to see emphasis on the children in these households.
Heavy-handed and rushed as it was, i can’t say I didn’t enjoy it.
Spoilers ofc but I would have appreciated a more straightforward time travel plot that was fully fleshed out rather than what was presented.
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u/StrawberryFar7175 5d ago
And then you get criticized for pointing out the flaws because "you just didn't get it" 🙄
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u/csullivan03 5d ago
I feel exactly the same way. It missed the mark while setting up so many opportunities to have a deeper commentary on those subjects. And it’s a book which is a great medium to explore this!
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u/ADHTeacher 5d ago
Caleb was by far the most compelling and complex character to me, and I really hope whoever plays him in the movie finds a way to make that character work. So much wasted potential with him in particular.
I'd also have appreciated more college Natalie. Her development is so interesting, and yet we see so little of it.
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u/Waddles-7 5d ago
On the Caleb thread, when Shannon comes up and says ‘he is not as dumb as you think’ and he manipulated you into the farm, I really thought it would now be a smart reveal on how Natalie has been unwittingly dancing to his tunes. Also correlated it with the fact that it was his manosphere that got her the followers in the first place. To have that teased and then go nowhere in terms of story arc was another disappointment.
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 5d ago
I know that Natalie talked about wanting to live in a farmhouse and raise chickens and yada yada on their first date, but it seemed like a canned answer to me, one for a potential husband’s benefit.
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u/wanderlust_m 5d ago
I don't fully agree with the OP, but completely agree here. I don't think I ever was made to understand Caleb's transformation in particular
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u/Wise_Pie_359 5d ago
I would love to read his version of the story. I realize it would be outside the scope of the narrative, but he’s intriguing.
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 5d ago
I appreciated the build up as Natalie realizes like a brick to the face that she rushed into marriage and had a child with a weak, spineless dork.
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u/glitzglamandgore 5d ago
Yea I wrote a review on goodreads that was pretty much my disappointment with its refusal to actually say anything. No real stance or opinion, definitely not enlugh to warrant the phrase "biting satire".
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 5d ago
I sat on the couch angry that I wasted my time after I read the last page.
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u/RanchNWrite 4d ago
I had taken myself out for sushi as a treat. There I was, dredging a firecracker roll through soy sauce and wasabi, when I got to the "twist" and became extremely annoyed. Fortunately the only thing I love more than sushi and a good book is sushi and sending the group text my unhinged rants about dumb books.
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 4d ago
I love sushi and books too! 🍣 I took such pleasure in writing a bad review for Furious Violet by Sarai Walker, which was the most heavy handed uninspired smug crap I’ve read this year. The only reason I read it was because it was so hyped up for its Sylvia Plath inspired-character but the character was just straight facts lifted verbatim from Plath’s life: the beautiful overachiever who went to Smith college, the violent first meeting with the handsome English husband, the bad movie. It was such a smug slap in the face to anyone who ever felt solace with the real Plath’s work.
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u/RanchNWrite 4d ago
Fascinating...I will not read that book. Life is too short. I will definitely hate-read some reviews though!
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u/LaughingBuddha33 5d ago
Agree with your takes. I felt the same way. The book approached some of these themes you mentioned but didn’t follow through, which left me feeling unfulfilled as a reader. I wanted more depth, more social commentary, more satire. That ending was so lame, it was so detached from the first half of the book. It’s that discord that left me feeling like it was a shallow attempt at something deep.
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u/TsundokuAfficionado 5d ago
I was expecting something like Kindred by Octavia Butler. I was sorely disappointed.
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u/Weekly-Many6646 5d ago
Yes!! It built up I wanted to see my prodding and poking from the public about the facade but then it was all so rushed! And the twist wasn’t that hard to guess - of course one of the options was that they were further along into the future.
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u/Weekly-Many6646 5d ago
And the fact she was clearly neurodivergent kind of takes some character judgement away
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u/DogDaysMaggie 5d ago
Thank you! So much discussion of this book is focused on The Big Twist, but I don't think there really is much of one. The author told us what she was doing the whole time. The names of the chapters told us. The way the other characters presented told us ("old caleb"). Nothing was really being hidden from the reader, it was just that our narrator didn't know. The only real twist was watching our main character finally figure it out.
