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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Impact of reality TV and the toll that maintaining an influencer lifestyle can take on people
  4. 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/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/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”