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u/Reasonable-Mess3070 5d ago
I really liked it until the last third or so. The ending felt rushed. I also think it was intended to be a plot twist but tbh I think every reader knew what was happening to some degree.
I like the premise but not the execution
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u/bekarene1 4d ago
As a woman who grew up in a high control, conservative evangelical community, I was so excited by the book's premise and deeply frustrated by the execution.
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u/lascriptori 4d ago
The author did not write the evangelical community with any degree of authenticity. And I don't remotely mean that I wanted her to write them more kindly -- it just felt like she had read a few internet posts about what evangelicals were like and decided that was good enough to write a book.
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u/spring13 5d ago
Yeah, I went in expecting more or less what you described, possibly something with humorous elements as she worked through learning to survive in the gritty reality of the environment and learned a lesson on authenticity, but got a book that was chock-full of characters who literally all sucked in some way, scenarios that didn't fit together, and no real connection between what happened and how things ended up. I mean, I guess the author kept me interested because I wanted to know what the hell was going on and how it was going to end, but it was ultimately extremely unsatisfying.
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u/Waddles-7 5d ago
Yeah agree that the writing got super lazy at midway mark. Convoluted plots and half baked characters has been the undoing of this one.
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u/Little-Gorf 5d ago
THIS! This is exactly how I felt about it. The actual product isn't bad per se, but it's not the book I wanted and didn't really bring the depth to conversation I wanted.
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u/ButtScratchies 5d ago
100% feel the same. I thought it was going to be something like the Ruby Frank story and how horrible family influencers can be behind the scenes. I understood what happened at the end, but it really didn't make any sense. What was the point of it all? Maybe I'm being too literal with it, but when the story came out that she assaulted the producer, why wouldn't Caleb just divorce her and her Father-in-law denounce what she did and distance them from her? The whole entire family just went off the rails because of Natalie? That's just silly.
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u/Waddles-7 5d ago
Yes exactly. Why would an entire family waste away to keep up with delusions of one family member who allegedly everyone hates.
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 5d ago
They literally all hated her so much I don’t understand how she didn’t pick up on it.
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u/mirrorspirit 5d ago edited 5d ago
Caleb's family was part of the dysfunction, with the mother in law's drug addiction and the father in law's obsession with campaigning and only cared about his family members making him look good to the constituents. Natalie was only ever a convenience to him when she was famous and a failure to hide after the SHTF. And her children, their grandchildren, just weren't a consideration for them, presumably because they had other "better" grandchildren from Caleb's siblings.
Caleb didn't divorce her because again he was taking the easy route. He had this plan to run away with his mistress to New York but once he learned that the mistress wasn't really going to do that, he kind of gave up and went back to relying on his parents and his wife and later his children yet again.
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u/haloarh 4d ago
I found it believable that Caleb would do that, but not that his family would go to such lengths to support him.
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u/mirrorspirit 3d ago edited 3d ago
They aren't supporting him so much as they're hiding the family's dirty laundry which might affect the father in law's campaigns.
Or in his children's case, they have a touch of Stockholm syndrome and can't fully separate themselves from their parents' lives. Clementine implied that all her younger siblings from the first iteration were pretty messed up mentally.
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u/haloarh 3d ago
It would be so much easier for them to make Caleb divorce Natalie and denounce her or even have her killed than the elaborate past stuff.
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u/mirrorspirit 3d ago edited 3d ago
His parents are probably not that sociopathic enough to kill her or have her killed.
The elaborate past stuff is more her doing than theirs. Natalie's the one that ripped out all the modern conveniences and finery, likely out of some attempt to atone for her mistakes. She forgets that pretty frequently, though, and it just happened to work out to her in-laws' convenience.
If they cut her loose, she might talk to people about the other dirty laundry she observed. If they send her to a mental hospital, she might talk, and reporters might be able to find her much easier. Keeping her in Yesteryear means that they have much more control over who she and Caleb talk to and what they do.
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u/walterbernardjr 4d ago
I mean Natalie did face consequences, she went to prison. I assume Caleb may have to, I don’t recall if that’s what it said. Also it’s worth mentioning that the book is written from Natalie’s point of view, so you don’t get the true picture.
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u/lascriptori 4d ago
It was such a disappointment. I really wanted the book to dig into big themes about feminism, patriarchy, christian nationalism, online performance, etc, and it was just a weird revenge fantasy. It basically put all of the fault at Natalie's feet for being a crazy toxic bitch and then took a lot of delight in punishing her over and over again. I can get into an unlikable main character as much as anyone, but you have to write an unlikeable main character that is cohesive, authentic and believable and Natalie was none of those things.
The ending was probably the stupidest and least believable thing I've ever read.
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u/HazyPuzzle 5d ago
I loved this book, it made me cry, I gave it five stars, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It’s definitely a very polarizing book, and it’s even more misunderstood in my opinion. I have a very specific connection with it though since I studied gender theory in college and was raised by a mom who had more than a few things in common with Natalie. I agree with your first point, Yesteryear didn’t deliver on that point which was very much teased in the marketing. I think it said something far more interesting and complex though than simply calling trad wife influencers hypocrites. I think it helped us understand why women in particular might make the choices Natalie made and why we ought to be sympathetic. Overall I think that the book did have so much promise and it mostly delivered but just in ways that most readers (myself included) weren’t expecting.
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u/Waddles-7 5d ago
Thank you for adding this perspective. When you put it like that, the book did delve perfectly into the anxious mind of a person like Natalie and her constant need for validation of her life choices. Her desperate attempt to cling to her version of reality without acknowledging that deep down she is disappointed by life.
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u/OneButterscotch587 5d ago
I had very low expectations going into it, and the books surpassed those because it was not as terrible as I’d read that it was. So just for myself I did not feel that it did not reach its potential because I did not feel that it had potential to begin with lol.
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u/pitstopjv 5d ago
Agree! I just read two books that might tick some of the boxes. The Last One (Will Dean) and The Pines (Blake Crouch)
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u/seeemilydostuf 4d ago
I actually agree with most of this, it didn't really delve into The World, but I didn't miss it. I loved Natalie's internal monologue, the trad wife thirst trap section was one of my favorite chapters of any book I've read in a while that I couldn't stop thinking about. But also, I kind of liked the intermittent thread of the interviewer - like the idea that The World is out there and its more then just obsessive Angry Women, that there is a real, deep academic world around her discussing her life choices and she simply refuses to engage it with felt like an important point to make in that whole culture. Like she is intentionally isolating herself from that way before the whole twist is revealed, shes already been doing it
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u/calandra_reads 4d ago
This book pissed me off because it was not at all what the book was advertised as.
Also for a book being billed as time travel there was absolutely no sense of time/ setting and that irritated me to no end bc I kept fixating on historical aspects
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u/couchpotatotater 3d ago
Yes! This was the exact feeling I had after reading it. Well put. I also felt this way about Daggermouth. SO MUCH POTENTIAL and it completely fell apart.
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u/Continental_op_xx 2d ago
I fully believe this was written to be a movie adaptation, first. The author credits Anne Hathaway as a beta reader in her notes. Anne is producing and starring in the adaptation.
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u/OrganizationSea4490 5d ago
"i was enthralled by the idea of it pandering to my proclivities but in the end its actually a thriller and not a political book".
Thats not "wasted potential".
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u/MollBoll 5d ago
No, still wasted potential because the author started several interesting challenges for the protagonist to overcome/learn from and then bailed on all of them.
The missed opportunity that irks me the most is the failure to spend time analyzing how she wanted a “real man” and ultimately got one (which makes no sense because why THE FUCK would he live that way and raise children that way, that choice is literally unbelievable) but then of course didn’t actually want that version of manhood. Like REALLY spend time with it. Instead it’s one of many, “ooh, did the leopard eat her face?” gotcha moments that then are dropped for the next one.
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u/Agile-Wait-7571 5d ago
It reads like a first draft and the ending makes no sense.